7 Soft Skills To Get Ahead in Customer Success
Soft skills are critical to Customer Success.
Yet, these are also the hardest to develop.
But the good news: you only need a few fundamentals to succeed.
Ready?
Here are 7 soft skills you can develop and put into action immediately:
1. Empathy
Stephen Covey, the famous author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People said:
When you show deep empathy toward others, their defensive energy goes down. That's when you can get more creative in solving problems.
So true.
It's all about understanding your customers' emotions and needs.
To achieve this, you need to practice empathy every single day.
So stay away from the theory and apply these quick guidelines instead:
Do not judge.
Ask more questions.
Listen to understand.
Provide constructive feedback.
Put yourself in your customers' shoes.
Show genuine interest in their business.
2. Ownership
You either own it or get owned by the circumstances.
So, consider the following:
Take responsibility for your work.
Don't blame others when things go wrong.
Do what you say and always deliver on your promise.
3. Time management
As Scott Peck once said:
Until you value yourself, you won't value your time.
And until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.
So, here are a few fundamentals you should put in place to get your time back and do more of the things you love:
Delegate repetitive tasks.
Learn how and when to say No.
Focus on the urgent and important.
Remove tasks that have zero value.
I wrote deeper on this topic in a previous edition here:
4. Teamwork
Talent wins games but teamwork and intelligence win championships.
-Michael Jordan
So:
Set common objectives.
Praise your colleagues' success.
Give credit to their work in public.
Celebrate milestones, and have fun!
5. Communication
It’s fundamental for you to deliver the right content or message to the right person at the right time.
Here are a few ways you can do so:
Be precise, short, and sharp.
Beware of your body language.
Listen actively, and don't interrupt.
Keep the tone positive.
6. Relationship building
You should always aim to:
Help others win.
Identify common interests.
Bring in value first, then ask.
Give without expecting anything in return.
7. Attitude
As the famous saying goes, your attitude determines your altitude.
So:
Always say the good of others.
Do not ever gossip or complain.
Bring in solutions to problems. And not the other way around.
And that's it!
The best customer success professionals level up their skills at all times. And it only takes a few simple considerations to succeed!
