White glove service is alive and well | TDSU Ep. 22

00:00:00    that's why people break up over text and not in person right it was all coward but any me the same I did some carpal karaoke but you did it isn't your jam but I feel back at that's not not my jam it's like this just feels weird should be set the scene for everybody yes yeah yeah because people W even it's the first time that we're meeting each other in real life correct in a car which is well we were not in a car when we let's make sure I wasn't kidnapped but we're parked in a car now yeah right

00:00:40    in front of my Airbnb right in front of your Airbnb in Flushing Queens New York just flew in for for this for 24 hours for 24 hours uh well I think the real reason you're here is later later tonight well yeah that is that is going to be like the Beyonce of all time I would say all right so let's set the scene who is that that is my alltime favorite the one that made it all happen for my career oh wow no it is because she got you your first job uh no but she was the first the very very first person I saw on Linkin and I

00:01:22    started because we work at my first company and my first company back then like 8 years ago or seven years ago didn't know what customer success was or is and you had to learn about it yeah our tool was client success and she worked already for them at the time um and I started following her and yeah I yeah she has a the foundation of what I love to do I would say and then I got the chance to follow you L he's the what up lifers and welcome to the daily stand up no standing stting if there is one thing

00:01:59    about do is he hates compliments online the way that I give him compliments in real life it's been the joy of my life what's up lifers and welcome to the Daily standup with lifetime value where we're giving you fresh ideas for customer success every single day I've got Stino here Stino do you want to say hi hi everyone live from New York live from New York and I am your host Dillon young Stino do you want to introduce yourself yeah uh hi everyone my name is STO I'm the head of customer success at will and

00:02:41    I've been touring the states for the last two weeks and a half to visit some customers welcome thank you only one upset stomach so far one Chipotle Austin Chipotle exist but all good all right so uh literally on the walk to the car after spending time in the Korea Town Food Hall in Flushing where you ate a Texas toast avocado and egg hot dog sandwich and I had a corn dog a plain corn dog on the stroll back I explain to you the concept of this show you have not heard of it yet because we obviously haven't

00:03:20    published anything yet but now you understand the concept I'm going to ask you a single question and you're going to answer it sto when it comes to customer success what is on your mind I would say White Glove CS is not dead um I've seen a lot of post over the year years I would say after covid like after Co was like a little bit more done and people got back to the office I would say that a lot of influencers of people on LinkedIn were like hey this online thing is also driving us value for our customers so

00:03:57    you don't need to be on site all the time anymore or visit customers anymore and I would say that is [ __ ] um the reason why again I do think personal connections and seeing how customers work in real life brings you a lot of different use cases that maybe your product team didn't think of that your company didn't think of and you could bring with but also help them where they're stuck because again they on a phone call on a zoom call they would say like Hey we're struggling with X Y and Z you try TR to grasp that for them via an

00:04:33    online call but actually seeing that and spending some time with them like I did for the last two weeks and a half really strengthens the relationship to that level where there was value for both Sid both both sides do you think it's just how tight the feedback loop is because I feel like you can do all that as not asynchronously remotely but is it just like when they say well we do it this way you literally can like stand up out of your chair and say like show me yeah 100% but also coming over it sets this

00:05:09    kind of urgency because if you're doing Zoom calls it's probably only you with the key user or the champion but knowing that you're coming over to spend the morning a day with them they actually make sure that you have time with all of the important people because they're all at the office and you set an agenda way beforehand and again you maybe could do that over Zoom call but everyone is easier to decline a zoom call than just saying like hey in two months I'm popping over can we do like this entire day I want to speak

00:05:45    with this department that department and that drives a lot more value than just 30 minutes with just your key user because they are going to say everything is great but if they see your face just walking the hallways they're like oh have you meet Dino from whale already and then that person would say oh I love working with whale but XY andz was not working for me what do you why do you think that is why do you think for context I don't agree with stino's take and we talked a little bit about this on our walk here

00:06:19    but what's up guys it's Dillon here and you know why I'm here hat in hand I got a favor to ask of you if you like what we're doing give us a like on whatever platform that you find us on and if you want to know when we're dropping new stuff give us a follow give us a subscribe and maybe best of all you want to give us some feedback drop a comment and let us know what you like what you don't like or how we can get better we want to make sure we're giving the best content we can to you and others within

00:06:50    the community thanks so much guys I'll let you get back to the show it's not that I disagree I think the amount of return you've got to get particularly in your case like just the amount of money being spent for you to travel to all of these customers and I know that you're actually also earning renewals while you're here so if you can nail down these like multi-year contracts then that's where your leadership will see the value but I want to go back to my question which was why do you think people are more honest in

00:07:23    person more forthcoming in person they want to introduce you to people like I always made a habit of of anytime I was on the phone with someone and they were in a good mood on a zoom with someone I'd say like hey is there anybody else you think I should know that may have a problem that we be we may be able to solve keep that very broad like I may not be able to help them but maybe I can Network and find somebody for them so on and so forth Just introduce me to as many people as possible and I had pretty good

00:07:48    luck with that but it sounds like you think that it just is so much easier in person and I wonder if you have any theories as to why it is because I think people are just getting also fed up with that entire Zoom again or that digital I have the feeling we did that for a long time during covid and it made our lives much easier but whenever I'm now at a center at the end of the day they're expressing that it's so much nicer seeing someone sitting in front of them because people are just getting fed up with that entire

00:08:24    remote thing again from a business perspective um you would disagree but of course I would and there is also a sense of urgency behind the entire thing don't get me wrong I do believe and I said that to Alex durovich last week as well white glove and digital can make the perfect baby 100% like digital scill to us say to get a away White Glove would make the most beautiful baby that there is but at the end of the day the sense of urgency that you're creating saying like hey I'm coming over is is hitting different

00:09:05    because a call you could say like hey something popped up I'm going to postpone the call that's why people break up over text and not in person right it was all coward but any if you if you actually say like hey I'm over there and it doesn't matter because okay now I'm from Europe over here but I did it with my previous company as well which was all Belgium related and Netherlands if you set a date coming over it's most likely that people see the sense of urgency and free up their day instead of

00:09:40    making it that easy to just cancel a call MH grab them to set another date that works for the both of you yeah so having that day that morning that afternoon that lunch that dinner that sleepover doesn't matter s really I didn't I hope it's that last one I hope it's last slumber party but that really creates a sense of urgency and in that sense it drives much more value how much more pressure do you think it puts on the likes of you or any other person in that position to then deliver yeah 100% my dep de pressure and

00:10:20    the anxiety is way through the roof not just while you're here like you and I talked about how exhausting it is like just always being on and asking these questions and it's not always good news and you have to constant be like thinking about yeah how to solve for their issues I have this funny saying of you know a meeting goes well particularly in customer success if you leave it with more work to do yeah yeah than you entered it and so you're here for what 27 days mhm you you'll have enough work to do

00:10:48    for the rest of the year yeah 100% And already a lot of work went into the preparation like 3 months of work so I kicked off in January oh my goodness and left in at the beginning of April so the first three of the years where like my anxiety was through the roof but good like good energy good anxiety if you want to call it but now as well with clients I did 14 sessions with with every client because I wanted to hear and speak with every Department that they run on that's because will I just want to give a

00:11:19    little background as well if you work for a company most of the tools in like the teex Spas St space are often for one process for one team what yeah realist caters to every department so that's why I wanted to do these 10 12 14 day and it's that much more important to understand how they interact with one another Y and then I had so those were tiring but gave me so much Insight so much value so much work as well that at the end of the day I close threeyear contracts in an economy that is super

00:11:50    unstable for now yeah so in that sense yeah it does work a lot yeah that you are living proof I would that's a I hate ebooks that's an ebook I would read is like your process for it's a very unique use case or scenario to be like Oh I'm I'm European most of my customers are American I've got to come over yeah but um that'd be an really interesting tactical read of this is all the I did and the outcome the desired outcome was these these contract renewals for multiple years and to be able to say and

00:12:28    I'm batting thousand in that regard so far as I I think I think you should do it maybe one day maybe late it will be my Christmas gift to you in a couple years in a couple of years that's our time dintino okay thank you that was that was quick right time runs fast when you were the the amazing podcast host see well thank you so much I really appreciate it it has been an absolute treat to meet you to eat um weird Korean hot dog sandwich is with you and just a bask in your energy same I was looking forward to this same same

00:13:07    so I appreciate it all right until next time buddy next time bye you've been listening to the Daily standup by lifetime value please note that the views expressed in these conversations are attributed only to those individuals on this recording and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of their respective employers for all inquiries please reach out via email to Dillon at lifetime Value media.com find us on YouTube at lifetime Value and find us on the socials @ lifetime Value media until next time