Leadership In Customer Service

To thrive and survive as a change or improvement leader in a big system, we need to be competent. We need to be able to redesign processes, apply improvement methods, analyse data, mobilise teams & achieve outcomes. A February 2026 HBR Harvard Business Review article by Annie Peshkam, PhD (“To lead through uncertainty, unlearn your assumptions”) says that this isn’t enough. She distinguishes between “competence” (doing things well) and “capacity” (staying present when action will not resolve the tension). As change and improvement leaders, we have invested heavily in competence: QI methods, governance, pathways, PMO disciplines. We have invested far less in capacity: the inner steadiness, emotional regulation and shared sensemaking that allow us to hold complexity with our teams. Capacity is the ability to pause instead of jumping to solutions; say out loud what is difficult about a change; keep conflict in the room and work with it rather than pushing it into the “meeting after the meeting”. The systems we work in are in sustained uncertainty: financial pressure, workforce depletion, reform agendas, unrelenting demand. Deloitte's Global Human Capital Trends survey of 14,000 leaders found that, in this context, we must look beyond efficiency and predictable results and instead elevate resilience, adaptability, and human connection. Yet our improvement/performance approaches still reward leaders who give quick answers, project confidence and absorb team anxiety. These assumptions shrink rather than expand our capacity to lead. How can change and improvement leaders build capacity? 1) Embed personal practices of pause and reflection into our leadership routines, especially in "high‑stakes" meetings. 2) Start key conversations by naming the tension in the room and giving people time to speak to it before moving to plans. 3) Design our improvement structures (huddles, steering groups, programme boards etc) as “holding environments”, where disagreement and emotion are legitimate data, not distractions. 4) Stop carrying the burden alone: share sensemaking work with our teams, service users and communities, and make that sharing visible. 5) Invest in development focused on emotional steadiness, presence and curiosity, alongside the technical disciplines of QI and "change management". We talk a lot about learning cultures. This article challenges us to cultivate unlearning cultures in addition. The shift from competence to capacity is not a “nice to do”; it is central to our ability to lead change and improvement in the face of relentless uncertainty. The article: https://lnkd.in/e4JmMb9y.

I had the privilege of sitting with multiple clients today. And every single conversation taught me something. About their business. About their goals, as a company and as individuals. About what makes things hard. And about what actually unlocks success. But the lesson that kept surfacing, over and over, was this one: Trust with customers can easily break when people change. And right now, in one of the most disrupted periods the software and tech world has ever seen, people are changing constantly. Getting promoted. Moving to different parts of the company. Leaving for new opportunities. Being reorganized. The humans your customers built their trust around? They're in motion. So here's the uncomfortable truth that every CS leader needs to sit with: If your customer's trust lives in a person, it's fragile. Full stop. The only trust that endures is trust built with the company. Not with a CSM. Not with an AE. Not with any single individual, no matter how talented or relationship-driven they are. And isn't that the whole point of Customer Success? It's not a department. It's not a headcount. It's a mindset and a company mandate. And while we absolutely ask our AEs, AMs, and CSMs to lead the relationship, that leadership comes with a responsibility that goes far beyond being likable or responsive. It means representing the full capability of the company. Every promise made in the sales cycle. Every product capability. Every team that touches the customer. Orchestrated through one accountable person, but never dependent on that one person alone. That's what it takes for customers to truly thrive. Not the heroics of an individual. Not the relationship skills of one great CSM. But the collective capability of a company, showing up consistently, delivered through someone who takes that responsibility seriously. So here's my challenge to my CS friends: Is that how you're showing up for your customers? Are you representing the whole company, or just your corner of it? And if you think I've got this wrong, let me have it. I mean that. #CreateTheFuture #CustomerSuccess #CSLeadership #GrowthMindset #Leadership #AlwaysLearning

Here’s the roadmap for the first 90 days as a Customer Support leader: 1️⃣ Quantitative Support Analysis - Identify all areas where support resources are being misallocated or wasted. This might include overstaffed low-value channels, inefficient workflows, or poor escalation management. Re-allocate those resources to high-impact areas (eg. FCR) - Audit and optimize reporting systems to ensure clean, actionable data. Close gaps in ticket categorization, response time tracking, and CSAT/NPS data. 2️⃣ Qualitative Feedback from Customers AND Agents 🙋 Customer Perspective: - Conduct qualitative interviews with your top 10 happiest customers and your top 10 most dissatisfied customers. Unpack what drives satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) in their interactions with support. Spot trends and root causes in the support journey. - Shadow at least 5 live support interactions per week across channels (email, chat, phone) to identify recurring customer needs and operational friction points. 🧑💻 Agent Perspective: - Run qualitative interviews with your support agents. Ask them: * What are the most frustrating tools or workflows you deal with daily? * Which processes cause unnecessary delays or duplicate work? * What changes would make it easier for you to deliver great support? - Observe how agents use your support tools during live interactions. Look for inefficiencies like switching between too many platforms, unclear documentation, or delays in accessing customer context. 3️⃣ Quick Wins to Drive Impact Within 90 Days - Improve ticket routing and prioritization to ensure that critical issues are handled faster and by the right team. Many support teams leave SLAs unmet simply due to poor routing logic. - Simplify the self-service experience. Review and update your KB content to make it more reflective of the questions customers actually ask. - Streamline internal handoff processes between support tiers or other teams like product and engineering. Reduce resolution time by eliminating unnecessary back-and-forths. - Create an agent empowerment program. Provide quick wins for agents by removing common blockers, like slow systems or overly complicated approval processes. An empowered team = faster resolutions. - Highlight support’s wins. Build a repository of customer stories where support played a key role in success. Share these stories internally to drive alignment with sales, product, and customer success. 4. Set the Right Expectations Many companies expect a new support leader to focus solely on efficiency (e.g., reducing costs or ticket volume) in the first 30 days. This often backfires, leading to burnout, poor team morale, and degraded customer experience. Instead, focus on building the foundation: improving workflows, understanding customers AND agents deeply, and optimizing the team’s ability to drive meaningful resolutions. 💡 What’s your go-to strategy for the first 90 days in a new support role? 💪

Throughout my decade-long journey in the tech industry, if there's one lesson that’s stuck with me, it’s this: your connection with your customers is everything. At Supersourcing, we’ve woven this belief into the fabric of our business. And trust me, it’s made all the difference. Here’s how we keep our customer focus sharp and true: - Listen First, Act Fast: Early on, I learned that listening isn’t just about hearing words; it’s about understanding your customers' underlying needs and emotions. We prioritize active listening—through regular feedback loops and candid conversations—so that when we act, it’s both swift and deeply aligned with what our clients actually want. - Tailored Solutions, Not One-Size-Fits-All: One of the most transformative shifts we made was moving from a transactional mindset to a partnership approach. It helps us understand our clients’ bigger picture—what are their goals? What keeps them up at night? We tailor our solutions to align with these insights, making our support feel less like a service and more like a collaboration. - Transparent Communication Builds Trust: I can’t stress enough how much transparency has contributed to our success. It’s about being upfront, even when the news isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Our clients appreciate honesty, and this straightforward approach has helped us build strong, lasting relationships based on trust and mutual respect. - Proactivity Is Key: Waiting for a problem to arise means you’re already too late. We’ve built a culture of proactivity—whether it’s checking in on developers regularly or anticipating potential roadblocks, we aim to address challenges before they turn into problems. These strategies have been pivotal in driving not just customer satisfaction but loyalty and advocacy. It’s about being more than a vendor; it’s about being a partner who genuinely cares about the success of those we serve. How do you keep your client relationships strong and authentic? I’m eager to hear your thoughts!

We love to say “walk in the customer’s shoes.” But most organisations are not walking in customer shoes at all. They are walking in their own shoes. On a slightly different floor. So here’s what actually walking in customer shoes looks like in practice: 1. Get out of the building: ▪️Sit with customers. Watch them. Shadow them. Interview them. If you’re never uncomfortable by what you hear, you’re not listening hard enough. 2. Do the journey yourself: ▪️Personally go through the full experience of being your customer. Buy the product. Call the support line. Navigate the website. Fill in the form. Feel every single point of friction your customers feel daily. 3. Use what you sell: ▪️If you wouldn’t use your own product or service, why would anyone else? And if you would but you get a “special version”, that’s a problem. Use the real thing and live with its limitations. I promise, they stop being acceptable very quickly. 4. Put customers in the room: ▪️Not as a focus group you consult once a quarter. As genuine participants in the decisions that affect them. Co-create. Test early. Invite challenge. 5. Build a customer advisory board: ▪️Give them visibility into where you’re heading and let them push back. If the feedback is always positive, you’ve got the wrong people in the room. 6. Walk the frontline: ▪️Work a shift in support. Sit with your sales team. Spend a day in service. Leaders who do this don’t just understand the customer better, they understand their own organisation better. And what they find is rarely comfortable. 7. Hire people who’ve lived the customer experience: ▪️Your leadership table should have people who’ve worked the frontline, who’ve dealt with real customers, who know what friction feels like from the inside. If every decision-maker is three layers removed from the customer, don’t be surprised when your decisions miss the mark. Somewhere right now, a competitor is sitting with your customers, listening to everything they hate about your company.. What else would you add? #cx #customerexperience #customerrelation

Leading a team through change is never easy, but one priority should always remain: the customer experience. Throughout my career, I’ve found that keeping the customer at the heart of every decision helps the team stay grounded, especially when everything else is in flux. With a clear goal to improve the customer experience, your team gains the clarity and focus they need during uncertain times But here’s the other side of the coin: Empathy for your team is just as crucial. Change can be challenging, and acknowledging its impact on team members is key to providing genuine support. When you help your team see the bigger picture—how changes ultimately benefit both them and the customers—you create purpose and resilience. By focusing on the customer and practicing empathy, you turn periods of uncertainty into opportunities for growth Change may be complex, but with the right focus and steady guidance, it can make your team stronger, more adaptable, and ready to seize new opportunities. What strategies have helped your team stay resilient during change?

#CustomerExperience leaders need to split their strategies into deliberate bottom-up and top-down approaches. Many get the bottom-up right, but they struggle with the top-down. Bottom-up strategies focus on improving customer-centric employee behaviors at scale. These approaches include #CX or empathy training for front-line workers, using Voice of Customer feedback to set touchpoint expectations based on customer feedback, and building customer-centric KPIs into individual performance appraisals. But where many CX leaders struggle is often with engaging senior leaders to influence their customer-centric behaviors. It's difficult to influence C-suite behavior, but if you're expected to improve customer-centric culture in the organization, then you cannot avoid this. Top-down strategies start with showing senior leaders how customer satisfaction impacts growth, retention, margin, and lifetime value. It also includes improving CX and VoC reporting to provide more recommendations and actions, not just findings and data. Having discussions with leaders about the importance of financial and non-financial rewards for customer-centric behaviors is another tool in the top-down toolkit. And using personas and journey maps is a vital way to convert customer and touchpoint data into a compelling story of necessary change. Don't rely on dashboards and reports to do the job of top-down CX engagement. Don't count on a couple of positive customer-centric comments from leaders as a sign of meaningful, irreversible support. And do not assume that the fact your CX job exists is evidence of senior leaders' commitment to customer experience. Part of the job for a successful CX leader is to constantly prove the value of customer-centric strategies, influence senior leader priorities, and arm decision-makers with the insight they need to make customer-centric decisions. Don't just empower your frontline workers and assume the job is done. If you aren't building a consistent dialog with executives, you're not only missing an opportunity to make the most significant customer impact but also seeding future problems that can lead to declining support, budget, and resources for customer experience initiatives. Take a comment today to identify or define your top-down and bottom-up CX strategies for 2024. If there's an imbalance, solving that now can lead to better outcomes by the end of this year.

If your customers need a dictionary, a google search and a couple of phone calls to understand your process, we’ve got a problem. Leaders in regulated industries - like healthcare, banking, insurance and the others often sacrifice customer experiences at the altar of stringent compliance norms. Forms, procedures, and long processes become the standard. Jargons and tech talk get thrown around like confetti. Eventually it leaves customers feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, and helpless. When complexity becomes the default, customer relationships suffer. That's why we often see that as soon as a new entrant simplifies things, it triggers a big exodus of even loyal customers of existing brands towards the new option. Sometimes it happens quietly without a whimper. And as brand owners, if we end up noticing it too late, it hits growth, market share and profitability. Regulated industries can, and should create effortless customer experiences. Ease is not about bypassing compliance. It is about designing customer journeys that respect regulations while remaining: ✅ clear, ✅ empathetic, and ✅ straightforward. Here are THREE things I advise my clients who run a compliance-heavy business: 👉🏼 Make simplicity in communication non-negotiable. Replace jargon-filled language with clear, simple explanations. Start with the assumption that your customer does not understand a word of the compliances. The onus is always on you to make it easier to understand. 👉🏼 Proactivity goes a long way. Clarify expectations upfront. Explain the process upfront. Provide guidance and support upfront. This reduces customer effort, eliminates uncertainty and helps smooth sailing through compliance-related processes. 👉🏼 Infuse empathy into every interaction. Train teams to prioritize empathy. Train them on understanding customer perspectives and emotions. Train them to take ownership of the entire customer journey and not just a link in the chain. If you look at it now, these are three very simple things which I'm sure you already know in probably different contexts. But try applying it cohesively and consistently in the context of making your customer's life easy. That's when the magic happens! 🔮 P.S. Tag a company that went above and beyond to make a seemingly complicated task easy for you. Let's give them a shout out today! #CustomerExperience #CustomerDelight #Leadership #CustomerCentricity

"Can you believe they completely ignored our feedback?" The prospective client's voice was filled with frustration. "It feels like they've forgotten we exist." This was more than just a complaint— and I knew right then that something had to change. We often talk about customer centricity, but how often do we truly reflect on what it means? My career started in a call center, where the customer was everything. Every call and every interaction was a reminder that the customer wasn't just a part of the business—they were the reason for it. As I've grown in my career, this mindset of "client first" has stayed with me. But hearing this client's dissatisfaction made me pause and ask: Are we really putting the customer first in everything we do? In the rush of targets, processes, and metrics, it's easy to lose sight of the customer. But when we do, the consequences are real—disconnected relationships, unmet expectations, and ultimately, lost trust. So, how can we ensure that customer centricity isn't just a buzzword but a guiding principle in our work? Here's what you can consider: 👉🏻 Listen, Really Listen: Take the time to understand your customers' pain points. What are they unhappy about? What's missing in their current experience? Truly listening can reveal insights that lead to better solutions. 👉🏻 Be Proactive, Not Reactive: Waiting for a problem to escalate is not the way to go. Anticipate your customers' needs and address potential issues before they become real concerns. This proactive approach not only prevents issues but also shows that you're not just meeting expectations—you're exceeding them. 👉🏻 Personalize Your Approach: Customers appreciate when you remember the little things. Whether it's recalling past interactions or tailoring your service to their specific needs, personalization makes a huge difference in how valued they feel. 👉🏻 Collaborate, Don't Dictate: Work with your customers, not just for them. Involve them in the process, seek their input, and make them feel like true partners. This collaboration builds trust and fosters long-term relationships. 👉🏻 Reflect and Improve: After every interaction, take a moment to reflect. What went well? What could be improved? Continuous reflection ensures that you're always aligning your work with your customers' evolving needs. Have you ever had a moment where a customer's feedback made you stop and think? I'd love to hear your experiences and any tips you have for staying customer-centric. #CustomerCentricity #ClientFirst #CustomerExperience

"𝗜'𝘃𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗱 𝗧𝗼𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁." - Dr. J.J. Irani, MD of Tata Steel said this with a straight face. I was stunned. We had just returned from Japan, inspired by Total Quality Management (TQM), determined to implement it at Tata Steel. We had planned progress reviews every three months amongst all participants. So at our first meeting, I eagerly asked him, “How’s TQM going?” And he dropped this bomb: “I’ve stopped it.” Stopped it? I had to ask, “Why?” His response hit deep. "We were preaching quality while my workers were living with leaking roofs. How could I expect them to take quality seriously when their own basic needs were ignored impacting quality of life of the families?" So Tata Steel hit pause on TQM. For six months, they focused on fixing homes, improving facilities, and ensuring their workforce felt valued. ₹10 crores were spent in 1989—an enormous sum back then—on improving quality of life of the employees. Only after that did they restart TQM—with full employee participation. That decision wasn’t just about quality. It was about leadership. It sent a clear visible message that we respect people including the environment in which they live and work. Incidentally Tata Steel is recognised for decades as probably the best people focused company in India. One of the foundational TQM principles is ‘respect for people.’ That covers physical, emotional and intellectual respect. We started where it mattered. Foundation for customer satisfaction through product quality is the quality of work done by each employee.  Dr. Irani understood this. And that’s why Tata Steel became one of the world’s most respected steel companies. Your people don’t work for your company. Your company works because of your people. The question is: Are you treating people like your greatest asset that can continually improves, not depreciates like the fixed assets? TQMI #tqm #leadership