Escalation stories: muffins to real estate closings

We trade war stories from diner counters and real estate closings to show how psychology, better playbooks, and value-add concessions defuse escalations and protect renewals. Rob shares Feel–Felt–Found, digital cancellation flows, and why discounts can backfire.

• reframing escalations as signals of product importance
• teaching teams Feel–Felt–Found to de-escalate
• avoiding discount reflex in renewals
• using value-add concessions before price cuts
• building digital cancellation flows that retain
• applying defaults, loss aversion and social proof
• separating usage, adoption, ROI and value
• behavior design lessons from Planet Fitness
• books, tools and journaling for learning loops
• how to contact Rob for frameworks and support

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🎙️ Guest: Rob Zambito
Founder & CEO of Success Scaled Consulting

📣 Find Rob:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-zambito/ 

🔥 Topics Covered:
🟣 Why customer escalations increase as products become more mission-critical
🟣 Reframing escalations as signals of value — not Customer Success failure
🟣 The danger of positioning CS as the default “escalation department”
🟣 How poor escalation handling unintentionally trains customers to escalate again
🟣 Why discounts are the laziest (and most harmful) concession during escalations
🟣 Using psychology — loss aversion, reciprocity, and defaults — to guide better outcomes
🟣 How the Feel–Felt–Found framework works when used for emotional validation (not deflection)
🟣 The role of executive presence and confidence in high-stakes customer conversations
🟣 Why customers don’t want explanations — they want to feel heard first
🟣 How CS leaders can design escalation paths that protect long-term value, not just short-term peace

🌐 Website
https://www.joedoestechtouch.com/

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🎙️ Be a Guest on the Podcast
Have a CS horror story or digital-first strategy worth sharing? Submit to be a guest:https://www.joedoestechtouch.com/podcast

🔗 Connect with Joe on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephdigrande

📺 Watch Full Episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaH58ojbaWym4ej_PedQ4Fw

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