Customer success pros often forget to take this critical element into account

“I’m not busy at all” said no customer success professional ever. Listen, I know you are super busy but what about your customers? They are extremely busy too and we sometimes fail to take this into account - all to our detriment. I know it’s frustrating when you see your customers floundering and you want to help them. The problem is that it doesn’t mean your customer has the mindset or capacity to act at this moment. Keep in mind that they work with multiple products and already have a full plate of priorities. Your challenge is to convince them to act but you also need to assess their mental state. How do you do that?

Spoon theory and customer success

For those with autoimmune diseases such as Lupus, it can be challenging and tiresome to continuously communicate how they are feeling. As a result of this, the spoon theory was developed as a straightforward way for those that have chronic illnesses to let others know their energy levels. These so called “spoonies” start their day with a defined number of spoons (say 10) and as they complete activities, they use up their spoons.

The number of spoons they have left signifies their current state. As an example, when someone has one spoon left for the day, they are making it clear that they are fatigued and need to conserve their energy.

When it comes to your customers, they also have limited time, attention, and energy. It’s helpful to visualize the number of spoons your customers are currently holding when you need them to do something. The question is, how do you get a sense of what they have on their plate and what they have an appetite for? I will take you through a proven method you can use.

Assess your customer’s motivation

You can quickly get a sense if your customer is ready to move forward by using a proven technique that many psychologists use called “motivational interviewing”. To evaluate your client’s motivation to change or take action, ask them the following scaling questions:

* On a scale of 0 to 10, where “0” is not important at all and “10” is crucially important, how important is it for you to take action?

* On a scale of 0 to 10, where “0” is no confidence at all and “10” is completely confident, how confident are you that you can take action?

Ideally, your customer responded with both high importance and high confidence to act but that seldom happens. You’ll find some of your customers that are highly motivated to act but have low confidence they can perform what is required. This may be due to a lack of skills, self-confidence, resources, time, budget, or faith in your product. 

You may have customers responded low for importance but high for confidence. It could be that they have other priorities, so your product or project is taking a backseat. They may also be egotistical and overconfident in their abilities, so they don’t believe they need to do anything or that your solution is worth the investment. You will want to dig into this further by using these two follow up questions:

* “Why did you pick the number X and not a lower number?”

* “What would it take to move it to a higher number?”

Your goal here is to listen for “change talk”, which is your customer telling you that they want to improve their current situation. For example, if your customer says: “I chose ‘8’ for importance as this area is critical to me and my company.”, you know you are on the right track as there is a desire to get moving.

If they provided a ‘3’ for confidence, you want to hear something such as: “I really want to use your new feature but I’m just too busy right now”. That gives you a sense that they are low on spoons. You can further dig into this to determine what their priorities are. You should then switch gears and put a plan together that works best based on their priorities. You can also try and give them some spoons by offering to directly assist them or suggesting a resource such as professional services that can assist them. Your goal should be to lower the barriers, so you reduce the friction that is causing a barrier to act.

Stay hungry my friends

Always keep in mind that your customers are people just like you. They are busy, have lives outside of work, and have limited time and energy. Try and determine how many spoons they have so that you have confidence that the neccessary steps will be taken. Don’t assume that the customer will do what they said they were going to do - you must assess their mental state. And if they say they are busy, get them to commit to a date that they can meet and discuss this again or suggest some approaches that can make it easier for them to start.

Try out these recommended scaling questions and let me know how it worked out for you. Don’t give up - stay hungry or you could risk losing the client.

PS: A Canadian oldie but a goodie (and a glimpse into Toronto in the early 80’s).

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chadhorenfeldt.substack.com