Customer Success Manager Skills Interview
Author:
Alycia Damp, PhD IRHRA Customer Success Manager interview assessing key skills required for success. We've also included a few motivation and values questions to help you make the best decisions about your candidates.
Focus area:
Question
1
Why are you interested in making a career move to our company as Customer Success Manager? How do you see this opportunity within the context of your career?
What does this question reveal?
Fit and motivation to join the company
Explore tips
- Is seeking an opportunity to grow by applying and developing multiple skills
- Wants to make a defined impact on others and the organization’s success
- Is motivated to add value to the company's culture and work environment
- Is passionate when discussing how this connects with their strengths/interests
Question
2
What would you do if you were in a scenario where you accidentally made a customer unhappy and it could potentially cost you a client? How would you navigate that scenario?
What does this question reveal?
Maintain high quality customer relationships
Explore tips
- Acknowledges and apologizes to the customer for their mistake
- Thoughtfully engages the customer to better-understand/clarify their needs
- Evaluates the customer's concern and offers alternatives if possible
- Shares key learnings and how to apply them in the future
Question
3
As a Customer Success Manager, what is the most important consideration when looking after existing customers? Please share an example of how you've applied this in the past.
What does this question reveal?
Prioritize customers’ wants and needs
Explore tips
- Gaining a deep understanding of each customer's needs
- Tailoring services based on different customer needs and segments
- Managing competing needs (e.g. desired services relative to resources)
- Identifying upsell opportunities
Question
4
Describe a time you created and implemented client retention goals and process milestones. What was the strategy and how did you implement it?
What does this question reveal?
Develop and implement customer retention strategy
Explore tips
- Establishes clear retention goals for the client and employees to work towards
- Educated and advised employees on the strategic plan
- Identified strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to success
- Translated vision into initiatives with actionable items and a delivery schedule
Question
5
How would you go about defining success metrics for developing and maintaining our organization's customer base? What are some metrics you would suggest, and why?
What does this question reveal?
Align customer strategy with business goals and company mission
Explore tips
- Discusses a process to define metrics (e.g. sets customer success performance targets)
- Ensures customer success metrics are aligned with business growth and success
- Discusses tracking customer retention, attrition, churn and lifetime value
- Emphasizes the importance of quality metrics to gauge ROI
Question
6
Give me an example of a time you convinced a prospect that a product or service was right for them. Why was the sale successful? What did you learn?
What does this question reveal?
Effectively persuade prospects to purchase a product or service
Explore tips
- Demonstrates how they recognized and reacted to meet the prospect's needs
- Discusses tactics they used to sell successfully
- Exhibited strong knowledge of the product/service in the conversation
- Explains and justifies the outcome of the sale
Question
7
In your past roles, how did you keep up to date with your company's product improvements? How did you communicate these new features to your customers?
What does this question reveal?
Stay up to date on product knowledge to enhance services
Explore tips
- Shares their process or system for keeping up-tp-date with product improvements
- Discusses internal processes for communicating between product and sales
- Consistently conducts research to up-to-date knowledge on product market trends
- Identifies how to tailor new services to client’s needs based on offerings
Question
8
Tell me about a time when you had a major problem with your product or service where you needed to respond to a customer but you do not have all the answers yet. How did you handle the situation?
What does this question reveal?
Prioritize the customer's needs over their own situation
Explore tips
- Shows they can effectively manage customer expectations
- Discusses reassuring the customer and keeping them updated
- Discusses determining the customer's pain points and identifying workarounds
- Discusses being helpful and transparent, and notifying other users if needed
Question
9
Imagine you're speaking with a prospect and are having difficulty understanding their needs. You need to understand their needs to gain their interest in your product/service. How would you navigate that conversation?
What does this question reveal?
Use communication tactics to effectively share and obtain key customer information with
Explore tips
- Exhibits patience and calmly asks questions to clarify understanding
- Repeats back what they hear to ensure their understanding is accurate
- Takes note of non-verbal cues to gauge other's emotions/respond appropriately
- Is empathetic to the other person and values their unique needs
Question
10
Imagine a group of teammates you are managing are not able to work effectively with one another. How would you handle conflicts between members of your team?
What does this question reveal?
Reduce team conflicts
Explore tips
- Shows they value implementing strong communication and team-building skills
- Encourages collaboration and brainstorming strategies to hit team goals
- Shows they can use collaboration to overcome challenges and improve situations
- Shows they would identify and address the underlying cause, and later follow up
Question
11
Imagine you and a customer disagree on how to move forward with addressing the customer's issue. How would you handle the situation?
What does this question reveal?
Effectively communicate and prioritize business goals
Explore tips
- Shows they are solution-oriented and can communicate clearly and with empathy
- Discusses actively listening to the customer's needs and reasoning
- Discusses analyzing the available information to suggest alternative solutions
- Discusses focusing on the long-term business goals/strategies of all parties
Question
12
Tell me about a time you developed a successful guided user experience for a new tool/feature/product/service. If you haven't done this before, what would you consider to make a guided user experience successful?
What does this question reveal?
Develop guided user experiences/onboarding processes
Explore tips
- Shows a strong understanding of user experience; is empathetic with users
- Identifies the needs and characteristics of the target audience
- Demonstrates an accessible, engaging, well-structured and informative flow
- Demonstrates a solid understanding of the tool/feature/product/service
Question
13
Describe your daily work routine for your previous job. Did you follow a specific process when organizing and scheduling your work?
What does this question reveal?
Organize work effectively and prioritize tasks
Explore tips
- Describes their previous daily work routine in a clear and comprehensive manner
- Discusses specific strategies they used to plan and maintain their routine
- Demonstrates multitasking strategies (creating a to-do list, prioritizing, etc.)
- Shares productivity tools/applications they used to effectively manage work
Question
14
When presenting [insert company product name] to a potential customer, how would you be sensitive to the customer’s needs and feelings?
What does this question reveal?
Prioritize the customer’s needs when pitching
Explore tips
- Demonstrates a willingness to adapt to meet client needs
- Discusses researching the client to inform the communication/presentation style
- Discusses asking questions to identify and understand the client’s needs
- Shows they can listen and prioritize the client’s needs/feelings in presentation
