Know Your Product
“Know your Customer” is intrinsically tied to “Know your Product/Service”.
When a team says they need to know their customers better (usually at the behest of using a new tool, reshuffling team structure, or outside consultants), the bigger problem could be a lack of understanding of the company’s own product.
To test this, I run staff through the wringer on product knowledge.
Example: how many staff have gone through every sign-up option (for SaaS) all the way to full onboarding? Very few, I’ll bet.
If you knew your product or service as well as your child or pet, you’d predictably be able to “know” your customers – and why you don’t have more happy ones.
Start with deep, intimate, daily micro-accurate knowledge of what it is that your company offers.
Bonus tip for CSMs and Customer Support Managers: Secretly call or write into your own support team as a customer or prospect every week with issues you find (because you need to know the solutions your company offers even better than your CSRs) and see what you are getting back. Auditing tickets is critical, but it’s good to stir the stew before your customers get a taste.