User Feedback For Service Improvement

STOP confusing activity with impact. Too many Customer Success pros are stuck in the mindset that more meetings = more value. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t. Over-indexing on engagement as a “win” without measuring the actual value of those interactions isn’t just ineffective—it’s a waste of everyone’s time. So, let’s break the cycle. Here’s what NOT to do: 🚫 Don’t schedule meetings just to “check in.” No one has time for fluff. If your customer can’t immediately answer why you’re meeting, you’ve already lost their attention. 🚫 Don’t treat meeting quantity as a success metric. Five meetings with no action items or outcomes? That’s not success; that’s just noise. 🚫 Don’t skip the follow-up. If your customer can’t point to something actionable that came out of the meeting, you’ve wasted both their time and yours. Now, here’s what to do differently: ✅ Make every meeting intentional. Before you hit “send” on that invite, ask yourself: “What’s the purpose? What value am I bringing?” If you can’t answer that, rethink the meeting. ✅ Focus on outcomes, not activity. Engagement isn’t about how often you’re in front of the customer—it’s about the impact you’re making. Tie every meeting to a clear goal or milestone. ✅ Evaluate qualitative value. After every meeting, reflect: Did this move the needle for my customer? Did I help solve a problem, provide clarity, or drive progress? If the answer is no, something needs to change. Things I've done or seen that I ❤️ are: ▶️ Post meeting CSATs for CSM engagement - Measure the effectiveness of the meeting ▶️ Asking the question, "Was this a good use of your time?" or "Did you find this meeting valuable?" ▶️ Analyzing the correlation between customer and engagement and lagging indicators like adoption, retention and growth ▶️ Pre-meeting alignment to avoid assumptions or misuse of time/resources - This is an issue with folks who have reoccurring meetings Stop meeting for the sake of meeting. But also identify if your customer doesn't want to meet with you because you're not brining value. Activity for the sake of activity isn’t Customer Success. Let’s measure what matters: progress, outcomes, and impact.

✨Just wrapped up a coaching engagement that I can't stop smiling about 😄 When this sales rep first reached out to me, she was on a performance improvement plan 📉 and genuinely questioning whether she was cut out for sales. A veteran who'd been a top performer at previous companies, she was now missing quota for consecutive quarters at her new organization. "I'm doing everything the same way I always have," she told me during our first session. "But it's just not working here." That phrase – "the same way I always have" – was our first clue. After analyzing her approach, the pattern became clear. Her strengths had always been relationship-building and thorough discovery. Her previous companies sold complex solutions with long sales cycles where these skills shone 🌟. But her new company had a transactional offering with a shorter cycle, and her approach was creating friction rather than momentum. Instead of completely overhauling her style (which never works long-term), we identified specific micro-adjustments that would preserve her natural strengths while adapting to the new environment. 𝗪𝗲 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹 "𝗣𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴" 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗶𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀  – ways to maintain her thorough approach but calibrate it to her prospect's buying velocity. For instance, instead of a comprehensive discovery, we designed a "Quick Discovery" framework focused on just three critical questions  with optional deep-dive paths depending on the prospect's engagement signals 𝗪𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝘀𝗼 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗱 𝗮 "𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻" 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆  – ways to articulate complex value propositions in simpler, quicker formats without losing impact. This preserved her consultative approach while respecting the faster decision timelines. 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙥𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙛𝙪𝙡 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚 𝙘𝙖𝙢𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙬𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙚𝙙 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙣𝙖𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙖𝙡 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙩𝙝𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙞𝙛𝙞𝙘 𝙢𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙣𝙚𝙬 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙖𝙣𝙮’𝙨 𝙨𝙖𝙡𝙚𝙨 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨 —𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙗𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙨𝙪𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙥𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣 𝙤𝙗𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙘𝙡𝙚𝙨. She quickly turned things around, exceeding her targets and regaining her confidence. The lesson that keeps proving itself true: Sustainable sales success rarely comes from completely changing who you are. It comes from strategically adapting your natural style to the specific environment you're selling in. Have you ever found yourself in a new role or company where your tried-and-true approaches suddenly stopped working? How did you adapt? 🤔 #SalesCoaching #PerformanceImprovement #SalesSuccess

If your messages reach but don't convert, you may have a system-behavior disconnect Imagine for a moment a healthcare marketing team making a medication adherence campaign. They have strong engagement metrics across digital channels and creative that tests well in focus groups, however the refill rates are barely moving. This disconnect happens constantly, and across many industries and contexts. Marketing teams create materials that satisfy all the dashboards but fail at the only outcome that matters: changing behavior. When campaigns underperform, teams typically fix surface elements, but these adjustments miss the underlying behavioral dynamics. If you want to move to action, a Behavioral Friction Map can help you surface what analytics can't, because it will help uncover a root causes. Perhaps the health system's regulatory team required compliance language that inadvertently positioned medication as something patients needed to be "managed" about, which may conflict with their self-perception as independent adults. In practice, nothing would be wrong with the campaign execution. Instead the miss would live between regulatory requirements, marketing objectives, and patient psychology. This insight builds on Elizarova and Kahn's (2018) "Align and Combine" methodology, which integrates journey mapping with behavioral analysis. I've adapted this for comms strategy and other industries we have worked on, where we map behavioral barriers against messaging touchpoints to find where message, moment, and mandate misalign. When we do this, we are able to preserve the campaign creative but restructure the hierarchy. Instead of say leading with "Stay on track with your medication" (the compliance headline), we'd lead with "Maintain your independence with simple medication support." The regulatory language would remain but no longer dominate perception. This shift would align with patients' self-perception while satisfying the requirements. Marketing teams sometimes end up optimizing channel metrics while missing how messages interact with identity and environmental constraints. When organizations require certain language, when systems limit personalization, when compliance mandates specific terminology, these realities shape how audiences receive messages. So maybe before your next campaign, examine what organizational constraints might be forcing contradictions between your intent and audience perception. What assumptions about your audience's identity are embedded in your required messaging? Where might system requirements be creating psychological resistance? The most effective comms don't just reach audiences, they respect the complex systems where decisions actually happen. By mapping these intersections of message and motivation, teams can identify precisely where small shifts will create significant behavioral impact.

Building Employee Engagement & Retention: From Onboarding to Work-Life Balance. Employee engagement and retention are not just about keeping people at work, it’s about creating meaningful experiences throughout the employee life cycle. According to SHRM, organizations can strengthen engagement and long-term commitment through a variety of practices: 1. Job Enrichment & Learning - Add meaning, variety, autonomy, and respect to roles. - Invest in skill development to boost satisfaction and self-efficacy. - Signal reciprocity by providing flexible training opportunities. 2. Strategic Compensation - Align pay with organizational values and employee contributions. - Ensure equitable compensation and adopt pay-for-performance or competency-based systems. - Use competitive pay and flexible benefits to attract and retain talent. 3. Career Management & Recognition - Provide clear, challenging goals aligned with strategy. - Recognize achievements and extra contributions. - Value employee expertise and ensure fair, unbiased appraisals. 4. Realistic Job Previews (RJP) Sharing honest insights about jobs including challenges and benefits helps manage expectations, reduce stress, and increase job satisfaction. Tools may include videos, virtual tours, interviews, or simulations. 5. Personalized Onboarding Onboarding is a “magic moment” where engagement is shaped. Tailoring onboarding to new hires’ needs fosters faster integration, builds cultural alignment, and supports retention. 6. Suggestion Mechanisms Giving employees a voice through feedback systems (like suggestion boxes or digital platforms) provides valuable insights and strengthens engagement. 7. Work-Life Balance Programs that address employee well-being such as flexible schedules, remote options, or tuition reimbursement are critical in today’s dynamic workplace. Work-life balance initiatives help reduce stress and support long-term commitment. In short, engagement is about meaning, fairness, voice, and balance. By integrating these practices, organizations can create workplaces where employees are not only productive but also motivated to stay and grow.

We keep trying to develop the manager. What we should be doing is redesigning the job.   Only 27% of managers globally feel engaged (WSJ*). Let that sink in.   We're asking mid-level leaders to carry strategy, culture, and performance while 3 out of 4 are navigating chaos with no clear support.   And the default response? ⛔ More training. More toolkits. More "resilience" workshops.   But here's the part we rarely say out loud: Managers aren't disengaged because they're unskilled. They're disengaged because the job is structurally unsustainable.   Too many priorities. Too little clarity. No real ally when the doors close.   And now, AI entered the scene.   The tactical work will get automated. But the messy, human parts? Leading teams through complexity, ambiguity, and change? That stays. And it gets harder.   If we don't redesign the manager role now, AI will only widen the gap.   Want to change that?   Stop trying to fix the manager. Start fixing the system they're forced to lead in.   Here are 3 shifts to start:   1️⃣ Redesign the role ↳ Managers aren't failing, they're juggling too much. ↳ Remove low-leverage tasks and redistribute operational noise. ↳ Free them up to focus on coaching, decision-making, and outcomes.   2️⃣ Prioritize sponsorship ↳ Mentorship offers advice, but sponsorship opens doors. ↳ Give managers advocates who actively put them forward for stretch roles and visibility. ↳ Growth accelerates when someone bets their name on yours.   3️⃣ Protect energy + visibility ↳ Managers don't need to work harder, they need space. ↳ Audit calendars, cut distractions, and create time for strategic thinking. ↳ Then amplify their work visibly across the org.   Engagement isn't a perk problem. It's an architecture problem.   And if only 27% of managers are engaged, what does that mean for the teams they lead?   (Reminder: managers account for 70% of team engagement variance - Gallup)   Fix the system, not the symptoms. And the 27% becomes the floor, not the ceiling.   *Source: https://lnkd.in/dBq2UNbu   💜 Like if this reframed how you think about the manager role. 🔁 Share with someone carrying too much and supported too little. ☑️ Follow for practical guidance on moving from manager to strategic leader.

Small tweaks in your sales script can turn “no thanks” into qualified sales calls. We reviewed a client’s outbound calls, made five key adjustments, and saw a 20% boost in engagement. Here’s what worked: 1. Start with a Permission-Based Opener Jumping straight into the pitch made prospects feel cornered, often leading to resistance. What We Changed: We switched to a permission-based opener like, “Hey, this is (name) from (company), we haven’t spoken before, I’m calling you out of the blue, but it'll take me 30 seconds to tell you why I called and then you can tell me if you even want to keep talking after that, does that sound fair” This gave prospects control and set a respectful tone. Prospects felt more comfortable and engaged when they had the option to continue, leading to smoother, more productive conversations. 2. Use “You” Instead of “We” The scripts were too brand-focused with “we” and “our” statements, making it sound impersonal. Shifting to “you” language made a huge difference. Instead of “We offer the best solution,” we said, “You deserve a solution that actually fits.” Prospects felt the call was about them, not us. 3. Add Specific Social Proof Generic claims weren’t cutting it. Instead of “We’ve helped hundreds,” we got specific: “Last quarter, we helped [X industry] achieve [result].” Specifics boosted credibility and helped prospects see the potential value for themselves. 4. Ask Open-Ended Questions Closed questions led to dead-ends. We replaced “Do you struggle with [problem]?” with “What challenges are you facing with [problem]?” This invited prospects to share more, making the conversation richer and helping us respond better. 5. Frame Price with Value Mentioning price early often scared people off. Instead, we tied price to benefits: “With an investment of $X, you can achieve [result].” Positioning price in correlation to perceived value kept the conversation moving forward. These small changes led to big improvements in qualified booked appointments. ___________________________________ Follow Dylan Rich for more tips on scaling your sales team

Engagement isn’t falling because people stopped caring. It’s collapsing because the way work is designed makes engagement impossible to sustain. Expectations are fuzzy. Communication is constant. Attention is fragmented. Gallup’s latest data shows engagement sliding back toward decade-low territory - with steep drops in three fundamentals: • Clear expectations • Feeling cared for • Development opportunities Those aren’t perks. They’re performance conditions. When they erode, the brain stops investing effort. Motivation depends on three levers: 1. autonomy 2. competence 3. relatedness Remove them with chaotic workflows, endless pings, and shifting priorities, and you burn through cognitive energy until only compliance remains. That’s why “fixes” like surveys, perks, and slogans don’t move the needle. They treat emotion, not design. Start by restoring signal in three places: 1. Expectation clarity Define what “good” looks like on one page (outcomes, decision rights, constraints). When people can see the target, anxiety drops and output rises. 2. Progress visibility Replace status "theater" with a 10-minute weekly checkpoint: Priorities - What matters this week? Progress - What moved? Barriers - What’s in the way? It satisfies competence and cuts the mental drag of unfinished work. 3. Specific recognition Generic praise doesn’t register. Tie feedback to a concrete action and result: “You clarified scope early; that saved two cycles.” That’s reinforcement the brain actually encodes. One move this week: Run a consistent 10-minute 1:1 using those three prompts and close with one piece of specific recognition. Track missed handoffs, rework, and tone. The lift will show up fast. Engagement isn’t an attitude, it’s an operating condition. When you fix the system, people re-engage on their own.

Recruiters: Employee engagement isn't just a buzzword anymore. It's becoming the #1 factor in hiring and retention. The future is here—are you ready for it? The landscape of recruitment is shifting rapidly. Gone are the days when a hefty paycheck was enough to attract and retain top talent. Today's workforce craves more: • Purpose-driven work • Meaningful connections • Growth opportunities • Work-life integration • A sense of belonging Smart companies are taking note. They're realizing that engaged employees are: • 21% more productive • 41% less likely to be absent • 59% less likely to look for a job with a different organization But here's the kicker: Only 15% of employees worldwide are engaged at work. That's a massive opportunity for recruiters who understand the importance of engagement. So, how can you leverage this trend? 1. Showcase your company's engagement initiatives during the hiring process. 2. Ask candidates about their ideal work environment and engagement preferences. 3. Highlight opportunities for growth, learning, and development. 4. Emphasize your company's commitment to work-life balance. 5. Share stories of how current employees have grown and thrived in your organization. 6. Implement regular pulse surveys to measure and improve engagement. 7. Create mentorship programs to foster connection and development. 8. Encourage open communication and feedback loops at all levels. 9. Recognize and reward employees who embody your company values. 10. Invest in tools and technologies that facilitate collaboration and engagement. Remember: Engagement starts before day one. It's woven into every interaction a candidate has with your company. From the job description to the onboarding process, every touchpoint is an opportunity to showcase your commitment to engagement. The future of recruitment is clear: Companies that prioritize engagement will win the war for talent. Those who don't will struggle to attract and retain the best and brightest. The choice is yours—lead the change or fall behind. Elevate your recruitment strategy. Make engagement your competitive advantage. Your future hires (and your retention rates) will thank you.

What's your #1 KPI for measuring employee engagement? My guess is that you may know your eNPS (employee net promoter score). You may not know the number, but you know it exists. However, that number alone gives you virtually no information on the actual individual drivers that contribute to it. AND many managers have little line of sight into how to meet a eNPS target. Employees look at it like number that might as well just have been pulled from a hat. I've been working with employee engagement data for over a decade whether it by Gallup Q12, FEVS, or Workday. I've reviewed dozens of other surveys and platforms on top of those. Bottom line. They're all pretty similar except for of course data pools for benchmarking and other bells and whistles to provide goal-setting and development. They provide only a snapshot that gives you a temperature check on how your employees are generally feeling at the moment. The real power of these platforms or an overall engagement strategy is to fine-tune and set targets for individual engagement drivers that will move the needle of your overall eNPS. The most important drivers are going to depend on the organization. That's why having someone on your team that can interpret the results and make recommendations is a sound investment, especially if you have a leadership core that deals better with technical issues rather than people problems. The alternative? Leaders without a firm grasp of organizational psychology and strategy leading those that are most impacted by it. Still, I've found that there are a few drivers that most organizations can focus on that tend to have impact universally. So, what are the most impactful drivers of engagement according to most of the leading engagement survey providers and my experience setting goals for these drivers? Strategy – Employees engage more when they understand where the organization is going and how their work contributes. Meaningful Work – Engagement spikes when people feel their work has purpose beyond a paycheck. Peer Relationships – Strong, trusting relationships with colleagues increase collaboration and resilience. Manager Support – Managers who coach, recognize, and remove roadblocks directly boost engagement and retention. Freedom of Opinion – Psychological safety—the ability to share ideas and concerns without fear drives innovation and commitment. I've provided some strategies on how to boost and examples in the graphic below. Happy to chat if you want to brainstorm on how to do that. It's worth my time to make sure you are confident in your approach. Increasing the overall joy people find in their work is kind of a personal mission of mine. Let's go out there and start measuring engagement with the rigor and intent! #EmployeeEngagement #WorkplaceCulture #LeadershipDevelopment #PeopleStrategy #OrganizationalPerformance

Most underperforming demand gen programs aren’t failing — they’re designed too narrowly for the outcomes the business actually needs. A few weeks ago, I optimized a paid search + content activation program where the architecture, not the execution, had become the limiting factor. The engine was built around: - a small amount of searchable intent - a narrow keyword set - a conversion path optimized only for demo requests - and an inbound motion or volume that wasn’t meeting the demand needs of the business The downstream impacts were what you'd expect. BDRs were relying heavily on events because inbound volume and campaigns weren’t generating enough conversations, which is a design problem, not a team problem. And the issue wasn’t demo performance. It was; we weren’t engaging the larger portion of the market that was still researching, evaluating, and seeking clarity, and not yet ready for sales. Once we expanded the system to meet the demand, performance shifted quickly. Here’s what changed: 1. We expanded the intent surface area We moved from a small set of predictable keywords to a broader set that reflected how buyers actually search: problem/symptom-first, operational language, branded queries, long-tail questions. This wasn’t about quantity; it was about unlocking discovery and giving the algorithm context. 2. We opened new pathways for engagement Demo-only funnels cap your total addressable demand. By adding a strong TOF content path, we created a way for early- and mid-intent buyers to engage without forcing a conversation they weren’t ready for. 3. We aligned channels around a unified demand narrative Once we understood the full spectrum of intent, we activated it consistently across channels, using real search language and creating high-value segments. 4. We turned search insights into GTM intelligence Instead of treating paid search as a silo, we folded keyword and intent signals into SEO themes, content planning, nurture sequences, outbound messaging, and future campaigns. This strategy creates a demand engine that learns over time. What metrics moved: ~29% more clicks ~40% more impressions ~30% lower CPC ~8% lower spend ~Conversion rate up 16% ~Conversions up 56% ~Cost per conversion down 39% We’ve already generated 50%+ more inbound leads this quarter than the entire previous quarter, and BDRs now have a steadier inbound pipeline instead of relying almost entirely on events. And this was just one business segment. Now, we’re extending the same architecture across the rest of the portfolio. Why this matters: Most teams think they have a performance problem. More often, they have an architecture problem: - Too few entry points - Too narrow a definition of intent & little reuse of available signals - All their focus is on buyer-ready leads - Lack of channel alignment When you design demand gen around how buyers actually behave, magic happens, and the entire engine scales. Can't wait to see where we go next.