AMA: MParticle Director, Customer Success Operations, Christine Vienna Knific on Customer Success Interviews

What does "Customer Success" mean to you? Customer Success as a field and profession is relatively new, and the term can mean different things to different people. A candidate's answer helps me assess their whether their experience is aligned to a proactive vs reactive approach, what kinds of customers they've worked with in the past, how they think about the customer experience, and more. If you were constructing a CS team from scratch, what metrics would you use to gauge success? Both internal ...Read More

It's really important to be prepared for any interview you take the time to do, both out of respect for the hiring manager's time and your own. That said, I view an interview as a conversation and opportunity for both parties to learn about each other. Here are two tips for being prepared and showcasing yourself in the best way: Any presentation or demonstration project should be done explicitly for the hiring company. Many Customer Success roles will require candidates who advance multiple roun ...Read More

Show that you're a team player! It's a huge red flag when a candidate demonstrates a lack of willingness to work as a team. The ability to work cross-functionally to drive customer results is critical. If a candidate conveys the message "that's not my job," they aren't a good fit for our team. Not understanding support vs success. There are a lot of definitions of Customer Success, but I need CSMs who work proactively to drive results. Using "support" and "success" interchangeably in a resume or ...Read More

To gauge autonomy of Customer Success Manager candidates, I like to ask: Describe what role the CSM plays with the customer, in your experience? This helps me see the candidate's willingness to be strategic or tactical (hopefully both, when necessary!), how they work with internal cross-functional teams, and how they view ownership of commercial responsibilities. Provide an example of a customer escalation and how you turned it around. In this question, I'm looking for a candidate to both show o ...Read More