The VP of Customer Operations at Suzy and Tracy Dempsey introduce a three-part conflict resolution series for account and customer success managers. Session 1 covers de-escalation and empathy. Sessions 2 and 3 tackle escalation processes and proactive expectation management to resolve issues faster and strengthen customer relationships.
Hi, my name is Tracy Dempsey.
I'm the VP of Customer Operations and Strategy at Suzy and I'm also the executive in residence for the skill of conflict resolution here at Sales assembly. And I couldn't be more excited to lead this series with you. I have been in customer facing roles for over 20 years and I can tell you that conflicts are going to arise. It's just inevitable. But what I always tell people is that conflicts actually present the best opportunity for us to really strengthen the partnership and the bond that we have with our customers when we can successfully navigate those conflicts to resolution.
So this is really a core skill that separates good account managers and CSMs
from the great ones. The great ones really do this well and are able to really build on that foundation with their customers. This series is broken up into three different sessions. The first session is all about how to deescalate customers. So how do you stay grounded?
How do you lead with empathy, maintain
your composure even if things are getting really heated? How do you bring that emotion down so that you can really work towards progress and resolution?
Then in the second session we're going
to get a little bit more tactical in terms of the escalation process, management and best practices. So talking about the different tools that we use, how to manage escalations effectively
both internally and externally, how to maintain
really clear communication and transparency throughout so that the customer always feels supported and that things run really smoothly. And then the final session is all about proactive expectation management. So this will help you learn how to stop conflict before it even starts. So it's all about clear expectation setting,
managing and getting ahead of known friction points and creating that conflict consistency that
really does build trust and keep things running really smoothly.
So together, these three sessions will help you resolve issues faster, protect your relationships and strengthen long term customer success, all while improving your time to resolution, which
is the key growth lever for this skill.
Again, I'm really excited to lead this series with you. Conflict resolution isn't about avoiding tension or avoiding those situations. It's learning how to embrace it by with confidence, empathy and clarity. And I can't wait to see how you all apply these tools to elevate your customer relationships. Look forward to seeing you soon.
Thank you.
