5 min read
"AI is coming for your job!"
"This AI is a CEO!"
"Could this AI replace your dog??"
The media is full of stories about AI and the fear surrounding it. If common headlines are to be believed (and they're not, just look at this one), generative AI is a spooky sentient boogeyman that heralds the end of the world and our ability to pay rent.
And while, yeah, things are going to change. It would be crazy to say they won't. But AI is not the monster hiding under your bed.
It's too dusty under there.
There's actually a bigger, badder monster that should be lighting up the fear center of your brain.
And it's not the singularity.
(Or, idk, which is scarier? Robots taking over the world at some point in the future or Reddit going down for a day? I couldn't decide which was worse.)
So...is AI gonna take all our jobs?
Rachel Provan, a Customer Success Leadership & Strategy Coach, doesn't think so.
"[I]t's gonna change all of our jobs. But I don't think we're all gonna be out on the street selling muffins or something. It's going to enable us to do things that we weren't able to do before. It's gonna enable us to focus on the things that actually need humans.
(Like) the parts that I'm really interested in, the parts that require empathy that require being good with others, the parts that require messaging."
Think about it: AI can handle the boring, repetitive tasks, freeing you up to do the creative and strategic work. "I think that a lot of the day to day annoying admin work might be taken by AI," she adds, "but that's fine by me."
But Provan also acknowledges that there is a lot of fear out there surrounding AI.
“Trust me, I have so much fear over AI. I just choose to focus on the part that I can leverage because just sitting here, being terrified that something is going to take my likeness in my voice and say horrible things and ruin my life, is not really helpful."
Rachel explains that you can't really future proof your company, to a certain extent, "because we don't know what's gonna happen." Rather than getting anxious about future proofing, she has a different strategy.
"There is resistance and fear... (but) it doesn't get anything done, and there's nothing I can do about it. So I choose to have a growth mindset, which is very much a choice.
Instead of being like, 'Well, what can I do to make sure that I never lose my job to AI'...[say] 'Oh, I see this is changing here. What I did before is not going to be exactly the same. How can I use this as an opportunity? What would this look like if this was like the next step in my career? What do I have to overcome to get there? And then how do I work towards that?'
It's much better to work towards something than run away from it."
Instead of fearing the unknown, we should focus on how AI can help us. But don't ignore the very real issue that threatens our success.
The REAL threat: Ignoring the customer's perspective
The biggest threat isn't AI itself, but thinking about business from your own point of view and not your customers'.
Many SaaS leaders struggle to understand how people work. And that's the biggest mistake you can make.
"I think a huge challenge of ours as CS leaders is most of the time, at least in startups, you're working with founders.
Founders know computers, they think like computers. And when they think about strategy, they don't understand that a human is not going to work like a computer.
You can't just run a command and have them do what you want, as much as that would be convenient. It just doesn't work that way.
You have to play into motivations. You have to be working with messaging to get people to actually take action."
Ignoring the customer's perspective can lead to a disconnect between what your business offers and what your customers actually need.
However, there's a balancing act to perform here. Because yeah, don't forget about your customers' POV. But you also can't just drop your business's needs.
According to Provan, maintaining this balance, "the ability to hold two perspectives at one time", is crucial to being a great customer success leader.
"You have to be able to hold the perspective of the customer, obviously, and what's important to them.
But you also have to be able to hold the perspective of what's important to the business.
And you have to make those match up because sometimes they don't always go hand in hand."
Provan emphasizes the importance of this balance by explaining the potential pitfalls when it's not maintained.
"You need to be able to have those conversations where you're talking to your executive team as though they were a client. You have to understand their desired outcome and explain this is how we get there. Here's what I have to do on our end. Here's what you have to do on your end."
Leadership means aligning both the customer and CS/CE point of views
Provan explains that customers can't just buy the product and have everything they want and need magically fall into place. There's work to be done, both on their side and on the side of Customer Success and Customer Education. Customers "have to show up," and so does your team. "It's a joint thing."
And leaders have to motivate their teams to make sure that's happening.
"You need to be able to have those conversations where you're talking to your executive team as though they were a client.
You have to understand their desired outcome and explain 'this is how we get there'."
Leadership is "being able to say, 'Here's what you (the team) want, here's me motivating you the same way I'm motivating our customers." You have to "look at your messaging and make sure that everyone buys into what you do."
And that's something unique to Customer Success and Customer Education.
Any wobbles can result in products or services that don't meet customer expectations, ultimately leading to dissatisfaction and churn.
Other departments can "just show up and do (their) job," and the value of their job isn't in question. "I think people aren't like, but is it really valuable? Do you really provide value?", unlike those same questions being asked of CS/CE.
This concern can be avoided by ensuring that customer success strategies are aligned with both customer needs and business goals.
How AI can be your best ally
So the real threat isn't AI-- it's ignoring your customer's perspective, and neglecting to balance that with your own team's needs.
While the humans work on the messaging, the bits that require a nuanced touch, let AI take on the rest of the load.
It can help with...
1. Personalization
AI can help tailor experiences to meet individual customer needs. Provan says,
"I think there'll be more customization based on data sets, which nobody loves. But it's the reality. Your data sets are out, so they might as well be used to customize your experience."
By using AI to personalize customer interactions, you can create a more engaging and satisfying experience for each user.
2. Customer Insights
AI can transform how you understand and act on customer data.
"I've seen people use AI for data or customer intelligence, spotting patterns and things like that, combining that with natural language processing and using that to figure out, all right, which parts do they like? How do we aggregate that all together to quantify the voice of the customer a little bit more easily."
This ability to turn qualitative data into quantitative insights means better decision-making and happier customers.
3. Enhanced Support
AI is set to revolutionize customer support with smarter, faster solutions. Provan predicts,
"As we look ahead, the customer support landscape will be transformed by an influx of AI-driven enhancements, which promises a new era of customized and intelligent user interactions across various digital platforms."
Imagine providing your customers with immediate, personalized support that anticipates their needs and resolves their issues efficiently.
AI isn't here to replace you; it's here to assist you.
By leveraging AI to better understand and serve your customers, you can overcome resistance to change and ensure that your business meets both its goals and your customers' needs. Embrace AI as your ally, and focus on building a balanced approach that values both technological advancements and human insights.
As Rachel Provan wisely advises, "It's much better to work towards something than run away from it."
Help your customers along with video
Another way AI can help? Software how-to videos.
Videate leverages AI to create and update how-to videos quickly and efficiently, ensuring your customers always have the most current information at their fingertips.
This means faster updates, better customer support, and ultimately, higher satisfaction.
Ready to see the impact for yourself? Get a demo today and revolutionize your customer success strategy with Videate!
