Hey, I'm Diana and this is the Customer Success Project. In this video, we are going to talk about how to answer customer success manager interview questions. Before we dive in, I want to continue creating content for this page. So if there's anything that you want to learn, add a comment below and I'll be sure to create a video.
And if you haven't subscribed yet, please go ahead and do that. All right, so let's dig in. To kick things off, here's what your hiring manager or the people that you're going to be talking to during your interview. This is what they're looking for. One, they want to know about your experience.
Even if it's not customer success related, they want to know about your experience and how that's going to translate into this customer success manager role. The second thing they're looking for is emotional intelligence. For this role, since it is customer facing, you have to be incredibly intelligent when it comes to your emotions.
And that's how you react to certain situations. What are you going to do if something bad happens? Like, you know, you get into a disagreement with a customer or potentially a customer turns or even with your teammates as well.
There's a disagreement there. So they're going to be looking for some red flags in that department. The third thing is culture fit and value add.
So every company has its own culture. And so they want to test or ask you questions about how you're going to fit into the company's culture and continue adding the value to that culture. Now that we know that, let's dig into the specific questions that are going to come your way.
Now, I feel like there are a handful of questions that we'll hear over and over, or we can expect, regardless of the role that you're interviewing for. And that's, tell me about yourself. Why do you want this job?
I hate that question, but sometimes people still ask. The one question, tell me about yourself, that I think a lot of people fumble on. And to be honest, I learned this one little trick like seven years ago, and I'll never forget it. And it's, Talk about your past, so where you've been before, your present, so where you currently are, and the future. And this future should involve them in your answer.
Feel free to add a personal touch to it, like if you have a dog or you have kids or you live in a specific place. Those things can help open up the conversation and can allow you to understand even things about the person that's interviewing you that you can then add back into the interview down the road. Questions like why do you want to work here or tell me what you know about our tool those questions require you to do research I made a video on how to ace the interview process and I'll link to it somewhere up here So check that video out if you want more details on doing the prep work that's needed for you to answer these questions that are going to come your way. Here are some questions that you can expect that are, tell me about a time type. So we have, tell me about a time when a customer turned.
Tell me about a time where you learned a new skill. Tell me about a time where you went above and beyond with a customer or for a customer. Tell me about a time where you messed up.
Tell me about a time when you had a disagreement with your coworker. Tell me about a time where you had to tell. a customer know.
Tell me about a time where you upsold a customer. Tell me about a time where you did a renewal. Tell me about a time where you had to manage up.
Tell me about a time where you failed. These tell me about a time questions are perfect for you because they allow you to cast a spotlight on these experiences that might not be really customer success related, but you can still leave them and make them. sound like customer success because at the end of the day there is no customer success university program except for like that one and Everybody here started somewhere else so you can start somewhere else too if you need to get those transferable experiences if you are already a customer success manager, you already have all these skills or Nuggets of stories that you've already experienced so make sure that you craft the right story when these questions do come up Now, you might be faced with hiring managers that are going to dig particularly in the areas that you feel a bit insecure about. Those are the ones that are going to ask you about things like, you don't have SaaS experience.
How do you think that's going to impact you in your day to day? You don't have X experience. We need that in this role.
How do you think you're going to manage to do that job without X experience? You're currently a manager now. Why would you want to take a step down and be an individual contributor?
What do you think is going to be the most challenging part of this role for you given that you don't have X? These questions are 100% real. You have to come prepared and ready for these tough questions even if they don't answer.
So fill in your X. What's that thing that you don't have? What's the experience that you're lacking?
And show them directly how these other experiences can fill in the blank. for this role. Look, ultimately that hiring manager or that panel is trying to make sure that they're hiring the right person for this role. So you need to come in and let them know that you are the right person and you are the right person. You just.
You just need to tell the right story. There's a lot of things that you can learn on the job when you're a customer success manager and soft skills really do go a long way. And so if you are in a position where you're getting ready for these customer success manager interviews, take the time to prepare for these questions.
Come in with very clear examples of what you've done in the past and do not leave it up to chance. The first thing you want to do is leave it up to chance. So do your research, do not be vague and make sure that you're focusing on the right things.
This emotional intelligence piece. We can't raise any red flags here. So we want to make sure that we're focusing on stories that put us in the best light and that also highlight our soft skills. I've created step-by-step guides on my website, thecustomersuccessproject.com that you can go check out if you want more details to help you prep for your interview.
I wish you the best of luck and I'll see you in the next video.