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Berner: Early customer-facing odd jobs reliably signal customer empathy and fit

Stephanie Berner · A customer success masterclass | How to build and scale a CS org | Stephanie Berner (LinkedIn) · Feb 1, 2024 · at 9:33

Stephanie Berner (LinkedIn Customer Success Executive) shares her hiring heuristic for screening customer empathy and service orientation in early-stage customer success candidates.

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“And if people continue to opt in to odd jobs or part-time jobs or even career modes that Include a customer oriented experience. Then that tells me that they are a customer oriented person. I've hired people who've never done anything customer facing into customer success and support roles, and they find it really jarring. They don't like it. They don't actually like being in front of customers and taking, you know, tough questions and solving tough issues. And that doesn't mean that those people aren't good for our company. It just means that they don't belong in a customer facing role.”

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