#GiveFirst attitude is one of the most humanitarian concepts you will ever find in management schools! Brad Feld came up with the #GiveFirst concept in his book titled “Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City.” #GiveFirst first appeared as “Give Before You Get.” It was transformed into the #GiveFirst hashtag at Techstars around 2014.
#GiveFirst is all about putting the relationship before the transactional value. But mind you, it is not altruism as you expect to get something in return. The only thing is you are not aware when, from whom, in what form, in what consideration, or over what time frame.
Applying this concept to the customer success field provides a fresh perspective to the CSMs.
With the help of this novel concept, organizations can reap benefits across divergent functions of their SaaS setup, including sales, marketing, engineering, and customer success.
CSMs are perfectly positioned to exploit this concept to their maximum benefit. Let us think logically to answer why is that the case in the forthcoming sections of this write-up?
Before that, let us look briefly at the concept of #GiveFirst.
What is #GiveFirst?
According to David Cohen and Brad Feld, #GiveFirst or Give First is the philosophy of trying to help anyone- entrepreneurs, start-up professionals without expecting anything in return. When global professionals live in the Give First way, it builds a powerful network of people who care for business and each other. It gives a fresh perspective on entrepreneurship and sets up a strong framework.
#GiveFirst and Customer Success
By keeping customers at the core, a company’s culture should be to satisfy customers and wow them. The #GiveFirst attitude delights customers and ensures they are thrilled. Customer sprints are helpful for not only the customer but all professionals like marketers, engineers, product teams, and more. You need to do special things for your customers to make sure they are happy.
A GiveFirst attitude creates a positive butterfly effect in the organization, industry, and sphere by engaging customer-facing, product, and technology teams. This also includes giving knowledge and solutions to customer success managers.
All CSMs should be subject matter experts on product and customer issues. This will help them answer any question customers come up with. Technology, tools, and processes can be made simple for customers if CSMs are well trained. This should not be another sales pitch. It should be the formation of a personal bond with customers and the beginning of a partnership.
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Reasons that make #GiveFirst Attitude a must for CSMs in 2023 and beyond
1. Gives you a chance to be in the good books of your customers by showing empathy towards them
With the GiveFirst attitude, you empathize with the individual. The training and management techniques you know can be tailored for other users. This will help get better feedback, understand the process differently, and result in a good product with a smoother workflow. When you Give First, you can improve your understanding of the individual. Empathy is a skill to understand customers’ problems and how specific milestones affect their performance.
2. Provides a purpose to you to serve your customers by understanding their perspective
GiveFirst attitude can help you understand your customers’ perspectives better. You will know how they are using the product differently, the help they need, and resource allocation. You can offer assistance and help based on that. Top ways this can happen include-
- New tools for customers can be created
- Special workshops and webinars for customers
- Guides for customers to solve their pressing problems
- Leveraging community of experts to help customers better
3. Sets the bar high that encourages your customers to stick around for a long time resulting in customer loyalty
You need to encourage customers to stay with the company by putting their interests first. Encouraging customer loyalty is necessary, which can happen by keeping the customer first. High-level service, intimate conversations, reaching out to accounts of interest can help improve and enhance customer loyalty. Think about how you would want the problem solved if you were the customer. This will help you delight the customer as you think in their shoes.
4. Encourage your customers to become your brand advocates
Help your customers become brand advocates. With a Give First attitude, you can coach your customers to use your products in the best manner. They will have a better skill set for using the product and encourage their peers to choose it. You need to deliver proactive service, ask for feedback, provide omnichannel support, engage on social media, personalize customer experiences, and improve marketing offers.
A GiveFirst attitude helps you craft a good customer success story. A good customer success story will help your sales and customer success teams better understand the company and its policy. These customer success stories help create social proof and enhance customer trust. A well-crafted customer success story can help set the right expectations, prevent customer blockages, enhance communication, and improve accountability.
Final Words
In the customer success field, the concept of #GiveFirst has given a fresh perspective. Many trade pundits have already said a lot about customer-centricity and how it can yield great benefits for SaaS companies. But very few have gone ahead and applied this concept in the CS field to get the desired results.
Now is your chance to apply this concept and become an expert in it so that your customers love to become your brand ambassadors. You will also have an opportunity to showcase some of your exciting customer success stories in the community. This will help you a great deal as a CSM and ensure that you are at the top of your game when scaling customers in your organization!
Dattatraya Shetty is an IT Professional with 2 Decades of experience in areas of Product Development, Implementation & Service Delivery Management. As the Head of Implementations and SOC Compliance in Smartkarrot he is on a mission to provide relishing customer experience.
Published January 28, 2022, Updated May 05, 2023
