The ongoing friction between our Head of Customer Success and our VP of Product is causing our customer retention rate to drop. Each blames the other for the issue. How do we get them to use IDS to resolve this inter-departmental war?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This type of inter-departmental finger-pointing is a classic silo conflict that will quickly destroy your customer experience if left unchecked. To resolve this, you must force both leaders to step out of their department silos and focus on the health of the entire organization.

During your next Level 10 Meeting, place the customer retention rate issue on the Issues List. Do not let them debate it in circles. Use the IDS process to identify the root cause of the breakdown.

Ask both leaders to present objective data rather than emotional opinions. Have the Head of Customer Success provide specific feedback on where the product is failing, and have the VP of Product provide data on how the product is being utilized.

Once the root cause is identified, challenge both leaders to co-create a solution. This might involve creating a cross-departmental Rock to improve the onboarding and feedback loop between their teams.

Make it clear that their success is interdependent. If our customer retention rate is dropping, both of their departments are failing. They must collaborate to solve the issue, and their performance will be measured by the collective result, not by who won the argument.