I was the VP of Customer Support at a B2B SaaS company, and our operational metrics were better than ever – beating all the benchmarks.

But it didn’t seem to matter. Customers were so frustrated with the support experience they were giving up on us.

We were losing revenue, and I was losing sleep.

I’d wake up at 3am, covered in sweat, and toss and turn for hours trying to think my way out of the problem.

I made it my personal mission to solve this mystery. If the customers didn’t value the existing experience, what did they want instead? I was determined to find out.

I flew 4,768 miles, drove hundreds more, and took one very scary Uber ride down Bourbon Street to interview customers.

Did you know hospital billing supervisors spend 7 hours a day in meetings and eat lunch at their desks to catch up on email? Turns out, “Death By Meetings” is a common problem in healthcare.

Grounded in candid customer feedback we launched a rapid “Voice of the Customer” research project so innovative it won the 2020 North American Customer Centricity Award for Customer Insight and Feedback, a dense black mini-monolith I still use as a bookend in my office.

This research uncovered customer value drivers that weren’t even on the radar. With these insights, we could take action and improve the experiences that mattered most.

Once we improved the customer experience, support-related terminations dropped by 66% year-over-year. Customer satisfaction improved 24%.

And I could sleep again.

Along the way, I found my calling: connecting with customers, understanding their needs, and amplifying their voices with a process that inspires action and makes an impact. I started Seaton CX to help you retain more customers. And we can all sleep better when you do.