“When customers see that your focus is on delivering high quality outcomes, improving their experiences, and making sure they get the best value out of your services, you build loyalty naturally,” says DJ Leckwold, head of customer success at Zayo. Having joined Zayo recently to lead the customer success team, Leckwold brings 19 years of telecom industry experience at Verizon, where he filled a diverse set of leadership roles there across sales and operations, eventually running Verizon’s global customer success program.
At Zayo, Leckwold’s customer success philosophy is all about being proactive. “We’re here, ready for our customers whenever they need us of course, but I like to stay ahead of the game by staying engaged through the entire lifecycle of a customer’s journey,” he says.
DJ is particularly committed to empowering customer success specialists to work on behalf of their customers. Rather than acting as gatekeepers to the various support teams, they campaign for the customer, pulling in the resources necessary and monitoring their progress along the way to getting their desired result. As DJ says, “they are the ambassador for the customer. And that is a real differentiator in the industry.”
“They are the ambassador for the customer. And that is a real differentiator in the industry.”
One key to DJ’s proactive support concept is in maintaining communication with the customer before an issue becomes a reason to reach out to the customer service team. This communication system is structured around what he calls triggers: time or event-based moments in a customer’s journey when Zayo will check in. Examples he gives are the moment when a new customer’s service is activated and switches over to regular billing, or after the first 90 days of a contract.
Overall, DJ wants to focus on creating “a communication model that drives consistent, high quality, proactive communications with clients of all sizes.” He wants customers to see the customer success team not simply as problem-fixers but collectively as an asset that’s part of the complete package they get when they choose Zayo.