Engaging with empathy: Ramya’s north star for customer retention
As a customer engagement manager at Freshworks, Ramya Renganathan lives by a singular motto: Keep customers by creating lasting value.
From managing customer expectations and understanding customer needs and pain points to offering solutions that alleviate their problems without charging the earth, Ramya’s commitment to value drives product adoption at Freshworks.
She elaborates.
Every customer is different. So are their needs and issues. It’s not enough to sell them good technology. You must nurture lasting relationships and see to it that they use our technology to create impact and value for themselves and their employees.
For Ramya, “impact and value” aren’t buzzwords. Instead, they are the hallmarks of a good customer experience.
Our customers are dealing with complex issues in their industries. They have so much on their plate. The last thing we want is to add to their concerns.
Now more than ever, customers need “empathy and understanding. Our products are already designed to be easy and intuitive. We should focus on working together as a team and turning complex implementations into successful solutions.”
Understanding customer needs
Ramya is candid about her many talents. “I can easily communicate with clients, manage multiple projects simultaneously, and bring an upbeat attitude to the table daily.” But what sets her apart is her undying passion for “crisis management.” When asked how she worked through such constraints, she smiles and says, “As a professional and mother to an autistic child, I’m experienced in all forms of strategic thinking, risk assessment, clear communication, and problem-solving.”
She recounts an interaction with a customer suffering from after-sales dissonance owing to a custom feature.
By holding a frank discussion, I understood the customer’s needs. I feel most companies don’t take the time to do that, which creates a broken customer relationship. After understanding the pulse of the customer, I worked with multiple teams to provide a quick workaround. Retaining this important customer boosted our annual recurring revenue (ARR) in the ANZ region.
An award-winning employee at Freshworks, Ramya shares her insights into customer retention.
When she’s not working on engaging customers and solving their problems with empathy, Ramya talks about her passion and purpose–at work and in life.
Production team: Saikat Das, Shivani Ramakrishnan, Simran Achpal, and Mohamed Sahib.
