Allison Caggia
The Heart of Malbek: Jaime Slocum on Customer Satisfaction and Retention
In the dynamic world of contract lifecycle management, the role of customer experience is paramount. It’s the compass guiding organizations through the intricate landscape of solutions and services. At Malbek, a leading player in this arena, the pursuit of exceptional customer experiences isn’t just a mission—it’s a way of life. At the helm of this commitment stands Jaime Slocum, the Vice President of Customer Experience, with a remarkable five-year journey with Malbek.
Jaime is the embodiment of the driving force behind Malbek’s customer-centric approach. She and her team are responsible for ensuring that every client’s encounter with Malbek is nothing short of extraordinary. Their mission is clear: to help organizations navigate the CLM journey seamlessly and emerge victorious.
Today, we are chatting with Jaime Slocum. Together, we’ll delve into the heart of Malbek’s customer experience philosophy, uncover the strategies that set them apart in the industry, and gain insights into the visionary leader who is shaping the future of customer success at Malbek.
Q: How do you define the role of customer experience in the success of Malbek and what sets us apart?
A: The customer experience journey starts when organizations begin searching for a solution and continues through the years we serve our customers.
Organizations are procuring a CLM solution to solve a problem and drive efficiency in processes that ultimately impact revenue. We offer an exceptional product but like any enterprise solution, it’s important not to underestimate the investment in ensuring effective initial implementation and ongoing care.
What sets Malbek apart is our team – our team truly cares about our customers and their success. Ensuring a delightful customer experience is a key success factor in the full journey. Our people and the customer experience they deliver, both our customer-facing and behind-the-scenes teams, are what sets Malbek apart.
Q: How do you ensure smooth onboarding and training for our customers and how are they supported by your team through the process?
A: Our methodology is a highly collaborative one in which our Professional Services team is focused on understanding your goals and enabling your team to succeed. We take the time to understand your processes and daily business and align to best practices and what has worked for others in making the most of our solutions.
Our implementation process is iterative, and we show you outputs early and often to ensure there is constant dialogue and feedback. We believe in early hands-on experience with the product for your core team, as this is key to enabling effective decision-making and ensuring your team will be fully enabled to support and champion the solution for others in the organization.
We want your team to be able to take the reins from day 1 of rollout. Ultimately our joint success depends on your team’s ability to support and drive adoption of the solution to realize value and ROI for your organization.
Q: What quality control measures do you take to ensure the best possible customer journey? In what ways does Malbek collaborate to help our companies succeed?
A: We believe in learning from every experience and challenge we face. Our team conducts internal project retrospectives where we reflect on successes and potential improvements. Our team collaborates daily and participates in monthly training sessions to stay up to date on products, and best practices, and to share ideas.
We also survey our customers about their experience. We take this collective input seriously and our management team works closely together on continuous process improvement, which includes inputs into other teams with the organizations that influence the complete customer journey and experience. We know the outcome of and experience in implementation can make or break long-term success.
Q: How do you foster and sustain a customer-centric culture within your team and the organization?
A: We lead with empathy and strive to represent the customer’s perspective in our decision-making. We believe in giving our customers a voice and, more importantly, actively listening to that voice. Customer-centricity isn’t confined to customer-facing teams alone. It’s embedded in our DNA at Malbek. In every decision we make, whether it’s product development, process improvement, or strategic planning, we ask ourselves, “How will this benefit our customers?” This ensures that every action we take is aligned with our customer-centric mission.
We’re not content with the status quo. Our team is committed to continuous learning and improvement. We stay updated on industry trends, emerging technologies, and best practices. This allows us to anticipate customer needs and proactively offer solutions that align with their evolving requirements.
Q: It makes us all proud that Malbek has a 120% retention rate and a 96% CSAT score! In your experience, what are some of the main contributing factors to such high customer satisfaction and loyalty?
A: When we hire at Malbek, we are looking for not only skill but the character of good team members who truly care about helping our customers succeed. Our Customer Experience team members come from different professional backgrounds and experiences – in technology and services industries, as well as first-hand experience in contract management and law. We believe this variety allows us to draw on each other’s knowledge and experience and collectively deliver excellent service to our customers. Having this variety amongst the team brings different skills and ideas and promotes collaboration. We celebrate our customers’ successes as if they were our own. Their victories are our motivation. By spotlighting their achievements within our organization, we reinforce the idea that we’re all on this journey together.
Q: Malbek is big on collaboration, it’s how we get things done smartly. What steps do you take to ensure efficiency and collaboration between teams, such as product development, and sales, to deliver the best possible service to our customers?
A: We love to be innovative and encourage team members to build an area of focus or expertise but also look for opportunities to give team members exposure to different projects and experiences. This provides opportunities to learn from others and take on new challenges, providing balance and motivation for continued growth. We utilize technology and live group sessions to collaborate and have developed processes to ensure we can do so efficiently across the teams’ time. We spotlight customer success stories as well as fun employee talents in our company all-hands monthly meetings.
The customer journey starts when organizations start looking to solve a need or problem. Each step of that journey and the interactions along the way can influence how customers feel about Malbek and our services, and we feel the entire Malbek team contributes to success.
Q: Customers will always have some pain points; I know we like to get ahead of it and make these tweaks before these issues arise. What strategies do you have in place to anticipate those issues and be ahead of the game?
A: Thinking about the bigger picture and ensuring alignment on goals is how we can stay ahead of potential bumps in the road. We view the customer journey as a partnership. To be good partners throughout the customer journey, we communicate often, gather feedback, and listen to our customers. We strongly encourage bringing in trusted champions from your organization into the process early for feedback and to understand what adoption challenges may arise. Internally, we foster the same open communication, ensuring team members feel enabled and supported should challenges arise.
Q: What do you envision as the future direction of the CLM industry and how do you believe Malbek can position itself to stay ahead of the curve?
A: I believe the future will continue to be about efficiency. Value comes from focusing on what will truly make your contracting process more efficient and will have a significant impact on time, cost, and revenue.
Thank you, Jaime, for taking the time to tell us a little more about your team and we thank you for your contribution to Malbek and the success of our customers. The journey towards customer-centricity is a continuous one, and we’re thrilled to have shared a glimpse into Malbek’s approach with you today.
