How to Handle Product Delays and Customer Expectations

Signup for the FREE Masterclass: https://www.thecustomersuccesspro.com/masterclass

In this episode, Anika Zubair discusses the critical topic of handling product delays in customer success. She emphasizes that product delays are not just timeline issues but also trust issues that can significantly impact customer relationships. Anika outlines common mistakes made by Customer Success Managers (CSMs) during these situations and provides actionable strategies for managing customer expectations proactively. The conversation highlights the importance of transparency, reframing value stories, and maintaining open communication with customers to rebuild trust and ensure successful partnerships even in the face of challenges.

Chapters
00:00 Navigating Product Delays in Customer Success
05:43 Proactive Strategies for Managing Customer Expectations
11:00 Building Trust Through Transparency and Communication
14:56 Tactical Approaches to Strengthen Customer Relationships

Connect with Anika Zubair:
Website: https://thecustomersuccesspro.com/
LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/anikazubair/
CSM RevUP Academy: https://thecustomersuccesspro.com/revup

Want to be our next guest? Apply here: https://www.thecustomersuccesspro.com/podcast-guest

Book Anika as a speaker at your next team event: https://www.thecustomersuccesspro.com/team-event

Chapters

• 0:00 Navigating Product Delays in Customer Success
• 5:43 Proactive Strategies for Managing Customer Expectations
• 11:00 Building Trust Through Transparency and Communication
• 14:56 Tactical Approaches to Strengthen Customer Relationships

Transcript

Anika Zubair (00:00.224)
Let me paint a picture for you. You're on a Zoom call with your biggest customer. You've just built so much momentum over the last quarter. They're ready to expand. And then it happens. They ask, when will the product update you promised be live? And your stomach just drops because you know the update is delayed again. Today, we're talking about one of the most uncomfortable yet essential topics in customer success, which is

handling product delays and managing customer expectation when things don't go to plan. I'll break down why product delays are more than just a timeline issue, they're a trust issue, and I'll share the biggest mistakes CSMs make and how to get ahead of these issues proactively and how to keep your customer relationships strong even when things fall behind.

Hello everyone, I'm your host Anika Zuber and welcome to the Customer Success Pro Podcast, your go-to space for real talk, expert advice and actual insights in the world of customer success. I'm a CS executive leader, award-winning strategist, CS coach and customer success fanatic. I help CSMs and CS leaders build the skills and the confidence to become revenue driving pros and scale world-class CS teams.

So whether you're brand new to CS or a seasoned leader, this podcast is here to support your growth. Because customer success isn't a destination, it's a journey. And I'm here to be your guide and navigate every step of your journey. So join me every Wednesday where you'll get fresh CS tips, tricks, and strategies you can actually use. Some weeks I'll share my own insights and best practices from working in CS over the last 13 years.

And once a month, I'll bring on expert guests to dive into the most relevant and pressing topics in customer success today. So if you're ready to level up, hit subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you tune in, and let's make your CS journey a little bit easier together.

Anika Zubair (02:15.895)
In SaaS, product velocity is the key selling point. Customers buy into a roadmap, not just what your product can do today, but what it promises to do tomorrow. So when that promise breaks, even if it's due to dev capacity, priority shifting, or maybe even unforeseen bugs, the customer doesn't care. What they see is broken trust, lost credibility, and stalled ROI. And worst of all, the CSM is left

cleaning up the mess without having been part of the decision. Let's talk about where most CSMs go wrong in this situation. First of all, I've seen this time and time again, but I see CSMs avoiding the conversation entirely. Some CSMs hope the customer won't bring it up and then they just hide behind it. They push the update down the roadmap, hoping no one notices. This creates silence.

which customers interpret as secrecy or incompetence or maybe just misleading overall. And you don't want to be a CSM that a customer feels misled by. Another mistake I see happen whenever there's a product delay is over-promising or guessing timelines. It'll be done in the next sprint or engineering has said maybe Q3 or possibly sooner.

These sorts of vague sentences that kind of give some day promises, these are not reassurance to your customer and they can backfire hard, especially when customers plan around them and then things flip again. So please don't give vague Q3 or next year timelines. It's just not helping anyone and it's especially not helping you. And another mistake I see is when CSMs end up pointing

fingers internally. They say something like, that's a product issue, not a CS issue. Well, that's probably true, but blaming your teammates kind of erodes cross-functional trust. And it shows the customers you're not as aligned internally as a business, and you definitely don't want to do that. And another mistake I keep seeing happening is CSMs do not frame the value story.

Anika Zubair (04:34.732)
when a key feature is delayed. Many CSMs just go blank. They forget how to pivot and reinforce the current value or highlight alternative wins. What I see happen is a product delay ends up happening and a CSM focuses an entire call or an entire QBR on that product delay. And they try to firefight and they try to fix it. And they try to be all like, don't worry. Let me hear you out.

But if you focus the entire call on just what's wrong, I'm sorry, every call subsequent to that call is gonna end up being exactly that. You're gonna end up apologizing. You're gonna end up spending all this time trying to fix the problem. But instead, if you start to reframe the value story and start to showcase, yes, we do have a product delay, but also here is all the amazing things we've done despite that delay.

that sort of pivot and that sort of focus will at least help your customers rebuild some of the trust that you end up losing whenever there is a product delay. So I've talked about quite a few mistakes and I just want to jump into how to handle product delays because we are all experiencing them daily and I have experienced them so many times throughout my career. So how do you actually handle delays like a pro? Well,

Here's my framework on turning disappointed customers into trust-building moments. First of all, you need to be proactive. Easier said than done, but the way to be proactive and not reactive is the second that you hear about a delay. I want you to ask, who does this impact? What has been promised? And do any accounts need...

personalized comms. You need to start asking these questions internally and you need to really reinforce with your team internally. I need to get ahead of this as the customer success manager to this account. So don't wait for the customer to ask. I need you to be the leader and go ask your internal teams how to take this feedback back to your customers or this product delay back to your customers. I want you to bring it up, not the customer.

Anika Zubair (06:47.212)
So go and get the internal teams to really give you a timeline of events and what's happened with the delay and the comms that need to go out to which customers. And then I need you to reach out to your customer, not on the next QBR, not on the next call, proactively send them an email saying, hey, I need to catch up with you. And it's about a feature or functionality. And I want you to bring it up first. Okay. The second tip I have is whenever there is a product delay, I need you to lead with transparency and confidence. Like,

Whenever you do reach out to your customer about a delay, I want you to say something like, I want to give you a quick update on feature X. The timeline has shifted slightly and we've hit a little bit of a technical challenge that's requiring extra attention. And I want you to share that exactly like that. Be clear and intentional and let them know what has happened rather than just rushing it.

And rather than saying, the team is focused on delivering something stable and scalable, or they've moved on to other priorities, I want you to make sure you keep your customer posted with every single change. And I want you to let them know that because of this delay, I will update you as your customer success manager of every change that comes down the road. You don't need to have all the answers, by the way, and you don't need to have the exact timeline of events with when the product

is going to be final and the release is going to be ready to use, but I just want you to have the courage to communicate clearly with your customer and really articulate that I'm going to be the person that gives you all of the steps that's necessary for you to understand this delay and to plan for it as well. All right, another way to handle any sort of delay is make sure that you reaffirm the partnership.

So I want you to make it clear in their voice that it still matters. Whether it's a small feature or big, it doesn't matter. I want you to tell your customer that your feedback helped shape this feature and you're still in the Early Access Cohort or Beta Cohort and the product team still knows how important this is to your workflow. I want you to reinforce to your customer that this is still very, very important.

Anika Zubair (09:08.32)
And despite the delays, you are gonna get it done for them. But unfortunately, there have been delays. Just reaffirming or just helping your customer understand that this is still important is going to help build that broken trust that has happened due to this delay. All right, I just wanna jump into the middle of this podcast and be honest with you. Handling product delays and tough customer conversations can feel like walking on a tightrope. You're trying to balance empathy,

expectation and still prove your value, all while your product team works through the bugs and the backlogs. Now imagine if you actually felt confident walking into those calls. You knew exactly how to manage risk, set realistic expectations, and still create expansion opportunities even when things aren't perfect.

That's exactly what we'll be covering in the final RevUp Masterclass of 2025. It's happening live on September 10th at 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. This is a free training that breaks down my signature CS revenue framework, the same one I teach inside of RevUp Academy, and you'll learn how to connect value to revenue and lead strategic customer conversations, and you will shift from reactive

to proactive and be more revenue-minded as a Customer Success Pro. So whether you're a CSM, a head of CS, or anything in between, this is your last chance to join us live for this year. So if you want to sign up, grab your free spot at thecustomersuccesspro.com forward slash masterclass. Again, go and grab your free spot at thecustomersuccesspro.com forward slash masterclass.

and let's end the year strong. Okay, now back to the episode. Okay, another way that I want you to rebuild that trust, especially when it comes to product delays, is start to refocus the customer on the ROI story. If something is delayed, I need you to find another value lever to highlight. Now this can be anything and everything. It could be big or small.

Anika Zubair (11:22.348)
But once you deliver the news that there is a product delay and that you are tracking it and it is still very important for our company to deliver it to this customer, I need you to actually talk about the other wins. Or better yet, is there another win that you can maybe fast track and maybe you can focus on with the customer? I want you to maybe create a temporary workaround for this customer or maybe showcase.

another adoption milestone that another one of your customers has done that is similar to what this customer is looking for. Your job is to re-anchor the partnership around value. And even if that value is shifting, I want you to try to focus in on value either with another use case, another customer, another feature, a workaround, refocus on value.

And finally, in order to really make sure product delays don't end up costing you this customer relationship, I want you to create a feedback loop with your product team. Don't just accept a delay announcement passively. You need to ask your product team for talking points or customer-friendly messaging about this delay. You need to understand the context behind this delay.

And you need to ask for any sort of early access or testing opportunities that you can offer to your customer so that you end up being the bridge, not just the messenger. You want to be the bridge between product and the customer to make sure even if this product is delayed, that they are going to get some sort of access. And it's not just you delivering a message that you're going to tell your customer, listen.

I'm going to make sure you're on the early beta tester of the new feature, which might not be perfect, but I want to get the ball rolling for you. Being able to be that bridge is going to rebuild that trust with your customer, but it's also going to make sure that your product team continues to feedback correct information and correct timelines so that the customer is in the loop. You want to make sure that feedback loop keeps going in a circle and rather than closing it off completely.

Anika Zubair (13:28.546)
All right, I have a little story to tell you guys today. I'll never forget this one quarter when I had a Fortune 500 customer banking on a new integration to go live. Their launch was scheduled for early May, but come mid April, the product team quietly moved it to July due to internal restructure and again, lack of resources. I personally was furious, not just because I had to tell the customer,

but because I hadn't been included in the internal updates. Instead of panicking, I called the customer, literally picked up the phone and called them and said, look, I want to update you before this becomes an issue. The integration is delayed and I'm not happy about it either, but I'm working with the product team to make sure you're still part of the initial rollout of this product. And in the meantime, I've identified two areas

where I can help your team save some time and improve on product adoption while we wait for this new feature and integration to be rolled out. Now, my customer was frustrated when I called them. Of course they would be. I'm telling them about a product delay, but they respected the honesty and we pivoted and we delivered value in a new way and they still renewed that year even with that delay.

That experience taught me that delays are forgivable, but surprises are not. So let's not surprise your customers. Even if there is a delay, get ahead of it. All right, as always in the weekly solo episodes, I'm here to be your tactical and practical coach. And I wanna leave you with a tactical challenge for this week. I want you to choose one customer who is waiting on something from product. And I want you to schedule a quick

15 minute call to proactively share an update. Even if it's super minor, and even if it's as simple as a quick five minute call, I want you to call your customer. And I want you to prepare a mini pivot plan. One way to add value in the meantime, tell your customer about what's happening and the delays and the product expectations, but I want you to pivot to add more value. And then I want you to end the call by thanking them.

Anika Zubair (15:49.89)
for the partnership and reaffirming the importance of their feedback to your product roadmap and that you're here to close that product feedback loop. Then I want you to reflect on how did that feel? What shifted in the relationship dynamic when you led with transparency? I really want you to think about this because that shift is what makes you more confident in handling more and more product delays. If you want to get better at

every part of managing customer relationships like this, it's not just the hard conversations, but the value storytelling and the revenue influence behind them. And if you want to get better at all of this and you want to get better at every part of managing a customer relationship, then RevUp Academy is the place for you.

We've got CSMs, VP of CS, and even Chief Customer Officers inside who are shaping their commercial skills and becoming truly strategic partners with their customers. And in order to enroll, you just have to head over to thecustomersuccesspro.com forward slash rev up to join our waitlist or apply for the next cohort. And remember, you can't control the product roadmap.

but what you can control is the customer relationship. So make sure you lead with transparency and be that customer strategic partner that your customer is looking for. I'll talk to you next week for the next episode of the Customer Success Pro Podcast. Thanks for tuning in to the Customer Success Pro Podcast. I hope you picked up something valuable to take back to your team.

If you enjoyed this episode, would mean the world to me if you took just 10 seconds to leave a review on Apple or Spotify. It helps more CS pros like yourself discover the show. And creating new episodes takes a lot of work. So leaving a nice review keeps me motivated to keep creating. And don't forget to hit subscribe on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcast episodes. I drop a new episode every Wednesday packed with practical tips.

Anika Zubair (17:57.59)
And if you've got a topic you'd love for me to cover or want to be a guest on my show, send me a message. All the details are in the show notes. I'd love to hear from you. And hey, if this episode helped you share it with a fellow CSM or CS leader. Remember sharing is caring. Cheers to your CS journey and I'll catch you next week for our next episode.