Customer interactions can serve as important milestones which affect customer loyalty and advocacy in a positive or negative way. However, not every touchpoint is impactful. Customers regard many conversations they have as repetitive and monotonous. Understanding these perceptions early on assists Customer Success Managers (CSMs) in steering conversations back to meaningful interaction.

Every customer interaction should feel less like an obligation and more like an opportunity to add meaningful value.

CSM's Wisdom

Key Indicators:

Here are the clear indicators signaling that customers might find your conversations not only boring but purposeless, along with practical ways to spot and repair each scenario.

1. Consistent Short or Vague Responses

Customers’ responses are repetitive, and they no longer pay attention to details—it becomes really boring. For example, From “fine” or “ok” or “no concerns,” the answer can be simplified. This constricted response tends to lack elaboration, includes no contextual detail, and does not provide personal insights. This passivity equally reflects apathy, disengagement, or an underestimation of value in what’s left of ongoing communication.

How to identify it?

• Detectable absence of detailed replies that are more succinct to previous interactions.

• Responses are also devoid of actionable insights and follow up questioning.

How to repair the situation?

• Directly address it: "I sense we might be missing the mark—what’s one important thing we should focus on right now?"

• Increase specificity: Ask targeted questions requiring detailed answers: "Can you share more about what’s working or not working regarding the recent update?"

2. Frequent Meeting Cancellations or Rescheduling

Customers will reschedule meetings at their own convenience without providing sufficient rationale, or inconsistently attending scheduled meetings. From the client's perspective, attendees are strategically and arbitrarily dropping scheduled meetings. Regular meetings, consist of people from different parts of the organization where sufficient value isn't perceived.

How to identify it?

• Repeatedly requesting to rearrange a meeting.

• Cancelling at the last minute without providing a sufficient explanation.

• Abandoning a calendar invite without proposing a potential substitute date.

How to repair the situation?

• Clarify meeting purpose: Clearly articulate the intended outcomes, e.g., "This meeting aims to resolve the login issues impacting your users—let’s discuss solutions that matter right now."

• Ask directly: "Is there another format or timing that would work better for your schedule?"

3. Passive or Distracted Participation

The customer shows up to the meeting; however, they do not appear to pay full attention to the discussion. They usually have their microphones turned off for quite some time and do not contribute anything. Some of them may be doing other things as the call progresses, and some may be very unwilling to speak during the discussions. Boredom, irrelevant topics, or a lack of desire to contribute are some common reasons behind passive participation.

How to identify it?

• Long silences, microphone muting, limited or delayed interactions with the rest.

• Background noise indicating multitasking.

• Cameras switched off after being on without any prior notice.

How to repair the situation?

• Shift to engaging formats: Include interactive elements like real-time demos or collaborative exercises.

• Revalidate priorities: Pause and ask, "Are we discussing what’s most important to you today, or has something else emerged as a higher priority?"

4. Lack of Follow-up or Action on Agreed Tasks

This behaviour could be framed in the context of the customers repeatedly failing to execute the tasks related within a reasonable time frame or passing off rather critical tasks to junior employees without ample justification. This suggests that the customer deems them somewhat trivial, poorly value as time-vacuum and devoid of their primary strategic intents.

How to identify it?

• Lack of explanation for consistent failure to take action on agreed-upon checklist items.

• Lack of explanation for consistent failure to take action on agreed-upon checklist items.

How to repair the situation?

• Reconnect tasks to outcomes: Clearly link actions to their priority goals. For instance, "Completing this feedback review helps us address your user-experience concerns faster—should we prioritize differently?"

• Reduce task friction: Offer to streamline follow-ups, e.g., “Let me simplify the next step—I'll prepare a brief summary for your team to review quickly.”

5. Absence of Questions or Engagement in Discussion

This argues purely for the b2b settings because clients seem to be lacking in asking basic questions, calling a freestanding subject unilaterally and just draw questions for perplexing pieces. This disengagement signals that the subject of the conversation does not posses the degree of interest that people need, are out of touch, or only slight tangential relevance matters.

How to identify it?

• Conversations largely, if not fully, dominated by the CSM, with scant interest or engagement on the part of the customer.

• Meetings consistently finish early as a result of customers not being active participants.

How to repair the situation?

• Prompt curiosity: Ask open-ended questions about their experience, such as, "What questions or uncertainties do you have about the next steps?"

• Invite active participation: Explicitly encourage their thoughts, e.g., "I'd really value your input here—what do you think about this approach?"

Final Thoughts:

When gaps exist between inter-customer meetings and customers consider sales meetings inadequate or excessively straightforward with no added value, CSMs usually monitor these patterns closely. These customers are the ones who need proactive engagement.

The best customer conversations are those where customers actively feel the interaction was worth their valuable time.