How to deal with annoying customers as a Product Manager

As a Product Manager, it can be an absolute pain when your Success team, Sales team, or Support team come to you yet again with another complaint or feature request from a known loud customer. "let me guess, it's customerA threatening to churn again, yeah? Ugh what do they want now".

But, those customers are the most valuable to you as a Product Manager. Usually those customers are the ones most eager to improve their business, most active in looking for better solutions, and most happy to give you their time and energy to share their perspective.

So, use them. Work them. Squeeze them for all the juice they've got. Put them in your beta group and set up a bi-monthly call to discuss product developments. Drain them of every nugget of context they have.

Do that, and you'll probably find something surprising. Not not only will you learn more and make better decisions about your product, you'll likely turn an upset customer on the verge of churning into a dedicated, active member of your community. They'll feel listened to, understood and ultimately a net promoter for you and your company.