There are two fundamentally different modes for customer advisory work.
I call them the Chef and the Doctor.
Understanding the difference — and knowing which mode to be in — is one of the most useful distinctions I've found in customer-facing work.
The Chef
The chef asks: What would you like?
The chef's job is to execute on the customer's stated desire. They are skilled, responsive, and deliver what's asked for. The quality of the output depends heavily on the quality of the input. If you ask for something, you get it. If you don't know what to ask for, you get nothing useful.
The chef model produces high customer satisfaction scores because customers get what they asked for. It produces low customer outcomes because customers often don't know what they need.
The Doctor
The doctor asks: What's happening, and what do you actually need?
The doctor's job is diagnosis, not execution. They bring expertise that the patient doesn't have. They push back on self-diagnosis when the evidence doesn't support it. They sometimes tell you things you don't want to hear because they're responsible for your actual outcome — not your satisfaction in the moment.
The doctor model can produce more friction in the short term. It produces better customer outcomes because it's oriented toward the real problem, not the stated request.
When Each Mode Applies
Most customer interactions require elements of both. The art is knowing when to apply which.
Chef mode is appropriate when:
- The customer knows what they need and has the expertise to specify it correctly
- The relationship is transactional by nature
- Speed of execution is the primary value you're delivering
Doctor mode is appropriate when:
- The customer's stated request and their actual need are likely to diverge
- You have relevant expertise the customer doesn't
- You are accountable for customer outcomes, not just customer satisfaction
- The relationship is advisory or strategic
The Mistake I See Most Often
Customer-facing professionals who should be in doctor mode operate in chef mode because it's safer and faster.
Chef mode is lower risk in the short term. Customers don't push back when they get what they asked for.
But if what they asked for doesn't produce the outcome they needed, you will pay that cost later — in churn, in weak renewal, in a relationship that has become transactional when it should have been strategic.
The best customer success professionals I've worked with are comfortable saying: "I hear what you're asking for. Before we execute on that, I want to make sure we're solving the right problem. Can I ask a few diagnostic questions?"
That's doctor mode. And it produces better outcomes.
Views are personal.