Today’s guest is Kristi Faltorusso, Chief Customer Officer at ClientSuccess and an active evangelist of the practice of customer success (CS). She joins host Ethan Beute to share practical and meaningful insights into change management and behavioral transformation.

Kristi shares her approach to advancing the discipline of CS, which is relatively new and which was lacking in voices, stories, and examples. She explains how she developed her voice and audience (including her struggles along the way) through an approach she describes as sharing selflessly.

Takeaways:

• The most important role of an evangelist is education. Kristi identified the need for it within the domain of customer success and how she took on the challenge. The need for practical CS guidance extends beyond frontline practitioners or managerial leaders. This encompasses education for all stakeholders.
• When joining ClientSuccess, Kristi had already earned authority and credibility through her achievements, challenges, and honesty. Her authentic and vulnerable nature connected with a growing audience, which made her interactions with clients genuine, relatable, and human.
• Kristi created her audience engagement by recognizing the importance of situating herself with a larger community – of taking an “outside-in” approach. She guided her team to replicate her approach through active participation, observation, and introspection.
• Companies seeking evangelists should consider people within their customer base. This enables a deeper understanding and view of customer needs, wants, motivations, actions, and stories. Kristi believes that the focus should be on identifying who excels at amplifying and using their voices in innovative ways.

Quote of the Show:

• “I want to be able to drive change in our discipline and I believe that this is the way to do it.”

 Links Related to This Episode:

• Kristi Faltorusso on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristiserrano/ 
• KristiFaltorusso.com: https://www.kristifaltorusso.com/ 
• ClientSuccess: https://www.clientsuccess.com/

See or Hear More Conversations on Chief Evangelist with Ethan Beute:

• YouTube: https://youtu.be/KUpe3_b-0iI 
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4LkQCwmhoI02iH7uvRXHAH?si=tGHxvFiySOOvLxJZ5Kjp6A 
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/033-kristi-faltorusso-on-customer-success-evangelism/id1652687400?i=1000624724247 
• Chief Evangelist: https://www.podpage.com/chief-evangelist-with-ethan-beute/033-kristi-faltorusso-on-customer-success-evangelism-from-the-outside-in/ 

Chief Evangelist is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/