Customer Strategy Podcast

In this episode of the Customer Strategy Podcast, I talk with Joe Schmitt, the vice president of customer success at Upkeep Maintenance Management.

Joe and I got into a really interesting conversation, as they have two primary tiers that their customers are on - a high-touch model and a low-touch model.

We took a look at what the gold standard is that they deliver at the high-touch level, and then applied that to the low-touch level and came up with some really interesting takeaways.

Joe also committed to building a strategy for that low-touch model going forward.

Upkeep Maintenance Management is a fast-growing Los Angeles based startup, focusing on providing a world-class SaaS solution to the hard-working, blue-collar workers across the world.

As always, I really think you're going to enjoy this episode.

In this episode of the Customer Strategy Podcast, I talk with my good friend Gray Skinner, the CEO of MasterBorn Software.

MasterBorn Software is a development outsourcing firm based in Poland that serves customers in Silicon Valley.

Gray and I first met several years ago when he moved to Bend, Oregon, to become a professional triathlete. He ended up becoming the CEO of a startup called Droplr, which he sold and is now the CEO of MasterBorn Software.

The number one question on Gray's mind when it comes to his customer strategy is scale. The team at Masterborn is currently made up of 15 to 20 people, and he's looking to grow that to 50 or even 100 in the next six to 12 months, as there's a tremendous demand for the service that they provide.

On this episode, we talked a lot about using the “fresh start” in the customer strategy method framework, as a way to take what Gray knows in his head and is doing a really good job of with his clients, but is not scalable nor systematized, broke that down and came up with the most important pieces that they need to focus on, in something called a client brief.

I think you're going to find the topic interesting, and Gray is just a fascinating individual, incredibly accomplished professional triathlete, 2-time CEO, and just a wonderful friend.

I really think you're going to enjoy this episode.

What we talk about

- Why and how he sold Doplr.

- About MasterBorn Software and the kinds of clients they serve.

- The single biggest customer strategy challenge at MasterBorn Software.

- Things they could do down the line that would help alleviate bottlenecks in the company.

In this episode of the Customer Strategy Podcast, I talk with Magnus Hillestad, the CEO & co-founder of Sanity.io.

Sanity is a platform for structured content. It comes with an open-source editing environment called Sanity Studio that you can customize with JavaScript and a real-time hosted data store.

They're essentially a developer tool that enables developers to help their organizations deal with content in a better way.

We got into a really interesting conversation around the role of customer success inside a development-focused organization that has a “bottoms up” model.

In other words, they currently sell their tools to developers, while also building a community of thousands of developers, and are trying to figure out the real role that customer success is going to play.

Magnus as the CEO is pondering these questions, looking at how to make the most effective use out of the customer success function in order to serve the needs of his customers and ultimately that of his company.

I really think you're going to enjoy this episode.

In this episode of the Customer Strategy Podcast, I talk with Coleen Bachi, the Customer Success Lead at Hotjar.

Coleen and I had a fascinating conversation around prioritization.

Hotjar operates in a one-to-many world, and there are so many different programs and areas that Coleen and her colleagues can focus on. However, she wasn't sure where the biggest bang for their buck would come from and how they should plan for 2020.

So we dug into Hotjar’s customer strategy, diagnosed what they are currently doing, and recommended areas they could focus on that would make the most impact in the future.

We got to a great place at the end, where Coleen had a clear idea of what to do next and felt confident about what she was going to do moving forward.

I think you're going to enjoy this episode.

In this episode of the Customer Strategy Podcast, I'm talking with Angela Carmack, Director of Customer Success at Journeyfront.

Journeyfront uses hiring data and machine learning to accurately predict candidate performance and retention. They offer a predictive hiring platform that helps teams make better hiring decisions through easily collecting, tracking, and analyzing hiring data.

What we talk about

- The appropriate level and cadence to engage with larger enterprise type clients.

- How to use scalable customer education in their marketing, while adding a bit of personal touch.

- How she can comfortably approach existing customers and change the direction of engagement she has with them.

In this episode of the Customer Strategy Podcast, I'm talking with John Bosch, Director of customer success at HqO.

John and I get into a lot of really interesting topics because what he's dealing with is a B2B2C environment with his customers. And oftentimes, there are multiple companies involved with one individual customer.

What we talk about

- Where HqO could focus their attention on.

- What programs they need to put in place.

- How they could serve their customers better.

- How to forecast risk when there are so many different parties involved.

- The QBR process and how to take things back up to a strategic level.

HqO is a commercial real estate technology company that delivers an award-winning platform and mobile app, connecting tenant employees to their communities in and around their building and empowering them with technology to control their workday.

What's really interesting about HqO is that they have a big hand in the changes that are happening in commercial real estate.

In this episode of the Customer Strategy Podcast, I talk about what customer strategy is and why it’s important to have one for your business.

Deep down, we all want to be led. We want to have a prescriptive experience from an expert. We want someone who knows more about their functional area than we do, to tell us what we need to do that will get us where we ultimately want to go.

But the reality is that the vast majority of businesses are failing to do this when it comes to working with their customers, and this ultimately leads to customer churn.

What I talk about

- What Customer Success strategy is and why you need one for your business.

- What the Customer Strategy Method is.

- The goal of the Customer Strategy podcast.

- How to become a guest on the show and much, much more.