Customer Success Leader

Scaling a customer success gameplan is unique to every organization. And, in order to offer customers the most value, it’s essential to keep customer success managers from becoming overwhelmed and overworked.

Megan Costello, Director of Client Success at UpMetrics, shares her three methods for identifying overworked CSMs, as well as…

- Her views on the evolution of CS

- Her mental model for helping customers find value

- The importance of diversity in the CS role

- The best CS advice she’s ever received

For more info, check out customersuccessleader.com or send a message to [email protected]. To hear other interviews like this one, subscribe to Customer Success Leader on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

In almost any corporate office you walk into, there’ll be some sort of propaganda claiming their dedication to customer service.

But real customer success comes from something deeper, more ingrained.

Tanya Strauss, Director of Customer Success Strategy & Operations at ServiceNow, joins Eric in this episode to discuss why CS should be a discipline in your organization — not just a poster on a wall.

Plus, they discuss…

- How to maintain great CS outside of the office

- Why CSMs should be more honest & proactive with customers

- Advice for people just getting into CS

For more info, check out customersuccessleader.com or send a message to [email protected]. To hear other interviews like this one, subscribe to Customer Success Leader on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Lots of times we get caught up in automating every part of the customer experience. Sure, technology can make things more efficient.

But be careful not to scale the human out of the experience.

The Founder & CEO of ClientSuccess, Dave Blake, joins Eric on this episode to discuss…

- How to offer and scale human-first experiences

- Pitfalls to look out for when scaling a human-first experience

- Why it’s important to balance relationships with results

For more info, check out customersuccessleader.com or send a message to [email protected]. To hear other interviews like this one, subscribe to Customer Success Leader on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Product knowledge is important, it’s true. What’s equally — maybe even more — important than knowing your product?

Knowing your customer’s vertical.

In this episode, Eric sits down with Megan Piccininni, Regional VP of Customer Success at Salesforce. The two talk about…

- Why Salesforce is moving to a more specific vertical model

- How their CS teams have started to specialize in specific verticals

- Ways Salesforce educates their customers

- How Megan’s team adds value to the renewal process

For more info, check out customersuccessleader.com or send a message to [email protected]. To hear other interviews like this one, subscribe to Customer Success Leader on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

A successful customer success team always aligns with the customer — even over the business.

But you can marry customer success to business outcomes.

You just need to start with the right mission and values.

In this episode of Customer Success Leader, Eric sits down with Richard Myers, Vice President of Customer Support & Customer Success at Linode, to discuss what customer success success really looks like — and how to achieve it.

They cover:

- Why success teams are a function of support, not sales

- How to align with your customer and your business goals

- Why you should be your customer’s first choice — not their only choice

For more info, check out customersuccessleader.com or send a message to [email protected]. To hear other interviews like this one, subscribe to Customer Success Leader on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Serving your customer via your product and CS team interactions is a bit of a balancing act. There needs to be a healthy level of both.

In this episode of Customer Success Leader, Vanessa Hannay, Sr. Director of CS at Muck Rack, talks to Eric about…

- Striking a balance between customer interactions w/ the product & CS team

- Tips on establishing trusting relationships with customers

- Why losing a company isn’t losing a customer

For more info, check out customersuccessleader.com or send a message to [email protected].

To hear more interviews like this one, subscribe to Customer Success Leader on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Do you know your customer's objectives, challenges, and timeline? If not, you might be practicing random-access customer success. Your customer could feel like you're executing acts at them rather than for them.

In this episode of Customer Success Leader, Eric sits down with the Founder and CEO of DesiredPath, Kia Puhm. The two discuss...

- What failure looks like in customer experience

- Random acts of customer success vs. Holistic customer success

- Why customer mapping helps CX as well as marketing

- Moving the burden of intent from human to machine

For more info, check out customersuccessleader.com or send a message to [email protected]. To hear more interviews like this one, subscribe to Customer Success Leader on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Do you struggle with providing long-term value for skeptical customers? Mike Egan, VP of CS & Integration at BenchSci, suggests driving every single conversation and customer interaction with the outcomes most important to the individual.

In this episode of Customer Success Leader, Mike offers even more tips for winning over skeptical customers. Plus, he and Eric discuss…

- Why it’s essential to always keep customer outcomes in mind

- Obstacles he faces when working with some of the world’s top scientists

- Why it’s important to share customer successes internally, too

For more info, check out customersuccessleader.com or send a message to [email protected].

To hear more interviews like this one, subscribe to Customer Success Leader on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Who owns the customer experience? Most would say the CS team. But, in order to be truly customer-centric, it should be the entire company starting with the CEO.

In this episode of Customer Success Leader, Eric sits down with the VP of CS at Amplitude, Arjun Devgan. The two discuss…

- How to prove your value to the customer year after year

- Why Arjun breaks CS into success, services, and support

- Why the CEO needs to empower the organization to be customer-centric

- The importance of having a top-level metric

For more info, check out customersuccessleader.com or send a message to [email protected].

To hear more interviews like this one, subscribe to Customer Success Leader on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Not all great CSMs have traditional CS training. Some — like Graham Gill — transfer their skills from roles like product management to CS.

Graham, the VP of CS & Services at Accent Technologies, shares how he found his way to customer success and brought his knowledge of product with him. Plus, Eric and Graham discuss… 

- How to break down silos and build a foundation of alignment

- Why it’s important for CSMs to empathize with other roles

- How CSMs can create strong customer relationships in a pandemic

For more info, check out customersuccessleader.com or send a message to [email protected].

To hear more interviews like this one, subscribe to Customer Success Leader on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.