When a customer complains, most people rush to explain, defend, or panic.

That’s how small issues turn into big frustrations and even churn.

Here’s the framework I teach every customer-facing professional to turn these situations around: L.A.Y.E.R.

- Listen (don’t interrupt)

- Acknowledge (name the pain and the impact)

- Explore (ask what “success” looks like)

- Respond (take ownership, set an update time, and advocate internally)

Next time a customer is in front of you and things have gone wrong: use L.A.Y.E.R. and watch the whole conversation change.

In this episode of Growth Pills, I unpack three shifts that are quietly breaking the old CS model.1 - Products are no longer selling features. They are delivering outcomes, fast. AI sets a new bar for time-to-value and customers expect results, not potential.2- Pricing is moving from access to usage. Consumption models force proof, not promises, and make renewals evidence-led in a world where switching is easy.3- And customers are no longer learning from your team. They are learning from AI, arriving smarter, faster, and expecting deeply relevant guidance.Ignore these shifts and CS becomes irrelevant.Master them and it becomes your strongest growth engine.

Measuring customer value is hard. That’s exactly why 56% of companies still avoid it.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth: not measuring value is even harder.

No evidence at renewal.

No clear signal on how your customer is really tracking.

No way to onboard a new decision maker with confidence.

In Customer Success, there’s no easy path. There’s only a choice between two types of hard.

In this Growth Pill, I break down why the teams that win long term choose the hard that compounds.

Hope is not a strategy. Data is.

Too many CSMs fall into the same trap. They build a brilliant relationship with one person inside the customer’s organisation, only to see everything fall apart the moment that person leaves. I’ve watched this play out for a decade and it still catches teams off guard.

In this Growth Pill, I break down how to turn a fragile single-threaded relationship into a strong multi-threaded one that protects your renewal and strengthens your influence inside the account.

You’ll learn:
• Why one strong relationship is never enough• How to use your existing champion to expand your reach• How to elevate conversations from tasks to value• Why a ready-to-run value story is your insurance policy

Follow for more fast, practical guidance to grow, retain and scale.

Most CS teams aren’t failing at AI because the tech is bad.

They’re failing because their data is a mess.

For years, CSMs held everything together.

Missing fields? Call someone.

Conflicting info? Chase three teams.

Weird behaviour? Dig through five systems.

Humans could patch it. AI cannot.

AI uses the data you have, as is.Messy data means messy outcomes.

The twist?

AI is also the fastest way to clean the chaos. If your AI isn’t delivering value, the first thing to fix is your data.

Most companies say they want to scale Customer Success.What they actually do is strip it of impact.In this Growth Pill, I call out the real reason scaled CS lags high touch by 5 to 10 retention points.Most teams still have no idea what their customers are trying to achieve.No goals. No progress tracking. No ability to tailor anything that moves the needle.The fix is straightforward:• Know the goal• Track it in product• Use AI to guide every customer individuallyIf CS is going to scale without bleeding retention, this is how we need to do it.

I used to believe success came from getting others to change — their mindset, their behaviour, their way of working.

But here’s the truth: you can’t change anyone. You can only change yourself.

How you show up.

How you communicate.

How you collaborate.

In this Growth Pill, I share why the quickest path to better results starts with changing you.

When customers need help, they’re not opening your help centre or watching your tutorials.

They’re asking ChatGPT.

And if your content isn’t AI Engine Optimised (AEO), AI won’t find it, or worse, it’ll make things up.

In this Growth Pill, I share how to make your content ready for the AI era so AI can find, understand, and trust it.

Because the new front line of customer education isn’t your team, it’s AI.

🎧 Learn how to make sure it teaches customers your story, not someone else’s.

Let's cut through the noise about AI “replacing” Customer Success.

The truth? AI will make CS teams more valuable than ever.

Here’s why: CS owns the value realisation journey, guides customers through complex change, and in a world where pricing is tied to usage, CS becomes the heartbeat of revenue.

If anything, the rise of AI is forcing CS to evolve from support to strategy, and that’s exactly where it belongs.

Too many CS leaders confuse measuring impact with tracking execution.

In this Growth Pill, Daphne breaks down why the two are completely different and why mastering both is the key to running a high-performing CS organisation.

You’ll learn:
💡 How to connect CS work directly to company outcomes (think GRR, NRR, and customer value delivered)📊 What “tracking execution” really means and how top CS teams do it🔥 Why activity metrics aren’t vanity metrics when tied to impact

Because great CS teams don’t just work hard, they know exactly which work drives results.