In this episode, Dannah Vaughan joins me for a grounded conversation about customer success, post-sales execution, and the real cost of losing the human touch in an increasingly automated world.

We explore why onboarding has improved while support continues to fail customers, how health scores should guide curiosity rather than dictate decisions, and why legacy customers demand real relationships, not automation. We also talk candidly about short CS leadership tenures, layoffs in tech, and the resilience required to keep building when the rules keep changing.

This is a practical, human-first look at what actually drives retention and expansion when tools, dashboards, and AI can only take you so far.

01:08 — Introduction

03:35 — Where post-sales promises meet reality

05:46 — Telecom lessons and the disappearing human

07:34 — The reality of AI, Automation, and the human element

13:37 — Where we really are with AI, is it a "toddler?"

17:56 — Dashboards, health scores, and seeing risk sooner

29:21 — Customer Success under CROs and what gets undervalued

35:59 — The avocado rotary phone and technology that still works!

39:54 — Career myth debunking

41:31 — Does It Hold Water?

45:54 — Chip Shots

Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It―Unlock Your Persuasion Potential in Professional and Personal Life by Chris Voss

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dannahvaughan/

Website: https://rebelsofSaaS.com

Also mentioned on the show:

Podcast: Rebels of SaaS

🔗 Connect with Gary Marra:

· LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-marra/

· Marra CX Hub: https://marracxhub.com/

· YouTube: YCYS YouTube Page

📣 🎧 Please Listen & Subscribe

💡 Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review if you enjoyed the episode!

👉 Follow Your Customer, Your Success for more insights on customer experience, leadership, and business strategy.

Want to be a guest on Your Customer, Your Success?

Send Gary Marra a message on PodMatch here:

https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1726154102094403cb5558fc4

#CX #CustomerSuccess #ClientExperience #Leadership #FractionalLeadership #GrowthStrategy #TeamAlignment #Podcast #BusinessLeadership #CustomerExperience

Chelsey Reynolds joins Your Customer, Your Success for a practical conversation about what it really takes to build growth that lasts.

Drawing on her experience leading sales, marketing, and customer success teams through rapid scale, Chelsey breaks down why growth stalls when teams operate in silos, how fear-based leadership quietly undermines execution, and where sales handoffs most often go wrong. We talk candidly about fractional leadership, setting expectations that survive the sale, capturing why customers actually buy, and why alignment matters more than any single metric or tool.

This episode is for founders and leaders who want clarity instead of chaos and results that don’t come at the expense of their teams or their customers.

01:11 — Intro and welcome to the show

03:07 — What it’s really like leaving a W2 role to go fractional

04:45 — Why sales, marketing, and customer success struggle to work together

05:54 — Growth targets, alignment, and what leaders overlook

07:17 — How Sales (unintentionally) can make Customer Success harder

08:50 — When customer success should be pulled into the sales process

12:38 — Setting expectations that survive the handoff

16:49 — Why teams struggle with basic handoff discipline

18:13 — Capturing why customers buy and why it gets lost post-sale

19:53 — CRM realities and why tools don’t solve misalignment

21:28 — The real danger of organizational silos

23:58 — Fear-based leadership and internal competition

29:15 — How leaders unintentionally spread fear during change

31:58 — Recognizing fear-based leadership in yourself and change management

33:15 — Burnout as the wake-up call

35:01 —Where do you look first when growth feels harder than it should?

38:17 — Does It Hold Water?

41:36 — Chip Shots

The Perfectionist’s Guide to Losing Control by Katherine Morgan Schafler

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelsey-reynolds-growth-expert/

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/heychelseyhere/

TikTok:   https://www.tiktok.com/@heychelseyhere

Threads: https://www.threads.com/@heychelseyhere

Substack:  https://chelseyreynolds.substack.com/

Website:  https://growthdepartment.com

🔗 Connect with Gary Marra:

·       LinkedIn:                    https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-marra/

·       Marra CX Hub:           https://marracxhub.com/

·       YouTube:                    YCYS YouTube Page

📣 🎧 Please Listen & Subscribe

💡 Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review if you enjoyed the episode!

👉 Follow Your Customer, Your Success for more insights on customer experience, leadership, and business strategy.

Want to be a guest on Your Customer, Your Success? 

Send Gary Marra a message on PodMatch here: 

https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1726154102094403cb5558fc4

#CX #CustomerSuccess #ClientExperience #Leadership #FractionalLeadership #GrowthStrategy #TeamAlignment #Podcast #BusinessLeadership #CustomerExperience

This episode is Part 2 of the 1-Year Anniversary Retrospective for Your Customer, Your Success.

Part 1 focused on the fun, signature segments of the show. This episode highlights the best conversations and lessonsfrom year one — featuring Customer Experience leaders, Customer Success leaders, and leadership experts who shared thoughtful, practical perspectives.

It’s a reflective, easy listen designed for the holiday break — and a look ahead to year two.

Highlights and perspectives from CX leaders on trust, metrics, storytelling, technology, and where CX is headed next.

Featured guests:

1. Rick Denton
2. Sean Albertson
3. Katie Stabler
4. Stacy Sherman
5. Dave Seaton
6. Natasha Evans
7. Andrew Carothers
8. Chris Hood
9. Jean Pierre Dumas

Practical lessons from Customer Success leaders on customer behavior, health scores, expansion, internal alignment, and supporting CSMs.

Featured guests:

1. Kristi Faltorusso
2. Alon Ahronberg
3. Amber Munroe
4. Rachel Provan
5. Josh Nutter
6. Alison Dixon
7. Alyssa Nolte

Leadership reflections on change, culture, decision-making, accountability, balance, and what effective leadership looks like today.

Featured guests:

1. Tim McCleary
2. Caroline Baird
3. Matt Feiner
4. Chris Gillen
5. Shruti Joshi
6. Bill Kasko
7. Samanda Morales
8. Francie Jain
9. Kelly Schucknecht
10. Mark Stern
11. Simona Costantini

Thank you to every guest who shared their perspective and every listener who supported the show this past year.

If this episode made you pause, smile, or rethink something, consider sharing it with someone who might appreciate it too!

·       LinkedIn:                    https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-marra/

·       Marra CX Hub:           https://marracxhub.com/

·       YouTube:                    YCYS YouTube Page

💡 Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review if you enjoyed the episode!

👉 Follow Your Customer, Your Success for more insights on customer experience, leadership, and business strategy.

Send Gary Marra a message on PodMatch here: 

https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1726154102094403cb5558fc4

This episode is Part 1 of our 1-Year Anniversary Retrospective for Your Customer, Your Success.

Designed as a lighter, holiday-friendly listen, this episode highlights two of the show’s most popular and revealing segments: Chip Shots and Does It Hold Water?

While informal by design, these segments consistently delivered some of the most honest, thoughtful, and memorable moments of the past year.

This episode is about reflection, clarity, and having a little fun while looking back.

We kick off the retrospective with highlights from Chip Shots, where quick questions led to some of the most revealing insights of the year.

Featured moments include:

• Early career failures that still shape leadership today
• Unconventional lessons learned the hard way
• A standout answer to “Which leader would you shadow?”
• Two memorable “call an audible” moments that paid off
• A clear winner from the book recommendation question that sparked one of the show’s most popular resources

Guests featured in this segment include:

Kristi Faltorusso, Katie Stabler, Alyssa Nolte, Tim McCleary, Chris Gillen, Matt Feiner, Andrew Carothers, Jean Pierre Dumas, Rick Denton, and Kris Wauters.

Inspired by the famous courtroom scene in My Cousin Vinny, Does It Hold Water? became the show’s way of slowing down and pressure-testing ideas that sound good but deserve a closer look.

In this retrospective:

• We revisit the strongest runner-up answers that helped define the segment
• Then crown two co-winners, whose responses were head and shoulders above the rest!

Featured voices include:

Rick Denton, Kristi Faltorusso, Kris Wauters, Andrew Carothers, Dave Seaton, Chris Hood, Alyssa Nolte and Simona Costantini.

This episode captures what made the first year of the show special:

• Honest conversations
• Willingness to challenge assumptions
• Humor, humility, and clarity
• And ideas that don’t just sound good...they hold water :)

In Part 2 of the retrospective, we revisit highlights from the traditional interview portions of the show, with:

• CX leaders
• Customer Success leaders
• Leadership experts

Thank you to every guest who shared their perspective and every listener who supported the show this past year.

If this episode made you pause, smile, or rethink something, consider sharing it with someone who might appreciate it too!

·       LinkedIn:                    https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-marra/

·       Marra CX Hub:           https://marracxhub.com/

·       YouTube:                    YCYS YouTube Page

💡 Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review if you enjoyed the episode!

👉 Follow Your Customer, Your Success for more insights on customer experience, leadership, and business strategy.

Send Gary Marra a message on PodMatch here: 

https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1726154102094403cb5558fc4

#CX #CustomerSuccess #ClientExperience #Leadership #AI #ArtificialIntelligence

Episode 36: Job Security, AI, and What Job Candidates Need to Understand Now with Justin Dixon

For years, job seekers were told the same story: big companies are safe, startups are risky, and loyalty will protect you. That story no longer holds up.

In this episode of Your Customer, Your Success, I’m joined by Justin Dixon, founder of Hire Tomorrow and host of the Growth Capital Podcast, to talk about what’s really happening in today’s job market. We break down why layoffs at large corporations are happening with little warning, why smaller companies and PE-backed firms can actually offer more visibility and career stability, and how candidates need to rethink job security in 2026.

We discuss the realities of modern job search strategy, including how applicant tracking systems (ATS) filter resumes, why most resumes never reach a hiring manager, and how to build an ATS-friendly resume that still tells your story. Justin shares why every candidate should have two resumes — one for online applications and one for networking and interviews — and how recruiters actually scan resumes in seconds, not minutes.

We also get into how AI in recruiting is reshaping hiring, from resume screening and candidate scoring to AI-driven interviews and automated applications. We talk honestly about what AI is really doing in hiring, where it helps, where it creates friction, and why candidates need to focus more on networking, referrals, and direct outreach than mass-applying online.

If you’re preparing for job interviews, navigating a layoff, considering a move from a large company to a startup, or trying to understand how private equity, return-to-office mandates, and AI are changing the hiring landscape, this episode is a practical guide. No hype. No shortcuts. Just clear thinking about how to search for a job smarter, position yourself better, and avoid the black hole of modern hiring.

Topics Covered:

• Job search strategy in today’s market
• Corporate layoffs vs startups and job security
• ATS resumes and applicant tracking systems
• AI in recruiting and AI interviews
• Networking vs mass applying
• Hiring manager mistakes and candidate experience
• Job searching through the holidays

Audio Chapters

01:21 – Who Is Justin Dixon

03:23 – Why Big Companies Are No Longer “Safe”

05:44 – Are Layoffs Really Because of AI

07:36 – Is AI Actually Replacing Jobs

09:24 – Return to Office and Shrinking the Talent Pool

12:43 – Why Smaller Companies Can Be Safer

17:43 – How Job Search Has Changed

18:52 – The ATS Resume Reality

21:51 – How Recruiters Really Read Resumes

23:58 – Bots, Fake Applicants, and Resume Flooding

25:41 – Why Networking Beats Applying Online

29:29 – Building Visibility Without Forcing It

32:48 – What Hiring Managers Get Wrong

38:25 – AI Interviews and Candidate Experience

40:22 – Job Searching Through the Holidays

42:06 – Does It Hold Water?

45:44 – Chip Shots

Book Recommendation

Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki

Connect with Justin

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmdixon15/

Email: [email protected]

Website www.HireTomorrow.com

🔗 Connect with Gary Marra:

·       LinkedIn:                    https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-marra/

·       Marra CX Hub:           https://marracxhub.com/

·       YouTube:                    YCYS YouTube Page

📣 🎧 Please Listen & Subscribe

💡 Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review if you enjoyed the episode!

👉 Follow Your Customer, Your Success for more insights on customer experience, leadership, and business strategy.

Want to be a guest on Your Customer, Your Success? 

Send Gary Marra a message on PodMatch here: 

https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1726154102094403cb5558fc4

#CX #CustomerSuccess #ClientExperience #Leadership #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #JobSearch #Recruiting #TalentAcquistion #JobSearchTips

In this episode of Your Customer, Your Success, Gary sits down with Suzanne Smith, a nationally recognized voice on social impact and corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Suzanne is the founder and CEO of Social Impact Architects, creator of the Social Trendspotter blog, a TEDx speaker, and a professor of social entrepreneurship, CSR, and ethical leadership at UT Austin and Duke. Her world lives at the intersection of government, policy, and business, and she spends her days helping organizations design solutions that balance purpose and performance.

Gary and Suzanne breakdown:

• Why CSR isn’t just a big-company game
• How small businesses can start with low-cost, high-impact community initiatives
• The evolution from “checkbook philanthropy” to embedded, strategy-level CSR
• What happens when brands get CSR spectacularly wrong 
• How CSR ties directly to customer loyalty, employee engagement, and talent attraction
• Why Gen Z is forcing companies to move from “pretty words” to “receipts”

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• A practical 4C framework for CSR
• How a franchise oil-change shop turned in-kind support for an after-school van into:
• Why silence on key issues can be as damaging as tone-deaf campaigns
• How CSR is increasingly being owned by HR and impact leaders, not just marketing
• Why Gen Z will sometimes trade a bit of pay for purpose and what that tells us about employer brand

They wrap with Gary’s classic “Does It Hold Water?” segment on whether CSR is “too risky” in today’s polarized climate, plus Chip Shots on behavioral psychology, Oprah, LinkedIn vs. Facebook, and the professional risks that pay off! Check it out!

01:15 Intro

03:01 Why Small Businesses Misunderstand CSR

04:31 A Great Small Business Story That Changed Everything

09:36 Suzanne's Four C's

12:32 CSR Across Every Size of Organization

14:52 Where CSR Initiatives Start to Go Wrong

19:58 How CSR Shapes Customer and Employee Experience

22:14 CSR and Employee Retention

24:48 Why Gen Z employee say they will take a pay cut

26:58 Consistency and CSR

30:32 How Any Business Can Start Small and Make an Impact

33:04 Does It Hold Water?

35:45 Chip Shots

🔗 Connect with Suzanne:

Website: www.meetsuzanne.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SocialImpactArchitects

X: https://x.com/socialtrendspot

Substack: https://socialtrendspot.substack.com

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/company/social-impact-architects and https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzannesmithtx

TEDx “Everyone is a Changemaker”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJOonQUXL0E

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/socialtrendspot

Social Customer Care, Social Media ROI, CX Strategy, Customer Experience, Social Listening, Tagging & Labeling, AI in CX, Emotional Marketing, B2B Voice, Brooke Sellas, PodMatch

·       LinkedIn:                     https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-marra/

·       Marra CX Hub:           https://marracxhub.com/

·       YouTube:                     YCYS YouTube Page

💡 Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review if you enjoyed the episode!

👉 Follow Your Customer, Your Success for more insights on customer experience, leadership, and business strategy.

Send Gary Marra a message on PodMatch here: 

https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1726154102094403cb5558fc4

#CX #CustomerExperience #CustomerSuccess #ContactCenter #EX #Leadership #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #EmployeeExperience #SocialMediaCustomerCare

In this Thanksgiving solo episode, Gary breaks down one of the most fundamental concepts in the culinary world — mise en place (“everything in its place”) — and shows how it offers a powerful operating principle for customer experience, client success, and leadership.

Using stories from busy kitchens, real-world onboarding challenges, and decades of experience working with complex institutional clients, Gary explores why:

• preparation is a key to CX strategy
• inconsistency comes from lack of readiness
• teams are overwhelmed because processes are underprepared
• customers can feel your chaos even if they never see it

Whether you’re a CX leader, a founder, a client-facing professional, or simply trying to bring more order to the chaos in your work, this episode gives you a practical and memorable framework.

How a restaurant’s prep work translates directly to onboarding, handoffs, and client communication.

It’s (almost) never talent. It’s almost always preparation.

Preparation reduces chaos, risk, and escalations as it multiplies trust.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garymarra

Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7pTZksMmQPwZJSeryfK5Xm

Social Media Customer Care: Conversations That Drive CX ROI — with Brooke B. Sellas

Guest: Brooke B. Sellas — Founder & CEO of B Squared Media, author of Conversations That Connect, LinkedIn Learning instructor, adjunct lecturer, keynote speaker, and host of the Social Media CX Podcast.

In this episode, Gary sits down with Brooke B. Sellas to discuss how conversation-led social media customer care drives real CX outcomes—retention, loyalty, and revenue.

Brooke explains why most brands are stuck in “content factory mode,” how to shift toward talk-worthy content that evokes emotion, and how social conversations can uncover frustration, intent, and purchase signals long before customers enter a sales funnel.

You’ll learn why silence is the true churn indicator, what brands get wrong about AI and automation, and how B Squared Media uses social listening, tagging, labeling, and promo codes to attribute real dollars to social customer care.

• Why content is the vehicle but emotion is the destination
• Conversation-led social care vs. reactive contact center support
• How enterprise brands use social listening to catch “in the wild” buying signals
• Tagging & labeling: gain/retain, sentiment, product issues, and intent
• How promo codes tie sales directly to social care
• Why silence—not complaints—is the biggest churn risk
• Where AI actually helps (sorting, tagging, FAQs) vs. where it hurts (EQ moments)
• Why personality in B2B is a differentiator, not unprofessional
• The metrics that matter most: response time, response rate, and conversation volume

1. Start tagging all conversations as acquisition (gain) or retention (retain).
2. Shift content strategy from posting to sparking emotional, talk-worthy reactions.
3. Use AI for IQ tasks (sorting, workflows) but keep humans front and center for real connection.

CHAPTERS:

00:50 Intro

03:12 Conversations > Content

04:30 Feeding The Content Monster

05:55 Content is the Vehicle, Emotion is the Destination

07:42 Being Heard

10:36 What B-Squared Media Actually Does

11:54. Why Contact Centers Struggle with Social

14:48 Social Listening in the Wild

17:03 Tools: Tagging, Labeling & Intent Signals

20:58 The "ROI Question"

24:07 Fixing KPIs & Conversation Metrics

28:52 How AI Fits into Social Media Customer Care

32:26 Automation Fails & Hype Cycles

38:48 Main Segment Closer: How to be more Conversational

39:43 Does It Hold Water?

43:42 Chip Shots

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brookebsellas/
• B Squared Media: https://bsquared.media
• Book: Conversations That Connect
• Social Media CX Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/social-media-cx-podcast

Social Customer Care, Social Media ROI, CX Strategy, Customer Experience, Social Listening, Tagging & Labeling, AI in CX, Emotional Marketing, B2B Voice, Brooke Sellas, PodMatch

·       LinkedIn:                    https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-marra/

·       Marra CX Hub:           https://marracxhub.com/

·       YouTube:                    YCYS YouTube Page

💡 Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review if you enjoyed the episode!

👉 Follow Your Customer, Your Success for more insights on customer experience, leadership, and business strategy.

Send Gary Marra a message on PodMatch here: 

https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1726154102094403cb5558fc4

#CX #CustomerExperience #CustomerSuccess #ContactCenter #EX #Leadership #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #EmployeeExperience #SocialMediaCustomerCare

Guest: JP Dumas, CX & Retention Strategist, Founder of CX & Growth Strategies LLC, and Partner at CX on the Rocks

Most companies don’t lose customers in one big splash...they lose them in many small, inconsistent ones. In this episode of Your Customer, Your Success, Gary Marra sits down with JP Dumas to talk about what’s really broken in customer experience and how to fix it without turning your business upside down.

From AI hype vs. human truth to retention as a day-one discipline, this is a straight-up, practical conversation about making CX a real economic engine for your business and your success!

• Why CX isn’t just support—it’s your brand’s reputation when you’re not in the room.
• The true role of the contact center as the front porch and dashboard of your company.
• How pragmatic AI can help—but not replace—the human connection.
• Why retention starts on day one, not at renewal.
• What happens when you chase metrics instead of meaning (hello, NPS addiction).
• How employee enthusiasm sets the ceiling for customer experience.
• Why “fine” customers are more dangerous than the haters.
• What happens when companies actually make it right—and how that drives loyalty.
• The power of culture, pride, and authenticity in the customer journey.
• The future of CX: predictive analytics, sentiment, and simplicity that serves people first.

1. Defining CX correctly
2. Valuing the Contact Center
3. Balancing AI and Humanity
4. Retention as a Continuous Process
5. From Vanity Metrics to Business Outcomes
6. EX Before CX
7. Handoffs and Context
8. Survey Overreliance
9. Owning Issues (and Using Them Well)
10. Culture as Brand
11. BONUS: It's Gotta Be The Shoes

01:06 – 🎬 Intro: Welcome to Your Customer, Your Success with JP Dumas

02:18 – 💡 Why does CX matter?

03:47 – ☎️ Why do contact centers still matter in the age of AI?

09:47 – 💰 Viewing CX as an economic engine, not a soft skill

11:51 – 🔁 What retention really means

14:15 – 👥 Why is the employee experience so critical to customer experience?

18:44 – 🧭 What distinguishes a CX-minded company from one that’s just customer- friendly?

20:17 Metrics Myopia, Virtuos Flywheel

21:34 – 🧠 What are you and the CX on the Rocks collective doing to help fix these issues?

33:54 - Do They Really Get CX?

34:23 – ⚖️ Segment: Does It Hold Water?

38:16 – 👟 Segment: Chip Shots

Book: Failing Forward by John C. Maxwell

Leader to Shadow: Nike CEO Elliot Hill — “Sometimes your manager gives you the title, but the people give you the leadership.”

Sneaker Rotation: 

• Air Jordan 1 “Chicago”
• Air Jordan 3 “Black Cement”
• Air Jordan 3 “White Cement” 
• Air Jordan 4 “Bred/Black Cement” 
• Air Jordan 11 

Presentation-day / suit picks:

• Air Jordan 11 “72–10”
• Air Jordan 11 “Bred”
• Air Jordan 11 “Jubilee”
• Air Jordan 11 “Cap and Gown”

JP’s CONTACT INFORMATION:

EMAIL: [email protected]                       

WEBSITE: www.cxgrowthstrategies.com      

LINKEDIN: www.linkedin.com/in/jpdumas1  

SOCIAL MEDIA: https://www.instagram.com/j.p.dumas?igsh=MTJ3NmJpMDd3dW5wdg%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

·       LinkedIn:                    https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-marra/

·       Marra CX Hub:           https://marracxhub.com/

·       YouTube:                    YCYS YouTube Page

💡 Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review if you enjoyed the episode!

👉 Follow Your Customer, Your Success for more insights on customer experience, leadership, and business strategy.

Send Gary Marra a message on PodMatch here: 

https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1726154102094403cb5558fc4

#CX #CustomerExperience #CustomerSuccess #ContactCenter #EX #Leadership #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #EmployeeExperience

Guest: Alon Ahronberg, Vice President of Customer Success at Atera

In this episode, Gary Marra talks with Alon Ahronberg about how he is applying artificial intelligence to help reshape Customer Success at Atera. Alon explains why his team treats AI not as a cost-cutting tool but as a way to create time for deeper client work. He outlines a six-pillar framework for applying AI across efficiency, data, adoption, and personalization, and describes the operational and security challenges of building what he calls the “CSM cockpit.”

The discussion covers practical ways to measure efficiency gains, avoid automating for its own sake, and use AI to strengthen, not replace, human judgment. They also examine health-score complexity, the balance between automation and empathy, and how to define clear goals before implementing AI projects.

• AI should not be implemented without a clear vision.
• Customer success teams must focus on efficiency and strategic planning.
• Improvisation is a key skill for customer success managers.
• AI can free up time for CSMs to focus on client relationships.
• Measuring customer relationships is crucial for success.

00:00 Introduction

10:59 Building a Customer Success Team That Works

15:21 What Does a Clear AI Vision Look Like for CS Leaders?

18:16 How AI Is Changing the CSM Role

21:55 The Six-Pillar Framework for AI in Customer Success

30:06 The CSM Cockpit Challenge

32:22 Measuring Efficiency and Time Savings

35:06 The Health Score Debate

39:07 Balancing Short-Term Wins and Long-Term Strategy

41:01 Measuring AI’s Impact on Customer Relationships

42:33 Advice for CS Leaders Starting Their AI Journey

43:56 Does It Hold Water?

46:23 Chip Shots

51:52 Wrap-Up

Alon’s Pick:   Infinite Game, by Simon Sinek

LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/alon-ahronberg/

website:  https://www.atera.com/

·       LinkedIn:                    https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-marra/

·       Marra CX Hub:           https://marracxhub.com/

·       YouTube:                    YCYS YouTube Page

💡 Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review if you enjoyed the episode!

👉 Follow Your Customer, Your Success for more insights on customer experience, leadership, and business strategy.

Send Gary Marra a message on PodMatch here: 

https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1726154102094403cb5558fc4

#CX #CustomerSuccess #ClientExperience #Leadership #AI #ArtificialIntelligence