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  • In this season finale, our special guest is John O’Melia, CCO at Contentsquare, one of the world's leading and fastest-growing SAS digital experience analytics platforms. John describes how Customer Success works in a company destined to scale exponentially, discussing the strategies he follows and challenges he overcomes with the help of his teammates. Listen to the final episode of a second season full of lessons learned and groundbreaking perspectives.

    Jump straight into:

    (04:38) - Being the CCO of a fast-growing software company - “I take responsibility for everything post-sales. We look at implementing customers, getting them onboarded, introducing the success team and the customer success managers’ education.”

    (06:39) - What is Contentsquare's key to effectively scaling its business? - “We're able to analyze that information and really surface insights to our customers in terms of what users are doing on that website.” 

    (09:04) - How has customer success evolved to meet the challenge of that growth? - “It's like we have a train that's moving at a hundred miles an hour and we're trying to change the wheels on the train as it's hurtling down the track.”

    (13:30) - Making sure customers are truly at the heart of a company’s culture - “We have touchpoints with our customers so we can sense something's not going quite to plan before it becomes an issue and take action very early.”

    (16:55) Standardization challenges in the management of companies with different visions - “You may have a different personality in France to the UK or the US but you've got to have a common underpinning and consistent global experience”. 

    (19:03) Why CS technology matters now more than ever - “As we acquire companies, if they don't have Gainsight, then we introduce that and we roll that out and we spend a lot of time harmonizing our common identity and having a consistent methodology.”

    Resources

    Connect with John via LinkedIn

    Hosted by Adam Joseph, The Gamechanger Podcast is a show brought to you by Gainsight. For more information about all of our episodes, please visit https://www.gainsight.com/podcasts.

    This show is produced and edited by StudioPod. If you want more details on how to fully record and produce your podcast with our services, you can reach us at http://studiopodsf.com, send us an email at [email protected] or contact us through our social media channels as @studiopodsf.

  • Adopting a Customer Success methodology that’s able to scale efficiently requires a deep understanding of workflows, people, and tools capable of ensuring an empathetic experience for clients and customers. Today we have a conversation with Tom Vane, Head of Customer Success at Totaljobs, to explore more on these components and learn about the overall performance results and benefits within a complete CS strategy adaptation. Join us in this episode full of CS leadership insights and inspiring stories from Tom and his work at Totaljobs.

    Jump straight into:

    (04:44) - Time for adaptation: Realizing your company needs a CS team and plan - “A customer's decision is now based on the all-round experience they have from the moment they talk to you all the way through to that renewal conversation and rendering.”

    (10:12) - Establishing processes, workflows, and customer journey maps - “We had to look at the individual customer segments and say: What do we need to improve the experience for these customers when they're working with us on a day-to-day basis?” 

    (13:33) - Effective CS team leadership: Selecting the right skill sets and values - “You need people able to get in front of clients and articulate things, but also be able to turn internally and have those conversations with other internal teams.”

    (17:12) - The perks of dedicated CS technology implementation - “We needed something that brought all our data together and that allowed us to communicate en masse to different segments of customers. We needed that help and support to be able to scale as efficiently.”

    (21:29) - The outcomes of a complete CS strategy execution - “The impact that we've been able to have on customer sentiment and loyalty has grown 300%.”

    Resources

    Connect with Tom via LinkedIn

    Hosted by Adam Joseph, The Gamechanger Podcast is a show brought to you by Gainsight. For more information about all of our episodes, please visit https://www.gainsight.com/podcasts.

    This show is produced and edited by StudioPod. If you want more details on how to fully record and produce your podcast with our services, you can reach us at http://studiopodsf.com, send us an email at [email protected] or contact us through our social media channels as @studiopodsf.

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  • Have you tried creating your personal brand? In this episode we talk to Dana Soza, Founder and CEO at Dana Soza Customer Solutions and 2021 Top 100 Customer Success Strategist, delving into some smart alternatives to optimize the search process for an ideal profile, both for an employer and an employee. She also shares with us her life purpose, how she found it, and how it has allowed her to position herself as one of the best talents in the world of Customer Success. Listen and find out the formulas for understanding what it takes to find or become the ideal employee, and how you can match with the company that best aligns with your priorities, skills, and interests.

    Jump straight into:

    (02:09) - Dana’s backstory recognizing her life purpose - “I ended up teaching in Madrid, Spain, and that was when I realized what really lit me up in life was to make a marked difference in other people's lives.”

    (08:55) - Transforming the laws of Consumer Success into Employment Success - “I started pulling books off the shelf and I thought: how can I use the knowledge that's in here to help me stand out as an applicant while also helping those people who are trying to find a job as well?” 

    (12:40) - Dana’s solutions on how to find the right employer in the rapidly growing CS world - “I created this way-to decision matrix to whittle down what's most important to you in a company, and that will allow the research to find those companies that match what's important to you.”

    (16:55) - Tools and mechanisms to choose the right role beyond descriptions and keywords - “You can actually look at your comp plan to understand why your role exists.”

    (23:15) - Documenting your own resources is a great asset - “These are the types of engagements that you want to be able to document while you're on the job so that you can use them and talk about them in stories when you're trying to look for a new one.”

    (25:33) The benefits of automation for employees and employers - “These types of tools are automation tools to make it easier to find those potential candidates.”

    Resources

    Connect with Dana via LinkedIn

    Dana Soza | Customer Success Consulting Firm

    PWC Personal Brand Workbook

    Hosted by Adam Joseph, The Gamechanger Podcast is a show brought to you by Gainsight. For more information about all of our episodes, please visit https://www.gainsight.com/podcasts.

    This show is produced and edited by StudioPod. If you want more details on how to fully record and produce your podcast with our services, you can reach us at http://studiopodsf.com, send us an email at [email protected] or contact us through our social media channels as @studiopodsf.

  • Whether it’s a startup or a long-established enterprise, for every company culture is important because it binds the whole organization together and serves as the fuel for an active, healthy, and successful work team. In this episode, our guest Eduardo Amorim, Global Head of Customer Success at Sendcloud, shares some useful insights to understand which factors contribute in developing a CS Culture that is able to regenerate, grow and adapt to new kinds of frameworks while acknowledging and optimizing the company’s priorities.

    Jump straight into:

    (04:59) - Foundational aspects to grow a winning customer success culture - “We have three main pillars: People first, culture second and the third one is business.”

    (08:39) - How to build an evolving framework - “Making sure that the entire team will actually achieve the vision and be excited about it.” 

    (15:30) - Encouraging team members to step forward through an entrepreneurial approach - “If it works out and if it's successful, you run with it and you'll be in the forefront of the celebration.”

    (18:08) - Culture challenges within hybrid environments - “We allow ourselves the moments to bond and to get to know each other behind the results.”

    Resources

    Connect with Eduardo via LinkedIn

    Hosted by Adam Joseph, The Gamechanger Podcast is a show brought to you by Gainsight. For more information about all of our episodes, please visit https://www.gainsight.com/podcasts.

    This show is produced and edited by StudioPod. If you want more details on how to fully record and produce your podcast with our services, you can reach us at http://studiopodsf.com, send us an email at [email protected] or contact us through our social media channels as @studiopodsf.

  • Whether it is the growth in the number of people now working in CS departments or the 20,000 attendees to the most recent Pulse Everywhere event, Customer Success is only getting bigger and better. What does Customer Success look like and feel like in other models like B2B, public sector, or higher education? In today’s episode, CS strategist, influencer, and Director of Customer Success Solutions at MarketSource, Jeffrey Heckler joins us to chat about the new models of customer success, how we continue to understand customers through technology, and the effects of growing CS in day-to-day life. Listen now to what this expert has to say about the present and future of the industry!

    Jump straight into:

    (01:00) - Who is Jeffrey Heckler? A CS strategist, influencer, and runner - “We are the global leader in sales innovation processes and have been for 46 years. And so what we're doing now is bringing customer success to the enterprise fortune 500 focused.”

    (05:33) - How CS has evolved within organizations - “CS principles, philosophies and practices can modernize historic older models of sales and how they can bring out the entire customer life cycle beyond just journey mapping.”

    (08:59) - Holistically understanding your customers with technology - “You take all the data and then you pad it with storytelling. And so you draw with your visuals on the data, but then you have the real attributes of what your customer’s telling you.”

    (13:52) - New and better data and the next generation of CM’s - “It's like everything else that we see in CS, the problems become these amazing solutions for adventure.”

    (15:32) - Using CS as the glue that holds businesses together - “You can standardize some practices and processes and we can start to put some rigor and integrity in our work and then streamline and automate.”

    (17:57) - Customer Success's effects in day-to-day life - “Any frequent flyer program, any key chain where you have a gym tag on it, it's about the membership. It's about the relationship. It's about people with people.”

    Resources

    Connect with Jeff through LinkedIn

    Hosted by Adam Joseph, The Gamechanger Podcast is a show brought to you by Gainsight. For more information about all of our episodes, please visit https://www.gainsight.com/podcasts.

    This show is produced and edited by StudioPod. If you want more details on how to fully record and produce your podcast with our services, you can reach us at http://studiopodsf.com, send us an email at [email protected] or contact us through our social media channels as @studiopodsf.

  • How and when is it the right time to engage with our customers? Rule #1: Customer engagement should never have a cookie-cutter approach. In today’s episode, our host is joined by Flexential’s Senior Manager of Customer Success Operations and Senior Director of Customer Experience Strategy, Jessica Owens, and Mike Garret, to deep dive into the best practices of a powerful customer engagement strategy. Throughout this episode, Jessica and Mike share the best practices that have allowed Flexential to set themselves apart from their competitors, the importance of taking action based on feedback, and how a strategy-and-technology perspective can throw off results from one quarter to the very next. Listen now to improve your customer engagement strategy, and establish a real and strong relationship with your customers and CSMs, starting today.

    Jump straight into:

    (00:40) - Get to know our guests: Jessica Owens and Mike Garret- “I decided to continue down the operations path and have loved it ever since!” 

    (07:03) - Not your typical CS model: On Flexential’s unique framework - “Our challenge was really: How do we create value in an industry that's really commoditized?”

    (11:16) - Reaching the epitome of Customer Success through feedback and careful planning - “The CSM is going to have to be more in the driver's seat as far as how and when they're going to engage with the customer.”

    (17:25) - On Flexential’s improvement and future - “When we first kicked this off, we were only talking to 23% of our customer base in Q2. This quarter that we just closed out, we're over 75%. That is an amazing increase.”

    Resources

    Connect with Jessica through LinkedIn

    Connect with Mike through LinkedIn

    Flexential

    Hosted by Adam Joseph, The Gamechanger Podcast is a show brought to you by Gainsight. For more information about all of our episodes, please visit https://www.gainsight.com/podcasts.

    This show is produced and edited by StudioPod. If you want more details on how to fully record and produce your podcast with our services, you can reach us at http://studiopodsf.com, send us an email at [email protected] or contact us through our social media channels as @studiopodsf.

  • During the last 18 months organizations have started to focus on introducing digital customer success strategies not only for their higher-paying customers but for the long tail of smaller buyers. One of the organizations that has done a great job in bringing this program to life is Sitecore. In today’s episode Global Vice President Customer Success and Renewals at Sitecore, Lara Barnes joins us to chat about their experiences implementing this new high digital touch customer success strategy, how they got everyone on board, and the way they’ve been iterating the original plan to suit companies in a better way. Listen now and learn how this huge company with thousands of customers is revolutionizing customer success through automation without losing the human touch. 

    Jump straight into:

    (00:56) - Who is Lara Barnes and her work in CS at Sitecore - “There's been a huge investment in customer success since our CEO came in 12 months ago as he saw some of the really fantastic work that we're doing.”

    (06:47) - Developing digital touch CSM: A scale data-driven model - “The digital strategy is built on the company's ability to capture and manage and take action on data. And that's the most important piece.”

    (10:34) - An automated but also human-to-human onboarding - “It can't just be an automated onboarding, it has to be combined with human interaction, somebody calling them and taking them through an onboarding as well as providing them with different materials.”

    (13:57) - The processes and management of customers on high digital touch - “We knew how we were going to measure ourselves and what indicators we're going to have in order to understand whether we are doing a decent job for those customers.”

    (17:19) - Rethinking and pivoting the original plans - “We have a very clear understanding of what many of our customers are trying to achieve and where the gap is and what we need to fulfill.”

    (20:03) - The importance of having the right tech available - “You've just helped us accelerate that journey in using Gainsight. It's all there. It's just how you want to use it.”

    Resources

    Connect with Lara through LinkedIn

    Hosted by Adam Joseph, The Gamechanger Podcast is a show brought to you by Gainsight. For more information about all of our episodes, please visit https://www.gainsight.com/podcasts.

    This show is produced and edited by StudioPod. If you want more details on how to fully record and produce your podcast with our services, you can reach us at http://studiopodsf.com, send us an email at [email protected] or contact us through our social media channels as @studiopodsf.

  • Software AG, one of the biggest software businesses in Europe, recently faced a huge transformation that shook up its 10,000 enterprise customers in over 70 countries and almost 5,000 employees. To talk about the massive Helix Project we talked to Andrew Cutler, Strategy, Transformation, and Customer Success Leader at Software AG. Andrew shares his experience transitioning from a perpetual licensed business model to a subscription one, and how customer success played a strategic role in this change. As Andrew points out, customer success in a proper subscription model is completely vital. Listen now and learn how AG made this huge transformation and what CS strategies helped them bring everyone on board.

    Jump straight into:

    (00:56) - Andrew’s background and his role in Project Helix’s big transformation - “I spend a lot of time rolling out customer success and running that here at Software AG.”

    (05:37) - Going from a perpetual licensed business model to a subscription one - “You cannot expect too much of a variance between what your goals are as a company commercially, and what your customers are getting from the software.”

    (09:14) - How to make a case for customer success - “You need to be able to show what is the incremental impact to some kind of financial metric.”

    (11:39) - Andrew’s learnings from Project Helix - “We're on all fronts pretty far ahead of where we thought we would be right now, we did a lot of comparisons looking at other companies that have made this shift before.” 

    (13:59) - The importance of customer success in this big transformation - “Our ability to help our customers with the adoption data that they want to see in our business lines has reached full coverage of our cloud customers.”

    (17:31) - How product-led customer success can optimize your processes - “The realization over the last year is that through product-led customer success and a partnership between the teams, we actually don't need heavy-duty CSM engagement on free trials.”

    Resources

    Connect with Andrew through LinkedIn

    Hosted by Adam Joseph, The Gamechanger Podcast is a show brought to you by Gainsight. For more information about all of our episodes, please visit https://www.gainsight.com/podcasts.

    This show is produced and edited by StudioPod. If you want more details on how to fully record and produce your podcast with our services, you can reach us at http://studiopodsf.com, send us an email at [email protected] or contact us through our social media channels as @studiopodsf.

  • In the age of hyper-growth for customer success, it is vital to have solid foundations over which you can build and expand. What are the pillars that will ensure a good alignment once your team has grown to dozens or even hundreds of people? Are these foundations the same for every company? In this episode of Gainsight Gamechangers, Henry Trevelyan Thomas, Vice President of Customer Success at Tessian joins us to chat about his blog article Building a Customer Success Team: 5 Pillars of Success. Henry walks us through each one of the 5 pillars: People, customer, growth, community, and product, and tells us how to implement them and whether this model could apply to other industries. Listen now to learn how getting these five principles right can skyrocket Customer Success in your business. 

    Jump straight into:

    (00:55) - Who is Henry Trevelyan Thomas and his role at Tessian - “When I joined, we were around five people sitting around one table. And we've now scaled to around 200 people split across both the US and London.”

    (04:40) - How to find alignment between the team, leadership, and CS - “There are so many overlaps with other areas of the organization. It can be really hard to know what you should and shouldn't be doing.”

    (06:11) - Pillar # 1: People & people satisfaction - “Once every one of the team starts to realize that anyone can instigate change, everyone gets with the mindset of thinking like a business owner and a leader.”

    (10:46) - Pillar #2: Customer Health - “Customers are only as healthy as they think they are. This is where the gut feel from the CSM really needs to come in, it requires the CSM to have great empathy and awareness of what's happening in the account.”

    (14:11) - Pillar #3: Customer Growth & Onboarding - “If we nail onboarding for a customer, we have so much confidence in our product and the value that it provides that we know they're going to see value in the first couple of weeks.”

    (18:02) - Pillar #4: Community Building - “I do think the community aspect of it and being plugged into that network is super important as well in order to help them in our world and mature their customer success strategy.”

    (21:22) - Pillar #5: Product Enablement - “Our customers can no longer afford to spend hours on the phone or in a meeting trying to figure out how to do a specific thing within the product. And it's on us to figure out how we remove friction.”

    Resources

    Connect with Henry via LinkedIn

    Building a Customer Success Team: 5 Pillars of Success

    Hosted by Adam Joseph, The Gamechanger Podcast is a show brought to you by Gainsight. For more information about all of our episodes, please visit https://www.gainsight.com/podcasts.

    This show is produced and edited by StudioPod. If you want more details on how to fully record and produce your podcast with our services, you can reach us at http://studiopodsf.com, send us an email at

  • Only a few years ago there was only one role in the customer success world, Customer Success Manager. But as things have evolved and success has become more specialized, a bunch of new roles have popped up in this space. To talk about how to navigate your career in the customer success world, we invited Rachel Provan, Customer Success Director at Doodle to join us. Rachel shares her views on specialization CS roles, the most common challenges her mentees face in companies and what is the future of CSMs. Is it true that they could be the next CEO’s? Listen now to get a glimpse of the new expanding market of customer success and catch some tips on how to join it!

    Jump straight into:

    (00:55) - Who is Rachel Provan? Her role at Doodle and her favorite movie for rainy days - “What I really love about it is that the focus is not just on scheduling meetings, but really on owning your time and that's something that it's easy for us to lose during the pandemic.”

    (03:59) - An exciting time for new specialist roles in customer success - “People are finally starting to understand the value that it's not just about making your customers happy, it actually drives value and drives revenue.”

    (06:10) - Some advice for people starting out in this sector - “There are so many different paths to take and I think something that's really important to point out is that you're not limited just because you're not a generalist.”

    (08:39) - Some of the most common challenges for CS mentees in new companies - “It's rare to find companies that really understand customers' success and what it can do.”

    (13:40) - The path up the CS ladder - “It's important to show upper management the need for those roles, because a lot of the time you'll need them to be created for you, for them to even exist.”

    (16:37) - What kind of background should a CS have? - “Do the research and learn on your feet. If you're able to demonstrate that you know how to do the skill that they don't, which is customer success, I don't think it’s much of a blocker.”

    (18:50) - Are CSMs the CEOs of the future? - “The most important thing is to make sure that you like what you're doing, that you're not just doing it because you can move up and have that be the end goal.“

    Resources

    Connect with Rachel vía LinkedIn

    Hosted by Adam Joseph, The Gamechanger Podcast is a show brought to you by Gainsight. For more information about all of our episodes, please visit https://www.gainsight.com/podcasts.

    This show is produced and edited by StudioPod. If you want more details on how to fully record and produce your podcast with our services, you can reach us at http://studiopodsf.com, send us an email at [email protected] or contact us through our social media channels as @studiopodsf.

  • How can you deliver and demonstrate business value to a wide range of different personas? Everyone has a different idea of what success means and meeting every standard can be really challenging. To help us understand the “outcome gap”, our host Adam Joseph sits with  Rav Dhaliwal, Investor, and Venture Partner at Crane Venture Partners. Rav talks about how to contain the outcome gap, where it probably comes from, and shares a few resourceful solutions to implement in wobbly situations. Plus, he and Adam discuss the importance of educating the customer in orienting their goals and discuss their top three predictions for the future of Customer Success. Listen now and learn from these experts how to maintain a healthy relationship with your buyer and do your best to meet their needs and expectations! 

    Jump straight into:

    (0:51) - Who is Rav Dhaliwal: A recovering software executive  - “I often say to people that I've gone from being in the customer success business to the founder success business.”

    (03:29) - 3 of Rav’s and Adam’s predictions for customer success and some of its challenges - “I think the challenge is that what it takes to make a customer successful is highly contextual; it's going to vary from business to business and from product to service.”

    (09:16) - The “outcome gap”: Meeting the expectations of different personas in every sale - “Organizational structure and the size of organizations are essentially why we see that problem, and I think that problem gets compounded with the way that we sell.”

    (15:48) - Some wobbly situations and how to contain the outcome gap - “In order to make that awareness you have to keep reinforcing that message. And one of the best ways to reinforce that message is to be able to articulate what your solution is delivering to their business.”

    (22:26) - Do we know what they want? KPI’s and measurements of a success plan - “When a buyer or customer has something very vague or incredibly high level, sometimes you have to help them deconstruct and actually educate them on what are the metrics that matter.”

    Resources

    Connect with Rav through LinkedIn

    Hosted by Adam Joseph, The Gamechanger Podcast is a show brought to you by Gainsight. For more information about all of our episodes, please visit https://www.gainsight.com/podcasts.

    This show is produced and edited by StudioPod. If you want more details on how to fully record and produce your podcast with our services, you can reach us at http://studiopodsf.com, send us an email at [email protected] or contact us through our social media channels as @studiopodsf.

  • Onboarding is the most critical part of the customer journey, get it wrong and you’re behind the eight ball from the very beginning. In today’s episode, our host Adam Joseph talks to the President and Customer Onboarding Leader at Springboard Solutions, and author of the book Onboarding Matters, Donna Weber. Adam and Donna chat about her book, the importance of delivering true value to customers, and some key metrics to measure success. Listen now to learn some new practices on helping your customer get value since day one from an absolute onboarding expert. 

    Jump straight into:

    (00:44) - Donna Weber’s process writing her amazing book Onboarding Matters - “Writing a book is very insular, you're on your own, but suddenly it's out in the world and people are benefiting and sharing ideas. It is so rewarding.”

    (04:41) - When should onboarding begin and end? - “It needs to be about relationships. It needs to be about making sure you're capturing their goals and then making sure that they're meeting them. It's all about value.”

    (09:19) - Donna’s advice on delivering value at scale - “Every account is different at some point, but in order to get to some basics, you might need to make things more similar rather than different.”

    (13:57) - Pros & cons of having an implementation team and key metrics for measuring success  - “Logging in is not value. It really needs to be something that is meaningful to the customer, something that is going to drive them to want to use your product more.”

    (20:56) - Meeting the customers’ increasingly high expectations - “As your company changes, as your products change, as your users change, you will need to always be adjusting, that's why it's so important to listen to customers.”

    Resources

    Connect with Donna through LinkedIn

    Onboarding Matters by Donna Weber

    Hosted by Adam Joseph, The Gamechanger Podcast is a show brought to you by Gainsight. For more information about all of our episodes, please visit https://www.gainsight.com/podcasts.

    This show is produced and edited by StudioPod. If you want more details on how to fully record and produce your podcast with our services, you can reach us at http://studiopodsf.com, send us an email at [email protected] or contact us through our social media channels as @studiopodsf.

    StudioPod also offers an AirBnB Experience, where you can learn how to podcast; to learn more or to book one of our amazing courses, go to https://studiopodsf.com/courses.

  • Welcome to The Gainsight Gamechanger Podcast, a space where we recognize and celebrate people who change the game of customer success and product experience for their companies, customers, teammates, and partners.

    Topic: Pooled CS Model

    One hotly discussed topic in the CS world today: How can you effectively work with different types of customers? There are very innovative ways companies have approached this, one of which was recently fathomed by Brazilian RD Station. In today’s episode, Customer Success Executive Director of RD Station, Erika Tornice, joins us to chat about the Pooled Customer Success Model. What is it? How did it come to be? Plus, some early-on observations her team is ready to work with for further iterations. Join in and listen to how this innovative model may be changing the game of the Customer Success industry. 

    Jump straight into:

    (00:33) - Who is Erika Tornice?: Her 20 plus background in Customer Success and  her recent Game Changer Award - “I am managing a team of about 150 people who deliver outcomes to our RD Station customers every day.”

    (06.27) - What is a Pooled CSM, and how did they come up with it? - “For our key accounts, we still have the Dedicated CSM model, but then for the 70% of our base of customers, we moved it to this Pooled Model”.

    (12:53) - External and internal reactions: How was this model received? - “CSM’s saw this as an opportunity for them to specialize and deliver a better experience to our customers.”

    (17:12) - Too many cooks in the kitchen? Risks on the model - “We can demonstrate to the team when things don't go as we plan, what's the impact of that on the customer so that we continue reiterating along the way.”

    (21:18) - Are there improvements to be made? - “There are learnings on both sides that I think we have the opportunity to iterate and be more effective.”

    Resources

    Connect with Erika via LinkedIn

    Hosted by Adam Joseph, The Gamechanger Podcast is a show brought to you by Gainsight. For more information about all of our episodes, please visit https://www.gainsight.com/podcasts.

    This show is produced and edited by StudioPod. If you want more details on how to fully record and produce your podcast with our services, you can reach us at http://studiopodsf.com, send us an email at [email protected] or contact us through our social media channels as @studiopodsf.

  • Customer value is a crucial part of any business. Making sure your product is helping your clients achieve their goals is important. But how do you gather this information and use it correctly? In this episode of The Gamechanger Podcast, our host Adam Joseph sits with Christophe Labreure, Vice President of Customer Success at Nexthink, to talk about a widely used term: customer value. Christophe tells us his definition of customer value, the importance of quantification, and how to recognize achievable value. Plus, he shares why too much focus on value can be counterproductive. Join this conversation and learn from this expert the best practices around value from a CSM. 

    Jump straight into:

    (00:53) - Customer value: What it is and why it isn’t easy to achieve - “It's all about providing customer value by helping your customer achieve their goals using your products or services.”

    (02:26) - Who is Christophe and what is his work in Nexthink - “Our objective is to proactively reduce the number of incidents any user is facing by using a computer. Less incidents is better productivity and efficiency, but also much better satisfaction.”

    (05:39) - Christophe’s definition of value and the importance of quantifying - “It's also about when your solution and services have a positive impact on your customer business, and we can measure that impact and we can quantify that impact.”

    (08:15) - Keeping track at a bigger scale - “It's important to track the value from the very beginning and to transfer the knowledge of the value from a department to other departments, and to do that, you need apps or tools.”

    (11:09) - Asking the right questions and the best traits of a CSM - “You need to be a well-trained CSM in the goal, not only on the solution and with some soft skills: capacity to listen and to ask some very open questions.”

    (13:27) - Recognizing achievable value vs. unrealistic value - “Sometimes maybe you need to resell the solution from scratch. But I think it's a two-step approach quantifying and building an action plan.”

    (18:28) - Health scores and other indicators - “We have a health score calculated for each of our customers. And the fact we have a value track is one subscore, which is very important in the weight of the global score.”

    (19:50) - Is customer value a problematic obsession? - “It's not only counterproductive sometimes, but it's really painful because we are not so sure how to obtain the right value for many reasons.”

    Resources

    Connect with Christophe via LinkedIn

    Nexthink

    Hosted by Adam Joseph, The Gamechanger Podcast is a show brought to you by Gainsight. For more information about all of our episodes, please visit https://www.gainsight.com/podcasts.

    This show is produced and edited by StudioPod. If you want more details on how to fully record and produce your podcast with our services, you can reach us at

  • Customer success has to be a company-wide commitment and an ethos across the entire business. But, how do you make the promise of customer-centricity a reality? To dive deeper into this topic, our host Adam Joseph talks to Michelle MacCarthy, Global Head of Customer Success at Unit4. She shares her view on a successful customer-centric business, how to provide a better customer experience, and whether it is crucial to have a CSM position in your company.

    Jump straight into:

    (00:41) - Michelle MacCarthy’s work on customer centricity at Unit4 - “The company is delivering on this promise through enterprise resource planning, human capital management, and financial planning applications.”

    (05:24) - How customer-centric is your business? - “When companies make decisions big or small, they really need to think about how those moves impact the customer.”

    (08:29) - Fixing for the long-term and how to correctly apply feedback - “We do look to focus on a few areas of the business in bite-size chunks to address the areas that we know will have the most impact across the full customer expense.”

    (13:15) - How to bring teams together around customer-centricity? - “CSM is becoming even more critical as the customer experience ecosystem evolves.”

    Resources

    Connect with Michelle via LinkedIn

    Hosted by Adam Joseph, The Gamechanger Podcast is a show brought to you by Gainsight. For more information about all of our episodes, please visit https://www.gainsight.com/podcasts.

    This show is produced and edited by StudioPod. If you want more details on how to fully record and produce your podcast with our services, you can reach us at http://studiopodsf.com, send us an email at [email protected] or contact us through our social media channels as @studiopodsf.

    StudioPod also offers an AirBnB Experience, where you can learn how to podcast; to learn more or to book one of our amazing courses, go to https://studiopodsf.com/courses.

  • Chief Customer Officer (CCO) roles have become more and more popular in our industry, and even COVID was involved in the increasing demand for these roles in the field. In this episode, Adam is joined by Rosalyn Curato, CCO at Allovue, to chat about the importance of these roles inside the ecosystem, why they deliver such a strong message internally and externally, and how they will keep evolving in the industry. Listen now to learn how to make customers feel prioritized and taken into account in your processes, and the skills you need to make it as a CCO.

    Jump straight into:

    (01:34) - On Rosalyn’s background, the evolution of CS in the business and her experience at building a team from scratch - “As the team evolved and grew, we were seeing this progression towards specialization.”

    (06:43) - The demand for CCO roles in the industry and how it will impact the relationship with your customers - “Having this role is not just a signal internally, but externally, that you value the customer at every level of your organization.”

    (10:39) - The high impact CCO roles have on a business - “Being able to say ‘our biggest customer says they absolutely need this feature’, and then have everyone get on board has been huge and immensely helpful.”

    (14:46) - Rosalyn’s 2 ingredient combo for CCOs to make it in the industry - “Demonstrate the proactive nature and actions you’re taking to position your company and your customers as best as possible.” 

    (17:36) - Adaptability in times of COVID - “The first few weeks was just about us taking a check on what’s happening and how much is it impacting us.”

    (22:07) The evolution and future of the CCO role - “A lot of organizations have been hiring more CSMs, which is fenomenal.”

    Resources

    Connect with Rosalyn via LinkedIn

    Headspace

    Hosted by Adam Joseph, The Gamechanger Podcast is a show brought to you by Gainsight. For more information about all of our episodes, please visit https://www.gainsight.com/podcasts.

    This show is produced and edited by StudioPod. If you want more details on how to fully record and produce your podcast with our services, you can reach us at http://studiopodsf.com, send us an email at [email protected] or contact us through our social media channels as @studiopodsf.

    StudioPod also offers an AirBnB Experience, where you can learn how to podcast; to learn more or to book one of our amazing courses, go to https://studiopodsf.com/courses.

  • Customer programs are a great way for organizations to establish a fruitful relationship with clients, improve internal operations, and have a look at the important metrics that these programs throw. Customer programs bring great benefits to the business, but they require attention and work. In today’s episode, Adam is joined by Dana Alvarenga, Director of Customer Experience (CX) at SlapFive, to chat about the value of advocacy, the cruciality of CX roles inside an organization, and the importance of celebrating your customers’ big and small wins. This episode contains great tips and advice, and you will even learn how you can build your own Customer program from scratch. Tune in now!

    Jump straight into:

    (01:31) - On Dana’s career, background, and who she would swap lives with if she had the chance.

    (05:56) - Dana’s Customer Outreach Program catalogue and the value of advocates- “Advocacy is one of the best metrics when it comes to looking if your customer success function is delivering.”

    (10:49) - How imperative is it to create a Customer Experience role for a business? - “It’s really important to have someone designated to that role to make sure the customer’s voice is being heard.”

    (13:29) - The 3 Phase Approach and the importance of internal engagement - “I think it’s not just about having customers that enjoy participating in these programs, but it’s also important to understand how these programs impact the metrics that your organization cares about.”

    (20:19) - How to build a program from scratch and the importance of celebrating small wins - “Go back and see what content already exists today. Repurpose it and hop into your customers and build from there.”

    Resources

    Connect with Dana via LinkedIn

    Hosted by Adam Joseph, The Gamechanger Podcast is a show brought to you by Gainsight. For more information about all of our episodes, please visit https://www.gainsight.com/podcasts.

    This show is produced and edited by StudioPod. If you want more details on how to fully record and produce your podcast with our services, you can reach us at http://studiopodsf.com, send us an email at [email protected] or contact us through our social media channels as @studiopodsf.

    StudioPod also offers an AirBnB Experience, where you can learn how to podcast; to learn more or to book one of our amazing courses, go to https://studiopodsf.com/courses.

  • There is nothing worse than holding meetings that ultimately lead to a waste of time, and it is no secret that you need to be respectful of your team’s and customers’ time if you want to keep them all happy. Executive Business Reviews (EBR) are the way to reconnect with your customers and reinforce the fact that you’re not involved in a vendor-customer relationship, but a trusting partnership. In today’s episode, Adam Joseph is joined by Vice President of Customer Success and People Operations at Swiftly, Maranda Dziekonski, to chat about the complex art of EBR. This unique meeting is confirmed by three important acts, and this conversation will guide you through all of them, so you can make a difference on your relationship with your customers too. Listen now to learn more about the true definition and purpose of EBRs, and how you can make the most out of them.

    Jump straight into:

    (01:25) - On Maranda’s CS background, her love for diet coke, and her passion for painting - “I’ve been doing Customer Facing Operations for over 20 years and in the startup world for about 10 years now.”

    (05:54) - What’s the definition for EBR and what makes it so unique? - “It’s really a time for you to partner with your customer to align on goals and celebrate outcomes, but most importantly, to really grow and develop the relationship with the respective executives.”

    (09:47) - On the ideal cadence for the EBR meetings - “You really need to make sure you’ve got alignment on how your customer is holding you accountable.”

    (15:00) - A three part process: How to prepare for the EBR meeting with each customer - “The reality is your customers have unique needs and they’re solving unique problems, so show them how you are helping them solve those problems.”

    (21:21) - On site vs remote: All you need to know about the execution stage of the EBR  - “I think you have to shift how you present the information. You need to make it a conversation, more so than you did on site.”

    (25:21) - How to prevent the momentum and action taking from dissipating with time - “Follow up within one business day, don’t let it go longer than that.”

    Resources

    Connect with Maranda via LinkedIn

    [WEBINAR] How to Start a Career in Customer Success | Maranda Ann Dziekonski

    A Little Saasy

    Hosted by Adam Joseph, The Gamechanger Podcast is a show brought to you by Gainsight. For more information about all of our episodes, please visit https://www.gainsight.com/podcasts.

    This show is produced and edited by StudioPod. If you want more details on how to fully record and produce your podcast with our services, you can reach us at http://studiopodsf.com, send us an email at [email protected] or contact us through our social media channels as @studiopodsf.

    StudioPod also offers an AirBnB Experience, where you can learn how to podcast; to learn more or to book one of our amazing courses, go to

  • When people think about Customer Success, their first thought may be around a business-customer relationship, when the work that takes place behind the scenes, within the team, is even more important. In today’s episode, our host, Adam Joseph, is joined by Troy Pratley, Head of Customer Success at Amplience, to chat about the magic of great teams in the CS field. Tune in to learn all about the impact of an illustrative score card, how to build credibility and trust with your team members, and the importance of motivating your collaborators and nurturing your professional relationships. Building a great team takes some work, but the fruits will certainly be remarkable!

    Jump straight into:

    (01:25) - On Troy’s background as a successful CS professional - “It has given me a great view on how to work with other individuals and teams, and understand ultimately what drives them.”

    (05:37) - Making the CS philosophy more prominent and helping it to be taken more seriously - “A customer wants to be with a trusting partner and you want to build a good relationship with the customer as well.”

    (11:51) - The importance of measuring and reporting your team’s impact, and how to develop an efficient score card  - “For CS to be taken seriously in your business you need to be able to present data.”

    (18:46) - It all starts from within: how to set up your team for success - “You want to be a strong glue, but you can only do that by having conversations and building strong relationships with everybody in the business.”

    Resources

    Connect with Troy via LinkedIn

    Amplience

    Hosted by Adam Joseph, The Gamechanger Podcast is a show brought to you by Gainsight. For more information about all of our episodes, please visit https://www.gainsight.com/podcasts.

    This show is produced and edited by StudioPod. If you want more details on how to fully record and produce your podcast with our services, you can reach us at http://studiopodsf.com, send us an email at [email protected] or contact us through our social media channels as @studiopodsf.

    StudioPod also offers an AirBnB Experience, where you can learn how to podcast; to learn more or to book one of our amazing courses, go to https://studiopodsf.com/courses.

  • As many businesses are implementing the Customer Success philosophy in their framework, the need for the newest CS professionals to learn and become experts on the field is evident. Not only are the CS practices getting popular inside different ecosystems, but teams forming CS managers are growing, adding up to the international community. In today’s episode, Area VP at Komodo Health, Selena Jankulovska and Head of Customer Success at Run The World, Shaun Porcar, join our host, Adam Joseph, to chat about the experience of starting a CS function from scratch. Listen now to learn how to structure your own internal and external roadmaps, build a culture of collaboration, and improve your business’ performance with the CS philosophy.

    Jump straight into:

    (01:29) - Our guests’ backgrounds and their struggles during the COVID-19 pandemic - “We learned early on that just opening the door and telling them we were interested in listening was the most important thing we could do.“

    (05:55) - How businesses are integrating the CS philosophy in their practices, and why  professionals are migrating to the CS industry - “It’s interesting, because to me, Customer Success came as a second thought.”

    (10:35) - Important advice for first CSM hires and the creation of CS functions  - “Start with the customer experience, try to understand what it is your customer is trying to get out of the relationship you’re building with them.”

    (16:08) - The importance of building a methodical and clear roadmap to improve performance and results - “What we really focused on, was ownership and accountability.”

    (18:28) - How to determine if your CS function is delivering and up to the business’ expectations - “Whatever your product or service does, show how it captures value in the form of time and money.”

    (20:52) - How to tell if your business needs more than one CS role operating - “At a certain point you realize that there aren’t enough hours in the day.”

    Resources

    Connect with Selena via LinkedIn

    Connect with Shaun via LinkedIn

    Customer Success by Dan Steinman and Nick Mehta 

    Hosted by Adam Joseph, The Gamechanger Podcast is a show brought to you by Gainsight. For more information about all of our episodes, please visit https://www.gainsight.com/podcasts.

    This show is produced and edited by StudioPod. If you want more details on how to fully record and produce your podcast with our services, you can reach us at http://studiopodsf.com, send us an email at [email protected] or contact us through our social media channels as @studiopodsf.

    StudioPod also offers an AirBnB Experience, where you can learn how to podcast; to learn more or to book one of our amazing courses, go to