Tell us something fun about yourself.
I am a novelist (My first book was published in 2021), and I plan to publish my 2nd book in 2023. In my spare time, I enjoy being an amateur athlete enjoying various sports activities such as Jogging, swimming, and martial arts.
If you could go back in time, what would you tell yourself as a new CSM?
I would advise myself to move away from my comfort zone and be bullish about learning and improving my skills. I would also ask myself to “enjoy the ride,” knowing that each day will look different (which is a great advantage of being a CSM).
What book, podcast, or influencer do you recommend checking out?
GGR (Gain Grow Retain) events cover various topics related to CSMs. I enjoy the content Anita Toth, Jan Young, Ed Powers, and Jeff Heckler create. They are great contributors to the CS community. “Seven Pillars of Customer Success” by Wayne Mccullough provides a structured framework for CS, and I found it extremely useful.
What is the one tech tool you can't live without?
It would be “Whatsapp” and “Slack” – both provide simple and easy communication internally and externally.
How can those looking to break into CS get started?
CS courses and certifications help with the framework, terminology, and best practices. Another avenue into CS is for experienced professionals to utilize their existing customer-facing experience and “jump into the water.” This move can be applicable to project managers, BDRs, SDRs, Marketing professionals, IT support specialists, consultants, and professional services specialists.
What's next for Customer Success?
In a nutshell: Tools consolidation. Increased usage of AI. Extending a “customer first” mindset to other teams in the organization.
What’s something you recently learned the hard way?
Innovative products with great promise and potential value fail due to complicated onboarding, forcing customer teams to invest significant effort in deployment.
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