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  • Have you ever wondered what challenges customer success managers (CSMs) face, especially when companies focus solely on sales? In this episode, we dive into one of the biggest issues CSMs encounter – the early lack of focus on essential business fundamentals.

    In this episode, we’re joined by Parul Bhandari, an experienced customer success leader, who shares insights on how early oversights can lead to major challenges for CS teams down the line.

    About Parul Bhandari:

    Parul Bhandari is a skilled Customer Success Leader known for crafting exceptional customer experiences. With a proven track record at Humantech and VelocityEHS, she boasts a 95% customer retention rate and has significantly increased expansion revenue. Parul leverages her expertise in executive management and AI technology to drive effective customer success strategies.

    📌 What you’ll learn about:

    🎯The long-term impact of neglecting business fundamentals
    🎯How a sales-focused mindset can create issues for customer success teams
    🎯The benefits of hiring customer success roles early in a company’s journey
    🎯Structuring teams to enhance customer retention and sustainable growth

    1:50 - Intro
    7:10 - Why Parul started South Asian Success Community
    9:25 - Why CS is still evolving
    11:02 - Need for CS standardization
    12:00 - Early team challenges
    12:36 - Should CSMs own onboarding?
    15:16 - Tracking CS metrics in growth
    19:17 - Basics of CS maturity
    21:00 - Measuring customer health
    23:12 - Importance of advocacy
    25:09 - Avoiding growth-stage disasters
    28:01 - Who handles CS tasks?
    29:47 - Closing thoughts

    Follow Parul
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  • How do you make meaningful connections in customer success? Do you really need a mentor, and if so, how do you find one? We answer all these questions in this exciting episode of our podcast!

    Join us as we sit down with Jeff Mar, co-author of an insightful book on customer success. In our conversation, Jeff shares his journey in the industry, his experiences, and how he built a supportive network that fosters growth and learning.

    About Jeff Mar

    Jeff is a principal customer success manager at LinkedIn, where he helps enterprise customers foster a dynamic learning environment through LinkedIn learning. With over 18 years of experience, he focuses on driving innovation, employee retention, and competitive advantage. Jeff is passionate about connecting with professionals and creating value through technology and conversation.

    What you’ll learn

    💪🏼 The power of mentorship and meaningful connections in customer success.
    ✨ Strategies to tackle real-world challenges and turn experiences into actionable insights.
    📈 Why Jeff believes everyone has a book inside them and how to unlock your growth potential.

    Whether you’re a seasoned customer success manager or just starting out, this episode is filled with practical tips and inspiring stories that you’ll definitely want to check out!
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    TIME-STAMPS

    01:39 - Introduction
    03:48 - How did Jeff land in Customer Success?
    06:04 - How can CSMs improve their work?
    08:13 - How should CSMs segment their time?
    10:59 - What is the biggest area a CSM should focus on?
    13:12 - How can a CSM handle expectations?
    17:21 - Why does Jeff call CS the connective tissue in an organization?
    18:20 - How can CSMs stand out in their role successfully?
    21:35 - Why is it important to have people to support you?
    23:53 - What was Jeff’s experience in writing his book?
    30:39 - Closing
    ______________________________________________________

    Follow Jeff Mar

    Follow Mausmi Ambastha

    Click here to buy Jeff's Book

    🔔 Don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe for more insightful content on customer success and leadership!

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  • In the 20th episode of Scale Tale, Mausmi Ambastha is joined by customer success expert Peter Armaly for a deep dive into the true essence of CS leadership.

    Why should you tune in?

    ✅ Peter shares insights on the must-have skills for CS leaders
    ✅ Walk away with actionable strategies to level up your CS leadership
    ✅ Learn how to motivate your team to go the extra mile in delivering exceptional customer experiences.
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    1:45 - Introduction
    4:41 - Peter’s vision behind writing his book
    8:27 - How to master the basics of CS?
    13:00 - Why has CS suffered so much in the previous few years?
    14:28 - How can CS leaders simplify CSM roles?
    18:54 - Peter’s take on customer health score
    24:44 - Sentiment of a CSM
    33:27 - Closing

    About Peter Armaly:

    Peter Armaly is a seasoned executive with 25+ years of experience in sales, marketing, and customer success. As Principal at Valuize, he helps companies drive customer value and boost NRR. Peter also advises Proof Analytics on CS best practices and co-authored a book for CSMs. Recognized as a top industry influencer, he's known for his visionary leadership.
    ______________________________________________________________________

    Follow Our Special Guest Peter Armaly

    Follow Podcast Host Mausmi Ambastha

    Click here to order Peter's book today

    Enjoyed the episode? Drop a like, share your thoughts in the comments, and don’t forget to subscribe!

  • No doubt about the fact that Net Revenue Retention (NRR) is vital, but it overlooks a crucial aspect of customer value: advocacy.

    Imagine a customer so thrilled with your product that they enthusiastically refer others. Despite this, customer success teams often don’t get the recognition they deserve for this kind of advocacy-driven growth. Even if they hit their NRR targets, they might still face downsizing, simply because their contributions to generating new business through customer enthusiasm aren’t fully appreciated.

    In this episode of the Scale Tale podcast, Mausmi Ambastha (Co-founder & COO, ZapScale) is in conversation with Christian Jakenfelds, who has expertly scaled companies from 30 to over 150 employees and achieved a $500 million valuation.

    Christian’s journey spans from early-stage startups to leading B2B SaaS companies like Tessian and Planhat. As a Customer Success and GTM leader, he’s mastered the art of growth and team scaling. Now, as a Go-To Network Evangelist at Commsor and founder of Customer Success for Founders, he’s redefining how we view customer value beyond traditional NRR metrics.

    0:00 - Preview & Introduction
    7:27 - Defining Advocacy
    8:27 - The Missing Part
    9:14 - Talking About the Big Red Flag
    10:26 - Advocacy Sits More Like Marketing
    12:11 - Are There Any Good Advocacy Programs?
    15:45 - A Lot of Companies Are Doing This Wrong
    21:40 - Companies Who Are Doing It Right
    22:27 - Why Do You Wait to Have an Expansion Conversation Around Renewal?
    25:00 - What Could Be Improved to Ensure You're Getting Those Case Studies?
    30:08 - How a New Company Can Start With Advocacy
    33:46 - Closing

    🔍 What You’ll Discover:

    🔹 CS + New Business: Discover how blending Customer Success with new business strategies can fuel growth. Christian explains techniques like rewarding referrals and leveraging impactful case studies.

    🔹 Maximize Case Studies: Learn to craft case studies that not only showcase success but also attract new clients.

    🔹 Beyond NRR: Christian argues for measuring CS impact on new revenue, challenging traditional Net Revenue Retention metrics.

    🔹 Scalable Advocacy: Find out how to make customer advocacy a repeatable and scalable process.

    Join us for a compelling conversation with Christian Jakenfelds as he shares invaluable lessons and strategies for scaling and succeeding in the SaaS world. Subscribe to our channel and hit the bell icon to stay updated!

    _______________________________________

    Connect with the guests:

    Christian Jakenfelds
    Mausmi Ambastha

    Enjoyed the episode? Drop a like, share your thoughts in the comments, and don’t forget to subscribe!

  • Despite Customer Success function being the key to customer retention and business growth, it has often been looked upon as a cost center. With efforts to commercialise customer success, the narrative turning Customer Success into Sales comes into the picture.

    Jason Noble, VP Global Customer Success at Vinli and the co-host of "The Jasons Take On" Podcast Series joins Mausmi Ambastha, Co-Founder of ZapScale to discuss the future of customer success in a more commercial function focused on delivering results and value.

    Timestamps

    0:00 - Introduction
    7:00 - Aligning Customer Success and Account Management Roles
    12:14 - Evolving Customer Success Roles and Expectations
    17:14 - Specializing Customer Success Roles vs. Generalist
    22:10 - Incentivizing Customer Success Teams To Focus on Commercials

    About Jason Noble

    Jason Noble is a recognized industry leader in CS and customer-led growth! Over the last 20 years, Jason has held leadership positions in all of the customer facing roles with a number of major global brands including Sony and Reed Elsevier. Interestingly enough, Jason also has a Customer Success podcast of his own, which is called “The Jasons Take On”.

    Follow Jason on LinkedIn 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonnoble1/

    Follow Jason on X 👉 https://x.com/jnoble100

    Follow The Jason’s Take On Podcast 👉 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-jasons-take-on/id1450638487
    _________________________________________________

    Follow the podcast host Mausmi Ambastha on LinkedIn 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mausmiambastha/

  • Despite our best efforts at keeping our customers at ease, it may so happen that the customers may not be fully delighted. Understanding, managing, and fulfilling customer expectations needs our proactive approach as CSMs.

    In this episode, Parker Chase-Corwin joins Mausmi Ambastha, our host to discuss one of the most critical aspects of customer management: handling escalations.

    With over 20 years of experience in customer success, Parker shares his insights into the complexities of escalations, starting with defining what an escalation truly is and why early-stage companies often struggle as they transition from founder-led support to a more structured process.

    Together, Parker and Mausmi discuss the challenges of maintaining customer trust, the importance of post-escalation analysis, and proactive outreach to prevent future crises and improve overall growth and profitability.

    Timestamps
    0:00 - Preview & Introduction
    3:03 - Defining Escalations
    5:01 - Escalations are growth inhibitors
    6:21 - How to be resourceful during escalations?
    9:35 - Ensuring transparent communication during escalations
    13:31 - Identifying the level of communication during escalations
    16:30 - How to not over-promise and restore trust
    21:35 - Managing customer relations post-escalation
    25:21 - Winning trust as an account manager
    29:19 - Adjusting customer expectations
    31:11 - Reverse engineering escalations to improve customer service
    35:00 - Closing
    __________________________________________

    About Parker Chase-Corwin
    Parker is a customer-focused go-to-market leader with 20 years of experience in the software and services industry. He has demonstrated his mastery in customer success, operational, sales, and account management roles and had the privilege of building several customer-facing teams from the ground up across several diverse companies and in various stages of maturity. He has been recognized as an innovative collaborator in cross-functional initiatives for his emphasis on enhancing the customer experience; minimizing customer attrition; growing recurring revenue streams; and optimizing operations.

    Follow Parker on LinkedIn 👉https://www.linkedin.com/in/parkercorwin/
    _____________________________________________

    Follow the Podcast Host Mausmi Ambastha on LinkedIn 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mausmiambastha/

  • CS is evolving, with a push towards revenue. While focusing on nurturing the customer relationship, CSMs are now tasked with making sales.
    Balancing the art of creating an excellent customer experience along with revenue generation is a herculean task.
    Maranda Dziekonski, SVP, CS & Ops at Datasembly, joins Mausmi Ambastha,on this episode of the Scale Tale Podcast to discuss how the future of CS is beyond support & success of the customer and how it leads revenue-generating activities like renewals, upsells, and even cross-sells with existing customers.
    We'll hear Maranda detailing the intricacies of negotiation skills for CSMs, the power dynamic shifts within account teams, and the impact of budgets and resources on customer success. She outlines a value cycle essential for customer success to be involved right from lead generation to understanding customer goals – the roadmap for adding value to customer partnerships.

    Timestamps
    0:00 - Preview & Introduction
    2:55 - Should you adopt revenue-centric CS
    8:36 - Will CS be displaced by account management?
    12:40 - The right time to introduce CSMs to customers in the customer journey
    19:21 - Upsell by going wider in the organization
    24:04 - The easiest way for CSMs to learn the skills of negotiation & upselling
    29:45 - What changes in organizations when CS is tied to revenue
    32:45 - Closing


    _____________________________________________

    Maranda Dziekonski, SVP, CS & Ops at Datasembly has over 20 years of experience both working in and building world-class operations and extensive experience building and scaling teams in early and mid-stage startups. Her specialties are in Customer Success (B2B, B2C, B2B2C), Customer Support (B2B, B2C), Tech Support, Contact Centers (Inbound/Outbound), Sales, and various other teams in operations. She has been honored as a Top 100 Customer Success Strategist in both 2017 & 2018, Top 25 Customer Success Influencer Judge in 2020, Top 25 Influencer for both 2021 and 2022, and sits on numerous boards.

    Follow Maranda on LinkedIn 👉https://www.linkedin.com/in/marandaanndziekonski/
    _____________________________________________

    Follow the Podcast Host Mausmi Ambastha on LinkedIn 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mausmiambastha/

  • To build the foundations of a business focused on growth and sustainability it’s essential to learn why customers pack their bags and how every departure holds a lesson for your business.

    Markus Rentsch joins Mausmi Ambastha on The Scale Tale Podcast this week to discuss how onboarding can make or break the value of your product for each customer, the pitfalls of bad fit customers, and the societal shift towards unsustainable business growth models, bridging the gap between what customers need and what they get, and how tracking actual outcomes, rather than usage metrics, can reveal the true state of customer retention.

    Timestamps:
    0:00 - Preview
    1:27 - Meet Markus Rentsch
    5:00 - Mistake #1 Why does Customer Success fail or get neglected?
    11:00 - Mistake #2 - Not understanding the needs of the customer
    15:21 - Mistake #3 - Not tracking customer outcomes
    19:50 - Mistake #4 - Failing to do Feature-based onboarding
    33:08 - Mistake #5 - Superficial churn analysis
    39:40 - Closing

    About Markus
    Markus is the CEO of Remark-able - a consulting company that helps SaaS companies to turn churn into profitable growth. He has spent the last many years developing a new business framework called Customer-Value-Led-Growth. Before starting his own business, he worked in various roles in controlling and corporate development.


    Follow Markus on LinkedIn 👉https://at.linkedin.com/in/markus-rentsch-customer-value-led-growth-for-saas

    Follow the Podcast Host Mausmi Ambastha on LinkedIn 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mausmiambastha/

  • Today leaders are keen on ensuring customer value.
    Customer Success plays a pivotal position in the customer-centric software industry.
    If you are eyeing a career shift in CS or are just looking to simply honing your customer success acumen, this episode is a goldmine.
    Vijay Mehrotra, who's at the forefront of customer success education at the University of San Francisco, joins Mausmi Ambastha on this episode of The Scale Tale Podcast to discuss how SaaS companies can harness customer data for breakthrough insights, the urgent need for updated curricula to match tech's pace, the potential of leveraging customer data for business intelligence and the transformative role of AI. Vijay discussed the importance of cross-pollination of sales and customer success roles.

    Timestamps
    0:00 - Intro
    2:20 - How Vijay's experience led him to customer success
    7:50 - Learning Customer Success
    11:32 - Evolution of operation of CS teams
    13:00 - Equipping to embrace the ever-evolving landscape of CS function
    19:06 - Pillars of Vijay's CS course
    23:03 - Insights on the Success Hacker Program
    24:18 - What does the future look like after taking up CS education?
    28:02 - CS should own retention & upsells
    29:25 - Closing

    About Vijay
    Vijay Mehrotra is a Professor of Business Analytics at the University of San Francisco where he leads its CS management education initiative.
    _________________________________________________________________

    Connect with Vijay Mehrotra on LinkedIn 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/vijay-mehrotra-ba9498/
    ___________________________________________________________________

    Connect with the podcast host Mausmi Ambastha on LinkedIn 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mausmiambastha/

  • Most CS platforms are designed for post-sales customer journeys.
    But, CS begins early-on in the life cycle of a customer journey.

    CS platforms aren’t equipped to support customers during the entire customer journey.
    But what if they could?

    Imagine empowering your CS team with one platform for all customer needs.
    Super right? That’s what Mausmi Ambastha and Wyeth Goodenough chat about on this episode of the Scale Tale podcast.

    Join in to learn about the importance of health scoring, sentiment analysis, and customer engagement, as well as the future of customer success technology.

    Timestamps:
    0:00 - Intro
    1:01 - Get to know Wyeth Goodenough
    4:45 - The IDEAL CS Platform
    8:00 - Collaborating with Sales team
    13:00 - Customer success & support
    17:40 - Teaming up with the product team
    21:02 - Aligning communication with customers
    24:35 - How finance helps with forecast?
    26:20 - 4 key components of customer health scores
    33:20 - Closing

    About Wyeth
    He's a seasoned professional with 25 years of experience. He's worked in Accenture as a VP CS at Salesforce and the CCO at Ironclad. But his most exciting role, as I have heard, has been being a dad to 3 awesome daughters.

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    Connect with Wyeth on LinkedIn 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/wyeth-goodenough-108b12/
    ___________________________________________________________________

    Connect with the podcast host Mausmi Ambastha on LinkedIn 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mausmiambastha/

  • Bad-fit customers are that troublesome segment that often leaves us scratching your heads about what to do. Customers who are not well-suited or aligned with the products, services, or values of your business can prove catastrophic for your bottom-line.

    Hence, identifying and managing bad-fit customers is important to maintain a positive customer-business relationship and ensuring that business resources are effectively utilised.

    In this episode of the Scale Tale Podcast, Mausmi Ambastha hosts Anita Toth, Chief Churn Crusher at ATI. Key topics of discussion:

    💎 What are bad-fit Customers
    💎 What is their impact on your business?
    💎 How to identify them in the funnel?
    💎 How to ensure that bad-fit customers do not enter the funnel?
    💎 How to fire them and keep the funnel aligned?

    Timestamps

    00:00 - Preview & Intro
    03:00 - How Anita got into customer success
    06:05 - Identifying bad-fit customers
    12:20 - Making effective use of customer data
    18:44 - How to build a holistic product that your customers will love
    22:10 - Benefits of attracting good-fit customers
    27:10 - Dealing with bad-fit customers
    31:22 - Breaking ties with bad-fit customers
    36:10 - Goldmine Framework
    41:50 - Closing

    About Anita
    Anita Toth is the Chief Churn Crusher at ATI, a Customer Retention Research, Strategy & Education company that serves B2B SaaS companies. Anita’s mission is to create happier customers & more profitable businesses. Using her 20+ years in academic research, Anita helps companies leverage what their customers want, need, think & feel to their competitive advantage. Anita leads 'Churn No More,' a tactical workshop that helps Customer Success Leaders win in customer retention and executive influence.
    _________________________________________________________________

    Connect with Anita on LinkedIn
    ___________________________________________________________________

    Connect with the podcast host Mausmi Ambastha on LinkedIn

  • The customer-facing teams work in silos.
    This results in misaligned expectations between teams.

    Result? The customer feels lost.

    In this episode of the Scale Tale podcast, Mausmi Ambastha complaints to Alex Farmer CRO, Nezasa, as a CSM about

    - Misaligned expectations between Sales and CS
    - Ownership of the customer
    - How can CSMs be monetarily compensated for their efforts?
    - Should CS have a quota just like Sales does?

    Timestamps

    0:00 - Preview & Intro
    2:49 - Difference in team culture within Nezasa
    6:06 - Promoting CCOs to CRO roles
    8:22 - Fairly compensating CSMs
    15:15 - CS needs maturity as a function
    16:12 - Applying sales methodologies to QBRs
    18:12 - Communication gap between CS & Sales
    19:32 - Success Plan for continuity
    28:18 - Who owns the customer?
    41:00 - Closing

    _________________________________________________________________

    Connect with Alex on LinkedIn 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexanderfarmer/
    ___________________________________________________________________

    Connect with the podcast host Mausmi Ambastha on LinkedIn 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mausmiambastha/

  • As CSMs, it gets harder to put a label on our efforts when we aren’t able to justify quantitatively. Sure, metrics help us do that, but, the knowledge of applying these metrics is not something many of us have decoded. That’s why we have Rick Adams with us in this episode. Rick walks us through different metrics and their practical use cases for real-life scenarios.

    Timestamps
    0.00 - Introduction
    09:25 - Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)
    16:30 - How often should we measure CSAT?
    21:10 - Churn/Renewal Rate
    28:05 - Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)
    28:45 - Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)
    30:35 - Net Revenue Retention (NRR)
    34:30 - Net Promoter Score (NPS)
    39:31 - What is a good NPS score?
    44:25 - Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

    About Rick
    Rick is the founder and CEO of Practical CSM – an organisation that provides consultancy, training, and certification services for Customer Success professionals to help them become both more productive and more effective in their roles.

    Rick has over 25 years of experience working in the IT industry. His recent work includes developing and delivering a global certification program on customer success management for Cisco Systems Inc. He has also published a book on customer success titled ‘Practical Customer Success Management: A Best Practice Framework for Managers and Professionals’.
    __________________________________________________________________

    Connect with Rick on LinkedIn 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickadams01/
    Checkout PracticalCSM 👉 https://practicalcsm.com/
    ___________________________________________________________________

    Connect with the podcast host Mausmi Ambastha on LinkedIn 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mausmiambastha/

  • Can you imagine 2 CSMs managing the load of 30-40 customers? Impossible to fathom right? Here’s where the power of documentation comes into play.

    Documentation is often overlooked. However, a well-structured and up-to-date documentation infrastructure can become the backbone of how smoothly operations run in your business.

    Rachel Baker, Senior CSM at Rimsys, joins our host Mausmi Ambastha, Co-Founder of ZapScale to bring to light an important aspect of the smooth CS operations at her workplace - Documentation.

    Timestamps
    0:10 - Rachel's Introduction
    3:30 - Importance of documentation
    6:30 - Developing a culture of documenting everything
    11:20 - Structuring documentation across teams
    14:30 - Using documentation for onboarding new hires
    17:35 - Hiring CS professionals in the team
    20:45 - Depth of documentation
    21:49 - De-skilling processes through documentation
    28:00 - Benefits of documentation
    30:05 - Getting started with documentation
    31:40 - Closure

    About Rachel
    Rachel Baker is a Senior Customer Success Manager at Pittsburgh-based software company Rimsys. She leverages over 8 years of experience in strategic planning and action to drive business success, along with prior marketing background in higher education and nonprofit sectors. With expertise in customer success, marketing enablement, and training, Rachel excels at streamlining processes, training growing teams, and delivering results.

    Rachel is a SuccessHacker Level 2 certified professional, who combines industry best practices with a passion for continuous improvement.
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    Connect with Rachel on LinkedIn 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/bakerrachel/
    ___________________________________________________________________

    Connect with the podcast host Mausmi Ambastha on LinkedIn 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mausmiambastha/

  • One of the biggest challenges in Customer Success is aligning goals and expectations.
    Many Customer Success Managers (CSMs) feel uncomfortable with upselling because they have misconceptions or haven't been properly taught. Rachel Provan joins Mausmi Ambastha, Co-Founder, ZapScale to share insights on how CSMs can approach upselling with compassion and a genuine desire to help customers through upsells.

    Mausmi and Rachel discuss:
    01:28 - Rachel's journey from acting to CS
    05:32 - Should CS own upsell?
    09:28 - Getting customers from 0 to first value
    11:13 - Understanding the customer's definition of value
    15:10 - How to start the upsell conversation
    18:08 - Doing what's best for the customer
    19:46 - Aligning customer needs with upsells
    21:38 - Increasing revenue with upselling
    26:00 - 4 stages of CS
    31:52 - Importance of founder-led CS
    34:55- Rachel's Customer Success Coaching


    About Rachel Provan

    Rachel is an accomplished Customer Success Leadership Coach and the CEO of Provan Success, LLC. With an impressive track record of 15 years as a customer success leader, Rachel has successfully built and transformed CS departments across a wide spectrum of organizations, from dynamic seed-stage startups to industry-leading Fortune 500 companies.

    Rachel's thought leadership has garnered industry recognition, including being honored as one of the top 50 women leaders in Customer Success by SmartKarrot, and earning the title of top 100 CS strategist by Success Coaching.
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    Connect with Rachel on LinkedIn 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelhprovan

    Check out Provan Success 👉 https://provansuccess.com/

  • Right from validating the idea to providing exceptional value to customers, every startup goes through different phases of the startup journey. In this episode of The Scale Tale Podcast, Irit Eizips, the world-renowned expert in Customer Success joins Mausmi Ambastha on the podcast to share the roadmap every SaaS startup must follow and highlight the key mistakes that they must avoid to have sustainable business growth.

    Timestamps
    00:00 - Introduction to Irit
    07:37 - Key items of focus for early-stage founders
    10:50 - The Customer Success Maturity Curve
    11:15 - Phase 1 - Technical Support
    12:20 - Phase 2 - Define the Onboarding
    15:18 - Phase 3 - Be Proactive, figure out what works
    17:23 - Defining customer value
    20:40 - Phase 4 - Scale
    24:58 - Customer Experience vs. Customer Outcome
    29:27 - Things early-stage startups should not do
    35:50 - Summary

    About Irit

    Irit Eizips, Chief Customer Officer & CEO at CSM Practice, is a world-renowned expert in customer success strategies. She was nominated Top Customer Success Strategist and Influencer, year after year since 2013 for her contributions to shaping CS methodologies.

    In early 2023, Irit was named one of the Top 100 Customer Success Influencers and in 2022 Top 25 Most Innovative Leaders in CX. In 2021, Irit was recognized as one of the Top 100 Global Inspirational Leaders and Top 150 Global Customer Experience Thought Leaders. She was also featured in dozens of podcasts and webinars. Finally, Irit has served as a judge in globally renowned industry awards such as the USA CX Awards, CS Excellence Awards, and the CS100 Awards.
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    Connect with Irit on LinkedIn 👉https://www.linkedin.com/in/eizips

    Check out Irit's website CSM Practice 👉 https://www.csmpractice.com/

    Browse through Irit's resources for customer success 👉 https://www.csmpractice.com/resources

    Listen to The CSM Practice Podcast 👉 https://www.csmpractice.com/podcast
    ___________________________________________________________________

    Connect with the podcast host Mausmi Ambastha on LinkedIn 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mausmiambastha/

  • Cultivating an online presence opens the gateway to a realm abundant with opportunities. In an insightful conversation, Ashna Patel, a prominent figure in Customer Success, known for her robust online presence, joins forces with Mausmi Ambastha, Co-Founder of ZapScale. Together, they dice into the significance of constructing a personal brand and nurturing a network on LinkedIn.

    Ashna delves profoundly into the pivotal aspect of forging a potent online presence, offering a glimpse into her own journey of crafting an extraordinary personal brand on LinkedIn. She unveils the strategies behind harnessing LinkedIn's potential to foster authentic connections, gain insights from industry experts, and achieve holistic personal and professional growth.

    So, grab your headphones and get ready for an insightful conversation with Ashna Patel on scaling your personal brand for professional development in Customer Success.

    About Ashna

    Ashna Patel is a certified customer success leader with over 10 years of experience in all things customer success – Account Management, leadership, Coaching, team building and helping businesses scale. Ashna is also the Co-Founder of CS Insider which is a newsletter for those looking to break into & grow their role as first-time leaders. Apart from that, she also runs a book club, participates in local customer success meetups & also provides coaching services to individuals looking to Elevate their CS game & ace their role as first-time leaders.
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    Connect with Ashna on LinkedIn 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashnapatel92/

    Check out CS Insider 👉 https://www.csinsider.co/

    The LinkedIn Algorithm 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/posts/richardvanderblom_top-21-linkedin-tips-to-get-more-results-activity-7077175805721686016-Cd8e/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
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    Connect with the podcast host Mausmi Ambastha on LinkedIn 👉https://www.linkedin.com/in/mausmiambastha/

  • A true customer-centric company strives to know the needs of their customer at every stage of their journey.

    Identifying various touchpoints the customer has to go through help identify and solve problems together, increasing the chances of having delighted customers.

    Mike Sasaki, VP CS, Emburse joins Mausmi Ambastha, co-founder ZapScale to share his insights on creating a customer journey map to limit hand-off friction and retain and grow customers with limited resources.

    Timestamps
    0:43 - Mike's journey in CS
    05:30 - Cycle of Service Mapping
    07:07 - Understand the most impactful parts of the life cycle of the customer
    09:40 - Starting mapping the journey with sales and onboarding
    10:40 - Thinking customer journey outside in
    13:00 - Shadow your employees, and customers to practically learn their journey
    17:34 - Creating a customer journey map
    24:24 - Sales to Customer Success handoff can be disruptive
    25:52 - Customer onboarding is crucial for managing expectations and success
    31:31 - Structuring handoffs

    About Mike Sasaki
    Mike Sasaki, VP CS, Emburse, is a global leader in spend optimization that provides finance, technologies and innovation for companies. Mike's role allows him to partner with customers to achieve their business objectives through optimal use of Emburse solutions. With over 15 years of experience at SaaS and Customer Success, and having worked in companies like Oracle and Callidus Cloud, Mike has gained a significant experience in fostering strong customer relationships through value delivery.

    Connect with Mike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sasakimike
    Connect with Mausmi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mausmiambastha/

  • Donna Weber, the world renowned Customer Onboarding Expert and author of the book "Onboarding Matters" joins Mausmi Ambastha, co-founder of ZapScale and the host of the Scale Tale Podcast to share her wealth of expertise and provide valuable insights into measuring and addressing the cost of customer onboarding.

    Together, they discuss the importance of

    04:15 - Key CS metrics for early-stage companies
    10:00 - How to align CS metrics with business goals
    15:47 - Measuring the cost of customer onboarding
    22:28 - How to justify the cost of CS to the management in the early days of start-up
    24:20 - How to calculate the cost of customer onboarding (COCO)
    27:35 - Setting realistic onboarding timeframe and cost awareness
    36:33 - What you should NOT do while calculating CS metrics

    About Donna Weber:

    Donna is the world's leading expert in customer onboarding and customer success. For more than two decades, she has helped high growth startups and established enterprises transform new and existing customers into loyal champions. As a recognized thought leader, influencer, strategist, advisor, author, and speaker, Donna gets to the heart of customer success. Prior to founding her boutique consulting firm in 2016, Donna worked at several startups where she built customer success and customer education programs and organisations from scratch. Donna's award winning book, Onboarding Matters, is an amazing, powerful resource that encapsulates how successful companies transform new customers into loyal champions.


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    Check out Donna's Website 👉 https://www.donnaweber.com/
    Connect with her on LinkedIn 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnaweb
    Check out Donna's book 'Onboarding Matters' 👉 https://www.donnaweber.com/book
    ___________________________________________________________________

    Connect with the podcast host Mausmi Ambastha on LinkedIn 👉https://www.linkedin.com/in/mausmiambastha/

  • In the first episode of Scale Tale: The Customer Success Podcast, Mausmi Ambastha (Co-Founder ZapScale) dived into 2 very essential topics with Clay: helping customers define success and planning the entire onboarding experience around their success.

    As businesses, we often make certain assumptions about what success means for our customers. We have our own goals and metrics, but it is essential to take a step back and let our customers define success on their own terms. When we have a better understanding of their unique perspectives and aspirations, we can deliver products and experiences that truly resonate with them.

    One effective way is to engage in meaningful conversations with our customers. This can help us gain insights into their motivations, expectations, desires, and goals.

    Once we’ve gained this insight, we can design the onboarding process to align with their individual journeys and provide them with the guidance, resources, and support they need right from the beginning.

    And that can help significantly boost product adoption and customer retention.

    In the next episode of Scale Tale, we will be back with a new guest and a new topic around customer success and we will discuss practical tips and case studies on how to drive an effective CS strategy.

    Connect with our guest Clay Telfer on LinkedIn 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/claytelfer/
    Follow our host Mausmi Ambastha on LinkedIn 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mausmiambastha/