A Deep Dive into Customer Success Operations - Stephen McBride

SaaS companies spent the past decade optimizing for growth and customer acquisition at all costs. For many, the plan to actually retain and grow those customers has been foggy.

Now with many businesses facing the reality of massive churn, it's become incredibly clear that helping customers succeed is just as important as acquiring them in the first place.

So we're here today to discuss the third leg of the RevOps stool: customer success ops, and by extension, the discipline of customer success as well.

CS Ops doesn't get as much love or attention as marketing or sales ops—one of my past guests jokingly referred to CS Ops as the "red-headed step-child" of RevOps. But I think, and hope, this is starting to evolve.

Thanks to Our Sponsor

Many thanks to the sponsor of this episode - Knak.

If you don't know them (you should), Knak is an amazing email and landing page builder that integrates directly with your marketing automation platform.

You set the brand guidelines and then give your users a building experience that’s slick, modern and beautiful. When they’re done, everything goes to your MAP at the push of a button.

What's more, it supports global teams, approval workflows, and it’s got your integrations. Click the link below to get a special offer just for my listeners.

Try Knak

About Today's Guest

Stephen McBride is a Customer Success and CS Ops leader dedicated to helping companies grow better. His career has spanned in-house and consulting roles, and he’s spent over seven years in total at Hubspot, five of them as a leader in their Customer Success Org. He recently returned to the agency world with Go Nimbly as a RevOps Delivery Director.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mcbridest/

Key Topics

• [00:00] - Introduction
• [01:49] - Defining the role of customer success
• [02:51] - Role of CS in a PLG motion
• [03:37] - Strategies of a great CS team
• [06:00] - CS strategy at Hubspot
• [07:56] - Why do some big companies neglect CS?
• [09:29] - CS as cost center vs. growth driver
• [11:38] - Balancing the mindset of customer support vs. upselling
• [14:09] - Defining the mission of your CS team
• [15:36] - CS as a point of leverage in the customer experience
• [17:28] - Impact of macro-economic factors on CS strategies
• [20:06] - Identifying the impact of CS, factors you can A/B test
• [21:35] - Scope and mission of CS Operations
• [23:23] - CS Ops as a its own function vs. part of RevOps
• [29:09] - Who should a unified RevOps function report to?
• [31:52] - CS Ops vs. MOPS and SOPS
• [34:42] - CS tools and systems
• [40:19] - A best-in-class CS tech stack
• [42:34] - Churn forecasting
• [44:35] - Getting truly useful health scores
• [48:34] - Reducing churn

Thanks to Our Sponsor

Big thanks goes out UserGems for sponsoring today’s episode. 

We all know running outbound is a huge pain—you need to manage a dozen different tools and data sources and it takes ton of manual work to keep it all going.

UserGems solves that with one platform to capture signals and automate next steps with workflows and AI.

You get a library of the most impactful signals in one place, automated playbooks to make sure your team executes consistently, and Gem AI to create personalized messaging for each prospect. 

So stop wasting time and start targeting your most promising buyers with less headcount. Click the link below for a special offer just for my listeners.

Try UserGems

Resource Links

• Net Revenue Retention Hub - Go Nimbly - Go Nimbly's excellent hub on NRR and CS topics.

Learn More

Visit the RevOps FM Substack for our weekly newsletter:

Newsletter