The Customer Success Pro Podcast
Anika Zubair
This is The Customer Success Pro Podcast, hosted by Anika Zubair. Customer Success is not a destination, but a a journey. Join me on this crazy CS journey as I chat to leaders, strategists and experts in customer success about their experiences and definitions of customer success and share with your their best practices on how to build and scale world class CS organization. Each interview will unlock tips, tricks and best practices to help scale your customer success career and company. I will dive into important and relevant topics to help spread knowledge about customer success in order to help companies put the customer at the center of their business. Because at the end of the day when customer are successful, so is the company.Learn more at: thecustomersuccesspro.com
Episodes
Mentioned books
12 snips
Dec 10, 2025 • 30min
How CS Pros Can Drive More Revenue Without Becoming Sales
Discover how customer success professionals can boost revenue without selling. Anika Zubair reveals the common pitfalls in CS roles and emphasizes the importance of understanding value tied to business outcomes. She shares a practical framework for engaging with clients and highlights the significance of curious discovery questions. Real-life examples illustrate the power of identifying expansion opportunities, like asking the right questions that led to a $70K growth. Listeners are challenged to rethink their approach and seek out expansion triggers.
Dec 3, 2025 • 58min
Building High-Performing CS Teams Without Playbooks with Courtney Balban
Courtney Balban, VP of Customer Success at Leadr, previously a therapist, shares her unique path to CS leadership. She emphasizes curiosity as a key to engaging customer conversations and building high-performing teams without rigid playbooks. Courtney discusses the importance of distinguishing between urgent tasks and impactful work, reframing discomfort as a learning opportunity, and coaching teams to dig deeper into customer needs. She also explores the balance of psychological safety and accountability in team dynamics, enhancing confidence and reducing turnover.
Nov 26, 2025 • 27min
How to Set CS Career Goals That Actually Lead to Promotions
Discover why talented Customer Success Managers often miss out on promotions. Learn to set promotion-focused goals instead of performance ones. Anika Zubair shares three common mistakes that hold professionals back, such as vague objectives and not tracking achievements. She introduces a three-step framework to align your goals with business outcomes, emphasize measurable results, and showcase your impact effectively. Get ready to refine your goals and take proactive steps toward your next title.
Nov 19, 2025 • 52min
How to Build Digital Success Plans That Actually Drive Adoption with Alana Stoltzfus
In this discussion, Alana Stoltzfus, a leader in digital customer success at Okta, shares her journey from hands-on customer support to scaling self-service programs. She delves into the importance of digital growth and how Okta's Success Hub personalizes the customer experience. Alana highlights the significance of goal-driven communication, tiered customer entitlements, and the tech tools that enhance their strategies. Key lessons include starting small, the value of data, and adapting to customer needs for continual improvement.
Nov 12, 2025 • 38min
Driving More Value in Executive Business Reviews
Anika Zubair explores the often-misunderstood Quarterly Business Review (QBR), emphasizing the need to shift from mundane reports to impactful discussions. She highlights common pitfalls, such as treating these sessions as mere usage reports and failing to engage executives. Learn her 5-step framework to align discussions with executive priorities, framing product outcomes in terms of business value. The conversation wraps with a challenge to transform your next QBR into a strategy-focused session that drives growth and opens new opportunities.
Nov 5, 2025 • 53min
Rethinking Health Scores in Customer Success with Sean Reid
Sean Reid, an award-winning customer success leader with experience at HubSpot and Personio, dives into the intricacies of health scores. He reveals how green scores can hide churn risks and emphasizes the importance of multithreading to engage key stakeholders. Sean introduces the concept of a Renewal Probability Score, balancing human sentiment with product signals for better forecasting. He also discusses transforming quarterly business reviews into compelling value stories and argues for viewing NPS as a long-term trend rather than a single data point.
21 snips
Oct 29, 2025 • 23min
Dealing with Customers That Ghost You 👻
Explore the spooky world of customer ghosting during Halloween! Discover why customers go silent and how being reactive hurts engagement. Learn the importance of clear value and expectations to keep conversations alive. Anika shares a personal ghosting story and effective strategies for re-engaging clients, focusing on adapting communication styles and understanding customer needs. Get ready for actionable tips to transform ghostly interactions into successful partnerships!
13 snips
Oct 21, 2025 • 28min
Implementing a Customer Success Strategy from Scratch
Discover the key strategies for building an effective Customer Success function from scratch. Anika Zubair shares her insights on avoiding common pitfalls and emphasizes the importance of collaboration across teams. Learn why focusing solely on renewals can limit your success and how to measure what truly matters. She stresses starting small, mapping the customer journey, and tracking predictive metrics instead of vanity ones. Anika also encourages listeners to start by listening to customers to create impactful strategies.
14 snips
Oct 15, 2025 • 22min
How to Handle Customer Objections During Renewals
Discover how to turn customer objections during renewals into golden opportunities. The speaker highlights common pitfalls and emphasizes the importance of strategic listening. Explore techniques like validating concerns and reframing discussions to emphasize business impact. Learn the significance of following up and documenting next steps for effective resolutions. Plus, a challenge encourages listeners to craft response strategies that can enhance their confidence and career growth in customer success.
17 snips
Oct 8, 2025 • 39min
How to Transform Your Customer Success Team into a Revenue Driver
Explore the vital investment in customer success teams to match sales efforts. Learn about the pitfalls of motivational training and the need for practical skills that drive revenue. Discover how building commercial confidence and structured frameworks can transform CSMs into strategic partners. From handling objections to multi-threading accounts, the focus is on developing a revenue-driven mindset. Anika also challenges leaders to evaluate their training investments and emphasizes the importance of tailored, hands-on workshops for long-term success.
