The early days of a startup are like a never-ending game of whack-a-mole. You're constantly putting out fires, and you never know when the next one is going to pop up. Embracing chaos, and juggling multiple hats comes with a lot of fun too. This is one of the few episodes you absolutely can't miss!Mike Molinet, Co-founder of Branch and Founder of Thena goes unchurned and shares his experiences in the early days of the Branch when he did everything from outbound outreach to support and implementation. He also touched upon focusing on adoption in addition to- Why relationships matter more than product- The right time to hire when scaling the company- Why you don't need to overengineer tooling- How investing in indirect revenue can pay off.Mike also talks about the market pulling towards messaging for communication and how he is building Thena, a customer engagement platform for modern B2B companies. 👉 Get the advice and insights you need to thrive in Customer Success. Subscribe to the CS Insider Newsletter👉 Sign up for UpdateAI - the only Zoom virtual assistant for customer-facing teams. 👉 Be the first to know when a new episode of Unchurned is dropped. Sign up for our newsletter at https://blog.update.ai/ 👉 Josh would love to connect to hear your feedback & suggestions. Get in touch with him on Linkedin.👉 Get the advice and insights you need to thrive in Customer Success. Subscribe to the CS Insider Newsletter

🥁🥁🥁This week, we finally have a name for the CS Insider <> [Un]churned collab series!🥁🥁🥁 Unpack the BS with hosts Josh Schachter, Kristi Faltorusso, Jon Johnson  & Mickey Powell, and dig into why you need to  - Focus on impact rather than urgency - Say goodbye to the mundane QBR meetings- Standout from the digital filth of AI content on Linkedin 👉 Get the advice and insights you need to thrive in Customer Success - Subscribe to CS Insider Report👉 Get the advice and insights you need to thrive in Customer Success. Subscribe to the CS Insider Newsletter👉 Sign up for UpdateAI - the only Zoom virtual assistant for customer-facing teams. 👉 Be the first to know when a new episode of Unchurned is dropped. Sign up for our newsletter at https://blog.update.ai/ 👉 Josh would love to connect to hear your feedback & suggestions. Get in touch with him on Linkedin.👉 Get the advice and insights you need to thrive in Customer Success. Subscribe to the CS Insider Newsletter

Tensions are neither good nor bad. It's how we deal with them.  Building trusting relationships lies at the heart of customer success, and Dr. Wendy Smith, Author of Both/And Thinking reveals how you can navigate through the tension between building strong relationships with customers and selling/renewing their business. Using the framework of making micro shifts back and forth with intentionality, Dr. Smith explores possible solutions to this dilemma and emphasizes the importance of training and enabling individuals to handle the complexity of both approaches. Wendy also emphasizes the importance of "both-and" thinking and how it can be applied in the context of customer success. Josh and Wendy discuss- Tensions aren't good or bad. It's how.- Shift from either-or to both-and approach.- Teams can cause conflict or inspire creativity.- "Both and" requires creativity and boundaries.- Long-term thinking can improve relationships and profits.- Balancing roles, train to simplify complexity." We have fewer people but larger expectations of what we need to get done. How can we rethink how we resource people and their time and their experiences to be more efficient, more engaging, or more effective in the kind of work they're doing? - Wendy Smith👉 Get the advice and insights you need to thrive in Customer Success. Subscribe to the CS Insider Newsletter👉 Sign up for UpdateAI - the only Zoom virtual assistant for customer-facing teams. 👉 Be the first to know when a new episode of Unchurned is dropped. Sign up for our newsletter at https://blog.update.ai/ 👉 Josh would love to connect to hear your feedback & suggestions. Get in touch with him on Linkedin.👉 Get the advice and insights you need to thrive in Customer Success. Subscribe to the CS Insider Newsletter

Through more than 50 captivating conversations, we've had the privilege of engaging with distinguished guests, including Customer Success leaders, founders, and a few amazingly talented authors who wrote books not about Customer Success, not about customer-facing teams necessarily, but whose thought leadership can be easily applied.This week's episode is a spotlight episode with the key takeaways from three insightful conversations with - Kindra Hall will discuss how to craft compelling stories and narratives to connect with your customers.- Geoffrey Moore emphasizes the importance of redirecting budgets during downturns and patching up issues within customer success.- Kelly Leonard shares practical exercises on how to build better relationships and handle challenging situations using improv techniques.Listen to the full episode to hear more about these fascinating insights and how they can be applied to your work in customer success and beyond.Checkout the full episodes with- Kindra Hall on Spotify | Apple | Youtube- Geoffrey Moore on Spotify | Apple | Youtube- Kelly Leonard on Spotify | Apple | Youtube👉 Get the advice and insights you need to thrive in Customer Success. Subscribe to the CS Insider Newsletter👉 Sign up for UpdateAI - the only Zoom virtual assistant for customer-facing teams. 👉 Be the first to know when a new episode of Unchurned is dropped. Sign up for our newsletter at https://blog.update.ai/ 👉 Josh would love to connect to hear your feedback & suggestions. Get in touch with him on Linkedin.👉 Get the advice and insights you need to thrive in Customer Success. Subscribe to the CS Insider Newsletter

In the world of business, the concept of customer happiness has long been regarded as the holy grail.  Damien, CCO at Nimbello, argues that customer happiness should not be the primary objective in business. Instead, it should be viewed as a lagging indicator, a result of delivering value and meeting customers' objectives.Tune in to learn how you can maintain control of your customers and deliver exceptional value while ensuring the success of the customer's overall experience.Episode Highlights- STO framework for customer segmentation- Tailoring programs to deliver value and maintain customer attention - Value of maintaining active hygiene in customer interactions - Celebrating the efforts of customer success - Maintaining control as a CSM and understanding the customer experience- Creating a playbook for the team and using the STO framework- The challenge of identifying customer contacts  Damien has spent the last 20 years building, selling, and implementing SaaS. Since the inception of CS, he has worked to develop and refine best practices for revenue-focused customer success teams, helping hundreds of CSMs master their trade. He has served as a leader and advisor in Customer Success."The richest relationships I've ever formed with customers have come on the heels of exceptional value delivery." — Damien Howley 👉 Get the advice and insights you need to thrive in Customer Success. Subscribe to the CS Insider Newsletter👉 Sign up for UpdateAI - the only Zoom virtual assistant for customer-facing teams. 👉 Be the first to know when a new episode of Unchurned is dropped. Sign up for our newsletter at https://blog.update.ai/ 👉 Josh would love to connect to hear your feedback & suggestions. Get in touch with him on Linkedin.👉 Get the advice and insights you need to thrive in Customer Success. Subscribe to the CS Insider Newsletter

Pulse 2023 is here! It's getting harder to keep calm.Make sure to tune in to this light-hearted, humor-filled conversation with  Josh Schachter, Kristi Faltorusso, Jon Johnson  & Mickey Powell, and special guest Nick Mehta, CEO of Gainsight, as they uncover the swag at the upcoming Pulse conference. Everyone guesses Nick's outfit for Pulse, plays the drinking game, and discuss - Digital CS & Generative AI- CS as Drivers of Change and Performance- Optimizing the workload of customer success managers. Don't miss this episode filled with laughter, insights, and the goodness of CS. Make sure to hit that FOLLOW button to be notified of future episodes. 👉 Get the advice and insights you need to thrive in Customer Success. Subscribe to the CS Insider Newsletter👉 Sign up for UpdateAI - the only Zoom virtual assistant for customer-facing teams. 👉 Be the first to know when a new episode of Unchurned is dropped. Sign up for our newsletter at https://blog.update.ai/ 👉 Josh would love to connect to hear your feedback & suggestions. Get in touch with him on Linkedin.👉 Get the advice and insights you need to thrive in Customer Success. Subscribe to the CS Insider Newsletter

"You'll not sustain shareholder value unless you create greater value for your customers. (It's time to) rethink and reconceptualize the organization as being into business at customer service." - Bill GeorgeDelve in this [Un]churned conversation with host, Josh Schachter and Bill George, an executive fellow at Harvard Business School and author of the True North series as they discuss02:43 -  True North Framework05:30 -  Younger generations are more focused on purpose and values.07:26 -  Serving customers is the focal point of business success 09:04 -  Talk to customers every day!10:21 -  CEOs spend only 3% of their time talking to customers12:23 -  The importance of prioritizing frontline people over CEOs16:31 - Everyone in an organization must think of themselves as a leader to make a difference.21:00 - Bill George's True North Resources- Connect with Bill on Linkedin- Get a copy of True North: Leading Authentically in Today's Workplace 👉 Get the advice and insights you need to thrive in Customer Success. Subscribe to the CS Insider Newsletter👉 Sign up for UpdateAI - the only Zoom virtual assistant for customer-facing teams. 👉 Be the first to know when a new episode of Unchurned is dropped. Sign up for our newsletter at https://blog.update.ai/ 👉 Josh would love to connect to hear your feedback & suggestions. Get in touch with him on Linkedin.👉 Get the advice and insights you need to thrive in Customer Success. Subscribe to the CS Insider Newsletter

Welcome to #OTW!#OTW - OpenToWork, is a new series on [Un]churned, featuring amazing SaaS leaders and practitioners who are open and ready for their next role.This episode features, Erica Scully, Member, Customer Success Collective. Erica is addicted to challenges, is customer-obsessed, and loves building long-term client relationships. She likes to get things done and enjoys educating her customers and seeing them win in their business with our products. 👉 Get the advice and insights you need to thrive in Customer Success. Subscribe to the CS Insider Newsletter👉 Sign up for UpdateAI - the only Zoom virtual assistant for customer-facing teams. 👉 Be the first to know when a new episode of Unchurned is dropped. Sign up for our newsletter at https://blog.update.ai/ 👉 Josh would love to connect to hear your feedback & suggestions. Get in touch with him on Linkedin.👉 Get the advice and insights you need to thrive in Customer Success. Subscribe to the CS Insider Newsletter

Damien Howley, CCO, Nimbello joins  Josh Schachter, Kristi Faltorusso, Jon Johnson  & Mickey Powell in this week's CS Unchurned episode. Tune in to hear them discuss their experiences and insights on- Stories of losing control of customers - Strategies for managing difficult interactions.- Limitations of using happiness as a metric for CS- Use of Net Promoter Score (NPS) as a customer feedback metric. Watch the podcast on Youtube: https://youtu.be/YNNZRrAdAeMLinks from the episode- Buy the book: Control Your Customer - 10 reasons why Customer Success should own Revenue - Will AI kill off Net Promoter Score?- 6 bad habits that cost CSMs a fortune👉 Get the advice and insights you need to thrive in Customer Success - Subscribe to CS Insider Report👉 Get the advice and insights you need to thrive in Customer Success. Subscribe to the CS Insider Newsletter👉 Sign up for UpdateAI - the only Zoom virtual assistant for customer-facing teams. 👉 Be the first to know when a new episode of Unchurned is dropped. Sign up for our newsletter at https://blog.update.ai/ 👉 Josh would love to connect to hear your feedback & suggestions. Get in touch with him on Linkedin.👉 Get the advice and insights you need to thrive in Customer Success. Subscribe to the CS Insider Newsletter

In this episode of [Un]churned, host Josh Schachter talks with James Manderson, Senior Vice President of Global Customer Success at Braze, a leading marketing platform that helps brands interact with their customers in real time. Josh and James discuss:   Evolution of the Customer Success Department at BrazeImportance of specialization in roles and incentive plans tailored to specific rolesMonitoring teamwork through showcases, analytics, and ops teamImportance of personalization and real-time communicationRole of Leadership in career growth👉 Get the advice and insights you need to thrive in Customer Success. Subscribe to the CS Insider Newsletter👉 Sign up for UpdateAI - the only Zoom virtual assistant for customer-facing teams. 👉 Be the first to know when a new episode of Unchurned is dropped. Sign up for our newsletter at https://blog.update.ai/ 👉 Josh would love to connect to hear your feedback & suggestions. Get in touch with him on Linkedin.👉 Get the advice and insights you need to thrive in Customer Success. Subscribe to the CS Insider Newsletter