Skip to main content
TheySaid: Real Strategies for Customer Success

TheySaid: Real Strategies for Customer Success

By TheySaid

On this podcast, you’ll hear from forward-thinking leaders about the Customer Success strategies that matter most. Welcome to the no-fluff podcast for Customer Success. Powered by the team at TheySaid.
Available on
Apple Podcasts Logo
Spotify Logo
Currently playing episode

Scaling? Here’s How to Get Ahead of a Declining Customer Experience

TheySaid: Real Strategies for Customer SuccessSep 23, 2021

00:00
16:09
Use VOC Feedback to Figure Out Workarounds That DON’T Include New Features

Use VOC Feedback to Figure Out Workarounds That DON’T Include New Features

Before Meta acquired Kustomer in 2022, Chad Horenfeldt, Kustomer’s then Director of Customer Success, saw the need for a revamp of the company’s Voice of Customer program and practices. He went on to design a comprehensive VOC program focusing on three objectives: Capture, Analyze, and Act. In this episode, Chad covers the highly effective VOC survey he helped implement, how to get executive team buy-in for a VOC program, and why it’s important to use VOC data to craft workarounds that don’t always include building new features.
Aug 01, 202230:27
You're Doing VOC, but Is It Working?

You're Doing VOC, but Is It Working?

Today on the Nuffsaid podcast we spoke with Sandy Yu, the Global Lead of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Advisory Boards, about how a Voice of Customer program can provide real value to an organization and prove its effectiveness to the executive team. If you’re unsure of whether or not your VOC program is working, this is a must-listen episode.
Jul 21, 202228:46
How to Flex Your Voice of Customer Muscle With Slack VOC Expert

How to Flex Your Voice of Customer Muscle With Slack VOC Expert

Having worked for the last four years in Voice of Customer at large companies (first Lyft and now Slack), it’s safe to say Kevin Vielbaum is a master of his craft. In this Nuffsaid podcast episode, Kevin digs into several interesting topics including how he measures the success of a VOC program.
Jul 11, 202229:22
Build the Product Your Customers Want Using VOC Data

Build the Product Your Customers Want Using VOC Data

With a background in Marketing & Growth at companies like Hubs, Recruitee, and Growth Tribe Academy, Ferdinand Goetzen, now CEO & Co-founder at Reveall, has a natural orientation to use Voice of Customer data to make product decisions. That’s why in this episode of the Nuffsaid podcast, he explains his philosophy on how to build the best product possible.
Jun 28, 202228:24
The Meeting That Every VOC Program Is Missing

The Meeting That Every VOC Program Is Missing

Beyond being the most entertaining guest we’ve had on the show, Jeanne Hopkins, CRO at OneScreen.ai & former CMO at Lola.com, convinced us that the Voice of Customer sync she designed is the most impactful meeting a leader can schedule.
Jun 14, 202239:11
Box’s Jeff Justice Williams on Building a VOC Program at Scale

Box’s Jeff Justice Williams on Building a VOC Program at Scale

Jeff Justice Williams is the Sr. Executive Director of Enterprise Customer Success at Box and has led CS teams at companies like Stack Overflow, WeWork, and Dropbox. In this conversation, Jeff highlights how a Voice of Customer program should operate at scale.
Jun 06, 202233:24
Actually Closing the Loop With Customers in a VOC Program

Actually Closing the Loop With Customers in a VOC Program

Having played critical roles on Voice of Customer teams at companies like VMware, Red Hat, and Citrix, Nick Woerner, current Director of CX at Mineral, joins the Nuffsaid podcast to share wisdom on what it actually takes to close the loop with customers within a VOC program.
May 16, 202229:19
The Advanced Voice of Customer Program Blueprint

The Advanced Voice of Customer Program Blueprint

Here’s VP of Customer Success at ESG, Peter Armaly, to kick off our new podcast series on Voice of the Customer (VOC) programs. Coming from a background with extensive Customer Success experience including having spent more than 5 years as a CS executive at Oracle, Peter shares how an advanced VOC program is run.
May 06, 202236:22
Digital CS at Mega-Scale: VMware’s Approach

Digital CS at Mega-Scale: VMware’s Approach

VMware’s Meenu Agarwal runs one of the largest books of business in the world. As SVP of Customer Success at a company with a revenue of over $12B, more than 2,000 Customer Success team members around the globe, and 500,000 customers, Meenu understands what digital Customer Success should look like at mega-scale. In this episode, Meenu breaks down their 2022 goal of scaling Customer Success through innovative digital programs like VMware Customer Connect, Success 360™, and training channel partners.
Mar 10, 202225:45
A Quick-Start Guide to Data-Driven Digital CS

A Quick-Start Guide to Data-Driven Digital CS

Dan Ennis, the Manager of the US Scale Customer Success team at Monday.com, came on the Nuffsaid podcast this week to share how his team uses data in a highly sophisticated way to drive an effective Digitally-Led CS program. In this episode, Dan touches on everything from how to look beyond product usage data and into more useful trending data, what to avoid when building out a scaled model, how his team uses customer patterns to detect churn risk and expansion opportunities, and the avenues Monday.com’s Scaled function uses to collect and act upon Voice of Customer data.
Feb 24, 202230:44
The 5 Stages of Digital Customer Success Maturity

The 5 Stages of Digital Customer Success Maturity

In this episode, Marley Wagner, VP of Marketing & Digital Customer Success at ESG, shares her company’s sophisticated Digital Customer Success maturity framework. Marley walks us through each stage of Digital CS maturity and covers everything from what it takes to lay the right foundations to implementing advanced digital communication channels.
Feb 16, 202226:52
Tips for Launching a Digital CS Strategy, with Elisabeth Courland

Tips for Launching a Digital CS Strategy, with Elisabeth Courland

For Elisabeth Courland, Digital CSM at Agorapulse, launching a Digitally-Led Customer Success program is about starting with a solid foundation of understanding the customer, then deploying automation. In this episode, Elisabeth shares a trove of tips that anyone tasked with crafting a digital CS strategy will be able to quickly implement.
Feb 10, 202225:15
The Future of Digital CS? Just Take a Look at Brian LaFaille’s Program

The Future of Digital CS? Just Take a Look at Brian LaFaille’s Program

Eight years ago, Brian LaFaille stepped on as Looker’s first Customer Success hire. Since then he’s seen Looker through a $2.6B acquisition by Google and was a crucial member of a team that was tasked with servicing customers at a massive scale. In this episode, Brian walks us through the journey Looker took to learn how to effectively run a digitally-led CS motion that would benefit all segments and customers — from Enterprise to SMB.
Feb 03, 202228:22
For Gainsight’s Lane Holt, Digital CS Is a Strategy, Not a Segment

For Gainsight’s Lane Holt, Digital CS Is a Strategy, Not a Segment

At the beginning of 2021, Lane Holt, Director of Client Outcomes at Gainsight, was a team of 1 and tasked with building out the company’s digitally-led CS model. Fast forward 12 months and you’ll see that she’s developed a mighty team of 8 to architect a hugely successful digital program. In this episode, Lane breaks down the roles and responsibilities of her team, how to detect risk and expansion opportunities in a digital model, and most importantly, why she believes that digital CS is not a segment—but a strategy that can benefit all customers.
Dec 20, 202123:06
Use High-Touch Strategies to Inform Your Digitally-Led Model

Use High-Touch Strategies to Inform Your Digitally-Led Model

According to Dickey Singh (CEO & Cofounder of Cast.app), most Digital CS approaches including low- and tech-touch models today aren’t effective. That's why this week he shares how Customer Success teams can take a working high-touch model to inform their digitally-led CS practices.
Dec 10, 202116:54
GitLab’s Jeff Beaumont on How CS Ops Drives Net Retention

GitLab’s Jeff Beaumont on How CS Ops Drives Net Retention

GitLab’s Director of Customer Success Operations, Jeff Beaumont, breaks down how CS Ops can be key to increasing Net Retention.
Dec 02, 202130:53
Why Customer Onboarding Should Never Really End

Why Customer Onboarding Should Never Really End

Head of Customer Experience at Arrows, Shareil Nariman, knows more about customer onboarding than just about anyone we’ve ever spoken with. In this episode, Shareil explains how to implement continuous onboarding at your company, use your high-touch experience to inform your low-touch onboarding, and measure your onboarding program’s success.
Nov 11, 202120:16
Signs Your CS Team Is Operating Like a Cost Center, Not a Profit Center

Signs Your CS Team Is Operating Like a Cost Center, Not a Profit Center

On today’s show, Beth Yehaskel, a Customer Success Architect at Winning by Design, preps us for end-of-year CFO budgeting and headcount conversations by sharing the difference between a CS org that’s run as a profit center versus a cost center.
Nov 04, 202118:14
How to Break Into CS Ops With Gainsight’s Seth Wylie

How to Break Into CS Ops With Gainsight’s Seth Wylie

In this episode, Seth Wylie, Director of CS Ops & Admin Community at Gainsight (who has one of the most thoughtful perspectives on CS Ops in the space) offers up some paths for breaking into CS Ops and the skillsets that are most useful in the role.
Oct 27, 202130:46
How CS Ops Works at LinkedIn

How CS Ops Works at LinkedIn

During this episode, Zeina Marcotte describes how LinkedIn's CS Ops team is set up, why her team reports to the centralized global Ops function, and how this structure can actually be a benefit to the Customer Success team.
Oct 14, 202124:56
Why CS Has the Best Opportunity to Hire, Retain, and Promote More Black Leaders

Why CS Has the Best Opportunity to Hire, Retain, and Promote More Black Leaders

This week we break down the opportunity Customer Success has to take action to hire, retain, and promote more Black leaders.
Oct 07, 202109:06
The Core Themes of Customer-Led Growth

The Core Themes of Customer-Led Growth

Today on the ‘nuffsaid podcast we spoke with Dave Jackson, CEO of TheCustomer.Co about his new book, "Customer-Led Growth: A CEO’s Guide to Building a B2B SaaS Company".
Sep 30, 202123:53
Scaling? Here’s How to Get Ahead of a Declining Customer Experience

Scaling? Here’s How to Get Ahead of a Declining Customer Experience

The customer experience tends to decline as a company grows—but what can Customer Success teams do about it? In this episode, Natalie Fedie, VP of Customer Value at HighRadius, answers this question: she says too many teams look at customer health data too late. Natalie suggests analyzing customer health predictively with three specific steps.
Sep 23, 202116:09
Two Tactics to Level-Up Your VOC Program

Two Tactics to Level-Up Your VOC Program

“I’m not talking about fluffy quotes. You need to capture the literal voice of your customers.” Dana Alvarenga, VP of Customer Experience at SlapFive, offers two tactics to level-up your Voice of Customer Program.
Sep 15, 202119:25
Engineering Customer-Value-Led Growth

Engineering Customer-Value-Led Growth

Markus Rentsch, CEO of Remark-able, joined us to define his philosophy on Customer-Value-Led Growth (CVLG).
Sep 09, 202123:23
3 Great Things That Happen When CS Owns Sales Engineering

3 Great Things That Happen When CS Owns Sales Engineering

Customer Success leader, Daniel Rose, thinks Sales Engineering should live within CS; “Sales Engineering won’t allow deals to slip through because of a short-sighted approach.” In this episode, Daniel shares the main benefits of Customer Success owning Sales Engineering: more control over time to value, better use cases, and Net Retention Rate.
Sep 03, 202117:33
How to Get Budget For a CX Initiative

How to Get Budget For a CX Initiative

Chief Experience Officer, Craig Antonucci, came on the show to share how to justify a CX program with your CFO. He said “it’s simple”—the conversation should be led with data and focus on three areas: how the CX initiative will sell more, save money, and fit the company’s mission.
Aug 26, 202121:52
Asana’s Kalina Bryant on Why a Culture of Connection and Empathy is Key to Successful Customer Advocacy in a Hybrid World

Asana’s Kalina Bryant on Why a Culture of Connection and Empathy is Key to Successful Customer Advocacy in a Hybrid World

Kalina Bryant has a rich background in customer advocacy, engagement, and voice of customer programs. Now Asana’s Head of Global Customer Advocacy, Customer Experience, and Executive Programs (and Founder & Host of the UnapologeTECH podcast), Kalina spoke with us about how CS and Customer Advocacy should work together.
Aug 19, 202117:29
3 Tactics for Accelerating Your Career From Gainsight’s CCO

3 Tactics for Accelerating Your Career From Gainsight’s CCO

When you grow from CSM to CCO in 4 years, people will want to know how you did it. On the 'nuffsaid podcast, Kellie Capote recalls 3 distinct tactics that helped her scale at hyper-speed at Gainsight.
Aug 12, 202120:02
How to Use Health Scores and Usage Data to Increase Customer Retention

How to Use Health Scores and Usage Data to Increase Customer Retention

In the last quarter of the year 2020, CSM Practice conducted a study to assess the validity of common industry assumptions about customer health scores. In this episode, Irit Eizips shares some surprising trends that came out of that research, along with advice on how to properly implement insights pulled from usage data. For low touch engagement models, she makes the case for having two health scores, using two separate teams:

1) Proactive / CSM Team - to measure and increase the value your customers get from your products and services.

2) Reactive / Retention Team - to evaluate various risk triggers that might cause a customer to churn and follow up with a clear playbook.
Aug 05, 202123:09
How to Measure VOC at the Speed of Relevance

How to Measure VOC at the Speed of Relevance

Salesforce’s VP of Customer & Market Insights, Karen Mangia, reveals the secrets every CS leader needs to know to encourage engagement, invite innovation, and remain relevant. Karen shares details about the metrics that matter, how to move from intention to action, and what success means to your customers right now. If you're willing to listen.
Jul 29, 202125:27
A Hiring Philosophy From Klue’s VP of CS

A Hiring Philosophy From Klue’s VP of CS

Adam Houghton, VP of Customer Success at Klue, dives into the sophisticated hiring process he's implemented across four different companies. It’s a four step model: 1) Hire proven anchors to serve on your leadership team, 2) build around those anchors with unproven high potential people that challenge the status quo, 3) provide a transparent career path for your teams, and 4) build an environment where people “earn the right” to be promoted.
Jul 22, 202120:31
CCOs Need These Skills to Become COO

CCOs Need These Skills to Become COO

Rumor has it “the CCO is the new COO.” Matt Zelen, UserTesting’s COO (formerly CCO), came on the show to explain what it takes to make that career transition.
Jul 15, 202124:43
How CS Teams Can Help Support Orgs Be More Proactive

How CS Teams Can Help Support Orgs Be More Proactive

Nick Chang, Global Head of Customer Success at HPE GreenLake, joined us on the ‘nuffsaid podcast to discuss the separation of responsibilities between Customer Success and Support within enterprise organizations. In this episode, Nick argues against the long-standing belief that Support teams should only be reactive and shares his take on why the future may include CS and Support merging into one function.
Jul 08, 202119:48
How Salesforce Monetizes Customer Success

How Salesforce Monetizes Customer Success

Salesforce’s Brett Matthews breaks down how they monetize CS (hint: it’s not “monetizing CSMs”). They have tiers of offerings that include higher levels of support, services, and, interestingly, access to subject matter experts under their “expert coaching” program. Everything’s tailored around helping customers be more successful. It’s an excellent example of what monetizing CS can look like at scale.
Jul 01, 202112:45
The New School System of Customer Segmentation

The New School System of Customer Segmentation

David Kocher, VP of Customer Success at Medidata Solutions, shares the segmentation and coverage models he developed so his team can focus on the right customers in the right way. His formula helps prioritize customers using two matrices: ARR mapped against health score and adoption vs. maturity.
Jun 24, 202117:20
Defining the Ideal Customer Profile: The CS Leader’s Guide

Defining the Ideal Customer Profile: The CS Leader’s Guide

Rupal Nishar, AVP of Customer Success at Netomi, shares how Customer Success should work cross-functionally to influence the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and how doing so ensures long-term customer engagement and company growth.
Jun 17, 202120:32
How Outreach Reduces TTV With Customer Education

How Outreach Reduces TTV With Customer Education

Dave Derington, Customer Education leader at Outreach, gives us an inside look at how Outreach’s Customer Education program works.
Jun 10, 202119:31
How We Drive Advocacy Through Customer Marketing

How We Drive Advocacy Through Customer Marketing

Niclas Ramon Staberg, CCO at Hive Streaming, joined the ‘nuffsaid podcast to make the case for having Customer Marketing live within the broader Customer team. He also offers an idea: try sharing customer stories internally to foster a customer-centric culture.
Jun 03, 202117:53
Step 1 of Growing Your Executive Influence

Step 1 of Growing Your Executive Influence

Jeff Heckler, Global Head of Customer Success at Pipedrive, breaks down the actions CS leaders can take to increase their prominence on the executive team.
May 26, 202108:17
Why CCOs of the Future May Have a Background in Product

Why CCOs of the Future May Have a Background in Product

In episode 2 of 2 with Stacie Ward, VP of Customer Success, Stacie shares a prediction: the best CCOs of the future will have backgrounds in Product and CS.
May 13, 202106:43
Moving From a Career in Sales to CS? Listen to This VP’s Advice

Moving From a Career in Sales to CS? Listen to This VP’s Advice

Seven years ago, Stacie Ward made the switch from being a Sales manager to a VP of Customer Success. Today she joined ‘wellsaid to explain why she made this move and the specific skills she knows a Sales manager needs to successfully transition into a CS role.
May 13, 202104:53
If Your Risk Assessment Doesn’t Look at Personas Within Accounts, It’s Not Accurate

If Your Risk Assessment Doesn’t Look at Personas Within Accounts, It’s Not Accurate

In our final episode with Asaff Zamir, Asaff explains his approach to risk assessment by treating customer accounts as a subjective ecosystem. To do an accurate assessment of account health, he advocates for looking at each persona within an account and analyzing each person's perspective, experience, relationship strength, and personality.
May 06, 202106:25
6 Ingredients CSMs Need to Mix Into Every Customer Relationship

6 Ingredients CSMs Need to Mix Into Every Customer Relationship

In episode 2 of 3 with Asaff Zamir, VP of Customer Success at Siemplify, Asaff shares how to coach CSMs on how to nurture positive emotional experiences with their customers using six key elements: personalization, integrity, (setting) expectations, empathy, time to value, and responsibility.
May 06, 202103:48
Why CSMs Must Act Like Psychologists

Why CSMs Must Act Like Psychologists

Asaff Zamir, VP of Customer Success at Siemplify, argues that being in Customer Success is much like being a customer psychologist—you have to describe, explain, predict, and change the behavior of others. He explains why it’s crucial for CSMs to “identify the needs of their customers and drive confidence and trust through transparency.”
May 06, 202106:11
Breaking Down the Risk Escalation Process

Breaking Down the Risk Escalation Process

Tanya Strauss, Director of Customer Success Strategy and Operations at ServiceNow, breaks down best practices in preventing risks via a streamlined escalation process. She advocates for defining categories of risk, documenting tribal knowledge about historical escalations, and building a team whose sole focus is on helping CSMs with fire prevention, not firefighting.
Apr 28, 202108:27
“Treat Onboarding Like a Product” and Other Advice for Working with High Volume/SMB Customers

“Treat Onboarding Like a Product” and Other Advice for Working with High Volume/SMB Customers

Lauren Humphrey, former VP of Customer Success and Payments GTM and current advisor at brightwheel dives into lessons learned from working with a high volume of SMB customers. Her tips include making every touchpoint count, thinking of onboarding as a product, delivering high quality experiences through specialization, and investing in systems early on.
Apr 27, 202109:28
Debate Part 2: Does Assigning Ownership Create Division?

Debate Part 2: Does Assigning Ownership Create Division?

Here’s part 2 of our debate with Dave Jackson, CCO at DeepCrawl and CEO of TheCustomer.Co, on the pros and cons of assigning “ownership” within companies. Chris and Dave cover: how CEOs can be thoughtful about breaking down silos, the viability of company-wide commission plans, and more.
Apr 14, 202109:37
Debate Part 1: Is “Ownership” a Last-Century Concept?

Debate Part 1: Is “Ownership” a Last-Century Concept?

This is part 1 of our discussion with Dave Jackson, CCO at DeepCrawl and CEO of TheCustomer.Co, on the topic of “ownership.” Dave explains why he thinks ownership is “built on the bankrupt idea of hierarchy” and Chris makes the case that every decision must have one owner.
Apr 14, 202107:41
How VMware Sets Up Listening Posts for Customer Sentiment

How VMware Sets Up Listening Posts for Customer Sentiment

In episode 2 of 2 with Keri Keeling, the Global Head of Customer Success Innovation & Intelligence at VMware, Keri digs into her latest project—creating “listening posts” to collect and measure customer sentiment across the user journey.
Apr 06, 202106:34