Episode #68: Homelessness, Music, CS, & Leadership ft. Jon Jonson (UserTesting)
Josh Schachter & Jon Johnson chat about Jon’s journey to CS
Episode #67: Breaking into and Rocking CS: A Roadmap for Professional Success ft. Erica Akroyd (Pendo.io)
Starting as a CSM and transitioning through various roles in customer success (CS Enterprise, CS Mid-market & Scaled CS) and product management, Erica Akroyd has done it all.
Erica is currently leading the customer education team at Pendo.io
Also, Erica has a message for those looking to break into and rock CS.
See Jon’s hair makeover exclusively on our YouTube channel.
Episode Starts at 8:30
In this episode, Josh Schachter, Kristi Faltorusso, & Jon Johnson chat with Erica to break down the pros and cons of each role on the ladder of success as a CS professional.
Episode #66: Boost Revenue from Existing Customers with Scalable Success ft. Dickey Singh (Cast.app)
Dickey Singh, Founder and CEO of Cast.app the leading automation platform for companies to drive growth, sales, and referrals from their existing customers.
Episode #65 The Flawed Hiring Process: Recommendation, Referral, and Rejection ft. Jenny Calvert (Director of CS, HuntClub)
Job hunting isn’t easy.
What adds to the frustration are the assignments, presentations, and exercises in these interview rounds.
Episode #64 CSMs Need to Have Octopus Hands ft. Stevie Case (Vanta)
CSMs are responsible for a wide range of tasks, including:
Onboarding new customers
Providing technical support
Managing customer accounts, developing and implementing customer success strategies, identifying and resolving customer churn …
Episode #63 Do CS Platforms Really Solve the Problems Faced by the CS Team? : CS & BS
Organizational leaders often sign up for a CS Platform to solve their biggest customer success challenges. However, software implementation and adoption can be difficult, and many platforms don’t meet all the needs of their customers.
Episode #62 Driving Revenue Growth with the CCO as a Strategic Partner ft. Alexis H. (Heidrick & Struggles) & Rod Cherkas (Hello CCO)
When revenue growth is a company’s top priority, the value of post-sales teams is often overlooked.
Episode #61 The Consultant’s Secret for Improving Customer Success ft. Jeff Kushmerek (Infinite Renewals)
Customer Success, in hindsight, is a long-term renewal strategy.
Watch the uncut BTS & BS on our YouTube channel – https://youtu.be/Hyk_jL3i0u0
Join Josh Schachter, Kristi Faltorusso, Jon Johnson & Mickey Powell as they chat with Jeff Kushmerek, Founder of Infinite Renewals. Jeff helps startups improve their customer success strategy.
Episode #60 Orchestrating a Value Journey that Ensures Customers Get the Most Out of Your Product ft. Ahmed Quadri
Customer experience is more than just using the product. Every interaction with a customer is a touchpoint that can influence your relationship with them.
Don’t let your customers fall through the cracks.
Ahmed Quadri, CCO at Heap, joins Josh Schachter, CEO of UpdateAI, to discuss how they navigate the value journey at Heap to maximize the value and relationship customers get.
Josh and Ahmed also discuss
Episode #59 Say “NO” to Silos & “YES” to Cross-Functional Collaboration for REAL Customer Success Ft. Ramli John (Appcues)
Every customer-facing team has a hypothesis about what drives customer success.
How accurate is this hypothesis?
Finding problems and fixing them in silos isn’t going to give the full picture of what a successful customer journey needs to look and feel like from onboarding to renewal
Episode #53 Partnering With the Product Team for Customer Success Ft. Alli Tiscornia & Abby Hammer (ChurnZero)
The terrifying truth is that the prosperity or downfall of a SaaS organization depends on the value the product delivers to its customers.
Despite the fact that the feedback loop between product and customer could be challenging, the efforts made by the CS & the product team to understand and prioritize customer input hugely decide the fate of our company.
Episode #54 CS & BS: Who Wins the Tug-of-War, Team Customer Success or Team Sales? ft. Hamish Stephenson ( Selr.io)
There has been a long-standing cold war between Sales and CS.
This episode addresses the tiff.
The disconnect between the teams’ expectations makes it challenging for organizations to prioritize the long-term health of the customer.
Hamish Stephenson, Founder & CEO of, Selr.io joins our hosts, Josh Schachter, Kristi Faltorusso, Jon Johnson & Mickey Powell to defuse the tension between the two teams.
Episode #55 How to Keep Customers from Churning When Renewal Budgets Are Tight ft. Gillian Heltai, CCO (Lattice)
Do you want to make a career switch and break into CS?
Join Josh Schachter, Kristi Faltorusso, and Jon Johnson as they uncover the truth behind the preconceived notions of the customer success industry with Julie Raeder, CSM Dooly, who transitioned from education to customer success.
Episode #52 CS & BS: Leadership Onboarding, Job Hunting, Strategy versus Tools and Google’s Bard ft. Celia Gouveia
unting for your next role is no easier than working a full-time job.
You know it’s tough out there.
Celia Gouveia had been there too. She had been on a job hunt for more than 3 months before she finally landed the dream job as Director, Customer Success at Smart Recruiters. She unveils all the frustration that she had to go through while job hunting and also explains how you can find your next gig by leveraging your network.
Episode #51 Early Customers Who Get the Startup Mentality Are Essential to Success ft. Nikola Mijic (Founder, Matik)
In this unchurned conversation, Nikola Mijic, the Founder of Matik joins Josh Schachter. Both of them dive into how Nikola got into the world of CS, and his experience working at Linkedin
Episode #50 – CS & BS: We Really Need to Ditch the Checkbox Mentality
Have you been frustrated with checking boxes without truly understanding why you are doing it? So are Jon and Mickey.
Kristi knows for sure that the leadership is at fault.
Episode #48 CS [Un]churned: Do We Really Need QBRs With Every Customer?
🥁🥁🥁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
Episode #49 The Inside Story of Branch’s $100M ARR Success ft. Mike Molinet (Co-founder, Branch)
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!
Episode #47 Finding Balance in Customer Success: Navigating Paradoxes to Build Long-Term Relationships ft. Wendy Smith (Author)
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.
Episode #46 [Un]churned Spotlight: Insights from 3 Remarkable Authors ft. Kindra Hall, Kelly Leonard, Geoffrey Moore
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.