Customer Success

David Sakamoto, VP, Customer Success, GitLab

GitLab's customer onboarding process aims to ensure new customers achieve value and success from the start. The onboarding phase begins when an opportunity reaches the negotiating stage. An assigned CSM will then introduce themselves to the customer via email and schedule a kickoff call within 14 days. The kickoff call establishes goals, milestones and next steps. The CSM then develops a success plan and has a first cadence call within 30 days to discuss enablement opportunities and the customer's progress. GitLab tracks time-to-value metrics like time to engage, first value and time to onboard to monitor and improve the process. Delays in onboarding are documented and risks are flagged to determine if account escalation is needed.

Derek Skaletsky, Head of Product Led Growth, Copper

Derek provides the step to answer the question, "How many CSMs do we need to deliver the service-level we want without overspending?" Step 1: Figure out the Capacity of a CSM Step 2: Decide on your desired service-level Step 3. Deliver without Overspending Iteration: the Service Level or your Price point Testing and improving your Model

Atlassian, Editorial Team, Atlassian

This guide to capacity planning has 3 steps: 1. Set the stage: what will capacity planning be used for? 2. Build out a typical week's work for each individual 3. Summarize how time is being spent 4. Agree on next steps

Amy Levine, Customer Health Program Manager, Slack

Amy explains how to build your first health score. She details how to find what matters most to your company and make sure the team’s attention is focused on it.

Laurie Vickers, Senior Customer Success Manager, HubSpot

Laurie describes her preparation and question framework designed to maximize the impact of a first call with a new customer.

Artem Gurnov, Director, Account Development, Wrike

Artem covers what makes a question effective vs. ineffective and provides examples of essential questions for CSMs.

Sana Farooq, Senior Director, Customer Success Enablement and Customer Education, Dutchie

It's a familiar scenario: You're a new CSM thrown into the deep end with little onboarding support. Sana suggests a plan for self onboarding to get up to speed on the double.

Paula DeLosh, Manager, CSM Projects / Programs, Acquia

Four customer success leaders in Boston shared their experiences in developing technical skills: • Paula DeLosh, Project Customer Success Manager at Acquia: Deepened her skills by shadowing experienced employees and attending technical courses. • Wyeth Lynch, Senior CSM at MineralTree: Acquired technical knowledge through firsthand experience. • Zach Blecher, Senior Customer Success Manager at Arcadia: Background as a technical team lead set him up to provide both technical and project management support to customers. • Kyle Porter, Customer Success Manager at CloudHealth: Utilized a combination of training, trial and error, and dialogue with experts to grow his technical skills.

Joseph Darko, Global Head of AR Developer Relations, Snap

Joseph explains what the term "tech ecosystem" means and describes each of the component parts that make up the ecosystem. • Strong Developer Community • Engagement and Connection • Established Businesses and Companies • Accelerators & Tech Hubs • Universities & Schools

Artem Gurnov, Director, Account Development, Wrike

Artem has lead hundreds of webinars. He shares the advices he wishes he had before his first one. • Be an expert in your subject • Prepare a consistent story • Prioritize the essential topics • Conduct at least 3 dry runs • Eliminate “ums” and “ahs” • Have a plan or script in front of you • Ask a colleague to help with questions and webinar facilitation • Check your software and equipment