The deck I used at the first Los Angeles Customer Success Professionals Meetup to outline my personal journey into to world of Customer Success, and some lessons I learned a long the way.

1. Confessions of a CSM
How a wrong turn made me responsible for your success

2. Thanks.

3. Los Angeles
Customer Success
Professionals

4. Who is this guy?
And why should we
listen to him?

5. Joseph Palumbo
Customer Success Leader

7. I’m supposed to
build a customer
success program?
How do I do that?

8. MARKETING FINANCE PROJECT MANAGEMENT
TECHNICAL SUPPORT OPERATIONS ENTREPRENEUR
UX/UI DESIGN PRODUCT MANAGER SALES
CUSTOMER SUCCESS

19. 2 things
…how to figure out problems
…how to teach others

25. Customer Success Laboratory

27. Specialist
Creative
Mac Genius

28. Consultation
Onboarding
Check-ins

30. People hate to feel dumb*
*Especially accomplished people

32. Vs

33. Vs

36. “We don’t repair computers. We repair relationships.”

39. Smart people don’t like to feel dumb.

40. Words matter.

42. Transformational. Not transactional.

46. Race to the cloud

49. Sh*t was breaking left and right!

50. When you’re first to market with a new technology,
you’re responsible for teaching people how to use it.

51. Web Server
Application Server
Database
Email Server

52. Specialist
Creative
Mac Genius

53. Specialist
Creative
Mac Genius

54. Cloud Launch Team
+ Onboarding
+ Implementation
+ Training

55. Onboarding has the biggest ROI
If you can only invest in one thing,
invest in onboarding

56. hurtlocker@rackspace.com

57. Don’t waste time solving the problems you want to solve,
solve for the problems you have!
BUILD CUSTOMER PERSONAS
First Lesson Learned

58. Cloud-savvy Developer

59. 60 Days
Onboarding Implementation Support

60. Revenue 26%
Churn 60%
Support 38%

64. Marketing/
Sales
Corporate
Strategy
Product
Manager
UX/UI
Design
3 Years

66. We didn’t know what to call it,
we just knew it worked

67. SaaS vs. IaaS

77. Jay Lafarr

80.
“Can you write a quick playbook?”
22 page tome

82. Tl;dr - Top 10 Rules for Customer Success
1. Engagement comes down to 2 things: right message + right time. Know
when to call, know what to say
2. Before you call/email a customer, ask yourself: “What’s in it for the
customer?” If you can’t answer that, you’re wasting everybody’s time.
3. People love to learn, but hate to be taught. Good CSMs know the
difference
4. Customers are like water, they follow the path of least resistance. Our
job is to find where they want to go and provide them a clear path.

83. Tl;dr - Top 10 Rules for Customer Success
5. “Too much work” is a symptom of “Not enough clear priorities”
6. Wherever your customers are, be there
7. Tech is a commodity, people want it for cheap. Expertise is a luxury for
which people will always pay a premium
8. Think like a journalist when you research your customer. Don’t think in
terms of numbers, think in terms of story, then help them write the end
9. Don’t ever let the customer feel dumb

84. Turn complexity into simplicity
whenever possible

85. Technology is complex.
Business is complex.
Life is complex.
Simplify whenever possible.

87. We provide Simplicity-as-a-Service.
Simplicity-as-a-Service provides simple
solutions, straightforward communication, and
a clear vision of success for each customer.

88. Customer Success is Maturing!!!

89. Customer success has gone from a
luxury to an essential piece of a
profitable organization model for
SaaS and other recurring-revenue
based businesses.

91. MFW when I see people making the same mistakes that I made

92. Questions + Contributions