Even though Pulse was not in person this year, the conference still achieved its overall goal: bringing passionate customer success practitioners together. From the hilarious parody of The Office in the opening keynote, to the more serious discussion in the final session about how to balance the craziness of being a Customer Success Manager with the equal craziness of being a parent, the conference continuously delivered on its promise of binge-worthy customer success content. As a participant, speaker and sponsor of Pulse, CompleteCSM was all-in on Pulse. Below you’ll find our key takeaways from the conference.
Loyalty: It’s Just Good Business
It would be hard to walk away from last week’s conference without a more thorough understanding of the importance of loyalty. Putting people first is not just the right thing to do ethically, it’s universally the right thing to do for a business’ bottom line. Mindy Kaling said it best about treating people well and building loyalty: “It obviously feels good, but it’s just good business”. The allure of cutting costs in favor of putting the customer first will always be there. However, the long term benefit of having loyal customers who will champion your product, contribute to your community, and be a proactive partner far outweigh the temporary cost cutting. At the end of the day, a human-first company will always beat one that is purely focused on productivity and sales.
The Double Edged Sword of Data
Every year more data is being collected. If not handled properly, data becomes a burden more than anything else. CS Operations takes abundant data and turns it into actionable insights for your team. In the session hosted by Johannes Loeffler and Jean Nairon of PTC, they used this great analogy of Formula1 racing to put the role of CS Ops into perspective: They likened the CSM to the driver and the CS Ops team as the pit crew. While the CSM drives the car and steers the customer through their journey, the CS Ops team ensures the car runs well, and makes tweaks to the system to improve performance. When done right CS Operations relieves CSMs of a heavy burden Instead of worrying about the heaps of incoming data, they only need to trust the CS Ops team to help them “win the race”.
The Future of Customer Success
While a majority of the conference focused on the here and now of customer success, there were a few sessions where we got a glimpse into the not-so-distant future. CompleteCSM’s CEO Bryan Plaster and Gainsight Chief Evangelist Dan Steinman hosted a future-forward session on the topic, Is the time right for AI in Customer Success? If you caught the session, you would know that the answer to that question is a resounding YES. AI is here, and already revolutionizing every part of a CS organization. From ramping up a CSM to preparing for meetings, AI optimizes the way CS teams operate.
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