New Here....Let's give you a proper welcome

If you're new and want to introduce yourself, drop a quick comment on this thread.

Tell us about yourself and what you're hoping to get out of the community.

Thank you for being part of this growing community - we're thrilled to be on this journey with you!
#Career

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Comments

Kelly Drey

Hello!

After 15 years of project + operations management for nonprofit and local government organizations in the community and economic development field, I started my first SaaS role last year. I'm the first CS Operations hire at FreeWill, a NYC-based, fully-remote startup in the nonprofit fundraising + estate planning space. I'm excited to network with other CS professionals, and learn as much as I can about how to build the CS Ops function from the group up in a fast-growing company.

Cheers,

Kelly Jo

Brian Hansen

Great stuff, Margaret. I believe your intentions of relationship building will transfer to the SaaS world, since buyers and users everywhere are - in the end - people. There are specific needs/goals for SaaS that I'm still learning too (we were recently acquired and are more heavily SaaS focused) so I'll be joining you on this journey as well!

Margaret Hanks

Hi all, I'm Margaret!

It's nice to meet everyone and I'm really excited to be here! First off, I have to share that I am extremely blown away by the community and amazing resources to be found in the Customer Success world, which to me speaks volumes to the characteristics of CSMs -- supporting and lifting others up to succeed. After taking some time to mindfully discern what my next career move would be, and finally landing on CS, I have dove deep into learning and discovery - from podcasts, online communities such as GGR, to workshops and summits that I plan on attending. I am just eating it all up, and it's really thrilling.

A little about me...I have over 10 years of customer-facing experience in operations and sales management roles within the health, wellness, and fitness industry. My favorite part about working with people is developing a trusted relationship, ensuring they continue to receive value in the product / service that is being offered, and seeing first hand the transformation in their life via the product / service.

While I believe I have a tremendous amount of transferrable skills, I'm still new to the B2B SaaS world and actively working on overcoming this obstacle. I would love to connect with anyone that is interested in sharing any insight for someone tapping into this industry / field or who just wants to connect.

Have a great Tuesday!

Margaret

https://www.linkedin.com/in/margarethanks/

Kasen Wysong

Hi everyone!

I work for RealAtom, a SaaS technology company that helps facilitate commercial real estate transactions. I joined GGR hoping to meet industry professionals and to learn from people who have "been there, done that" in regard to customer success. Looking forward to connecting!

Anastasia Magnitskaia

Welcome to the community Chris! Be sure to join our CSM Office hours on Tuesdays (11:30EST) and CS Leadership Hours on Thursdays (11:30EST)!

Chris Corless

Hi Everyone,

Chris from the UK here as a recent joiner. Haven't managed to contribute yet but looking forward to networking, learning and hopefully helping others out if I can.

Am in my third CS role now having built and grown the first EMEA CS function and team at Good Technology (bought by Blackberry), moved to VMWare and ran their EUC CS team and am now at Dell Technologies.

Been quite a journey over the last 5+ years. Moving from a sales focused role, to literally learning like crazy what CS actually was and/or making it up as I went along, to a more structured approach with the beginning of CS tools and a more universal understanding of the function (mostly). Now working at one of the most complex and exciting organisations I've ever experienced, on incredible transformation programs with many moving parts. Focusing on building the outside in view of our customer's outcomes into these and using the multiple available data points to provide an automated view of customer health and experience.

Happy to connect on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/chriscorless/

Tajan Kenkre

Hello All,

I am Tajan and joined GGR a couple of weeks ago and am really excited to be part of this community.
With over 17 years in leadership roles in Customer Success and Professional Services, I look forward to learning from and contributing to this community.
My journey into customer facing roles came after IT management experience in high-tech companies, and I have developed a passion for enhancing customer business value and about delighting customers. I love building and leading high-performance client-facing teams, and developing, mentoring, supporting and motivating people, while striving for operational efficiency and productivity.
I am a lifelong learner, and am looking to learn from you about various aspects of Customer Success including Customer Health, Customer Journey and specific Technology tools that the leaders in this community deploy and use, while sharing with you my experiences and thoughts. In expanding my network, I am also hoping to form relationships that might lead to my next challenge and leadership opportunity.

Fleur Duekker

Hi all, I too am new to this space but already really enthused by the energy and contribution from so many.
Part of a comprehensive program that includes the implementation of a organisational wide CRM, however as you all know, it's the culture and the people component that is where the greatest investment will need to occur. Working within the education sector and looking forward to sharing and learning through this forum!
fd

Stephanie Falch

Hi everyone, I am Stephanie and I am looking to pivot into the Customer Success Field. I currently work as a study abroad advisor for college students at Stanford University in the Bay Area. Much of my current role has elements of Customer Success, hence my aims to pivot into the field.

I would love to connect with you!

Also, if you currently work in EdTech or know anyone in the field, please contact me. I'd love to learn more about your work in the field and how my experience may be relevant in EdTech.

~Stephanie Falch

Tomas Bisono

I recently joined and already see so much value being offered. I'm a metrics oriented professional and I'm bringing that background to my new CSM role.

Looking forward to connecting with the community.

Cheers from the Caribbean.

Byron Sacks

Hi All,

Recently joined, thanks for having me!
I've been an entrepreneur in the IT managed service space for the last 20 years, recently I restarted life and career in Australia, Gold Coast after immigrating with my family in 2019
I naturally gravitate toward a Customer Success and growth management and taken up the role with the company I'm with mid 2020.

I look after Enterprise and Large Organisation accounts in the mining, gaming and health sectors, helping them with their data science and analytics challenges and data transformation journey

I'm looking for any hand-ups and value adds to take back and dominate the role and bring both customer and business success in a very testing and trying economy.

Thanks
Byron

Ben Nicastri

Hi Everyone!

Relatively new here and also to the world of CS. I have recently moved into a CS role within a Workforce Management SaaS company based in Sydney. I previously led the support team within our organisation and will be the first in a growing Customer Success team.

I am really keen to learn from this platform the best methods and techniques to introduce Customer Success into an established organisation. Focussing on how best to make a significant impact and deliver value with limited resourcing.

Really looking forward to learning from you all. Please free to connect with me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-nicastri-267570a6/

Laura Lakhwara

Welcome, Dez!!! So good to see you on here. ??

Dezrah Blinn

Hello! My name is Dezrah Blinn. I joined this community at the invitation of the amazing Laura Lakhwara and I'm eager to learn everything I can. I'm about as non-traditional as you can get. I've been a professional magician, summer camp program director, ISO Auditor, Bartender, Server, Forklift operator, and more.

A few years ago, I went back to school and received a CS degree at 40, only to realize that while I loved technology, I loved working with people even more. I found a home as a Customer Care and Deployment Associate at a robotics company and spent the bulk of my time training internal and external stakeholders on how to use our products.

The more I learn about CSM, the more I realize that it's a great match for my skillset and passions, thank you for creating this great resource!

Happy to connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottdezrahblinn/

Lars Steffen

Hey Community,

I worked in the Ad-Tech /Martech world for 8 years, starting in Germany, going to the UK, and ending up in New York 5 years ago.

In my previous CSM roles, I was strategically solving challenges faced by some of the world's leading global Brands, Platforms & Publishers across workflow & technology with a sharp focus on near-term growth.

I'm seeking new opportunities within the CSM world, so my primary goal is to network with this great community and get some guidance and leads through my job search.

Please free to connect with me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lars-steffen-b7b23892/

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Lars Steffen
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Original Message:
Sent: 10-08-2020 11:17
From: Jeff Breunsbach
Subject: New Here....Let's give you a proper welcome

If you're new and want to introduce yourself, drop a quick comment on this thread.

Tell us about yourself and what you're hoping to get out of the community.

Thank you for being part of this growing community - we're thrilled to be on this journey with you!
#Career

Katie Baker

Hi Everyone!

I'm very excited to have come across this community, and look forward to learning and sharing information!

Larry Barker

Hi folks,

It's great to be a part of the community here. I'm relatively new to the customer success space, but I'm tasked with building out the team at our startup. I've spent the last 7+ years working primarily in Support and Operations, so I've got a lot of tactical questions on organizing a Customer Success Team and driving up engagement from SMB customers (we create tech for dental practices, most of which are small operations).

Looking forward to participating and learning more!

-----

Larry Barker
Senior Manager, Customer Operations
Opencare
--------

Nathan Mills

Hello all and happy 2021!

I'm Nathan Mills, CSM for Localize.city, and current MBA student at Baruch College. I am a graduate of The Juilliard School and had a previous life as a professional classical musician (oboist). I have performed concerts on *almost* every continent...still working on Africa and Antarctica. Outside of work, I love cooking and goofing off with my miniature pekingese-poodle mix Bear.

My current job is centered around being an effective communicator, being great with customers, and being a natural problem solver - all things that come naturally to me and work I enjoy doing. That said, I would love to push beyond solving existing issues and move into proactively improving customer experience and retention. Obviously, putting out fires is a part of every job - but I would love to put down the fire extinguisher more often and focus on larger goals of CS (apologies for the dorky analogy). I'm excited by the opportunity to think more conceptually about how CS is defined in our company and as a whole in this forum!

Best,
Nathan
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathan-mills-99885682/

Kyle Kendall

I have been on the periphery for awhile and while it is not yet 2021, need to get more engaged.

My name is Kyle Kendall and I am a Sr. Director of CS at an AI startup in the bay area. I have worked for startups, midsize and very large enterprise software companies for the past 25+ years in various IC and Management roles all around Customer service/success/experience.

I am hear to share my experiences and learn from others on how we all approach what I feel is one of the most important functions in any company...from the local sandwich shop to the largest enterprise.

Mikael Magnusson

Hi All, Mikael here!

I joined a few moments ago after seeing a post on linkedin. I am a CSM for Episerver, based in Stockholm. I've been in the field of CS since 2015, and if counting Customer Service another 5 years. Currently I am working the enterprise segment, while enjoing life with my wife & two kids, and fluffy white goldendoodle

My career started in the Bay Area, taking my first CSM gig in Saas. Family took me to Stockholm where I spearheaded a new Success Dept. at a hyper growth Lead-Gen startup. Learned a lot along the way; working in the Saas Mecca of San Francisco, building something awesome from scratch, navigating cultural differences, and adapting my role & approach to all kinds of customer segments.

I am here to get more perspectives on the world of CS, and learn from the collective whenever I can. Happy to share experiences as well.

Best,

Renata Dinamarco

Hello everyone!

I am new to GGR. I've recently begun working at a health tech AI startup to stand up and lead the Customer Success organization. My experience as a CSM in the past was a bit nontraditional, so I'm hoping to learn what the true industry standards are by following this community. I also hope to hear from experienced CS Leaders about how to lead the team I'll eventually build (segmentation, incentives, roles, sub-departments, etc).

Thank you!

Renata

Kevin St. Cyr

Good morning,

I joined GGR a few weeks ago, and I am looking forward to being part of the community. My goal is to listen, learn, and hopefully add value to the conversation. I want to learn more about Customer Success and how organizations leverage the function to ensure their customers realize the product's full benefit. Although I believe that, systemically, the function of Customer Success is similar within companies, I also believe it is nuanced. Understanding this will help me add value to my customers.

antonioasierra

Hi Everyone, happy to be here!

My name is Antonio and I head Customer Success at Gigwell (HQ in the Bay Area). We're a B2B SaaS platform that streamlines the booking process between entertainers (i.e. Speakers, Musicians, Influencers, Comedians, etc) and the talent buyer (often venues and brands). I'm in charge of the end-to-end customer lifecycle.

My goal is to network, learn, and share best practices with other folks in the industry.

Looking forward to connecting with you all!
https://www.linkedin.com/in/antonioasierra/

Sascha Huesing

Hello everyone,

I was told that I should register here, because this is one of the few forums about CS. Here in Germany CS is not yet lived as in the USA and therefore there is no real community of professional CS people.

I'm running the CS of a SaaS company that specializes in content automation and in my team I have four CSM's and two automation specialists who implement and maintain processes in tools like ChurnZero, Copper, Chargebee, Zapier and others.
We have already been living the CS 'as it should be lived', so the company is more or less built around the CS, or the CS intervenes in the other departments and is respected and accepted there. What I am very interested in is how to relieve the CSM's of workload by automating processes so that they can focus on their main tasks. We have already automated the onboarding and the support issue well, my current task is the Customer Journey in the first and second year with us.

I don't know (yet) how you implement the automated CS processes in your departments, but that's exactly why I'm here and looking for your expertise. I hope very much that I can exchange ideas with you and that we can take a step forward together.

I am also always looking for good CS books. I already know some of them, which can be found as recommendations in the various blogs, but I really haven't found the answers I'm looking for. It seems to me that they are "just" old sales metrics that have been adapted to CS a bit, but don't really go into depth.

So, I am looking forward to exchange with you and if you have questions or suggestions, please let me know.

Greetings from Germany

Sascha

Kimberly Bara

Hello, so excited to be joining such an active and passionate community!

Like many others, I am transitioning from B2B sales and into CS.

I have been taking time to sharpen my transferable skills and upskill where needed, and soak up all of the great content available from CSMs and the CS communities. Some days I feel like I am trying to drink from a fire hydrant! You are an amazing group of contributors and I cannot thank you enough for sharing your experiences.

I am looking forward to expanding my network and becoming more active myself.

Regards,

Kimberly Bara

Madhur Choudhary

Hi everyone,

Just joined GGR a week ago and have enjoyed the office hour session last Thursday! Still exploring the forum/discussions and I have to say - such an amazing group of people, all working in CS!

About me - I've spent a major portion of my career in technology development and implementation before getting fully involved in CS a few years ago for a Marketing and Analytics based B2B SaaS company. It has been a fascinating journey to look at our company and it's value proposition from the client's perspective!

I'm looking forward to learning from this awesome community and contributing a bit with my own learnings!

Madhur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmadhur/

Kelly Bryan

Hello, I am Kelly Bryan!
I just joined GGR recently for the main reason to learn more about CS as I have been in Sales for many years. I would like to make the pivot from outside sales to CS as my passion is building rapport with the customer and watching them grow. I am looking for Healthcare Software since most of my experience is in Healthcare and IT.

I would like to learn more about CS and make some connections.
Here is my linkedin connection.
www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-bryan1021

Thank you
Kelly Bryan

Cristina Vatavu

Hi everyone, glad to be here!

I'm pivoting my career from sales /account management /finance consultancy in the Banking industry to a CS role in the Tech (FinTech/Saas) industry.

Why?

Because I love to build long term relationships, demonstrate value to customers, understand and help them to achieve their goals. I found all this and much more in the CS world and became fascinated by it!

I joined this group because I want to learn more about CS and best practices in the field.

Looking forward to connecting with you all!

Cristina Vatavu

https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristina-vatavu/

Vijay Mehrotra

Hi all: I'm Vijay Mehrotra and I am a Professor at the University of San Francisco's School of Management, where we have been training our MBA students in Customer Success Management for the past three years (the first academic program of its kind in the world). Our graduates work in Customer Success and CS Operations at a wide variety of companies including PayPal, Salesforce.com, Zuora, Macys.com, Mode, Bloomberg, and Amplitude Analytics.

I've been watching the GGR digests with great interest for the past few months and appreciate the wisdom and perspectives that so many folks have been kind enough to share.

Between teaching and research, I anticipate having regular requests for the community - as well as a steady stream of talented candidates coming out of our program each year.

It's good to be here, and look forward to continued interactions with this wonderful group of talented professionals.

Banafche Garnier

Hi everyone,

I joined GGR last week and have been closely following the great topics discussed at this forum. I am responsible for global sales at Practical CSM, and my primary goal is to learn from all of you in this community. I am eager to learn more about the challenges and opportunities the CSM professionals are facing today and how the role is evolving.
Really excited to be here, and I look forward to exchanging and networking with everyone!

Banafche Garnier
Global Sales, Practical CSM

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