Scale Tale – The Customer Success Podcast

How do you make meaningful connections in customer success? Do you really need a mentor, and if so, how do you find one? We answer all these questions in this exciting episode of our podcast!Join us as we sit down with Jeff Mar, co-author of an insightful book on customer success. In our conversation, Jeff shares his journey in the industry, his experiences, and how he built a supportive network that fosters growth and learning.About Jeff MarJeff is a principal customer success manager at LinkedIn, where he helps enterprise customers foster a dynamic learning environment through LinkedIn learning. With over 18 years of experience, he focuses on driving innovation, employee retention, and competitive advantage. Jeff is passionate about connecting with professionals and creating value through technology and conversation. What you’ll learn💪🏼 The power of mentorship and meaningful connections in customer success.✨  Strategies to tackle real-world challenges and turn experiences into actionable insights.📈  Why Jeff believes everyone has a book inside them and how to unlock your growth potential.Whether you’re a seasoned customer success manager or just starting out, this episode is filled with practical tips and inspiring stories that you’ll definitely want to check out!______________________________________________________TIME-STAMPS01:39 - Introduction03:48 - How did Jeff land in Customer Success?06:04 - How can CSMs improve their work?08:13 - How should CSMs segment their time?10:59 - What is the biggest area a CSM should focus on?13:12 - How can a CSM handle expectations?17:21 - Why does Jeff call CS the connective tissue in an organization?18:20 - How can CSMs stand out in their role successfully?21:35 - Why is it important to have people to support you?23:53 - What was Jeff’s experience in writing his book?30:39 - Closing______________________________________________________Follow Jeff MarFollow Mausmi Ambastha Click here to buy Jeff's Book🔔  Don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe for more insightful content on customer success and leadership!

In the 20th episode of Scale Tale, Mausmi Ambastha is joined by customer success expert Peter Armaly for a deep dive into the true essence of CS leadership.Why should you tune in? ✅ Peter shares insights on the must-have skills for CS leaders✅ Walk away with actionable strategies to level up your CS leadership✅ Learn how to motivate your team to go the extra mile in delivering exceptional customer experiences.______________________________________________________________________1:45 - Introduction4:41 - Peter’s vision behind writing his book8:27 - How to master the basics of CS?13:00 - Why has CS suffered so much in the previous few years?14:28 - How can CS leaders simplify CSM roles?18:54 - Peter’s take on customer health score24:44 - Sentiment of a CSM33:27 - ClosingAbout Peter Armaly:Peter Armaly is a seasoned executive with 25+ years of experience in sales, marketing, and customer success. As Principal at Valuize, he helps companies drive customer value and boost NRR. Peter also advises Proof Analytics on CS best practices and co-authored a book for CSMs. Recognized as a top industry influencer, he's known for his visionary leadership.______________________________________________________________________Follow Our Special Guest Peter Armaly Follow Podcast Host Mausmi Ambastha Click here to order Peter's book todayEnjoyed the episode? Drop a like, share your thoughts in the comments, and don’t forget to subscribe!

No doubt about the fact that Net Revenue Retention (NRR) is vital, but it overlooks a crucial aspect of customer value: advocacy. Imagine a customer so thrilled with your product that they enthusiastically refer others. Despite this, customer success teams often don’t get the recognition they deserve for this kind of advocacy-driven growth. Even if they hit their NRR targets, they might still face downsizing, simply because their contributions to generating new business through customer enthusiasm aren’t fully appreciated.In this episode of the Scale Tale podcast, Mausmi Ambastha (Co-founder & COO, ZapScale) is in conversation with Christian Jakenfelds, who has expertly scaled companies from 30 to over 150 employees and achieved a $500 million valuation.Christian’s journey spans from early-stage startups to leading B2B SaaS companies like Tessian and Planhat. As a Customer Success and GTM leader, he’s mastered the art of growth and team scaling. Now, as a Go-To Network Evangelist at Commsor and founder of Customer Success for Founders, he’s redefining how we view customer value beyond traditional NRR metrics.0:00 - Preview & Introduction7:27 - Defining Advocacy8:27 - The Missing Part9:14 - Talking About the Big Red Flag10:26 - Advocacy Sits More Like Marketing12:11 - Are There Any Good Advocacy Programs?15:45 - A Lot of Companies Are Doing This Wrong21:40 - Companies Who Are Doing It Right22:27 - Why Do You Wait to Have an Expansion Conversation Around Renewal?25:00 - What Could Be Improved to Ensure You're Getting Those Case Studies?30:08 - How a New Company Can Start With Advocacy33:46 - Closing🔍 What You’ll Discover:🔹 CS + New Business: Discover how blending Customer Success with new business strategies can fuel growth. Christian explains techniques like rewarding referrals and leveraging impactful case studies.🔹 Maximize Case Studies: Learn to craft case studies that not only showcase success but also attract new clients.🔹 Beyond NRR: Christian argues for measuring CS impact on new revenue, challenging traditional Net Revenue Retention metrics.🔹 Scalable Advocacy: Find out how to make customer advocacy a repeatable and scalable process.Join us for a compelling conversation with Christian Jakenfelds as he shares invaluable lessons and strategies for scaling and succeeding in the SaaS world. Subscribe to our channel and hit the bell icon to stay updated!_______________________________________Connect with the guests:Christian JakenfeldsMausmi Ambastha Enjoyed the episode? Drop a like, share your thoughts in the comments, and don’t forget to subscribe!

Despite Customer Success function being the key to customer retention and business growth, it has often been looked upon as a cost center. With efforts to commercialise customer success, the narrative turning Customer Success into Sales comes into the picture. Jason Noble, VP Global Customer Success at Vinli and the co-host of "The Jasons Take On" Podcast Series joins Mausmi Ambastha, Co-Founder of ZapScale to discuss the future of customer success in a more commercial function focused on delivering results and value. Timestamps0:00 - Introduction7:00 - Aligning Customer Success and Account Management Roles12:14 - Evolving Customer Success Roles and Expectations17:14 - Specializing Customer Success Roles vs. Generalist22:10 - Incentivizing Customer Success Teams To Focus on Commercials About Jason NobleJason Noble is a recognized industry leader in CS and customer-led growth! Over the last 20 years, Jason has held leadership positions in all of the customer facing roles with a number of major global brands including Sony and Reed Elsevier. Interestingly enough, Jason also has a Customer Success podcast of his own, which is called “The Jasons Take On”.  Follow Jason on LinkedIn 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonnoble1/Follow Jason on X 👉 https://x.com/jnoble100Follow The Jason’s Take On Podcast 👉 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-jasons-take-on/id1450638487_________________________________________________Follow the podcast host Mausmi Ambastha on LinkedIn 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mausmiambastha/

Despite our best efforts at keeping our customers at ease, it may so happen that the customers may not be fully delighted. Understanding, managing, and fulfilling customer expectations needs our proactive approach as CSMs. In this episode, Parker Chase-Corwin joins Mausmi Ambastha, our host to discuss one of the most critical aspects of customer management: handling escalations. With over 20 years of experience in customer success, Parker shares his insights into the complexities of escalations, starting with defining what an escalation truly is and why early-stage companies often struggle as they transition from founder-led support to a more structured process. Together, Parker and Mausmi discuss the challenges of maintaining customer trust, the importance of post-escalation analysis, and proactive outreach to prevent future crises and improve overall growth and profitability.Timestamps0:00 - Preview & Introduction3:03 - Defining Escalations  5:01 - Escalations are growth inhibitors6:21 - How to be resourceful during escalations?9:35 - Ensuring transparent communication during escalations 13:31 - Identifying the level of communication during escalations16:30 - How to not over-promise and restore trust21:35 - Managing customer relations post-escalation25:21 - Winning trust as an account manager29:19 - Adjusting customer expectations31:11 - Reverse engineering escalations to improve customer service35:00 - Closing__________________________________________About Parker Chase-CorwinParker is a customer-focused go-to-market leader with 20 years of experience in the software and services industry. He has demonstrated his mastery in customer success, operational, sales, and account management roles and had the privilege of building several customer-facing teams from the ground up across several diverse companies and in various stages of maturity. He has been recognized as an innovative collaborator in cross-functional initiatives for his emphasis on enhancing the customer experience; minimizing customer attrition; growing recurring revenue streams; and optimizing operations. Follow Parker on LinkedIn 👉https://www.linkedin.com/in/parkercorwin/_____________________________________________Follow the Podcast Host Mausmi Ambastha on LinkedIn  👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mausmiambastha/

CS is evolving, with a push towards revenue. While focusing on nurturing the customer relationship, CSMs are now tasked with making sales.Balancing the art of creating an excellent customer experience along with revenue generation is a herculean task. Maranda Dziekonski, SVP, CS & Ops at Datasembly, joins Mausmi Ambastha,on this episode of the Scale Tale Podcast to discuss how the future of CS is beyond support & success of the customer and how it leads revenue-generating activities like renewals, upsells, and even cross-sells with existing customers. We'll hear Maranda detailing the intricacies of negotiation skills for CSMs, the power dynamic shifts within account teams, and the impact of budgets and resources on customer success. She outlines a value cycle essential for customer success to be involved right from lead generation to understanding customer goals – the roadmap for adding value to customer partnerships.Timestamps0:00 - Preview & Introduction2:55 - Should you adopt revenue-centric CS8:36 - Will CS be displaced by account management?12:40 - The right time to introduce CSMs to customers in the customer journey19:21 -  Upsell by going wider in the organization 24:04 - The easiest way for CSMs to learn the skills of negotiation & upselling29:45 - What changes in organizations when CS is tied to revenue32:45 - Closing_____________________________________________Maranda Dziekonski, SVP, CS & Ops at Datasembly has over 20 years of experience both working in and building world-class operations and extensive experience building and scaling teams in early and mid-stage startups. Her specialties are in Customer Success (B2B, B2C, B2B2C), Customer Support (B2B, B2C), Tech Support, Contact Centers (Inbound/Outbound), Sales, and various other teams in operations. She has been honored as a Top 100 Customer Success Strategist in both 2017 & 2018, Top 25 Customer Success Influencer Judge in 2020, Top 25 Influencer for both 2021 and 2022, and sits on numerous boards.Follow Maranda on LinkedIn 👉https://www.linkedin.com/in/marandaanndziekonski/_____________________________________________Follow the Podcast Host Mausmi Ambastha on LinkedIn  👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mausmiambastha/

To build the foundations of a business focused on growth and sustainability it’s essential to learn why customers pack their bags and how every departure holds a lesson for your business.Markus Rentsch joins Mausmi Ambastha on The Scale Tale Podcast this week to discuss how onboarding can make or break the value of your product for each customer, the pitfalls of bad fit customers, and the societal shift towards unsustainable business growth models, bridging the gap between what customers need and what they get, and how tracking actual outcomes, rather than usage metrics, can reveal the true state of customer retention.Timestamps:0:00 - Preview1:27 - Meet Markus Rentsch5:00 - Mistake #1 Why does Customer Success fail or get neglected?11:00 - Mistake #2 - Not understanding the needs of the customer15:21 - Mistake #3 - Not tracking customer outcomes19:50 - Mistake #4 - Failing to do Feature-based onboarding33:08 - Mistake #5 - Superficial churn analysis39:40 - ClosingAbout MarkusMarkus is the CEO of Remark-able - a consulting company that helps SaaS companies to turn churn into profitable growth. He has spent the last many years developing a new business framework called Customer-Value-Led-Growth. Before starting his own business, he worked in various roles in controlling and corporate development.Follow Markus on LinkedIn 👉https://at.linkedin.com/in/markus-rentsch-customer-value-led-growth-for-saasFollow the Podcast Host Mausmi Ambastha on LinkedIn  👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mausmiambastha/

Today leaders are keen on ensuring customer value.Customer Success plays a pivotal position in the customer-centric software industry. If you are eyeing a career shift in CS or are just looking to simply honing your customer success acumen, this episode is a goldmine.Vijay Mehrotra, who's at the forefront of customer success education at the University of San Francisco, joins Mausmi Ambastha on this episode of The Scale Tale Podcast to discuss how SaaS companies can harness customer data for breakthrough insights, the urgent need for updated curricula to match tech's pace, the potential of leveraging customer data for business intelligence and the transformative role of AI.  Vijay discussed the importance of cross-pollination of sales and customer success roles.Timestamps0:00 - Intro2:20 - How Vijay's experience led him to customer success7:50 - Learning Customer Success 11:32 - Evolution of operation of CS teams 13:00 - Equipping to embrace the ever-evolving landscape of CS function19:06 - Pillars of Vijay's CS course 23:03 - Insights on the Success Hacker Program24:18 - What does the future look like after taking up CS education? 28:02 - CS should own retention & upsells29:25 - ClosingAbout Vijay Vijay Mehrotra is a Professor of Business Analytics at the University of San Francisco where he leads its CS management education initiative._________________________________________________________________Connect with Vijay Mehrotra on LinkedIn 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/vijay-mehrotra-ba9498/___________________________________________________________________Connect with the podcast host Mausmi Ambastha on LinkedIn  👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mausmiambastha/

Most CS platforms are designed for post-sales customer journeys.  But, CS begins early-on in the life cycle of a customer journey. CS platforms aren’t equipped to support customers during the entire customer journey.But what if they could?Imagine empowering your CS team with one platform for all customer needs. Super right? That’s what Mausmi Ambastha and Wyeth Goodenough chat about on this episode of the Scale Tale podcast.Join in to learn about the importance of health scoring, sentiment analysis, and customer engagement, as well as the future of customer success technology. Timestamps: 0:00 - Intro1:01 - Get to know Wyeth Goodenough4:45 - The IDEAL CS Platform8:00 - Collaborating with Sales team13:00 - Customer success & support17:40 - Teaming up with the product team21:02 - Aligning communication with customers24:35 - How finance helps with forecast?26:20 - 4 key components of customer health scores33:20 - ClosingAbout WyethHe's a seasoned professional with 25 years of experience. He's worked in Accenture as a VP CS at Salesforce and the CCO at Ironclad. But his most exciting role, as I have heard, has been being a dad to 3 awesome daughters. _________________________________________________________________Connect with Wyeth on LinkedIn 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/wyeth-goodenough-108b12/___________________________________________________________________Connect with the podcast host Mausmi Ambastha on LinkedIn  👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mausmiambastha/

Bad-fit customers are that troublesome segment that often leaves us scratching your heads about what to do. Customers who are not well-suited or aligned with the products, services, or values of your business can prove catastrophic for your bottom-line. Hence, identifying and managing bad-fit customers is important to maintain a positive customer-business relationship and ensuring that business resources are effectively utilised. In this episode of the Scale Tale Podcast, Mausmi Ambastha hosts Anita Toth, Chief Churn Crusher at ATI. Key topics of discussion:💎 What are bad-fit Customers💎 What is their impact on your business?💎 How to identify them in the funnel?💎 How to ensure that bad-fit customers do not enter the funnel?💎 How to fire them and keep the funnel aligned?Timestamps00:00 - Preview & Intro03:00 - How Anita got into customer success06:05 - Identifying bad-fit customers12:20 - Making effective use of customer data18:44 - How to build a holistic product that your customers will love22:10 - Benefits of attracting good-fit customers27:10 - Dealing with bad-fit customers31:22 - Breaking ties with bad-fit customers36:10 - Goldmine Framework41:50 - ClosingAbout AnitaAnita Toth is the Chief Churn Crusher at ATI, a Customer Retention Research, Strategy & Education company that serves B2B SaaS companies. Anita’s mission is to create happier customers & more profitable businesses. Using her 20+ years in academic research, Anita helps companies leverage what their customers want, need, think & feel to their competitive advantage. Anita leads 'Churn No More,' a tactical workshop that helps Customer Success Leaders win in customer retention and executive influence._________________________________________________________________Connect with Anita  on LinkedIn ___________________________________________________________________Connect with the podcast host Mausmi Ambastha on LinkedIn