Link to Matik's Scale + CS Virtual Conference: https://bit.ly/scalecs-aturkovic.Today, I'm joined by Jeff Heckler - a CS veteran with a lot of wisdom to share around the state of the industry, the AI tools with the most promise, and Slack overwhelm.In this episode, we cover a wide variety of topics, including:00:00:00 - Welcome To The Digital Customer Experience Podcast00:01:31 - Join The Matik Conference, Earn A $20 Uber Eats Gift Card Giveaway00:02:56 - Introduction00:04:21 - Leaving Busine...

Jenelle Friday of Forecastable and the Customer Success Collective’s “CS Leader of the Year” for 2023 is someone who is easily liked. She's hyper-in tune with what makes people tick, and is even the author of her own framework on emotional intelligence in customer success.In this wonderful chat, we talk about:00:00 - Caring for your customers02:27 - Being Authentic in Customer Success04:41 - A Journey to Customer Success and Emotional Intelligence06:53 - The Importance of Being Human in...

As we pop the champagne on our 50th show, a heartfelt thank you is in order for every listener & guest who's joined me on this wild ride through the evolving world of digital customer interactions. It's a transformational moment for the show as we shift from focusing on 'Digital Customer Success' to encompassing the broader 'Digital Customer Experience', ensuring we capture the essence of every digital touchpoint. As such, we are changing the name of the show to 'The Digital Customer Expe...

Kari Ardalan of Qualtrics is a staple in the CS community and has been leading scaled motions for YEARS - which is sometime that not a lot of people can say. She also sits on Gainsight's Digital Advisory Board - so yeah, she's qualified to talk about this stuff. :-)In this fantastic conversation, we talk about:Building digital first with humans coming in off of the back of those motionsThe evolution of ‘scaled’ from just email and outbound events to a push to come inboundBuilding one place po...

Christine Raby, Founder of DeliverDelight, brings the heat in this episode where we cover off a very wide range of topics - some CS related and some non-CS related. Christine's background is absolutely fascinating and I've been a fan of her presence both on LinkedIn and TikTok for quite some time now.  This episode is full of practical examples and advice for both ICs and leaders alike as we talked about: How CS is now experiencing similar maturation to what marketing experienced a decade+...

Irit Eizips has been in and around CS for a long time. From being in on the ground floor at Gainsight to running her very successful consultancy, she has been a staple in the CS community and consistently produces fantastic content that we all benefit from!  In this episode, we get into:  Irit’s days at the early-stage Gainsight and the culture of startupsHer home in consulting (CSM Practice) vs. being a full time employeeBeing part of CS from the ground floorThe advancement of CS to where...

Maarten & Michiel Doornenbal are not only brothers, but also co-founders of Churned! They join me this week for a fantastic conversation about the platform they've built, AI, scorecards and more!  Unfortunately, my audio/video didn't record - so you'll here me narrating the episode - but it's kind of fun to switch formats up here an there.  In the episode, we talk about: Their history as brothers and how they work together as co-founders todayHistory of Churned and what they doUsing...

Invariably, when you speak to someone in CS about Rob Zambito, the first comment that almost always comes back is, "He's a good guy".  ...and I couldn't agree more. I wouldn't say that I've known Rob for a very long - but the time we've spent both on Zoom and in-person has always been extremely high-quality, funny, impactful, personal and full of great questions. This is the same approach Rob takes with all of his clients at Success Scaled, where he advises seed to B-series companies on CS...

Not only does Delores Cooper of Zendesk have a pretty amazing back story, she's also doing some pretty amazing things with a small and scrappy team at Zendesk. Short form video has become an increasingly popular medium for distribution of content and Zendesk is utilizing this as part of their digital enablement strategy. In this conversation, we talk about:  Delores' entry into tech from social work & psychologyTiming of digital motions along the customer journeyDealing with variables...

Nik Mijic, co-founder of Matik comes to us this week with not only a fascinating back-story, but some great CS-related content as we discuss a wide variety of very timely and important topics.  In this episode, we talk about: How Matik automates the creation of content with personalized data, primarily for CS and SalesThe current state of the ‘digital business review’A good understanding of your data is needed for a quality DBRSending out one-pagers based on usage milestones or monthly...

I always love talking with people who work within companies that serve the CS community, and this one is no different. Erica was a fantastic guest to have on the show, partly because of the myriad of roles she's played at the company but also because she has done and is doing some pretty cool things in the realm of digital and customer education. In this fascinating conversation we talk about: Her journey into customer education at PendoThe approach to dealing with a new set of...

Lane Hart of Contentsquare brings to CS a no nonesense approach to ensuring the renewal via strong data analysis combined with a very human approach of customer engagement. He has taken lessons learned from his years in management consulting at IBM forward into a rocketship trajectory in CS at Heap - now Contentsquare.  Be sure to grab a pen and paper for this one as we talk about: Scaling the Heap CS team and starting a CS Ops functionThe importance of knowing what Data is available and how...

Dickey Singh, CEO of Cast joins us this week for a bonus episode in which we discover his fascinating journey from a long line of engineering leadership roles to today, where he's leading the charge of AI in CS.  We discuss at length what he and his team at Cast.app are doing to help revolutionize digital CS and what the future of all of this technology looks like. Topics covered include: Dickey’s long history with AI and his journey from an engineering background into serving customer...

James Lawson of River Consultancy Group joins us this week in a fun conversation that spans a wide range of topics including a growing sentiment among CS leaders that contributions to the customer journey should be cross collaborative in nature.  James is the founder of River Consultancy Group and currently serves as CCO at key Computer Applications Ltd. It is this along with his long history in CS that have shaped his unique and healthy outlook on CS and how CSMs specifically can best...

Today's discussion with Dee Kapila is a fascinating insight into the world of building innovative digital programs within a very well known and broadly used organization, Miro. As Global Head of Scaled Customer Experience, Dee leads both digital and customer education functions. Her talk last year at Pulse on having SLG & PLG work in harmony for the benefit of the customer journey was fascinating on completely on point! Our conversation focused on: How digital CS is putting many...

Ezra Zimbler is a long time LinkedIn team member, currently based in Dublin who is driving some really great initiatives and customer facing teams. He's a diversity & equity champion within the halls of LinkedIn as well as without. This is definitely a topic of conversation in this episode, along with LinkedIn's efforts around building customer community and how the teams are structured around digital CS.  In this episode, you'll hear about: Ezra's background in sports management and his...

Sara Roberts (Bayview Talent and host of Success Unscripted) may not immediately jump out to you as an obvious guest of this podcast. No, she doesn't run a digital CS function nor does she have a rich history in CS. What she does have is her finger on the pulse for growing and scaling CS teams as that is her recruiting agency's specialty. As such, it was a great opportunity to talk about two specific areas: the state of the CS job market today and how to build & scale digital...

Reminder! Enter for a Gold Pass to the CS Festival in Austin: Leave a review the podcast and send a quick screenshot to [email protected] to this LinkedIn post and Like it: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7152780848642068480Leave a comment on that same post. Easy!Today's Guest Annie Dean of RecastSuccess is a TRUE CS veteran and is one of those rare individuals who was around when the term 'Customer Success' was coined!  What does that mean for us? Lots...

Enter the contest for a Gold Pass ($1300 value!) to the Customer Success Festival in Austin (Feb 13 & 14, 2024) by following these steps: Review the podcast on your platform of choice and send a quick screenshot to [email protected] to this LinkedIn post and Like it: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7152780848642068480Leave a comment on that same post about what aspect of CS Festival you're most looking forward to or any questions comments you might...

Enter the contest for a Gold Pass ($1300 value!) to the Customer Success Festival in Austin (Feb 13 & 14, 2024) by following these steps: Review the podcast on your platform of choice and send a quick screenshot to [email protected] to this LinkedIn post and Like it: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7152780848642068480Leave a comment on that same post about what aspect of CS Festival you're most looking forward to or any questions comments you might...

Bhavika Kochhar is one of those amazing individuals that does an incredible amount of service to the CS community and seemingly eats, sleeps & breaths customer success. She's been in the trenches as a CSM and is now pursuing her Masters in Engineering Management, where she is focused on pulling technical prowess into CS. I loved this conversation with Bhavika because she provided a lot of tactical advice, not only for leaders but also front-line CSMs on the mindset and general operations...

In the intro to this week's episode, I briefly touch upon a new resource that is available to you via the website: The Digital Customer Success Tech Stack. In short, this is a collection of applications that a myriad of digital CS and Ops pros are using to execute on their digital strategies. Check it out here: https://digitalcustomersuccess.com/tech-stack/ Happy New Year! Today's conversation with Alyssa Opella is an absolute treasure trove of how to incorporate digital motions into your...

Marie Lunney joins us this week in a whirlwind conversation in which we cover a lot of ground. Not only is she a seasoned digital CS leader, including her current role at Top Employers Institute, but she's also founder of the DCS Connect Slack community. In this fun filled 45 minutes, Marie and I dig into: Digital CS before it was called DCSCross-coordination with other departments around the Customer JourneyHow employee satisfaction plays into a healthy digital journeyThe DCS Connect...

Jon Johnson is an incredible human. You've likely heard of him as part of the Unchurned BS & CS podcast series in which he shares some of his incredible background and upbringing on a recent episode. Not only is Jon an incredible CS leader, he is also a fantastic musician and writer, which are both topics we discuss as part of our conversation. I had the pleasure of spending this hour+ with Jon a few weeks ago where we begin by talking about music. I present Jon with a quick game of...