AMA: Jellyfish Director of Customer Success, Roxana Fitzmaurice on Customer Success Soft and Hard Skills

It sounds to me like this question is asking about Customer Success skills that translate well to other functions across the organization. Because so many of the core CS metrics ultimately tie back to driving down churn and increasing retention, my gut reaction is that the most valuable skills are the ones that consistently put the customer experience first. These skills don’t just impact financial outcomes; they also help keep the customer top of mind for teams who may not interact with custome ...Read More

Read as much as you can on the function, talk to real CSMs, shadow them, talk to people who have partnered as customers with CSMs. . . . then. . . Do these two things: Understand the "Soft Skill" DNA: CS is a relationship business. Do an audit of your soft skills. Are you naturally empathetic? Are you a clear communicator? Do you have the organizational skills to handle Slack when it’s blowing up? The "Why" Reflection: You need to get honest about what actually drives you. Does dealing with esca ...Read More

I’ll start by saying two things: The tools themselves aren't the "secret sauce."  It’s not just about being a "math person."  CSMs need to be "problem solvers" who happen to use data to get the job done.  Data is only useful if it drives action. You can build the flashiest dashboard ever, but if you can’t tell the difference between a corner-case and a real trend, it will create noise. In CS, this is the difference between just looking at a "red" health score and actually understanding the why b ...Read More

First, determine what your signals are going to be. The most obvious choice would be direct customer feedback—specifically, customer verbatim from CSM calls. Feedback could range from "we really need to be able to do X, and if not, we won’t renew," to "I like how easy it is to do Y; my managers appreciate it, too." There are powerful tools available today that allow you to search for and compile feedback from call transcripts so you can send them directly to your product team. Support tickets ar ...Read More

My "Hot Take" - If adoption is low, your sponsor may not be doing their job (well)! Strong sponsors have the opportunity, authority, and ability to activate users. Usually, this just requires following basic change management processes that have been forgotten or ignored. Position the solution as a partnership: we provide the tools and the data; THEY provide the organizational weight and cultural know-how. You’re not going to call them out but what you’re going to do, is assure them that you are ...Read More