Subscribe to this monthly newsletter here!
Hi there,
Lately, I’ve been mapping CS Ops career journeys. What does the transition look like into CS Ops or into Gainsight Administration, and then upwards, and what resources do people need? Yet, for my own career, I find myself turning more and more away from mere information, and towards time with mentors, mentees, and peer coaches. I’ve realized how hungry I am for ideas from 'far-off lands,' and for a buddy who’s willing to poke at questions of, 'What matters most, in this case?'
So, I hope that, in serving up the knowledge below, I’m creating a space where you can step back from your day-to-day, even though we aren’t sitting together over a beverage. Mostly, though, I hope that you can find someone outside your company to talk with about CS Ops. I’ve come to believe that there are an awful lot of people striving to maximize their ‘doing,’ and we could use more of us who strive to pause and attend to each other, since there's so much value there. (If you’re not sure where to start, we created our CS Ops Mentor Program to help.) Get out there!
Building & Scaling an Effective CS Ops Function from the Ground Up
You’ll be able to tell that I had great fun spending a half hour with Emily Ryan, CCO of Valuize, talking about early-stage CS Ops. How do you get started? What do you look for in a first hire? And more.
New CS Ops Benchmarks
61% of companies now have CS Ops, which -- it stunned me -- is triple the rate of just last year. Median CS Ops spend is 3% of CS spend. That’s your north star. (That stat does have variability: the middle two quartiles range from 1% to 7%, and max was 25%.) Check out all the data in The Customer Success Index, published this month.
Do you know fans of CS Ops in India? Maybe it's you!
I hit my limit of CS Ops conversations I can keep up with and help facilitate, so we’re bringing on someone to help! Any person who knows and loves CS Ops, is great at starting conversations, and can work out of Hyderabad would be a great fit for this Community Manager role.
Blending Digital-Led & Human-Led Customer Touchpoints
In our monthly meetup group about the CS Ops of Digital-Led Customer Success, we tackled the question of how to use both automated and manual touchpoints in the customer journey. I loved seeing the collection of real-world experiences come out of the woodwork.
CS Enablement: The best thing that you could do more of
I passionately believe that the average CS Ops team under-invests in CS enablement. I managed Jennifer Bruno as she invented the role at Gainsight. Just like CS Ops in general, you’ll never go back after CS management sees the impact. This month, Will Buckingham (CS Enablement @ Delphix) published a full breakdown of how to make the financial case. Also this month, at the Gainsight Global Admins monthly meetup, Karen Taylor (CS Enablement @ ZoomInfo) presented a rich review of the enablement methodology behind their launch of Gainsight. Even if a Gainsight launch is not any part of your world, she gives an elegant, comprehensive exposure to how this role has an impact.
Watch Live This Week: “Successful Iteration: Agile Methodologies In CS Ops”
The first thing I did after taking over Gainsight’s CS Ops team was to implement Agile. I saw how it sped up our projects and at the same time, counterintuitively, dispelled that ‘chaotically overwhelmed’ feeling that dogs so many CS Ops teams. On April 28th, Emily Ryan, CCO at Valuize & Edgar Ramirez Vilchez, a Sr. Dir. of CS Ops, will walk you through their successful experiences of building out operations teams that leverage Agile tenets to maximize innovation and speed while reducing inefficiency.
CS Ops Speaking Opportunities
- Pulse Europe is 6 months away! Planning is in full swing, and you can nominate yourself or others to speak. The deadline is April 30. Let’s make sure CS Ops is represented on stage!
- The Gain Grow Retain community is creating speaking opportunities for CS Ops leaders, and is also eager to help spread CS Ops thought leadership through blog posts or other resources. Reach out if you’d like to share your knowledge and experiences, and I can put you in touch.
CS Ops Content to Send to Your CS Execs
- I’ve seen the session ideas for the CS Ops breakout track at Pulse in San Francisco in August, and the topics are highly cool! The track is called “Turning CS Ops into a Strategic Advantage." Our team is in the midst of finalizing the speakers. You should be there, your boss should be there, your boss’ boss… Get Info about Pulse and Get Approval to Attend
- As I watched this session, I was blown away by the thoughtfulness and investment that we’ve put into our CS Ops and Product Ops partnership at Gainsight. We’ve made huge strides in helping CS and Product to have empathy for each other and row in the same direction. Watch the Recording
- My boss, Tyler McNally, SVP of CX and Customer Operations, spoke with Amy Bills, VP, Principal Analyst at Forrester about the differences between CX and CS, and how to get them aligned. Watch the Recording
Learn to Configure Gainsight
If you’re one of those people who’s curious about building your powers with Gainsight, this month our education team laid out exactly how to use our technical training, and even work towards a certification.
Learn How People Become Admins
Come meet folks any time:
Know someone who should receive this email? They can get added to the list.