On Wednesday the 9th Feb, we welcomed Customer Success professionals from far and wide to the first Customer Success Network Café Cambridge at The Bradfield Centre in Cambridge.
The CSN café is designed for Customer Success professionals at all stages of their career, to meet, discuss challenges, and share best practises in a relaxed setting over drinks and food.
This was the first of many Customer Success Café events Gearset will be hosting, as this topic is very close to our heart. Customer Success is something we truly live and breathe as a company, and we’re very transparent with our approach, including recently sharing what the CSM role looks like at Gearset.
For our first Cambridge café, we were joined by Marija Skobe-Pilley, host of the Women in Customer Success podcast who shared some great insights from her experience of what makes a successful CSM.
Marija revealed the 9 traits she thinks help make a successful CSM:
- Start with WHY
- Read the room
- Tell a story with data
- Develop your personal success engine
- Become an influencer
- Become a product expert
- Become a coach
- Become a team captain
- Do it with a smile
We asked Luke Harris, VP of Customer Success at Gearset, what he made of the event.
“Hosting the first CSN Café in Cambridge was a real thrill. Marija’s ‘9 traits for a great CSM’ were so powerful, and the feedback I had after the event was universally positive. Having a leader like Marija break down the core attributes undoubtedly helped everyone in the room really focus on development areas - plus we had fun doing it!
“When Marija spoke of focusing on being a ‘Team Captain’, of building a group to support your customer, it highlighted the operational leadership that CSMs are starting to bring to their companies (big and small). I hope this will continue to inspire CSMs to see direct pathways to the boardroom, and that the C-Suite is an attainable goal.
“One of the things I find so powerful about spending time with others in the Customer Success community is how open everyone is to sharing the challenges they face. There’s an industry-wide commitment to improve customer experience, and the outcomes customers are seeking, that shines through so clearly at events like this.”
If you want to come along to the next Customer Success Network Café Cambridge event, it’ll be on the 18th May 2022 at The Bradfield Centre, Cambridge Science Park, Cambridge. To find out more or book your ticket visit https://grst.co/3JwAuwq
P.s Look out for the recording from the event which we’ll be sharing on our LinkedIn page shortly.
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