In this episode, our host Anika Zubair chats with Marija Skobe-Pilley, Head of Customer Success (EMEA) at Clickup about leading a CS team in EMEA and working with EMEA customers.
Leading a CS team in EMEA and working with EMEA customers can be quite different from other parts of the world. So, how does local culture play into expanding your CS operations? How do you strategize globally but execute locally? And what sort of CS strategy works best in EMEA?
Podcast enquiries: sofia@planhat.com
In this episode, our host Anika Zubair chats with Marija Skobe-Pilley, Head of Customer Success (EMEA) at Clickup about leading a CS team in EMEA and working with EMEA customers.
Leading a CS team in EMEA and working with EMEA customers can be quite different from other parts of the world. So, how does local culture play into expanding your CS operations? How do you strategize globally but execute locally? And what sort of CS strategy works best in EMEA?
Podcast enquiries: sofia@planhat.com
Hello everyone. I'm your host, Anika zer. And welcome back to the next episode of the customer success channel podcast brought to you by plan hat, the modern customer platform. This podcast is created for anyone working in or interested in the customer success field. On this podcast, we will speak to leaders in the industry about their experiences and their definitions of customer success and get their advice and best practices on how to run ACS organization. Today. I am speaking with Maria SCO bay Pele, who is currently the head of customer success AMEA at click up. She is also the host of her own podcast women in customer success. Prior to her role at click up, Maria also worked at app dynamics and intellect technologies, but has always focused on customer success and delivering customer success to AMEA customers, which is the topic we will be discussing with her today. Through her experiences, Maria will share with us how leading SES team in AMEA and working with AMEA customers can be quite different from other parts of the world. She will be sharing her insights, learnings, and best practices with us today. So let's chat with Maria, welcome Maria to the podcast. I'm so very excited to have you with us here today and sharing all your insights with us. But before we actually get into today's topic, can you please tell our listeners a little bit more about yourself? How did you actually get started in customer success and how did you end up as the head of customer success of Mia?
Speaker 2:Hi, Anika, it's just great talking to you today. Thanks for having me. Yeah, I'm happy to say how I started in customer success by my background and education. I'm a musician and I'm coming from the world of performing arts, performing music. And at some point I have decided to make a switch into business because it was something that was really interesting. And I was doing lots of research in regards to music and business. So that just seemed as a right place to be. And I started in SaaS implementation. So in the business world, I would say that I started learning project management skills and that's around the time when I just read the words, customer success manager, somewhere as a job title. And I knew in that moment, that is my next job. That is exactly what I'm going to do. And three years after it happened that I landed my first job as a CSM at intellect technologies, which I completely loved. It's just, you know, being in charge of my own book of business, working with customers, it was something incredible for me. And also that was the time when we, as a whole team, as we were growing in EMEA, we all had a great opportunity to strategize for the team and just being involved in everything from CS operations to really managing our own book of business. And that's where I just got a lot of exposure into, you know, what does it mean even to manage a team, to manage the business, manage EA book of business. And then as I moved to, you know, AppDynamics and also started leading the team, then click up happened. I'm still very, very fortunate that I've managed to get that opportunity, starting something completely new. It was last summer. So I started in click up in October last year when we were just going international. That was an incredible opportunity to start building the whole team, the holy me motion. And that's where I am today. Still enjoying completely customer success, kind of live living the full life of it.
Speaker 1:Amazing love it, living the dream. And I also love that you come from such a unique background. I think everything about customer success is always being defined. We really are lucky because it's not only obviously a job, but it's an industry in a space that we are able to really shape ourselves. And I love that you come from such a unique background, like you said, music, but then you also moved into implementations, like you said, early on in your career, but what inspired you to work in customer success? Why is CSM and not staying in implementation
Speaker 2:Because it's, it's that relationship building with, with, with customers? Like when you say implementation, yes, it's amazing. You, you get that nice relationship with customers, but you are working on projects and projects. And, and I realized, well, just the overall relationship excites me so much more and seeing all of those values that you're providing to the customers along longer period of time. Like there, there is nothing that can match that. Just something very building something for very long term and not thinking about when it's the end of it. And then moving on to something else. No, just enjoying the whole process.
Speaker 1:I also came from a similar background where I was in account management and I was in a sales position as well. And I loved the building of relationships. And I think naturally in customer success, we have this strong sense of empathy or being able to help or wanting to help and help never stops in customer success. You wanna continue to help and continue to foster that relationship. So I totally get it why the, the passion and, and interaction that you've had with customer success thus far.
Speaker 2:But it's also, again, coming from music, being in some orchestra in some choirs, I always felt that as a customer success role, you are an orchestrator. You are really that person who is making things happen for your customers, constantly pulling different resources, almost being like a conductor to customer journey. Just making sure that you are not alone in that journey, that there is always someone else's role that is equally important for you to bring into that customer relationship. And that's like a little bit of a game playing, just pulling different puzzles into the picture.
Speaker 1:So it's a unique connection between music and customer success, being the conductor of your customers and really pulling and pushing them in the right way or telling them what's right. And what's wrong. I I've never thought of it that way, but obviously with your music background, I'm guessing that that comes naturally to you. So thanks for sharing that. You also mentioned that you just started at click up. Well, I say just, it's been a while since last summer and, um, you're leading the customer success team in AMEA there right now. Could you maybe tell our listeners a little bit more about what does the CS team look like at click up right now, but also where did it start when you started as well?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's really the interesting one, because at some point I thought that I was the first person in EMEA to join, click up. And then as soon as I joined, I realized, oh, actually I was seemingly the second person because we had an implementation consultant who started before. So firstly definitely I'm one among the first people in EMEA in any case. So just starting success department from being one of the only people in EMEA is incredible experience because very often, you know, companies would start with potentially sales or other departments. So we started in customer success, but then roughly at a time when I started hiring for my team, we already started having first account executives. So, which was incredible experience of getting to know the region. Firstly. So I think that is a huge advantage for customer like success, especially as you have to work with everybody else and you have to know your resources, you have to know people in the region. We had that privilege of being among the first ones and getting to know everybody else who would come and who would join the team. So that's a wonderful experience. Really, when I joined, we already had like a big percentage of our global customers headquarter in EMIA. So they have already worked with our global customer success team from the us. And it was just a wonderful opportunity starting to get to know our customers landing in the region. And then starting with those initial conversations. I know we can, we can talk about it later on as well. There's so many aspects of working with EMEA customers, but when we started, there were also a little change in our global teams. So customer success was very hands on helping customers in onboarding. And then as we started, we started changing the concept as well into, you know, the life cycle management, doing things after onboarding. So we started building a team in that direction and firstly was the period of onboarding our customer success managers. One thing that I really like about click up, okay, it's an absolutely wonderful tool, but it is so customizable that you need to know a lot of the product. And we decided that we want to make our CSMs really product specialists and the onboarding that we all have received about the product was incredible. So that was also one of the first things of coming into the region, knowing how the product was then being incredibly onboarded to understand the product, to be that product specialists and then being in front of the customer when they can really trust you that you can understand their use case. You can understand them because you can really understand the product. And at the moment the CS team is structured into, you know, enterprise midmarket and uh, SMB segment. So we have high touch and, and low touch CSMs. Was that kind of, did I answer your question or
Speaker 1:Definitely. Definitely. And what about the size of the actual team? You mentioned you were one of the first CS team members in AMEA. Has it grown a bit since you've obviously come on, have you hired in AMEA? What does the size of the team look like right now?
Speaker 2:Yes, the size of the team at the moment is, is five CSMs. And we are like, we are continuously growing. We are planning to hire many more this year because we are tremendously growing our sales organization as well. So customer success started and then just few account executives joined as well. But now in the holy em, we are around 40 plus people. So we have grown tremendously in the last few months and that growth will become just bigger and bigger. And obviously we have to grow our team as
Speaker 1:Well. Like you said, those five CSMs are looking after the AMEA customer success or AMEA customers, I should say. And they're all looking at all gamuts of customer types. So you're looking at, from SMB all the way up to enterprise, which I know we'll get into more detail in a bit, but before we do, I do wanna know you have had tremendous success over the last two, three years in customer success. As someone who's broken into it, someone who's grown tremendously. Can you please a share with our listeners, maybe what has contributed to your growth and especially because you're also a podcast, host yourself for women in customer success, what made you start your own podcast and the community, and really grow in that way?
Speaker 2:Wow. They're like, where do you start from<laugh> to answering this question in my life? I believe I have been educated really well in a traditional way of, you know, undergrads, grad master degrees. And somehow that always went with me in my life. I always had that notion, oh, I have to be educated to do something like I have to have, have a degree for it. And obviously for customer success, that wasn't something that existed. And that was also one of the reasons that contributed to, to my passion about it thinking perfect. Even with my background, completely nontraditional in business, I can succeed in it. I can, I can make it happen for myself, but I have decided that I will educate myself into it. So when I started in my first CSM role, I just started doing all the courses for customer success. I've done all the levels of particular courses because I always thought, okay, I don't have an education in it, which means I need to at least have those certification and make myself knowledgeable about it. And just knowing that I at least have some educational background for it. And that was really pushing me to start developing myself more and more within the role and, uh, and just become constantly better. And then like it's really related to, to the podcast women in customer success. It was in one of my CSM role when I realized, uh, through to some presentations, how the gender inequality in customer success is still high in, in Europe among so many different reasons why the data shows that, you know, even if there is 60% of women started in the industry, only 30% of them go into high leadership position. When I was thinking about it in conversation with other people, I was trying to find out answers, what, why, why is that? So what is happening? And one of the ideas that I had was okay, there could be loads of different reasons. Perhaps we can't influence them all, but maybe one of the reason is also that women are not in those high positions because they don't have role models to look upon to. And then I thought the idea just came into my mind. So if I make a podcast and I was by this time an avid podcast listener, so it was kind of natural. If I make a podcast where I want to highlight women in customer success, their careers, the way they are, the way they work learnings. If I do that, that will allow others to have access to those women who are automatically becoming their role models. So that was the idea of starting the podcast, women in customer success. And it sounds crazy now because I never, I never knew where will that lead me when I started it, but that has been one of the biggest learnings in my career. Really talking with remarkable women, such as yourself as you were in my podcast as well, talking with so many women and learning from them, feels like I have had more than 60 mentors in the last two years to whom I can rely on and to whom I can learn from. And I really believe that was one of the reasons that propelled my career as well. And just got me so many insights that I wouldn't have otherwise.
Speaker 1:Yeah. As another podcast host, it's a little bit selfish, but you get an opportunity to really ask the questions you wanna ask to, like you said, remarkable women that you've been able to speak to. And I've been able to speak to, you know, customer success leaders that I am inspired by and look up to. And it's a really great way of obviously interacting and networking, but always taking those things away and learning from them as well. And it's such a noble thing that you've just said that you've wanted to create role models essentially, and allow women the space and ability to really understand and see what the growth path can be in customer success. And, and it's amazing that all the work you've done. So thank you for that, but let's actually, uh, jump into today's topic, which is like leading a customer success team in AMEA and how to work with AMEA based customers. You mentioned that click up, started in the us, and now it's grown tremendously in AMEA, which is amazing. And you guys are continuing to grow. Give us a little bit of background. What actually started first here in AMEA, click up being a us company. What, what came first here?
Speaker 2:So obviously the, the global team was working with many, many of EA customers and there was that notion of, okay, we need to have people at the grounds because of the time difference. And so many other reasons we, we need to have people. So I would say actually product started firstly in Mia because when I joined as kind of the second person, since we officially launched international, there was an implementation consultants or services consultant before me. But that was a very exciting time of discovering who else is in the region and turned out that we already had like a dozen of product managers and developers and engineers who have already been based in EMEA, working with our us team to develop product, which was actually fascinating. So one of the product managers that has been with click up almost from the very beginnings, almost three years with based in London, it was such a wonderful experience to hear from people who were there from very beginning. So he, for example, has created some of our main features of the product. And very often, when you are an international office of, of a main head office, you don't have the possibility or opportunity to speak with product so often. And here we were in a place where we actually had people developing some amazing features of our product and learning from them and just getting to know how was it before you know, what changed? So, so that, that resource was an incredible opportunity for learning. So shall I say it was actually product first in EA that implementation and customer success is straight after sales.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow. What a unique way of growing out on an international team, because when I speak to other SaaS business leaders or other SAS companies across the globe, a lot of time when people internationalize, when they open a new office, it's usually they bring sales in first. They want to sell into that region. They wanna grow that region. And then they bring in, you know, support or success or very rarely product as well. Like you said, product is usually localized where HQ is. So it's awesome that you guys had product first and CS then came shortly after it, which is also really, really cool that you guys had CS before sales. But since CS actually kind of came first, shortly after product, like you said, what do you think are the pros and cons of having customer success? So early on in a regional office,
Speaker 2:I would say, obviously it's amazing to get to know everybody else who join after us. So it seems that we are a little bit ahead of also knowing about a product, knowing about a company. We can direct them, but also knowing our customers. That is the biggest privilege as we landed in the region, we started talking to our customers obviously, and the first ways of how we approach it is, was understanding the feedback, really understanding where are they, where are they in their journey? How does it work for them so far? So what was the engagement that was working for them? What is it that they actually need help with? So we went through that whole process of discovering and understanding, seeking to understand the feedback of our customers so that we could start supporting them the best we can. And, and I feel that was really a privilege. So it wasn't the situation when we came into already loads of structure and just needed to go with it. We had that opportunity of firstly discovering our customers and, and, and just trying to understand what are the next things we have to focus on.
Speaker 1:Awesome. That's a great pro, is there any learnings or cons that you would say from having customer success first and not so much of that process and structure that you mentioned?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Firstly, obviously customers were so thrilled to have someone in the region, which was understandable, but it sometimes was also surprising to understand that some customers were so self-sufficient that they never had a need to even talk with someone else in another part of the world. But as soon as we landed that gave them the confidence that, oh, yes, now they are here. Now we can start talking business, right? Because now they feel that they have something more to say that they can speak with us in their own language, but in their own time zone and that they can start working on it. So that was, that was surely a great learning how much excitement was there for having people in the region. Like we expected it, but the, the feedback was really incredible. Sounds
Speaker 1:Like it's all good, which is great to hear. And you're currently leading the AMEA team as well, but there is a global alignment piece too. You're obviously head of customer success here in AMEA and head office is based in the us. And there's a team there too. And I'm guessing you're reporting to a global head or VP as well. How do you lead the AMEA team here while still aligning to the global initiatives and the global, you know, strategy for customer success?
Speaker 2:I always think it's working really well because we are very aligned. So since I joined, I had an opportunity to, you know, visit us my CS leadership already twice having offsite, having those strategic conversations and planning. So like being face to face was an incredible help just to understand people, to connect with those leaders and my peers on, on a personal level as well. But then obviously those were just one of instances, great opportunities. Uh, but we are regularly talking together. We have weekly leadership meetings or we are aligning on our goals and strategies. So we really, all of us have a great understanding of what is happening in each segment and in each region. And I have to say, I know that very often as you're growing things maybe be, become siloed or, or, or it becoming difficult to communicate. But then like we do have click up, right? We use it for our own business. We use it for everything and we have a very good way of managing up or just showcasing, what is it that we are doing? So across the whole company leaders are doing weekly update where within click up. So within our platform, we are just showcasing main progress. The main initiatives that we are working on, any potential needs, any obstacles, but we really give a good understanding of what's happening in each team, in the region. And then my leadership would take those updates from, you know, all of the other managers of customer success into account for their customer success update. And that is going all the way to, to the executive leaders and, and even to the CEO. So the whole company is very much aligned of what is happening with each department and what are the things that we have to, you know, take into con consideration. But I would say that that's one of the methodologies that really helped me understand what others are doing, because not only you are writing for your team, but you can read what other people are doing as well. And then you can start collaborating and, and, and those weekly leadership meetings are obviously an, an amazing way to, to be aligned. But when it comes to the global teams and EMEA team, as well as APAC customer success team, we also do regular enablement session where we make sure that we update all the teams about any new processes, any new initiatives or things that we want to implement. So everybody are always, I would say, aligned and informed and not to mention the slack channels that we do have for, for, for every single team. So whenever something's happening or there is an announcement, people are informed really. And I think it's really easy way to stay aligned.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Great. I love hearing it. And then also obviously time zones play an issue location of people. You already mentioned that you guys have off sites and you also have weekly meetings as well, but how do you guys actually strategize globally and then execute globally? Is that something that you do at those meetings? Do you have offsite that are just about strategy? How do you make sure that everyone's aligned to the correct OKRs or to the global initiatives of the company?
Speaker 2:Oh, you just mentioned OKRs. It's one of our favorite topics that I believe in the last few weeks where actually the whole company went through the exercise of OKRs and when they are done well, I think they are, they are incredible tool of alignment. So click up has obviously few main place based on, you know, either the revenue or culture or brand where all the other departments fit in. And then obviously for customer success, we would be part of that big revenue play and have our own goals that we have to fulfill. And based on those goals, then we strategize about the ways and key metrics, right, how we want to achieve those goals. And that's where there is a part of that regional differences that' into the picture because I can create my OKRs to fit the global goals, but also in our email leadership, we are having those OKRs as, as our EMEA OKRs, which is like weird, but all of it's together comes into those main few plays of the whole company. And it just gives all of us very, very clear metrics into what we want to achieve. So just to give you one example, if I have my, my revenue and my expansion goals, that will be very, as the sales team is having. So here in EMEA, we are aligning our OKRs so that we in partnership can achieve our revenue goals. So it it's really very much a play and exercise of OKRs on the whole global level, which we just went through the last few weeks. And, and it's, it's a very, very fun process. It, it, it's really, really great.
Speaker 1:Yeah. That's awesome to hear. It's great that you guys obviously have the company level and then you then break it down into regional, which also makes so much sense when it comes to really following OKRs and understanding the methodology behind how OKRs work as well. And it sounds like you guys really take it on board of what the global strategy is. And even though you have OKRs that are your own you're, you do have a, not some level of autonomy where you're able to kind of execute what you think is best in your region while still serving the, the larger company and the global team as well, which is really great to hear. Now, we've had a little bit of a chat now for some time about click up and obviously processes and being the AMEA team versus obviously the global team. But let's also talk about AMEA customers, cuz I personally think they're a little bit different. I'm an American who lives, uh, in Europe. So I can, I can feel the difference when I am speaking to us versus AMIA customers. But how do you engage with AMIA customers? How is it different than dealing with us customers in your experience? How do you think that that am is a different region, different customers I should say, oh,
Speaker 2:You know, where do you even start from?<laugh> something that is so obvious. But again, so funny is language is obviously right. Not only every single country in me, I will speak different language, but just the way that everybody are using English as their second language, there is something amazing about it. So obviously my English is not even my first language. So, but when the customers whose first language is not English, engage with us, who are, you know, who also don't have English as a first language, there is an immediate connection. They almost feel like, oh, they they're just fine talking in that language. They can, you know, doesn't matter if they're making mistakes or however they express themselves, they feel kind of safe because we are all here on the same page. So that's something that I have just noticed. I think few of the other colleagues who, who are non native speakers, but then obviously having any services in their local languages is incredibly important. I mean, click up is it's a wonderful tool with almost every single use case, which means that there are so many of our users who may not be on positions to speak English in their daily job. And they, they need support in their own language. So just having a CSM or someone else talking their language means a lot for them. That means that they can actually convey their thoughts. But then, okay. Language is the kind of the very obvious thing. I don't know if you have noticed how EMEA customers very often are direct in the most incredible way, but they just like providing feedback. And obviously we, we, we do allow that opportunity because we ask for lots of feedback, but they're very direct, very straight to the point saying, this is going well, but sorry, this is not going well. So what are we doing about it? And they don't take all the answers, right? Even if you say, you know, typically, okay, we are, we are helping out, we are looking into it. You can do it once. You can do it twice, but then you can't do it anymore. UN unless there is an actual action behind it, which is very, very, uh, it, it's really amazing establishing that relationship with people who can so openly talk. Then I have also noticed they like to be self-sufficient, you know, some of them really appreciate having resources in the region, but they are very clear that they don't have a need of engaging with us potentially because in click up, for example, also there are so many different, amazing resources online that can help customers. So if they don't see a need to talk to CSM on a like regular level, they won't do it and they will be upfront with it. And that's okay because we are asking them, how do you want to be engaged? Uh, also we have noticed as a team as well, that it takes little time to build trust and relationship with customers here. They, it's not something that happens straight away. You really need to invest time in it. But now after working with them for few months, we can say for many of those customers that we already are starting to have very strong bonds, uh, and they say that openly, but it, it took time for it. Uh, then as a team, I would say that, uh, something that we are very proud of is our incredible partnership with sales. And that's obviously one of those reasons we, we all started roughly at the same time, we all are new, but we are building an incredible culture in EMEA on every single level, but having CSMs and sales aligned so well is incredible. And that partnership has already brought us loads of different wins in terms of expansion, our people, they, they just like working together. I feel that something that is fundamentally different from, you know, some other parts of the world, because we are, we are geographically very close to each other, but we are in the ways of working as well. Uh, and in fairness, there, there is no account executive or CSM that is talking to customers without letting the other know without copy them on those, that communication. It is such a already strong partnership that we know we are winning only together and everybody always have to be included and, and just inform of everything that is happening with the customers. And that's something that we all really value and respect. And we know that that is a great foundation for achieving good results.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I, there are just so many things that you've just said that I'm, as you're saying it, I was thinking of like examples of us first customers versus a Mia customers. And it's so true. Like the whole they're a little bit more closed at first, but then they'll warm up to you versus maybe us customers are much more open and friendly and wanna chat all the time. And also I think again, in the us customer services are almost expected versus like you said, here in AMIA, people are much more self-sufficient and don't necessarily always wanna work with customer success or any sort of customer support, uh, agent. And then also the direct part as an American. I've definitely learned it here. And, uh, working with Dutch people as well, Germans, they're very, very direct it's, uh,<laugh>, it's something that I think you, you learn as you obviously interact and work with different nationalities, different regions of the world. And like you said, also language, and that's another thing I wanted to actually ask you is you are looking after Mia and that's multiple languages. Every country has its own. And you said that everyone's speaking English, but do your CSMs also speak multiple languages or have you localized your product at all? What's the plan there for AMEA?
Speaker 2:So firstly the whole localization plan is work in progress where our product is already available in French. And very soon it's going to be available in, I believe Spanish and Portuguese as well. We are working on, uh, I have a team member who is working on resources in Portuguese as well. So, so that part is really coming because we have realized it's, it's, it's mandatory for so many customers for whom English is not that accessible to understand the, the platform. And then in customer success team, we already have few languages and that is just about to increase. So I actually speak Lang languages, which are funny enough. It's not that you, I always have the opportunity to use my languages, but here I have, because I can speak creation and Serbian with some of my customers, we have Spanish as well. And Portuguese, we are, we are planning next for French and German, which are obviously incredibly important. Uh, but then on the sales front, as they are growing as a team, obviously there is the language component is huge. So we are, uh, starting to be more aligned with them as well. But it, it is absolutely mandatory that we have different language speakers.
Speaker 1:I totally agree. I remember when I was a CSM in Germany and all of us were, you know, American Canadian or Australian expats. And it was so critical for us to also have German colleagues in the office too, to help, you know, sometimes people wanna speak more comfortably in their own native language. And you have to remember in AMEA that obviously English is not the native language as it is in lots of other parts of the world, but to just open up and be comfortable to speak in that language, I think it, it sets a different tone for the customer. It also opens a certain level of trust that you can build as a CSM with your customer when you're speaking in a language that they're, that they're comfortable with. And it's also great to hear that you're localizing as well. I think this is another thing that SaaS businesses have to really consider when they are expanding or working or, you know, bringing business to different regions in the world. But I do wanna ask you a little bit more about click up and as we wrap up kind of what have been kind of your biggest learnings thus far, you mentioned how quick everything has grown, but also how you guys have had to deal with customers here. What are some of your biggest learnings from the rapid growth at click up
Speaker 2:Learning is a culture result. That that's the first thing I started building my team with the idea F that we are building a team with professional and personal wellbeing into the place from the very beginnings. And I feel that we shouldn't be underestimating culture in building any team. And I can see in such a huge growth and expansion of<inaudible> region that we had that culture really played a significant role and it is going to continue to playing an amazing role further role, because that is what is a glue together for, for everybody being almost on the same page. So big learning is that yes, never underestimate the culture. It is very important at the end of the day. Big learning is also that you need to create and you need to have the autonomy to do what you feel is right. So even when I joined the, there were already loads of things in place, even in customer success. And that is all okay, but my learning was, and even as the leadership direction, take everything that works and do what works and then just do things differently based on the feeling and based on your interactions with the customers. So that was also big learning. We are here to create things how we feel is right. I also learned that with my team who, who joined click up so that they can grow the region so that they can grow their careers, but also grow that whole involvement in building the processes and building the whole strategy for customer success. That's, that's very important, including them in the process as
Speaker 1:Well. Yeah. I love that your, one of your biggest learnings is culture, because I think that this is really a miss as companies grow and scale, and also being very mindful of growing in certain regions and giving people the autonomy to build a culture that works in that region. Of course, still obviously looking up to, you know, HQ and making sure that you have the right culture based on what they're seeing. But I think that that's amazing that you've, you've taken that away as one of the biggest learnings. And thank you so much, uh, for sharing that with us, I could keep talking to you Maria, about this topic. I think we can go on and on about the cultural differences between AMIA and us and, and how customers are different and how strategy is different and OKRs and so on. But I do wanna wrap up, uh, today's conversation with our quickfire questions, where I challenge every single one of my guests to try to answer the next few questions in a sentence or less. I know it's difficult. I've had plenty of people struggle, so don't worry, but are you ready to take on the challenge?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, let's do that.<laugh>
Speaker 1:Okay. Let's do it. The first question is what do you think is next for the CS industry?
Speaker 2:I would say that digital or pool approach just automations and BA based on artificial intelligence. Of course it'll not replace one to one, but it is a big thing that most of the companies will start getting towards. For sure.
Speaker 1:I totally agree. I totally a hundred percent agree. I don't think it'll replace anything, but I think it'll only enhance customer success by having digitalization and AI, like you mentioned. Cool. The next question is what is the favorite app that you cannot live without either on your phone or on your laptop right now?
Speaker 2:Is it only one or<laugh>
Speaker 1:Yeah, only one, one thing you can't live without<laugh>,
Speaker 2:Uh, Monzo. It's a,
Speaker 1:It's
Speaker 2:A great app. It's a great app. It's not one of those like app on my, my laptop for example, but that's, that's one of the,
Speaker 1:Yeah, it makes life easy. It makes banking super easy.<laugh> awesome. Cool. The next question is what sort of compensations should ACSM get? Should it be base salary or base salary plus some sort of commission or bonus
Speaker 2:I would go with base and bonus.
Speaker 1:Awesome. And then the final question is what is your favorite part of customer success or being a CSM,
Speaker 2:Just chatting to customers. It's like just, just building those relationships.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Amazing.
Speaker 2:It's not fancy, but it's like that energizes me just talking to them.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Amazing. And it, and it wakes you up and it makes you wanna do your job, which is great. Well, thank you so much, Maria, for coming on the podcast today, sharing all your learnings takeaways, everything you had to share, it was super appreciative. And I would love to obviously have you back on the podcast, but if our listeners have any other questions for you or wanna get in touch, what's the best way to get in touch with you
Speaker 2:On LinkedIn.
Speaker 1:Amazing. And I will link everything down in the show notes. Thank you so much, Maria for your
Speaker 2:Time. Thank you. Aika this was a pleasure.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the customer success channel podcast today. We hope you learned something new to take back to your team and your company. If you found value in our podcast, please make sure to give us a positive review and make sure you subscribe to our channel as we release new podcasts every month. Also, if you have any topics that you would like me to discuss in the future, or you would like to be a guest on the podcast, please feel free to reach out all my contact details are in this show notes. Thanks again for listening and tune in next time for more on customer success.