The Digital CX Podcast: Driving digital customer success and outcomes in the age of A.I.

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 such as industry-specific differences Team structure at Zendesk to support digital & scaled program Getting scrappy with resources and cross-functional departments to help build the programShort-form content as part of the ‘Success on Zendesk’ programUsing data to determine what content to produceDistribution model for video-based learningTaking learnings from B2C on how to interject more human language into B2BDelores' LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/delorescooper/DCS Connect Community: https://airtable.com/appLGhZyujOoYp8BQ/shr4ixoZmB8hBoLbMShoutouts:Grace Maxon: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grace-lofgren-maxon-a98049156/Cooper Roe: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cooper-roe/ Support the show+++++++++++++++++Like/Subscribe/Review:If you are getting value  from the show, please follow/subscribe so that you don't miss an episode and consider leaving us a review.  Website:For more information about the show or to get in touch, visit DigitalCustomerSuccess.com. Buy Alex a Cup of Coffee:This show runs exclusively on caffeine - and lots of it. If you like what we're, consider supporting our habit by buying us a cup of coffee: https://bmc.link/dcspThank you for all of your support!The Digital Customer Success Podcast is hosted by Alex Turkovic🎬 This content was edited by Lifetime Value Media.Learn more at: https://www.lifetimevaluemedia.com 

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 project status updates - automagicallyA lot of people are scared of negative data, but using it to highlight customer improvement opportunities is keyThe importance of benchmarking cohorts of customers to help them grow and act on the adoption of the productKeeping a library of common customer objectives and content/measurements to help them along that pathMoving beyond rules-based automations in favor of GenAI improvements of the inputs that would normally feed your automations to make them even better.Savvy sales teams are taking post-sale data and aggregating business value cases out of it to help set expectationsNobody’s data is perfect - don’t let that keep you from getting something in placeFeedback loops are very important in Digital CS to make sure you are constantly monitoring what is working and what is not workingThe Kirkpatrick model, typically used in L&D can also be used in other ways to measure the short and long term efficacy of your programs and contentEnjoy! I know I sure did...Nik's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikola-mijic-9012201b/Matik: https://www.matik.io/+++++++++++++++++ Support the show+++++++++++++++++Like/Subscribe/Review:If you are getting value  from the show, please follow/subscribe so that you don't miss an episode and consider leaving us a review.  Website:For more information about the show or to get in touch, visit DigitalCustomerSuccess.com. Buy Alex a Cup of Coffee:This show runs exclusively on caffeine - and lots of it. If you like what we're, consider supporting our habit by buying us a cup of coffee: https://bmc.link/dcspThank you for all of your support!The Digital Customer Success Podcast is hosted by Alex Turkovic🎬 This content was edited by Lifetime Value Media.Learn more at: https://www.lifetimevaluemedia.com 

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 circumstances or ambiguityInterplay at Pendo between digital plays and educational offeringsDriving prescriptive outcomes in customers’ journeys, especially when there are many potential outcomes Identifying users' roles in-product to make sure content is curated for the right audience 1:1 Office Hours - assess, unblock & get out. Customers have availability via a calendar to a resource if they are stuckStart with where you are, what problems you’re trying to solve and what is your inventory of existing resourcesFacilitate the happy path digitally and using your humans to intervene when they strayUsing the resources around you and partnering with other teams to fill in the gaps that you have around subject matter expertise, content creation, etc.Prioritizing content creation based on product roadmap, customer impact of a product change  Instructional designers are underusing heroes in SaaSBrand & design standards - when to adhere to them strictly or notEnjoy! I know I sure did...Erica's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/esakroyd/Shoutout: Daphne Costa Lopes: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daphnecostalopes/++++++++++++++++++ Support the show+++++++++++++++++Like/Subscribe/Review:If you are getting value  from the show, please follow/subscribe so that you don't miss an episode and consider leaving us a review.  Website:For more information about the show or to get in touch, visit DigitalCustomerSuccess.com. Buy Alex a Cup of Coffee:This show runs exclusively on caffeine - and lots of it. If you like what we're, consider supporting our habit by buying us a cup of coffee: https://bmc.link/dcspThank you for all of your support!The Digital Customer Success Podcast is hosted by Alex Turkovic🎬 This content was edited by Lifetime Value Media.Learn more at: https://www.lifetimevaluemedia.com 

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 it all correlates to drive customer outcomesAdvice: Don’t get stuck because the data is not perfectUse data in change management by ‘showing your work’ and telling a story of how you got there.Service recovery philosophy: So much of CS is gracefully falling on our sword - and owning up to that can lead to some incredibly real and human moments.Effective interventions on negative sentiment customers can turn these situations into extremely healthy relationshipsContact-level data is so often in very poor shape, not just in formatting but also in whether that contact is still at the company or what role they haveImplementing in-app prompts for new users for them to self-identify what role they playUsing bounced emails to adjust customer contact data - flagging contacts that have left - then reaching out to company to get updated contacts via active usersSurveys are annoying and you have to be very careful not to bombard peopleStandardizing metrics, both product and commercial,  across departments and then putting them front and center in front of the whole company to drive alignmentTracking champions after they leave a company - they can be incredibly valuable CSQLs to land new accounts with minimal effortLane's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lanehart/Resources:Lenny's Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/Scaling People: https://amzn.to/3wDVfVHNudge: https://amzn.to/3wDVfVHApp: OmniFocus: https://www.omnigroup.com/omnifocus/Shoutouts:Mike MolinetMark KosoglowWes GibsonTodd Busler Support the show+++++++++++++++++Like/Subscribe/Review:If you are getting value  from the show, please follow/subscribe so that you don't miss an episode and consider leaving us a review.  Website:For more information about the show or to get in touch, visit DigitalCustomerSuccess.com. Buy Alex a Cup of Coffee:This show runs exclusively on caffeine - and lots of it. If you like what we're, consider supporting our habit by buying us a cup of coffee: https://bmc.link/dcspThank you for all of your support!The Digital Customer Success Podcast is hosted by Alex Turkovic🎬 This content was edited by Lifetime Value Media.Learn more at: https://www.lifetimevaluemedia.com 

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 success todayHe was ‘there’ at the inception of Customer SuccessHow Cast.app  helps its customers achieve 30x ROI via providing digital CS1:Many vs. 1:1 vs. Many:Many in Digital CSGetting persona-specific in your outreach, but don’t go by titles and go by responsibilities, interests and user profilesDigital provides efficiency and automation to drive efficiency for CSMsExecutive personas are likely not going to be in the app and a lot of C-level execs prefer text messagesSMS is a powerful way to reach certain personas and shouldn’t be as frowned upon as it isThe tendency for AI to hallucinate and how it needs to be verified by the humanCurrent and future state of AI in CS and how adopters stand to gain massive efficiencies. More and more useful AI tools are coming.Prompting won’t be as relevant in the future as it currently isEnjoy! I know I sure did...Dickey's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dickey/Cast: https://cast.app/Pure Storage ROI with Cast: https://cast.app/purestorage-roi++++++++++++++++++ Support the show+++++++++++++++++Like/Subscribe/Review:If you are getting value  from the show, please follow/subscribe so that you don't miss an episode and consider leaving us a review.  Website:For more information about the show or to get in touch, visit DigitalCustomerSuccess.com. Buy Alex a Cup of Coffee:This show runs exclusively on caffeine - and lots of it. If you like what we're, consider supporting our habit by buying us a cup of coffee: https://bmc.link/dcspThank you for all of your support!The Digital Customer Success Podcast is hosted by Alex Turkovic🎬 This content was edited by Lifetime Value Media.Learn more at: https://www.lifetimevaluemedia.com 

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 position themselves in the future.In this episode, we cover topics including:  Why CS is so prevalent in software and not as much elsewhereCustomer success as a company-wide capability, not just CS functionInternal collaboration around customer journey actionsProviding value at scale with the illusion of it being personal Making sure we don’t forget to celebrate the success of our users and various personasCSMs who have strong consultative skills will have the edge in the futureStorytelling on the back of data points is where humans excel and this can be supported by digitalPersonalizing digital engagement by asking personas about their engagement preferencesThe importance of having your product and digital motions lead with simplicityContinually tweaking your ICP using internal and external indicators - especially among your smaller customers that are scaling, vs the largest customers.Enjoy! I know I sure did...James' LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jlaw-customersuccess/River Consultancy Group: https://www.riverconsultancygroup.co.uk/Resources:The Daily Stoic: https://dailystoic.com/Deep Work: https://amzn.to/3SHZabyShoutouts:Mickey Powell (Episode 001): https://www.linkedin.com/in/mickeypowell/Markus Rentsch (Episode 026): https://www.linkedin.com/in/markus-rentsch-customer-value-led-growth-for-saas/+++++++++++++++++ Support the show+++++++++++++++++Like/Subscribe/Review:If you are getting value  from the show, please follow/subscribe so that you don't miss an episode and consider leaving us a review.  Website:For more information about the show or to get in touch, visit DigitalCustomerSuccess.com. Buy Alex a Cup of Coffee:This show runs exclusively on caffeine - and lots of it. If you like what we're, consider supporting our habit by buying us a cup of coffee: https://bmc.link/dcspThank you for all of your support!The Digital Customer Success Podcast is hosted by Alex Turkovic🎬 This content was edited by Lifetime Value Media.Learn more at: https://www.lifetimevaluemedia.com 

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 functions and practices together to scale CX - not just CS.Digital CS in relation to other orgs in the company and ensuring you are building together with cross-collaboratorsLeveraging cross functional competencies to work together on securing the customer journeyFocusing on quick wins to get something going quickly, while you focus on the big picture, future state activities"Product vs. Sales Led Growth? Embrace BOTH with Scaled CX": Cliff notes of Dee’s talk at Pulse last yearHer scaled team structure and the importance of leaving room for variability when building these teamsScaled Customer Experience Team with three pillars: Scaled Education, Scaled Production & Digital Success with Scaled teams to supportA peek at the digital tech stack + the custom in-house tooling built at Miro In-app guidance needs to be elegant and not overbearing or clunky.Enjoy! I sure did...Dee's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deekapila/Dee's Talk at Pulse in 2023: https://pulselibrary.gainsight.com/video/product-vs-sales-led-growth-embrace-both-with-scaled-cxDee's Substack: https://deekapila.substack.com/Shoutout:Sam David @ Monday.com ++++++++++++++++++ Support the show+++++++++++++++++Like/Subscribe/Review:If you are getting value  from the show, please follow/subscribe so that you don't miss an episode and consider leaving us a review.  Website:For more information about the show or to get in touch, visit DigitalCustomerSuccess.com. Buy Alex a Cup of Coffee:This show runs exclusively on caffeine - and lots of it. If you like what we're, consider supporting our habit by buying us a cup of coffee: https://bmc.link/dcspThank you for all of your support!The Digital Customer Success Podcast is hosted by Alex Turkovic🎬 This content was edited by Lifetime Value Media.Learn more at: https://www.lifetimevaluemedia.com 

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 transition into CSHis team’s focus on customer enablementUsing digital motions to focus a CSMs time on having valuable conversation with customers instead of content creation & admin workStructure of CS around digital at LinkedIn using a ‘Programs’ teamHow LinkedIn structures around line of business and customer segmentImplementation of inSided at LinkedIn to drive community and starting with a core group of customers for early feedback and into broader availability launchState of the CS Community  in Dublin Ezras work in DEI and driving equity & diversity within LinkedIn and co-founding TransformHER to help break the double glass ceiling outside of LinkedInTreating LinkedIn content as more of a library vs. a feed where you can search for historic contentEnjoy! I sure did!Ezra's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ezimbler/Customer Success Monthly Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7023248545004539904/Customer Success Monthly YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@CustomerSuccessMonthly/Shoutouts:Dan EnnisDeclan McKiernan - Programs at LinkedInAndy Best - Community at LinkedIn+++++++++++++++++ Support the show+++++++++++++++++Like/Subscribe/Review:If you are getting value  from the show, please follow/subscribe so that you don't miss an episode and consider leaving us a review.  Website:For more information about the show or to get in touch, visit DigitalCustomerSuccess.com. Buy Alex a Cup of Coffee:This show runs exclusively on caffeine - and lots of it. If you like what we're, consider supporting our habit by buying us a cup of coffee: https://bmc.link/dcspThank you for all of your support!The Digital Customer Success Podcast is hosted by Alex Turkovic🎬 This content was edited by Lifetime Value Media.Learn more at: https://www.lifetimevaluemedia.com 

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 functions.In this fascinating interview we discussed:Being part of the Zenefits growth and the evolution into her establishing Bayview, specifically focused on CS recruitingHiring and the job search freeze are thawingSara’s motivation for starting the Success Unscripted PodcastThe importance of being vulnerable and sharing your hard experiences to help others who are doing the sameBuilding and scaling digital teams from a hiring perspective Hiring for digital is not just about putting your Junior CS teams in a scaled team but instead looking for technical resources, marketing people, product…etc.Start by analyzing what systems & people you have. What are the skills gaps in relation to what problems you’re trying to solve. That will inform your hiring strategy for digital.For a digital role - you are looking to hire people who can go deep into the data, but can also pull up and see the strategyPractical advice for CSMs looking for their next role: take on projects and prove you can already do the work of that roleFor those looking for work: Focus on the industry you already have experience with which will give you a leg up over other applicants. Focus on the ACV of the target customer that is within your comfort range. Finally, focus on what stage company it is vs. your experience.Don’t just send in your resume and call it a day - recruiters are likely not looking at those resumes. Find the manager of the team and send them a note on LinkedIn.Sara’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saralynneroberts/Bayview Talent: https://www.bayviewtalent.com/Success Unscripted Podcast: https://www.unscriptedpod.com/Resources:Crunchbase for conducting targeted company searches based on your criteria Support the show+++++++++++++++++Like/Subscribe/Review:If you are getting value  from the show, please follow/subscribe so that you don't miss an episode and consider leaving us a review.  Website:For more information about the show or to get in touch, visit DigitalCustomerSuccess.com. Buy Alex a Cup of Coffee:This show runs exclusively on caffeine - and lots of it. If you like what we're, consider supporting our habit by buying us a cup of coffee: https://bmc.link/dcspThank you for all of your support!The Digital Customer Success Podcast is hosted by Alex Turkovic🎬 This content was edited by Lifetime Value Media.Learn more at: https://www.lifetimevaluemedia.com 

Reminder! Enter for a Gold Pass to the CS Festival in Austin:Leave a review the podcast and send a quick screenshot to alex@digitalcustomersuccess.comGo 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 of insight and knowledge to learn from. In this fascinating conversation, Annie draws from her deep career at legendary companies like LinkedIn, Cisco & Coursera - as well as her current experience with RecastSuccess - to give us a ton of great nuggets of knowledge.It was also a pleasure having her on as RecastSuccess does so much to drive equity and diversity within CS - which is definitely worth highlighting. In this fantastic conversation, we cover a lot of ground including:How to prioritize where to start digitallyHow tooling has helped us to normalize digital CS The genesis of RecastSuccess and its mission to help foster diversity in CS The role profiles of Digital CS and how product management, marketing, sales ops  and data science fit in well with DCS - not necessarily CSM.How RecastSuccess partners with VCs & Startups to help grow CS orgs with well trained team membersEarly stage startups have an advantage because you can start with automations and have them in place from the beginningHow to be proactive with end-users (those that aren’t reaching out) to help drive outcomes for those executivesAverage professional in the US uses 80 apps regularly - which is why it is imperative to be proactive with users Semi-live webinars are a great way to scaleNew AI tools are there to augment and improve what you’re doing - not replace what you’re doing.Racial & Gender diversity in tech and RecastSuccess’ mission for building CS teams that are as diverse as possibleThe ever-present topic of whether to QBR or whether to not QBRAnnie's Industry Newsletter List Support the show+++++++++++++++++Like/Subscribe/Review:If you are getting value  from the show, please follow/subscribe so that you don't miss an episode and consider leaving us a review.  Website:For more information about the show or to get in touch, visit DigitalCustomerSuccess.com. Buy Alex a Cup of Coffee:This show runs exclusively on caffeine - and lots of it. If you like what we're, consider supporting our habit by buying us a cup of coffee: https://bmc.link/dcspThank you for all of your support!The Digital Customer Success Podcast is hosted by Alex Turkovic🎬 This content was edited by Lifetime Value Media.Learn more at: https://www.lifetimevaluemedia.com