Episode 23: Wayne McCulloch - The 7 Pillars of Customer Success

In this episode of the Customer Strategy Podcast, I'm talking with Kirt Manecke.Kirt is the author of the best-selling book SMILE Sell More With Amazing Customer Service.We had an interesting conversation about how Kirt has transformed the businesses he's run and worked for through incredible customer service.It's often the simple things that when done well make the greatest impact. Kirt's book is a testament to this philosophy and is an easy read designed for quick implementation.Anyone involved in working with other people, not even just those working with customers, can get value from Kirt's expertise.Here are the Top 10 things to do according to Kirt, listen in to get some context for each one...1) Smile2) Make a friend3) Answer the phone with a smile4) Say please and thank you5) Acknowledge new customers - Even when you're busy6) Never ask "Can I help you?"7) Uncover your customer's ultimate buying motive8) Probe (Ask Questions)9) Listen10) Know your product and your competition To get a copy of Kirt's book or to buy it for your team, go to smilethebook.com To learn how to build a comprehensive Customer Strategy for your business, grab a copy of my FREE download called the 5 Things Your Customer Strategy Must Have.

In this episode of the Customer Strategy Podcast, I'm talking with Sri Ganesan, Founder, and CEO of Rocketlane.Rocketlane helps businesses accelerate customer time to value by delivering a transparent, consistent, and delightful customer onboarding journey every single time.Sri and I had an interesting conversation about what it was like to have his previous business acquired by a large company and then continue to build for 4.5 years!Sri and his team then set to work on removing the challenges and complexities they saw when it came to onboarding customers.Spreadsheets, Trello, Slack, internal docs, external docs, etc are all used in some form or fashion today when onboarding customers but they create siloed workstreams. This not only affects the people running the project but also affects the customer experience.Rocketlane brings everything together in one tightly knit experience. Documents, tasks, communication, notifications, etc. all live in one place.To learn more about Rocketlane, visit Rocketlane.com To learn how to build a comprehensive Customer Strategy for your business, grab a copy of my FREE download called the 5 Things Your Customer Strategy Must Have.

In this episode of the Customer Strategy Podcast, I'm talking with Gil Baumgarten, founder, and CEO of Segment Wealth Management.Gil built a billion-dollar advisory firm in less than 10 years on the back of incredible customer engagement strategies.Gil and I get into the specific strategies that have enabled his success. Here are some of the strategies we discuss:- Advocacy - What it means to do everything for your client even if it's not in your best interest...- How to do personalization at scale...- How to use an old-school technique to break through and make a connection with a client...- And much, much, more...To learn more about Gil and Segment, visit SegmentWM.com and GilBaumgarten.com. To learn how to build a comprehensive Customer Strategy for your business, grab a copy of my FREE download called the 5 Things Your Customer Strategy Must Have.

In this episode of the Customer Strategy Podcast, I'm talking with Howard Tiersky, author of the Wall Street Journal Bestseller: Winning Digital Customers, The Antidote To Irrelevance.Howard is one of the top 10 Digital Transformation Influencers in the world and has worked with brands like Verizon, NBC, Nutrisystem, Viacom, Avis, Universal Studios, JPMC, Facebook, Spotify, and Amazon just to name a few.Howard and I had a great discussion about his 5-Step Methodology that any company can follow to better understand their customers and deliver an incredible experience.In Howard's words, "Winning with customers is about doing a better job of solving their pain and giving them more delight than your competitors."If you want to find out how to do this, click play to listen to our conversation.You can grab a copy of Howard's book along with the first chapter for free at WinningDigitalCustomers.com.

In this episode of the Customer Strategy Podcast, I'm talking with Wayne McCulloch who is the author of the brand new book: The 7 Pillars of Customer Success.This book is a blueprint for how to build a world-class Customer Success organization and should be read by every Customer Success professional.Wayne does a brilliant job of distilling his vast Customer Success experience from working at companies like IBM, Salesforce, Looker, and his current role running all Customer Success for Google Cloud.To get a copy of The 7 Pillars of Customer Success, visit CSPillars.com Resources mentioned:Download the 5 Things Your Customer Strategy Must HaveWhat to do next:Click here to become a guest on the show

In this episode of the Customer Strategy Podcast, I'm talking with Donna Weber who is a customer onboarding expert and the author of the book Onboarding Matters: How Successful Companies Transform New Customers Into Loyal Champions.In our discussion, we talked about the need for an orchestrated customer onboarding, the 6 stages of an orchestrated onboarding, and the principles behind an incredible customer onboarding.Donna shared some practical tips, tricks, and strategies to help you improve your customer onboarding to turn those new customers into loyal champions.To get a copy of Donna's book, go to Donnaweber.com/bookResources mentioned:Download the 5 Things Your Customer Strategy Must HaveWhat to do next:Click here to become a guest on the show

In this episode of the Customer Strategy Podcast, I'm talking with Dana Soza who is the founder and CEO of customereverything.com.Dana has just released an e-book called How To Land & Succeed in a Customer Success Career: The Success Playbook for Your Employment Journey.Dana used Customer Success frameworks from me and other thought leaders to create a playbook to guide your CS career. She covers everything from how to get a job to how to advance your career to the C-level.I thought this was a very unique approach and we got into all of the details in this episode.If you'd like to get a FREE copy of Dana's ebook, simply go to https:customereverything.com/ebookResources mentioned:Download the 5 Things Your Customer Strategy Must HaveWhat to do next:Click here to become a guest on the showApply to work with Nils

In this episode of the Customer Strategy Podcast, I'm talking with Matt Barnett, Founder, and CEO of Bonjoro.Bonjoro is a personalized video messaging service that can be used at specific points in your sales or customer success processes to engage in a meaningful way with your customers. The user is presented with a notification that something happened like a new customer joined and will be prompted to record a short 30-second video welcoming them.We got into an interesting conversation around how engaging your customers in a unique and personalized way at specific points is a critical component of your Customer Strategy. Ultimately, engagement with your customers is all about getting them to take the next step.Listen in to find out how you can do this in a highly-personalized way.Resources mentioned:Download the 5 Things Your Customer Strategy Must HaveWhat to do next:Click here to become a guest on the showApply to work with Nils

In this episode of the Customer Strategy Podcast, I'm talking with Ruben Rabago, Chief Customer Officer (CCO) at Intellum, and Greg Rose, Chief Experience Officer (CXO) at Intellum.Intellum is combining Customer Experience and Education to help large brands and fast-moving companies achieve the business outcomes that really matter.Ruben just joined Intellum as CCO a week before recording this episode so we got to dig into what the short-term and long-term goals look like for a new CCO joining an organization.If you have ever been curious about the role of a CCO, you are going to enjoy this episode.We discussed a number of leadership topics and if you would like to learn more, pick up a copy of Nils' book 30 Day Leadership Playbook: Your Guide To Becoming The Leader You Have Always Wanted To Be.

In this episode of the Customer Strategy Podcast, I'm talking with Shreesha Ramdas who is the co-founder of Strikedeck, which is now a Medallia company and serves as Senior Vice President and General Manager.Shreesha and I talk about how companies can better achieve retention, expansion, and advocacy in their customer base by utilizing customer health scoring. Whether you are just beginning your journey with a customer health score, or you want to know how to take your customer health score to the next level, you'll find some great direction in this episode. Resources mentioned:Download the 5 Things Your Customer Strategy Must HaveWhat to do next:Click here to become a guest on the showApply to work with Nils