On this month’s episode of The Customer Success Channel Podcast, brought to you by Planhat, I chatted with Lauren Cumming, Head of Customer Success at Fixflo, a property maintenance software solution. Lauren moved to London from New Zealand and has 6 years’ experience in Customer Success, holding Customer Success roles at SparkUp, DeskPro, and RotaGeek. Having experienced some of the unique challenges that come with working in startup environments and the growth of Fixflo from startup to scaleup, Lauren shares her tips and tricks on managing and scaling a Customer Success team throughout this transition.
In the past decade, we have seen a boom of new tech company startups across the UK and Europe. This growth in starting up businesses from the ground up has indirectly led to the growth of customer success. There are a lot of growing pains as you grow up from a start-up to a scaleup and Lauren shares her experience in working in customer success at a company that has transitioned from a startup to a scaleup. There are a lot of growing pains as you grow from a startup to a scaleup, so how do you manage your Customer Success team during this transition?
Lauren explains the key difference between a startup and scaleup. In the scaleup phase, your business has a product market fit and a proven sales funnel. You know who your customers are, where to find them, and what and how you sell. No need to pivot to gain new customers. The model is proven and the mission now is to build a repeatable, scalable business model.
As Lauren has only ever worked in tech startups and only within Customer Success, it was a natural progression for her to become the Head of Customer Success at Fixflo. Her advice to others wanting to climb the ladder, is that you have to have the grit and desire to get stuck in and be willing to build the Customer Success org from the ground up. This enables you to pick up a lot of knowledge and skills and ultimately makes you adaptable and resilient.
In our discussion, Lauren helps answer some of the tricky questions when it comes to transitioning from a startup to a scaleup:
- What are some hidden obstacles a CSM or CS leader might face as a company transitions from startup to scale up?
- What are your thoughts around compensation models for Customer Success Managers? Does this change as your KPIs change from a startup to a scaleup?
- Do you have a piece of advice you can give a CS leader or org as they transition to a scaleup?
Some key takeaways from this discussion:
- The nature of the business will change as you scale, so it needs more structure and processes in place
- The type of people you hire in your team will change as roles become more specialized and focused
- You need to readjust the way you work and become data-driven as opposed to just relying on your intuition
Make sure you listen to the full episode and let me know your thoughts in the comments!