On this month’s episode of The Customer Success Channel Podcast, brought to you by Planhat, I chatted with Harini Gokul, Head of Customer Success at AWS about her experience of shaping and building CS as a value realization.
Harini is a global business and technology leader. She has twenty years of experience directing over 2500 global employees at Microsoft and is currently a part of Amazon’s Web Services Executive team where she oversees the CS department.
For any business, it is important to know how much the customer matter and really define how CS can drive value. This is something Harini has seen developing in CS departments that were undergoing digital transformation and innovation for decades. So, where do you see some similarities and differences within that new versus the old side of value realization for CS?
In our discussion Harini helps answer some of the tricky questions when it comes to moving from defence to offence in customer success:
- Metrics are often mentioned in CS as we are defining them as an industry, but what are some proactive metrics that help companies see CS as a value realization?
- CS is a team sport, which departments are key in helping CS/customers succeed?
- How have you built a culture of customer success at AWS? CS is a team sport, how did you get buy-in from other departments?
Some key takeaways from this discussion:
- It comes down to customer obsession and defining value the way our customers define it. Not what I think it is, not what you believe it is, but to truly work backward and learn what success looks like for our customers.
- When done right, your customer becomes your advocate. That is the ultimate sign of a trusted relationship where we’ve added value and helped them move on their journey.
- Metrics are very important as you make the transition from reactive to more proactive. For example, usage, customer health, and lifetime value.
Make sure you listen to the full episode and let me know your thoughts in the comments!
