In the latest episode of the Scaling Stories, Mika sat down with Lena Theres Zimmerman, the customer success leader at Pleo. Over the course of our conversation, Lena shared her journey from being an individual contributor to leading a team responsible for managing 800 customers. Her experiences and insights offer valuable lessons for anyone navigating the complexities of customer success in a fast-growing company.
From Individual Contributor to Leader
Lena’s career began over three and a half years ago when the company was still in its earlier phase with around 200 employees. Initially responsible for managing 50 to 80 customers, she quickly realized the importance of building processes, tools, and data optimization to support the company’s rapid growth.
The Shift to Data-Driven Customer Success
Reflecting on her early days at Pleo, Lena highlights that the customer success team relied on manual data entry and personal interactions with customers to gather insights and feedback. This hands-on approach did not scale, but was essential for understanding customer needs and shaping the product.
However, as the customer base grew, the need for more structured processes and real-time data became evident. The shift towards a mature customer success organization involved implementing dedicated CS tools like Vitally and developing top-notch processes supported by a Revenue Operations team. The transition also involved segmenting customers based on revenue and potential, ensuring that high-value customers received the attention they needed.
The customer segmentation strategy, Lena suggests segmenting customers into four segments:
- Tier 4 – low in both potential and revenue
- Tier 3 – low in revenue, but higher in potential
- Tier 2 – high in revenue and potential
- Tier 1 – higher in revenue/ saturated
With Tackle, CS teams can track time and resources each customer or customer segment requires to make informed resource allocation decisions.
Cross-team Collaboration & AI
An ongoing challenge for customer success teams is effectively communicating customer feedback to product teams. Lena shared that in the early days, it was easier to have direct interactions with product managers. However, as the organization grew, maintaining this level of communication became more complex. A new structured approach which involves using collaboration tools and AI ensures that feedback is not only collected but also analyzed and prioritized based on its potential impact.
Lena believes that AI can significantly reduce the administrative burden on CSMs, allowing them to focus on strategic tasks and customer interactions. AI can also enhance the quality of customer insights, enabling CSMs to be better prepared for meetings and discussions.
Key Takeaways for Customer Success Managers
- Express Career Aspirations: Proactively communicate your career goals and seek opportunities to take on additional responsibilities.
- Build and Optimize Processes: As your company grows, invest in developing structured processes and tools to support scalable customer success.
- Segment Customers Strategically: Focus on both actual revenue and potential to allocate resources effectively and maximize customer lifetime value.
- Foster Collaboration with Product Teams: Develop structured methods for capturing and communicating customer feedback to ensure it is heard and acted upon.
- Leverage AI: Utilize AI to automate administrative tasks and enhance the quality of customer insights, allowing CSMs to focus on strategic activities.
Continuous Learning and Peer Exchange
For those looking to connect with Lena, she is particularly interested in learning more about how other customer success teams utilize AI. Sharing experiences and best practices in this area can lead to innovative approaches and improved customer success strategies.
