The Customer Success Playbook
Welcome to “The Customer Success Playbook,” a fresh podcast initiative spearheaded by Kevin Metzger and Roman Trebon. Immerse yourself with us in the dynamic realm of customer success, where we unravel the latest insights, inspirations, and wisdom from recognized leaders in the Customer Success domain.
Our journey began with a simple yet profound belief: that meaningful conversations can significantly impact our professional trajectory. With this ethos, we’ve embarked on a mission to bring to you the voices of seasoned and revered professionals in the field. Our episodes have seen the likes of Sue Nabeth Moore, Greg Daines, Jeff Heclker, James Scott, David Ellin, and David Jackson, who have generously shared their expertise on a variety of pertinent topics.
We’ve delved into the intricacies of Profit and Loss Statements in Customer Success with Dave Jacksson, explored the potential of Customer Success Platforms with Dave Ellin, and unravelled the role of AI in Customer Success with all guests. With Sue, we navigated the waters of Organizational Alignment, while Greg brought to light strategies for Reducing Churn. Not to be missed is James insightful discourse on the Current Trends in Customer Success and Jeff’s thoughts on Service Delivery in CS.
Each episode is crafted with the intention to ignite curiosity and foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement among customer success professionals. Our discussions transcend the conventional, probing into the proactive approach, and the evolving landscape of customer success.
Whether you’re a seasoned veteran or a newcomer to the industry, our goal is to propel your customer success prowess to greater heights. The rich tapestry of topics we cover ensures there’s something for everyone, from the fundamentals to the advanced strategies that shape the modern customer success playbook.
Our upcoming episodes promise a wealth of knowledge with topics like CS Math, Training, AI, Getting hired in CS, and CS Tool reviews, ensuring our listeners stay ahead of the curve in this fast-evolving field. The roadmap ahead is laden with engaging dialogues with yet more industry mavens, aimed at equipping you with the acumen to excel in your customer success journey.
At “The Customer Success Playbook,” our zeal for aiding others and disseminating our expertise to the community fuels our endeavor. Embark on this enlightening voyage with us, and escalate your customer success game to unparalleled levels.
Join us on this quest for knowledge, engage with a community of like-minded professionals, and elevate your customer success game to the next level. Your journey towards mastering customer success begins here, at “The Customer Success Playbook.” Keep On Playing!!
The Customer Success Playbook
Meredith Mann Customer Success Playbook- PostGame Season 2 Episode 38
In this episode of the Customer Success Playbook podcast, hosts Roman Trebon and Kevin Metzger discuss their innovative use of AI to create a post-game show. The episode features insights from an interview with Meredith Mann from LinkedIn, exploring the transformative potential of AI in customer success. Key themes include AI as an empowering tool rather than a job replacement, practical applications of AI in customer success workflows, and the enduring importance of human skills in an AI-augmented landscape.
Detailed Analysis
AI as an Empowerment Tool
Meredith Mann presents a refreshing perspective on AI, viewing it not as a threat to jobs but as a powerful tool to enhance customer success teams' capabilities. She uses an analogy of upgrading bike tires to illustrate how AI integration improves efficiency without fundamentally changing the human element of customer success.
Customer Success Equation
Mann introduces a customer success equation: Customer Success = (Customer Experience + Customer Outcomes) / Effort. This formula underscores how AI can optimize efforts, leading to improved experiences and outcomes without increasing the workload on customer success managers (CSMs).
Practical AI Applications
The discussion highlights several practical applications of AI in customer success:
- Meeting summarization and note-taking
- Email drafting
- Personalized learning paths for customers
- Enhanced customer success plans using predictive analytics
- Data-driven value reviews
AI-Driven Personalization
A significant focus is placed on AI's ability to personalize experiences at scale. This includes tailoring learning paths, content recommendations, and customer success plans based on individual customer needs, goals, and industry contexts.
The Human Element in AI Era
Despite the advancements in AI, the podcast emphasizes the irreplaceable nature of human skills in customer success. Empathy, emotional intelligence, and the ability to build trust remain crucial. The role of CSMs is portrayed as more vital than ever, with AI augmenting their abilities rather than replacing them.
Future of Work
The discussion touches on the importance of 'heart' in the future of work, highlighting that while AI can automate tasks and analyze data, it cannot replicate uniquely human qualities like compassion and emotional connection.
Business Insights
- AI integration can lead to significant time savings, with some LinkedIn teams already saving hundreds of hours of work.
- The future of customer success lies in a balanced approach, leveraging AI for efficiency and data-driven insights while relying on human skills for relationship building and strategic decision-making.
- AI can transform value reviews by providing meaningful, data-driven insights that CSMs can use to have more productive conversations with customers.
- The podcast suggests a shift in skill focus for CSMs, emphasizing the need to develop skills in AI tool utilization alongside traditional relationship-building capabilities.
Please Like, Comment, Share and Subscribe.
You can also find the CS Playbook Podcast:
YouTube - @CustomerSuccessPlaybookPodcast
Twitter - @CS_Playbook
You can find Kevin at:
Metzgerbusiness.com - Kevin's person web site
Kevin Metzger on Linked In.
You can find Roman at:
Roman Trebon on Linked In.
Welcome to the customer success playbook podcast. I'm your host, Roman Trebon, and with me always is my co host, Kevin Metzger. Kevin, we're doing something a little different here. You want to tell our audience what we have going on?
Kevin Metzger:So been playing with the new AI. Well, it's not really a new AI tool. It's been out for a while, but it's got a new feature. Notebook LM. we're able to load all of our content into it. And Get it to generate a podcast. And so we did that for historically for 5, 000 episode or 5, 000 thousand download, that's hard to say. And I realized we could do it as a post game show. We used to do post games and wanted to see if we could get our post game started again. So we've got a post game episode for Meredith. Roman, you heard the episode. It's about six and a half minutes. What do you think?
Roman Trebon:Yeah, I think this is really cool. if you've been listening to us for a while, or if you're just new to checking this out, we used to have an episode with a guest and then Kevin and I would do a separate episode where we'd break it down. We, as you know, we talk about AI a lot in the impacts AI have on customer success. So I love this, Kevin, that we're actually using AI, A lot of people are like, what is AI still? how do you use it? What does it do? this is great because we have our episode with Meredith. Totally check it out. She rocks we had an awesome interview with her. she is amazing. This is an episode. it's going to be two AI. Talents, right? I guess the kind of breaking it down in short summary. So think of it as like a little teaser. So you'll get the summary of our conversation with Meredith produced with AI host right now. I will say Kev, there's a tinge of jealousy. I think there may be a little better than me when I listen to them. So I got to up, maybe we got to up our game to kind of match them. They are really, really sharp. But what I think this is great is if you listen to, Meredith's episode, You can send someone this as a, as a, Hey, check this out. Here's some key topics, right? And then that may, that may get you to say, Hey, I want to hear more about Meredith. I'll check out the show. So I love that we're doing this. It's actually AI in action. I'm excited for this to be our first AI generated post game show.
Kevin Metzger:Yeah. And Roman, I'm doing a separate thing specific on notebook LM about how to use it. I'll have that video out probably by the time this gets published.
Roman Trebon:Awesome. our audience, I hope you enjoy our AI replacements and the post game show. If you, any feedback, reach out at Roman Trebon at Kevin Metzger on LinkedIn, check us out on the LinkedIn customer success playbook. We'd love to hear your thoughts And as always,
Kevin Metzger:keep on playing.
CSP Female Bot:/Welcome to today's deep dive where we're tackling AI and its role in customer success. We're dissecting an interview with Meredith Mann from LinkedIn featured on the customer success playbook podcast. She had some really interesting takes on leveraging AI, not as a job snatcher, but as a powerful tool.
CSP Male Bot:It's a hot topic, right? It's AI coming for our jobs. What's refreshing about Meredith's approach is her focus on AI as a way to empower customer success teams, not replace them.
CSP Female Bot:Absolutely. She actually compares integrating AI into customer success with upgrading your bike tires. You're not changing the bike itself, or in this case the human element, you're just making it work better.
CSP Male Bot:That's a great analogy and it really underscores her point that AI should be viewed as an enhancement, not a threat. She even delves into a customer success equation. Customer success equals customer experience plus customer outcomes divided by effort. It's fascinating how AI can actually streamline those efforts leading to better experiences and outcomes without increasing the workload on customer success managers.
CSP Female Bot:It's like AI is taking over the tedious tasks so humans can focus on what they do best, building relationships and providing that human touch that's irreplaceable.
CSP Male Bot:Precisely. And speaking of making things smoother, Meredith gets into some practical advice. She talks about this idea of prompting like a pro, which boils down to how even small changes in the way you interact with AI can make a huge difference in its output. For instance, simply structuring a meeting invite with clear bullet points can lead to much more accurate AI generated summaries.
CSP Female Bot:That's a great tip. I'm always looking for ways to improve my use of AI tools. She also mentioned how LinkedIn teams are already using AI for things like note taking, summarizing meetings, and even drafting emails. And get this, it's already saving them hundreds of hours of work.
CSP Male Bot:It's incredible to see how quickly AI is changing the game in terms of productivity, but it's not just about these everyday tasks. Meredith highlights how AI can be used to personalize learning paths for customers, which is something that can be incredibly valuable in today's fast paced business environment. Imagine being able to provide customers with tailored content and recommendations based on their specific needs and goals. All powered by AI. It really speaks to the power of AI to personalize experiences at scale. Instead of a one size fits all approach, AI can analyze a customer's learning history, their goals, even their industry, and then suggest content or courses that are truly relevant to them.
CSP Female Bot:It's like having a personalized tutor who always knows what you need to learn next.
CSP Male Bot:Exactly. And what's fascinating is that this personalization extends beyond learning paths. Meredith also talked about how AI can help create more effective customer success plans. These are basically roadmaps that guide customers toward their desired outcomes.
CSP Female Bot:Okay, I can see where AI could be really helpful there. How did that actually work?
CSP Male Bot:Well, imagine being able to use AI to analyze all sorts of data Past customer interactions, product usage patterns, even industry trends to identify potential roadblocks before they even happen. Or using predictive analytics to anticipate a customer's needs and proactively suggest solutions. That's the kind of power AI brings to the table.
CSP Female Bot:So it's like having a crystal ball, but instead of vague predictions, it gives you actionable advice.
CSP Male Bot:Precisely. And speaking of actionable, Meredith also discussed how AI can revolutionize those often dreaded value reviews. Instead of manually sifting through data and trying to connect the dots, AI can analyze everything from customer interactions to product usage and market trends to provide data driven insights that are actually meaningful.
CSP Female Bot:That makes a lot of sense. It's not just about presenting data for the sake of data. It's about using AI to extract valuable insights that can help drive better outcomes for customers.
CSP Male Bot:Exactly. And that's where those Human Customer Success Managers, or CSMs, come in. They can leverage these AI powered insights to have more engaging and productive conversations with their customers.
CSP Female Bot:So even with all these AI advancements, it's still the human connection that makes all the difference.
CSP Male Bot:Absolutely. AI can provide the tools and insights, but it can't replicate the empathy, the emotional intelligence, the ability to build trust and rapport that are so essential for successful people. Customer relationships.
CSP Female Bot:It reminds me of something else. Meredith emphasized the importance of heart in the future of work. What exactly did she mean by that?
CSP Male Bot:It's a great question, and it speaks to a bigger point about A. I. Yes, it can automate tasks and analyze data like nobody's business, but it can't replace those uniquely human qualities like empathy, compassion and the ability to connect on an emotional level. Those are the things that truly make a difference in customer success or any relationship for that matter.
CSP Female Bot:That makes a lot of sense. So how does this all tie back to customer success managers or CSMs? What does their role look like in this future where AI is becoming more prevalent?
CSP Male Bot:Meredith's view is that CSMs are more vital than ever. Think of it this way. AI is like having a high powered engine in a race car. It's incredibly powerful, but it needs a skilled driver to navigate the course, make strategic decisions, and ultimately win the race. The CSMs are the drivers. They take the insights and capabilities AI provides and translate them into meaningful actions and interactions with customers.
CSP Female Bot:So AI augments their abilities, but doesn't replace the need for human intuition and connection.
CSP Male Bot:Exactly. AI can help CSMs be more efficient, data driven, and proactive, but it's still the CSM who builds trust, understands unspoken needs, and guides customers to success in a way that feels personalized and authentic.
CSP Female Bot:This has been a fascinating deep dive into the evolving world of AI and customer success. It's clear that AI has the potential to be a game changer, but it's also clear that the human element will always be critical.
CSP Male Bot:I completely agree. As we move further into this exciting new era, it's up to all of us to embrace the possibilities of AI while also staying true to those core human values that are at the heart of successful relationships.
CSP Female Bot:Meredith's insights really highlight that balance we need to strike, leveraging the power of AI while retaining that human touch.
CSP Male Bot:It's not about humans versus machines. It's about finding ways to use technology to empower ourselves, to enhance our work, and ultimately to build deeper, more meaningful connections with the people we serve.
CSP Female Bot:Great point to end on. Thanks for joining me on this deep dive. And for you, our listeners, we'd love to hear your thoughts. How do you see AI shaping the future of your work and your interactions? Let us know.
