CSP S3 E18 - Eleni Vorvis - Leveraging AI for Enhanced Customer Intelligence

In this compelling conclusion to our three-part series, Eleni Vorvis delves into the transformative role of artificial intelligence in strengthening the partnership between Customer Success and Product Management teams. Discover how AI is revolutionizing customer feedback analysis, product usage tracking, and strategic decision-making in SaaS organizations.

Detailed Analysis

The discussion illuminates several crucial aspects of AI integration in the CS-Product relationship. Vorvis emphasizes that AI is becoming an indispensable tool for identifying usage patterns and automating customer feedback analysis across multiple channels, including support tickets, NPS surveys, and social media. She highlights how AI-powered solutions are evolving to provide more sophisticated in-app guidance and chatbot interactions, potentially reducing the need for direct CSM intervention in routine matters.

A particularly noteworthy insight is the emergence of AI tools specifically designed for data-driven roadmap prioritization. These solutions are beginning to bridge the gap between sales insights, CRM data, and customer feedback, enabling more informed product decisions. However, Vorvis cautions against falling into the trap of tool overwhelm, advocating for a measured approach starting with accessible AI solutions like ChatGPT or Claude.

The conversation also touches on the strategic importance of AI literacy in modern CS and Product Management roles. Vorvis predicts that AI expertise will become a standard requirement in job descriptions, positioning it as a competitive advantage for professionals in these fields. This shift reflects a broader trend toward data-driven decision-making and automated intelligence in SaaS operations.

The hosts and guest share a compelling perspective on the rapid pace of AI advancement in the industry, noting how new tools and capabilities are emerging at an unprecedented rate. They emphasize the importance of maintaining a learning mindset and starting small with AI adoption, suggesting that even simple applications can deliver significant value.

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Transcript

0:00

Kevin and Roman they got the game. Customer success is their claim to fame.

Roman Trebon: 0:10

Welcome back to the Customer Success Playbook Podcast. I'm your host, Roman Trebon. Here with me as always is my co host, Kevin Metzger. Kev, happy Friday. We've made it through the week and we're wrapping up our three part series with Eleni Vorbis. She's been great all week. Kev, what do we have going on today?

Kevin Metzger: 0:26

Yeah. So this week we've been discussing the need for collaboration between customer success and product management, and it's AI Friday So now we're gonna get to talk about how AI plays into the collaboration and what, it means, from, customer success product management standpoint to collaborate using ai. So, lainey, how do you see, AI playing in this landscape? I know we talked about it a little bit earlier, but, what are the kind of keys that you see coming in here? And how do you see AI as valuable to this collaboration?

Eleni Vorvis: 1:03

Yeah, so I think there are a couple of things where AI can play a role. One is identifying usage trends and patterns. And so if you're wanting to understand what features are driving the most engagement or where users are dropping off, you can use AI for that. Automating customer feedback. So we talked about there's a variety of ways in which you get feedback. There's support tickets, there's NPS surveys, love them or hate them. They still are a source of feedback. In many cases. It is feedback about the product itself, right? And if you are seeing the same thing over and over again, there is a pattern that you want to explore. depending on your technology, some people may go to social media to get that. There's also all the meetings that we have, they're now being recorded in AI notetakers So there's so many different places in which you can automate the feedback that gets synthesized and leveraged, by AI. There's the in app guidance that I talked about, the A powered chatbots. I think we're going to see more of that within the software, and also the way that software is built, right? Leveraging AI to get that onboarding process to go a lot faster, and then help the, user of that software through automation versus them having to get on the phone with their CSM every single time, or maybe even having to talk to a product manager. We will still have conversations, but they're going to be more strategic in nature. Data driven prioritization of the roadmap. We talked about the fact that, seven customers saying something is different than, one or two or if they're your largest two customers, then you're going to pay attention to, what is the challenge that they're looking to solve. there are tools out there that are actually helping to align product roadmaps with sales insights CRM data and customer feedback. I'm going to be doing some research on a company called productroadmap. ai. you blink and there is a tool for everything these days. the number of times I get hit up on LinkedIn by Engineers focusing on CS. Ways to help CS teams. To me, it's just like every week there is a person popping up that's trying to solve the problem of helping to analyze data and get things quicker in the hands of CS and product. So I think those are the various ways in which AI is going to play a role. But I think my advice is going to be, that can be overwhelming, right? Like what tool do I get? I have to go through a budget review process. How do I prioritize? We're being asked to do more with less start with simple things, whether you want chat GPT, or you want to use Claude or something else that can go a really long way and a business. Subscription is going to be a lot less than some of these tools. So if you've got just, I think nowadays a lot of people on our teams and product and CS are learning how to leverage AI, it just takes one person building their custom GPT to analyze that feedback and then have a process for how that gets leveraged internally within the organization. I think that's how we're going to see people pivoting. In their skill sets and becoming really valuable collaborators within CS and product managers. I wouldn't be surprised if on job descriptions and skill sets they're looking for. There is going to be an AI component that keeps you, competitive. against other candidates coming into new organizations.

Roman Trebon: 4:14

I wish I would have bought that ai domain or whatever it is, because now every company is ending with that ai. God, we could have been, recording this from the beach somewhere, you know, who knows, but I just think we do have

Kevin Metzger: 4:25

customer success playbook on ai. I mean, we do,

Roman Trebon: 4:29

well, part of the ai, right, so part of the ai No, but it, it's interesting, I think you said it like there's so much, it's happening so fast, right? and I think organizations AI strategy is so important. what are you doing with AI as an organization? what is your plan for strategically? Because it's popping up different tools in different domains and trying to get your hands around that. But I think you touched on what's exciting is this scale that which I think AI can start to analyze data and feedback and look at. Product use cases that maybe weren't even known or identified how customers are using the product Like I find it super exciting why I do get those same LinkedIn messages and I'm like what's going on There's a lot of volume. It is super interesting because I feel like every week there's some new tool where I'm like This is wow. This is we're like years ahead of where we were last week, which is really crazy

Kevin Metzger: 5:21

Yeah, and on top of the tool, I think one of the biggest things is whatever tools you're integrated, the fact that we're gathering so much data around what's happening with the users in our tools or how the interactions go and having that data available That's the lifeblood of what AI is and being able to put on some of the machine learning algorithms on top. You know, there, there's different areas. There's the generative piece of ai, but then there's the ability for AI to do some analysis around the data and uncover, steps in the user journey that you didn't realize were there. Or, usage of the tool that you didn't realize was there that kind of information being available to you and the organization as a whole is huge. excellent insights, Eleni. Thank you for sharing all of your thoughts this week. I'm excited about the future of AI and what it means in customer success, product management and where we're going with everything.

Roman Trebon: 6:25

I'd love to hear your experience. I talked to someone this week. Who's not using chat GPT for anything, and it was almost like talking to someone still using a fax machine. I was like, really? So I'm curious from your experience before we wrap up this week. Are you getting a lot of value out of AI? What's your personal thoughts on the tools and, the value you get out of them?

Eleni Vorvis: 6:45

Yeah, I think we've come to a point where. If you're not leveraging AI, you're going to be left behind. for me, I'm trying to leverage it to make my life easier as a fractional leader, as a consultant, There's a lot of things that AI can do for you with the caveat that you want to fact check, because AI does hallucinate and you want to make sure that it's not giving you the wrong answer I don't know. And then there's the lens of I'm trying to learn as much as I can about what tools are out there in leveraging AI and how do we learn about AI together? it is a rapid pace. a lot of people may not be using it because they're afraid of what it might mean for the future or they're intimidated by it. What AI may mean or what they're, you know, what information I think. Maybe out there about the negatives around AI, or is this, you know, ethical use? How is our data being shared, etc? But I think there's because there is so much conversation. It is something that will, at some point, get more regulations, etc. But for now, it's a good time to just play around and learn. And so I remind people we're all learning together. People may put out this assumption that they know everything they need to know about AI, but it's changing constantly, right? It's just, we saw even what would happen with DeepSync. It was just, you know, there was certain things going on in terms of predictions with AI, and then this thing happened and everyone's like now thinking, okay, this changes the landscape. So I think every couple months there will be that thing. So it's like, just start small. Even if just just have a conversation with the chat GPT use it as a trusted partner on to just even simply maybe like. Recipe creation. Find another great Greek restaurant in Boston. Yeah, find another great Greek restaurant. Or say, look, I'd like to learn more about this topic. It's really just going to accelerate how quickly you can get access to information to learn something and then the next step is, okay, I'm learning through it, how can it help me now with the tasks that I want to automate? you can start very small and get a lot of value very quickly and then ask other people what they're doing and leverage the community. CS is great for that. There's so many. Conversations about AI and how to leverage it.

Roman Trebon: 8:51

No, I love that. It's a great tip. Another tip, start with anything. like, give me a movie recommendation. I like these movies, You can start super small. I like this song. Give me songs like it, And just try it, like, we're in this one big playground, like you said, which is, which is great. So, Elaine, so much for joining us all week. This has been an amazing conversation throughout. our audience can find you on LinkedIn. Eleni, E L E N I dot Vorbis, V O R B I S. We'll put this in our show link as well, so you can find her there. Our audience, if you found these episodes helpful, make sure you subscribe, share them to your colleagues, your network. Reach out to us. Kevin and I are also on LinkedIn. You can find Kevin at Kevin Metzger. Find me at Roman Trebon. We'll be back next week with more tips and strategies for your customer success playbook. Until then, Kevin. Keep on playing.

9:42

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