Customer success is evolving rapidly, and 2024 has been a year of innovation, resilience, and growth. While no list can capture all the incredible voices shaping the industry, these are our favorite influencers and experts—leaders whose insights have inspired us, sparked conversations, and driven real change.
From practical advice on onboarding and retention to thought leadership on strategy and scaling, these customer success champions are redefining how we connect with, empower, and retain our customers. Whether you’re a seasoned CS professional or just starting your journey, these experts are worth following for their wisdom and actionable ideas.
The Faces Behind the Wisdom
Want a quick overview of the brilliant minds behind these impactful quotes? Check out our Customer Success Influencers of 2024 Infographic!
1. Onboarding and Implementation: Building the Foundation
Onboarding isn’t just the first step—it’s the foundation for long-term success. These experts emphasize clarity, proactive planning, and setting the stage for customer value right from the start.
“The thing that separates good CSMs from great CSMs is, are they starting to connect dots and look at other things happening in the business, almost interpreting and inferring, ‘I think this might solve a problem that one of my customers has.”
Con Cirillo, Director of Lifecycle Marketing at Funnel
“The primary goal in the first 90 days should be to nail the first use case. In very complex platforms where a single use case can take a year to implement, the situation might be different, but let’s set that aside for now.”
Adam Smith, Customer-Led Growth Advisor at Catalyst Software
“If you’ve spent a few weeks learning apart from your brand new hire, right, you’re four weeks in, you spent four weeks learning the platform, you’ve onboarded one company, or two companies, you’ve taken 20 support cases, you are officially in the top 1% of people in the world with that platform.”
Will Stevenson, Founder and COO at Onboard.io
“The onboarding starts before that kickoff event. It’s before the call is even scheduled. It’s the communications we have internally, from our AEs, and the handoff to ensure we have a clearer understanding of who we’re working with and supporting.”
Hannah Dean, Senior CS Manager NEMEA at Livestorm
“User onboarding is more than just teaching users how to use features; it’s about guiding them toward achieving their desired outcomes with your product.”
Efehan Çelik, Customer Success Manager at Workwize
2. Retention and Value Creation: Keeping Customers Close
Customer success isn’t just about acquiring new customers; it’s about keeping the ones you have and proving your value every step of the way. These leaders share their tips on driving loyalty and reducing churn.
“When a champion leaves, it’s almost like a reimplementation. You have to retrain, realign, and shift your lens to deliver success based on their new goals and incentives.”
Parul Bhandari, Fractional Customer Experience Leader at CustomerXSuccess
“Customers are forgiving, and they’re very happy when you produce results that improve their experience. Be confident, go in, and try to push the boundaries.”
J.P. Scoville, VP of Customer Success at Cinch
“It’s just really been mission-critical for customer success managers to be especially resilient and adaptable over the last year or so, navigating a lot of ambiguity and variables.”
Sadie Shepard, Founding Member | Community Experience & Growth at Founding Women
“If we’re going to be led by the customer, from a growth perspective, from a revenue perspective, we need to increase our ability to get them to value as fast as possible, and to continue that value throughout the customer lifecycle.”
De’edra Williams, Advisor at Women in Customer Success
“Even if a customer is considering churn, simply presenting a clear ROI story—showing how their investment is paying off—can often lead to an ‘aha moment’ that makes them reconsider.”
Samantha Kramer, VP of Customer Success at Jungle Scout
3. Customer-Centric Philosophy: Putting Customers First
At its core, customer success is about putting the customer first. These leaders highlight the importance of empathy, alignment, and clear communication to drive outcomes that matter.
“Customer success cannot be just the job of the customer success department. It’s a joint venture. Everyone from marketing, to sales, to product, customer success, support, growth—you name it—should basically be aligned and should have shared KPIs when it comes to customer success.”
Eleni Vorvis, Vice President of Customer Success at CoachEm
“Whatever I try to do nowadays—implementing a new CRM, discussing a new customer journey tool, or anything else—the focus must be on the customer. Otherwise, you get caught up in strategy, and your customer doesn’t care about it. They want to be served in the best way possible.”
Victoria Fritz, Interim Director CSM/Support & Product, at SocialHub
“Put the customer at the heart of everything you do. It almost sounds like a cliché, but from my experience, it doesn’t always happen. That’s how you’re going to create value and systematically achieve great revenue outcomes over time.”
Christopher Warren-Gash, VP of Customer Success at Sympa
“Ask them why five times. If you ask them why five times, you will actually understand why they want to do that instead of just running and doing what they want.”
Philip Simon, Head of Customer Success at Rule
“CS leaders need to stop focusing on support metrics like tickets or QBRs and start talking about outcomes. Highlight the number of CSQLs generated, show deal velocity, and build a narrative that demonstrates how CS drives measurable value for the company.”
Saahil Karkera, VP of Customer Success at Oaky
4. Leadership and Team Development: Shaping Customer Success Teams
Great customer success starts with great teams. These leaders understand that a strong, adaptable, and collaborative team is the backbone of any successful CS strategy. From building rapport to fostering leadership within the organization, these influencers share their insights on cultivating high-performing CS teams.
“When you’re joining a new CS organization, it’s crucial to learn from the team in place. I brought everybody together so I could learn from them, ask what makes the team special, what their challenges are, and what their history of success has been.”
Laura Litton, Director of Success at LiveSchool
“When you’re in the earlier stage of a company, everyone needs to be a bit scrappier and more able to flex in a few different directions more often. I think that really informs the type of people that you need as you’re looking to build the team. Then, through that growth process, you start to uncover those strengths and where people can naturally start to move towards as you’re able to put more specific roles in place.”
Matt Kelso, Director of Customer Success at Teampay
“One takeaway from having to lead remotely is to give your team a lot of trust, let them be adults and do their job. But at the same time, you need visibility: the more insights I had into what activities my team were up to, the better we could see what activities made a difference on the other end.”
Peter Sterkenburg, Revenue Operations Manager, Tech and Infrastructure at Pleo
“What I’ve observed, particularly post-pandemic, is that as funding has dried up, customer success has been one of the areas cut back the most. In early-stage companies, we’re seeing more crossover of roles and a broadening of what CS is actually doing—everything from onboarding to upsells and renewals. It’s forced us to shift the skill sets we look for in CS professionals.”
Benjamin Jones, Customer Success Lead at FrankieOne
“Sales-led growth tends to be the norm, the easiest thing to fall into—it’s rooted in history. Whereas product-led growth, you really need the right product at the right price, and then the right impact that drives the right need and a little bit of that virality of your product.”
Julie Persofski, Global Managing Director, Customer Success Practice Lead
5. Data-Driven Strategies: Insights That Drive Action
Customer success isn’t just about intuition—it’s about leveraging data to guide decisions, identify opportunities, and anticipate challenges. These leaders emphasize how data-driven strategies can enhance customer outcomes and strengthen CS efforts.
“The ability for people to put themselves in someone else’s shoes is really important. It’s not only self-awareness, but it’s really understanding the perspective of the people that we are trying to help.”
Gillian Taylor, Customer Success Strategist
“Not setting a clear strategy from the very beginning is a critical oversight. It’s not enough to give your team a goal and expect results. You need to break it down into actionable steps and processes, ensuring everyone understands how their activities contribute to that goal.”
Keishla Ceaser-Jones, Managing Director, Partner Success at EAB
“One thing I would definitely prioritize is customer data. Bringing all of that data together into one single system was very, very challenging. If I had to restart the year, I would definitely prioritize spending more resources and time to bring all this data together.”
Erika Villarreal, Customer Success Manager at Eptura
“My game plan is data-driven. With tools and analytics, I ensure we identify churn risks, upsell opportunities, and engagement red flags. It’s about using data to guide proactive and personalized outreach.”
Stijn Smet, Head of Customer Success at Whale
“We need to stop being fearful of growing revenue on our accounts. If you’re doing your job and showing value, customers will want to know what else you can do to make their operations more efficient and save them money.”
Maranda Dziekonski, VP of Customer Success at ID.me
6. Proactive Customer Success
Staying ahead of customer needs requires a proactive approach. These influencers share insights on anticipating challenges, building relationships, and delivering value before issues arise.
“When I joined, there wasn’t much in place. I started small—tested ideas with limited customers, iterated, and monitored results. If it worked, we scaled it. If it didn’t, we stopped early. By building step-by-step, we created a system that now serves 10,000 users and 5,000 customers with just eight people.”
Alexandre Kinapenne, Head of Customer Success at Nodalview
“Starting with what is the customer’s experience and giving them that really clear map in a tool was a game changer.”
Jordan Wyner, VP of Customer Success at Softrip
“If you can create memorable customer experiences, do so because people never forget how you make them feel.”
Sandra Campo, Head of Customer Success at FROGED
“Customer success has taught me to be more proactive. Instead of waiting for users to ask for help, I’m reaching out, saying, ‘Hey, I see you’re stuck—can I help you out?’ It brings me closer to the user.”
Karina de Alba, Head of Customer Success at Weglot
“Scaling doesn’t mean sacrificing the personal touch. It’s about smarter workload management, leveraging automation, and maintaining meaningful, personalized interactions to drive real value for customers.”
Jeroen Kuiper, Director of OpenUp
7. Tools and Technology: Empowering Customer Success Teams
The right tools and technologies can amplify the impact of your customer success strategies. These experts highlight how to leverage automation, platforms, and systems to scale and optimize CS efforts.
“In a startup, the key to scaling with limited resources is leveraging technology to automate low-value tasks while focusing on actions that bring measurable impact—prioritizing effort versus value to achieve team and company goals.”
Bérénice Carrega, Head of Customer Success at Cleafy
“Customer Success isn’t just about retaining customers; it’s about driving revenue and measurable impact. Tying CS work to business outcomes—renewals, expansions, and preventing churn—earns it a true seat at the table.”
Mark Stagi, VP of Customer Success at Avoma
“Defining time to value is key. Value for one customer might be totally different than for another, especially if there are different paths to having that customer achieve their desired outcomes in the software.”
Melanie Faye, Customer Success Manager at Keeper.app
“Customer success is the bridge between customer outcomes and company revenue. I think the way that bridge is built, what we need to measure to get there, and how we get our teams there is up to the leaders of today.”
Anika Zubair, Head of Customer Success at Griffin
“Pick your battles when working with engineering. Focus on five key metrics or integrations you need, and be clear about their importance. You won’t get everything, but don’t give up.”
Carmel Granahan, Founder and Customer Success Lead at Unify Success
8. Retention Metrics and Business Outcomes
Retention metrics are key to measuring success and driving business outcomes. These influencers emphasize the importance of aligning CS efforts with measurable results.
“When we demonstrate how our efforts directly impact metrics like NRR, we shift the perception of CS from being a cost center to a true revenue driver.”
Sara Arecco, Head of CS at Antavo
“It’s crucial to ensure that our customers still feel valued and supported, especially those who have been with us since the beginning.”
Josephine Kibibi, Global Manager, Customer Success at WorkPay Africa
“One important thing to remember is that these financial difficulties are usually temporary, so we need to prepare also long-term with our customers. This is a time actually which can be really well used in collaboration with our customers to prepare for what’s going to come.”
Bettina Berger, Head of Customer Success at TalentAdore
“The effectiveness of QBRs is reflected in long-term retention and adoption metrics. Align the meeting’s goals with measurable outcomes—whether it’s feature adoption, project progress, or strategic objectives.”
Cristina Moise, Customer Success Lead at SmartDreamers
“Saying ‘no’ is an important aspect of every customer relationship, but be mindful about the approach: always leave room for conversations.”
Delia Visan, Customer Success Consultant
9. Scaling and Efficiency: Doing More with Less
Achieving scale without losing the human touch requires efficiency and prioritization. These leaders offer advice on balancing automation with personalized engagement.
“Whenever you think you need to start looking at customer success, you probably should have started six months ago.”
Renata Pinheiro, VP of Customer Success at Zaptic
“Scaling operations means getting clear on how to solve the client’s problem today and tomorrow, while also ensuring your team operates with clarity and efficiency through a solid operating system.”
Aaron Spence, Head of Customer Success at NoFraud
“If you want to be able to influence the behavior of your customers – you have to understand how people REALLY make decisions.”
Rachel Provan, Founder and CEO at Provan Success
“Years ago, I told the then handful of CSP vendors that their true competition was not each other, the major competitor was the “we don’t need this” attitude of senior management teams. I think it’s still true today.”
Mikael Blaisdell, Executive Director at The Customer Success Association
“Scaling operations while maintaining service quality is super near and dear to my heart. The future of CS lies in balancing human touchpoints with digital touchpoints and delivering them at the right time in the customer journey.”
Eleanora White, Director of Customer Success at Supermetrics
10. Customer Outcomes and Advocacy
True customer success is about more than retention—it’s about creating advocates who champion your brand. These thought leaders discuss how focusing on outcomes and long-term value can drive loyalty and advocacy.
“Many organizations see CS as a cost center, but in reality, CS is also a revenue unit. We drive renewals, handle business from existing customers, and make retention more cost-efficient than acquisition.”
Chethan Kumar, Head of Customer Success at Augnito
“To prove the value of customer success internally, you need to speak everyone’s language. Translate the impact of your work into metrics that resonate with each department, whether it’s saving clients from churn for tech or creating revenue opportunities for sales.”
Violeta Yuste, Head of Customer Success&Integrations at Userguest
“With some exceptions, customers tend to leave when they don’t see value; if they do see it, they tend to stay, which, of course, impacts NRR.”
Craig Taylor, Head of Customer Success at Simple Poll
“The key to identifying churn triggers is knowing your customer’s unique normal. What might look like a warning sign for one customer could be completely fine for another—it’s all about understanding their specific goals and expectations.”
Danielle Martin, Head of Customer Success at TryHackMe
“Great Customer Success isn’t just about retention—it’s about creating undeniable value so customers can’t imagine their success without you.”
Irina Vatafu, Head of Customer Success at Custify
11. Strategy and Focus: Prioritizing What Matters
Prioritizing the right strategies and focusing on measurable outcomes can drive transformational change in customer success. These experts share their advice on building clear plans and aligning teams around common goals.
“Sometimes you’ve just got to leave yourself at the door. If someone’s telling you everything’s fine and they just don’t want this call, listen to them. You’ve got to engage with customers on their terms and respect their appetite for interaction.”
Amy Newbury, Head of Customer Success at Kleene
“Excellence is a habit. Just showing up every day, putting in effort, and treating each project like it’s your first, no matter the challenges or noise, is what makes the biggest difference.”
Grant Dutton, VP of Customer Success at Submittable
“Growing your business and making sure you take proper care of your client portfolio is a nice problem to have.”
Jennifer Chiang, Product Manager at Seso
“The secret to being an exceptional CSM is not just solving problems but spotting opportunities your customer hasn’t even thought of yet.”
Andreea Cheregi, Senior Customer Success Manager at Custify
“Customer Success isn’t a cost center; it’s the backbone of sustainable growth. If your CS team thrives, your entire business thrives.”
Philipp Wolf, CEO of Custify
12. Leadership Vision: Shaping the Future
Strong leadership is essential for guiding customer success organizations through challenges and opportunities. These experts emphasize the importance of vision, adaptability, and strategic foresight in CS leadership.
“We’re not just Customer Success leaders; we’re business leaders. It’s incumbent upon us to understand what’s happening in the general macroeconomics and marketplace to better anticipate the shifts impacting our business.”
Jan Young, Founder at StepUpXchange
“When Sales gets Customer Success involved as part of the sales cycle, the order size, the initial deal size will increase. And the Sales velocity will increase as well — meaning larger initial sale size, and it will happen faster.”
Jeff Heckler, Product Advisory Board, Cast.app
“If we’re not enabling our CS professionals on the “what” and “how,” we’re giving them a first-class ticket to “I’m-not-good-enough” town or “I-don’t-belong-here” city.”
Diana de Jesus, Founder at Strategic CS Labs
“Customers don’t buy our product to log in every day. They buy it to get an outcome. And until we are able to measure that outcome, we’re just shouting into the void.”
Daphne Costa Lopes, Global Director of Customer Success at HubSpot
“Customer Success equals Customer Experience times Customer Outcomes. If your Net Retention Rate is below 100%, it’s likely because you haven’t nailed down the outcomes or your customer experience is lacking.”
Irit Eizips, Chief Customer Officer and CEO at CSM Practice
13. Data and Operational Excellence
Operational excellence powered by data is transforming how customer success teams deliver results. These influencers share insights on simplifying operations and maximizing impact through analytics and streamlined processes.
“You can’t just copy-paste a playbook from one company to another. First, understand the unique goals and context of the organization, then align your strategy accordingly.”
Porter Williams, Customer Success Leader at BrightHire
“Measurable customer results is the red thread that connects all GTM activities: it’s what marketing communicates; what sales sell; what the product delivers and what services enable.”
Dave Jackson, CEO at TheCustomer.Co
“Hiring bodies to solve the problem is actually making things worse. It’s an avoidance strategy that delays the inevitable need to address scalability and efficiency.”
Peter Armaly, Principal at Vlauize
“Pick your battles when working with engineering. Focus on five key metrics or integrations you need, and be clear about their importance. You won’t get everything, but don’t give up.”
Carmel Granahan, Founder and Customer Success Lead at Unify Success
“One of the biggest learnings is to keep things simple when implementing a CS strategy. There’s a tendency to overcomplicate, but it’s important to focus on high-value activities that truly move the needle for churn and retention. Start with repeatable, manageable initiatives before scaling.”
Ingmar Zahorsky, VP of Customer Success at ChartMogul
14. Scaling with Human Touch: Balancing Efficiency and Personalization
Balancing personalization with scale is a challenge every customer success team faces. These leaders share strategies for maintaining meaningful connections with customers while driving efficiency and growth.
“I think that’s probably what I love about customer success the most. It’s that 50-50—you have half of your day where you’re being social and you’re interacting with individuals, but it’s half the day where you’re really just getting things done and working in your own world.”
Anton Lagochniak, Customer Success Manager at SupplyHive
“I love the proactive parts and the strategy of customer success. It’s about working cross-functional with other teams and making sure that our customers get the right value and results that they wanted from using our product or service.”
Mio Mattsson, Head of Customer Success at AlexisHR
“It turns out that a satisfied customer becomes more than just loyal; they become advocates for your business.”
Anita Toth, Hidden Revenue Hunter
“Before adopting tools or trends like AI, go back to basics. Ask yourself, ‘What does customer success mean to our organization? What does value mean to our customers?’ Without this foundational understanding, alignment and consistency across the customer journey will always be a challenge.”
Anil Karakkattuu, Founder & CEO at BHA Consulting Solutions
“Proactivity is key. Quarterly check-ins, personalized outreach, and regular health monitoring all contribute to better engagement and retention. The sooner you catch a customer struggling, the easier it is to turn things around.”
Steven Plappert, Co-Founder&CEO at Forecastr
15. Vision for the Future: Innovating Customer Success in 2025
The future of customer success lies in innovation, adaptability, and strategic vision. These thought leaders explore how the field is evolving and what it takes to stay ahead in a dynamic landscape.
“CS cannot be a cost center. It has to give back. Customer success really has to focus in on and become really adept at being able to use data to show their impact, not just with the customer, but at the company level.”
Tracie Zamiska, Head of Customer Success at Compyl
“One of the unique parts of customer success in security is the speed and urgency—there isn’t the luxury of time. Customers need your guidance to stay organized and keep their organizations safe.”
Michael Boyd, Principal Advisor at Stealth Stage Organization
“One of the worst mistakes companies can make is to prioritize either implementation or onboarding over one another. By doing so, companies (and the CSMs) lose sight of the customer and their unique business objectives and requirements.”
Tal Nagar, Senior Customer Success Analyst at SchoolStatus
“One of the most valuable pieces of advice I received was about the importance of silence when speaking with customers. Don’t fill the silence—let it be. It encourages the customer to open up and share truths they might not reveal if you’re constantly talking or asking specific questions.”
Ellie Yates, Head of Customer Success at Signable
“When we look at the outcomes that emerge from a customer success motion, they tend to be lagging indicators. What I like to do is really move teams upstream to look at leading indicators.”
Parker Chase-Corwin, CEO & Principal Consultant at Xperience Alchemy
Conclusion: Looking Ahead to Another Year of Success
As we look forward to the next year, we’re excited to continue learning, growing, and working alongside our community of customer success professionals. The challenges ahead are opportunities to innovate, connect, and deliver even greater value to the customers who trust us with their success.
Thank you to these thought leaders for inspiring us throughout 2024, and thank you to our readers and partners for being part of this journey.
Here’s to making 2025 an even more impactful year for Custify and customer success!
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