Since the CS world is constantly full of brilliant talks, we know many of you’ve been waiting for a good list. And it’s high time we ranked some of the most exciting webinars we’ve seen in customer success. Besides, you can use this list as a guidebook for your CS research if you like it.
You will note that some of the webinars we feature in this article are not very recent, and that’s important to get a holistic understanding of customer success from its beginnings.
We’ve found that the older webinars, such as the 2013 one by Mikael Blaisdell (who also wrote a chapter for our Customer Success Strategy guide), can be more insightful than a lot of the current discourse in customer success. You can check that one out at number 3 on our list.
13. The State of Customer Success Training
Featuring:
- Lulu Dermeche, Head of Customer Success at HowNow
- Morika Georgieva, Customer Success Lead at Permutive
- Elise Marengo, Head of Customer Success at Userpilot
Topic: the evolution of customer success training
Customer success jobs are multiplying exponentially, and it’s not always easy to have consistent, productive training experiences across the board. The discussion in this webinar is tailored to answer the most pressing questions CSMs have as they’re trying to build and scale their customer success teams, such as:
- How to manage a growing customer success team
- How to correctly onboard CS staff
- Who should CS teams be collaborating with
Watch it here: The State Of Customer Success Training Webinar
12. Sales and Customer Success Alignment
Featuring:
- Jocelyn Brown, SVP Customers & Revenue at Allocadia
- Chris Bondarenko, VP of Sales at Docebo
- Greg Elliott, VP of Customer Experience at Loopio
- Netty Kim-Hull, Executive Search Consultant at Sales Talent Agency
Topic: sales and customer success collaboration
The relationship between Sales and Customer Success has typically been fraught at best. There’s a wide buffer area between Sales account ownership and Customer success account ownership, and the precise point of handoff is a topic of constant debate.
Enter the webinar above, featuring leading professionals from CX, CS, and Sales positions across the business spectrum. Topics covered include:
- The CS and Sales team setup, who’s accountable for what post-sale
- Segmentation of customers and teams
- Transition and handoff from Sales to CS
- The CS and Sales feedback loop: how to get on the same page
Watch it here: Sales and Customer Success Alignment Webinar
11. Throwback: Customer Success Metrics that Mattered in 2016
Featuring:
- Krish Subramanian, Co-founder & CEO at Chargebee
- Helen Crowley, Technology, Media & Telecommunications Consultant at Egon Zehnder, then VP of Customer Success at Socialbakers
- David Apple, Chief Revenue Officer at Zingtree, then Director of Customer Success at Typeform
- Zoli Radnai, Vice President – Channels & Experience, Aladdin Product Group at BlackRock, then Global Director of Customer Care at Prezi
Topic: customer success metrics
Remember when events and webinars were in-person? Neither do we. But this webinar is an excellent example of the dynamic nature of in-person talks. As the first throwback on our list, it’s fascinating to follow & see:
- Which metrics from 2016 are still relevant today?
- How customer success teams fit into the business structure back then vs now
- How the philosophy of customer success did not change since 2016
- How refreshing it is to see intelligent CS people talking live
Watch it here: The Customer Success Metrics that Matter Webinar
10. From Customer Success to Value Realization
Featuring:
- Max Long, SVP North America at NetApp, then SVP/Chief Customer Officer at Adobe
- Mari Cross, SVP, Global Success and Services at Confluent, then Global Head of Enterprise Customer Success Strategy and Operations at Adobe
Topic: customer success focused on business outcomes
We’ve always been big fans of TSIA, and this webinar is a breath of fresh air in the CS world. Still slightly older, since the before-times of in-person conferences, this 2019 talk focuses on what some would call the end goal of customer success: driving value.
Max Lang makes an excellent introduction to the approach, but the real MVP of this webinar is Mari Cross, and we recommend you don’t miss her bit, which starts just over 10 minutes in. Together, the two explore:
- Post-sale customer success
- Driving upsell and cross-sell
- Meeting client expectations
- Understanding the value-driven approach in customer success
Watch it here: From Customer Success to Value Realization Webinar
9. Customer Lifecycle at Scale
Featuring:
- Rick Adams, Author, Trainer, Consultant, and Business Owner at Practical CSM
- Alex Bourg, Global Senior Director Customer Success at Cisco
- Marcos Garcia Villas-Bôas, Director Customer Experience LATAM at Cisco
Topic: scaling customer success & lifecycles
Sometimes, big businesses struggle with implementing customer success initiatives due to the sheer size and complexities of their operations. That’s what this webinar explores: how a company drives the approach throughout its organization of thousands of people as well as externally to partners and customers.
Here’s a breakdown of subtopics that you can hear about:
- How does a $20bn tech giant revolutionize its approach to customer success
- How to plan, integrate, and turn a customer success approach into a program
- How to scale customer success and make it relevant and beneficial to end customers
- What the experience of creating the entire program is like
Watch it here: Customer Lifecycle at Scale Webinar
8. How Human Psychology Impacts Customer Success
Featuring:
- Dave Jackson, CEO of TheCustomer.Co
- Dave Blake, Founder & CEO of ClientSuccess
- Mark Stoddard, Head of Global GTM at ClickUp, then VP Sales & Marketing at ClientSuccess
Topic: the psychology of customer success
Psychology plays a leading role in customer success, and this webinar highlights just how essential it is. Instead of listing things to do, the focus here is on why some of the best practices in customer success work so well. Here’s a short list of what to expect:
- Why customer success is not about customers, but about the value you provide to those customers
- The psychology of economics and buying decisions
- The emotional aspect and cognitive biases of business decisions
Watch it here: How Human Psychology Impacts Customer Success Webinar
7. Life in Customer Success
Featuring:
- Kristen Hotz, Recruiter at Hubspot
- Sarah May, Recruiter at Hubspot
- Steve Brian, Senior CSM at Hubspot
- Catherine Fitzgerald, Principal Customer Success Manager, Strategic Accounts at HubSpot
- Dennise Gonzalez, CSM at Hubspot
- Aparna Prasad, Product Marketing Manager, then Senior CSM at Hubspot
Topic: life in customer success
We’ve seen webinars on how to implement a customer success approach, how to train people, and more. However, few materials online present what life feels like when you’re working in customer success. And that’s precisely what Hubspot set out to do with their webinar.
You’ll learn more about:
- How such a large organization plans their customer success approach
- How people get into customer success
- What the day to day life of a CSM looks like
- Career paths in the CS department
- The culture of customer success
Watch it here: Life in Customer Success Webinar
6. Why Customer Health Scores Are Getting More Important
Featuring:
- Philipp Wolf, CEO & Founder at Custify
- Jane Portman, Co-founder at Userlist
Topic: using health scores for customer success
Good data hygiene is a best practice in customer success, but you can take it a step further by implementing highly-specific and relevant health scoring for your users. In this Webinar, Philipp explains how to use health scores, set them up, and what you should track through your customer success software.
Here are some topics this webinar delves into:
- Why you need customer health scores
- Examples of good and bad health scores
- Why you need multiple health scores instead of just a global one
- Why customer health scores are increasingly important
Watch it here: Webinar – Customer Health Scores in 2022 with Philipp Wolf
A separate presentation from Philipp on the same topic: Why Customer Health Scores Are Getting More Important
5. Customer Success In a Pure Virtual World
Featuring:
- Nick Mehta, CEO of Gainsight
- Christina Crawford Kosmowski, VP & Global Head of Customer Success at Slack
Topic: remote-first customer success
The world stood still when the pandemic hit. Businesses suffered losses, entire industries shifted to remote work, and customer success had to refocus, analyze, and adjust accordingly. This talk goes into potentially the most significant shift in business practices in recent memory, how that affected CS professionals, and some related best practices.
Here’s what you can expect from this webinar:
- The best ways to conduct virtual customer meetings
- Managing customer relationships virtually
- Talking to people where they like or how to use the right channel to chat to a customer
Watch it here: Managing Customer Success While Working From Home Webinar
4. How to Implement Customer Success at New SaaS Startups
Featuring:
- Jennifer Chiang, Head of Customer Success at Seso, then Director of Customer Success at Yup
- Irit Eizips, CCO & CEO at CSM Practice
Topic: customer success for SaaS startups
Startups, particularly SaaS startups, that are launching today have a significant advantage: they can probably implement a customer success mentality throughout their organization, or even launch a customer success initiative once they have time and a budget.
But how do you do it? Jennifer Chiang, familiar to our readers for her wonderful chapter in our Customer Success Strategy guide, has a few ideas! Here are some topics she covers:
- How to implement customer success for new startups
- How to pitch customer success
- How to obtain a customer success budget
- Some advice for CSMs and how to hire them
Watch it here: How to Implement Customer Success at New SaaS Startups Webinar
3. Throwback: Mikael Blaisdell’s 2013 Customer Success Presentation
Featuring:
- Mikael Blaisdell, Executive Director at The Customer Success Association
Topic: customer success
Many people in the customer success space wouldn’t believe that there’s a video about it dating back to 2013. Mikael’s always had a keen eye for the industry and where it’s heading, and that certainly holds true for his 2013 talk. While some of the concepts might seem slightly outdated, the surprise is how many of the points still stand today.
Here’s what you can expect to see:
- A great way to compare customer success at its inception versus today
- Possibly the first definition of customer success management
- Getting started in customer success
- What to look at before starting a customer success initiative
Watch it here: Mikael Blaisdell’s Feb 2013 Customer Success Presentation
2. Why You Need Good SaaS Offboarding Tactics
Featuring:
- Philipp Wolf, CEO & Founder at Custify
- Natalie Luneva, Host at CX Camp
Topic: offboarding tactics for customer success
Offboarding is just as essential as onboarding. It’s a fact that we here at Custify have stayed true to and repeated ever since our client Referrizer recovered 25% of its churned clients during the height of the pandemic. In this webinar with Natalie Luneva, Philipp explains:
- Why a good offboarding process is vital for any SaaS
- How to implement an offboarding process
- How to conduct exit interviews with customers
- Some case study insights into what Referrizer did right
Watch it here: Why You Need Good SaaS Offboarding Tactics Webinar
1. The Psychology of Deriving Value Solutions for Customer Success
Featuring:
- Andrew Marks, Founder of SuccessHacking and Success Coaching
- Josh Rosenthal, Director of SaaS Success at Aqua Security
- Laura Lakhwara, Senior CSM at UiPath
- Mike Merit, VP of Customer Success at Planet
Topic: the psychology of customer success and deriving value solutions
If you liked the webinars on value realization and the psychology of customer success listed above, this one’s a perfect follow-up. The hour-long chat goes into how psychology affects the way you work in customer success and how you interact with customers.
This webinar looks into the psychology behind:
- Getting customers engaged and successful on a product
- Having the confidence to make suggestions to customers as a CS professional
- Getting end-users to adopt a solution
Watch it here: The Psychology of Deriving Value Solutions for CS Webinar
Launched a new webinar? Send it over!
This might be the end of the list, but we’ve only gone through the best customer success webinars so far.
Know another or have one in the works? Send a message to hello@custify.com with the subject “RE: new customer success webinar” & let us know. We’re always happy to see new ideas being discussed and shared throughout the CS space. Since we know how challenging it is to start a new webinar, even with the best webinar platforms, please reach out and we’ll give you a shout-out to spread the word and help you grow your audience.
And of course, if you liked this article, be sure to do your part in making the industry better and give it a share!
