WalkMe’s Customer Success Meetup Breaks a New Record

On August 17th, over 130 Customer Success leaders gathered at WalkMe headquarters in downtown San Francisco for the largest Bay Area #CSMeetup to date. The group noshed on local libations and SF Bistro appies, while engaging in speed networking and learning. I was fortunate enough to be part of the welcoming crew along with the Meetup leadership team: Junan Pang, Director of Global Services at Optimizely, Emilie Davis, Customer Success Manager at Node.io,  Jennifer Wong, Director of Customer Success at Aerospike, and Mary Rosberg, Director of Customer Success at Recurly. Ray Gobberg, WalkMe Customer Leader, talked about how in-product contextual real-time guidance simplifies everything from Onboarding to Knowledge Base Support, and Emilie led a CS-focused fireside chat with the one and only Lincoln Murphy. Lincoln is a world-renowned Growth Architect, Consultant, Author, and Keynote Speaker. As the founder of Sixteen Ventures – and a previous leader of Customer Success Evangelism at Gainsight – he’s used Customer Success to drive growth across the entire customer lifecycle for more than 400 SaaS and enterprise software companies. The evening finished off with a speed networking activity. Imagine the excitement and fun among the Customer Success aficionados! I am thankful to all the leaders who made the event so amazing – there was indeed great learning and networking!

Top 5 Key Takeaways from the event:

 1. The customer success community has not hit a peak.

Some may disagree, but the meetup confirmed we are only beginning to quench the thirst for knowledge. There are so many unknowns as the Customer Success world expands from software-as-a-service to traditional on-premise software and brick-and-mortar businesses.

2. There is no secret sauce to customer success.

What your company product delivers to customers will determine everything from the customer journey to who the customer organization reports to. The important first step is understanding customer needs and building from there.

3. If growth is harming your customers you must reassess your strategy.

If you are building new features without thinking about your current customer pain points then maybe your new features aren’t that great.

4. Scaling customer success teams is hard –  tools will make it easier.

Hiring more people will not make your customer experience better. Using customer platforms and contextual help is something that all companies should be considering. Customers are getting smarter and want to be independent in your platform.

5. If you haven’t been to a CS Meetup lately, you should attend one!

The opportunity to meet new people, share ideas and learn about new technology is worth the trek. There are many across the US so have no fear of missing out because you don’t live in the Bay Area. Don’t have one in your area? Start one! Finding ways & tools to drive user adoption, to provide contextual support, and to deliver return-on-investment quickly has never been more important. In my experience, the best way to discover new techniques is to share ideas in person & in online customer user groups – with other customer success-obsessed people, like me. Until the next Meetup – cheers to Customer Success! PS. You can now watch the highlights of the event here.