Lets cut churn, with Irit Eizips

In this episode of CSM secrets, we have Irit Eizips, Chief Customer Officer and Chief Executive Officer at CSM Practice, a boutique consulting firm specializing in Customer Success strategy design and implementation services.

Irit's relationship with Customer Success is as old as the onset of the movement itself. Back in 2013, when the Customer Success discipline was beginning to take shape, Irit worked at Gainsiight, and was part of the early crew who defined the customer success strategy and propelled the business world to embrace what we all call today as the new normal.

With decades of strategy consulting, working with customers & executives alike, Irit has gathered so much wisdom and practical knowledge, which has now helped her venture develop numerous frameworks for Customer Success Methodologies.

Key insights for us to take away from our conversation:

1) The gradual evolution of customer success as a strategic component, a center to prove value and build partnerships with customers, rather than a churn fighting center

2) The key metric that CS should focus on is Net Retention Rate, which incorporates the impact of upsells, cross sells in addition to churn and downsell.

3) A less noticed but a significant contributor to churn could be internal to the organization with multiple functions such as Sales, Marketing and CS working in Silos..

4) The lack of a mature Sales to CS Handover process could be a cause of early churn and customer dissatisfaction. Companies should focus heavily on onboarding.

5) New-age companies might come not just with a superior product idea but also with other bells and whistles of which customer focus, customer success practice is an important element. And, how startups are able to take down large enterprises that completely miss the mark on customer success.

6) Her take on the future evolution of a robust tech stack for customer success and how a center of excellence for customer success is the new function to watch for in the future.

7) Key ‘must have’s for junior CS candidates include the 3 As - Adaptability, accountability & Analytical skills.

Now for the most surprising part. Her own favorite cartoon character is superwoman which according to her is the true portrayal of Customer success manager. 

 

Finally, do not to miss the part where she speaks of her family of extremely strong and driven women that have inspired her to break all prototypes and define a charter and life of their own. 

 

It’s a truly inspiring story of courage passed on to generations.