95 - The Impact of Targets on Customer-Centricity - Niki Clarke-Crossman

Get ready to meet Nikki Clarke-Crossman, Global Head of Customer Success at Coherent. Nikki shares her experiences of leading teams in changing economic environments, as well as her interesting PhD research in Customer Success. In particular, she's exploring the ambidexterity between being customer-centric while also reaching the company's revenue goals and targets. 

Main takeaways:

• 1️⃣ Customer-focused vs Business growth-focused: If Customer success is all about being customer-focused, it's important to find the balance between driving company growth and facilitating customer needs.
• 2️⃣ The challenge of customer centricity in a SaaS organization: Can we truly be customer-centric when we have targets and revenue goals to meet? This ambidexterity within the CS role and organization itself is something that Nikki is diving deep into with her ongoing PhD research.
• 3️⃣ The Customer Success Skills for the Future: Customer success has evolved in recent years, emphasizing adoption, usage, operations, metrics, and digital success. In the future, technical proficiency and commercial acumen will be the essential skills for the job.

Episode chapters:

• [00:05:41] Can we truly be customer-centric in CS?
• [00:11:21] Customer success has evolved and now requires diverse skills, including business acumen and technical skills
• [00:13:49] Will CS teams still be relevant in non-business critical environments? 
• [00:23:51] Master the product, embrace challenges, and maintain rhythm.

Follow the guest: 

• Follow Niki!
• Check out the Customer Success Executive Circle!

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Women in Customer Success Podcast is the first women-only podcast for Customer Success professionals, where remarkable ladies of Customer Success connect, inspire and champion each other.

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