Unchurned - The No. 1 podcast for Customer Success

As the GM, of EMEA at Quiq, Ejieme, our guest on this episode leads the growth and expansion, while also serving as the executive sponsor of the culture committee. She is also the founder of Success in Black, an award-winning platform to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in customer success. She is also an active angel investor and advisor to various pre-seed and seed-stage companies across...

We are heading in 2024!   In this episode, our hosts Josh Schachter , Kristi Faltorusso , Jon Johnson   & Mickey Powell debate whether there will be a decline in the role of the generalist Customer Success Manager (CSM) in 2024. 00:00 - Preview & Intro 01:08 - Jon is sensitive about his music 08:16 - Everyone shares their lows and highs of 2023 20:50 - Kristi & Jon predict the decline...

Send Kristi, Jon, Mickey & Josh a message - https://www.speakpipe.com/UnchurnedPodcast Watch the banter on YouTube - https://youtu.be/f21ShT6YZA0?feature=shared Join our upcoming FREE Pranayama Sessions for the CS community by signing up here: https://lu.ma/updateai_breathwork Wouldn't life become a breeze if renewals could be automated? Well, Renewtrak does just that!   Mathew Cagney joi...

Send Kristi, Jon, Mickey & Josh a message - https://www.speakpipe.com/UnchurnedPodcast Watch the banter on YouTube - https://youtu.be/N22Id931Tb4 Join our upcoming FREE Pranayama Sessions for the CS community by signing up here: https://lu.ma/updateai_breathwork The role of the customer success team evolves at each stage of the startup. Eric Kingsbury , Founder of Retain Solutions , the go-to...

Send Kristi, Jon, Mickey & Josh a message - https://www.speakpipe.com/UnchurnedPodcast Watch the banter on YouTube - https://youtu.be/N22Id931Tb4 Join our upcoming FREE Pranayama Sessions for the CS community by signing up here: https://lu.ma/updateai_breathwork Mickey is back! & Let's welcome Kristie Gaunt to the UpdateAI Squad! Kristie had been an AE at Gainsight for the past 2years...

Send Kristi, Jon, Mickey & Josh a message - https://www.speakpipe.com/UnchurnedPodcast Watch the banter on YouTube - https://youtu.be/me_SnBXsUyI Join our upcoming FREE Pranayama Sessions for the CS community by signing up here: https://lu.ma/updateai_breathwork Our hosts,  Josh Schachter , Kristi Faltorusso , & Jon Johnson , are joined by Tanya Earles , the SVP of customer success at Tebr...

Send Kristi, Jon, Mickey & Josh a message - https://www.speakpipe.com/UnchurnedPodcast Watch the banter on YouTube - https://youtu.be/ycxNw-diImY Join our upcoming FREE Pranayama Sessions for the CS community by signing up here: https://lu.ma/updateai_breathwork Kristi Faltorusso has made a lasting impact on the customer success community.  Join us as we delve into her modeling career, and how...

Send Kristi, Jon, Mickey & Josh a message - https://www.speakpipe.com/UnchurnedPodcast Watch the banter on YouTube - https://youtu.be/ycxNw-diImY Join our upcoming FREE Pranayama Sessions for the CS community by signing up here: https://lu.ma/updateai_breathwork Laid Off?  What's next?   Job Hunt?  Side gig?  Referrals & Networking? Prayers?  Navigating through challenging times can b...

  Josh Schachter & Jon Johnson chat about Jon's journey to CS Timestamps 4:20 - Memories from Jon's tough childhood 19:12 - Jon's Educational Background 27:00 - Working at Microsoft 30:57 - Breaking into CS at Invoca 32:52 - CS, Humanity, & Leadership 39:39 - Working at ShipHawk 44:21 - Jon's plans for the future Check out the video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/TEqVE1se...

Starting as a CSM and transitioning through various roles in customer success (CS Enterprise, CS Mid-market & Scaled CS) and product management, Erica Akroyd has done it all. Erica is currently leading the customer education team at Pendo.io Also, Erica has a message for those looking to break into and rock CS. See Jon's hair makeover exclusively on our YouTube channel.   Episode Starts a...

  Dickey Singh , Founder and CEO of Cast.app the leading automation platform for companies to drive growth, sales, and referrals from their existing customers.  You need to lean on the data to find out what does and doesn’t resonate with customers in his conversation with the UpdateAI CEO, Josh Schachter uncover How Cast helps companies foster and expand their customer relationships  Why underesti...

Job hunting isn't easy. What adds to the frustration are the assignments, presentations, and exercises in these interview rounds. Jenny Calvert, Director of CS at HuntClub joins hosts Kristi Faltorusso , Jon Johnson   & Mickey Powell to discuss the challenges in talent acquisition and faults in the hiring process. Check out the uncut video - https://youtu.be/UZT0QT9Pay0 Enjoy the heap loa...

CSMs are responsible for a wide range of tasks, including: Onboarding new customers Providing technical support Managing customer accounts Developing and implementing customer success strategies Identifying and resolving customer churn All of these responsibilities require CSMs to be highly skilled and adaptable. They need to be able to switch gears quickly and handle a wide range of tasks simulta...

Organizational leaders often sign up for a CS Platform to solve their biggest customer success challenges.  However, software implementation and adoption can be difficult, and many platforms don't meet all the needs of their customers. Checkout the [Un]cut BS on Youtube - https://youtu.be/J0ymZInO6C8 In this episode, hosts Josh Schachter , Kristi Faltorusso , Jon Johnson   & Mickey Powell...

When revenue growth is a company's top priority, the value of post-sales teams is often overlooked. Customer success (CS) teams are among the most critical touchpoints in the customer journey. By partnering with the CCO, who can help develop and implement customer-centric strategies that increase customer satisfaction, loyalty, and spending, companies can retain their existing customers and b...

Customer Success, in hindsight, is a long-term renewal strategy. Watch the uncut BTS & BS on our YouTube channel - https://youtu.be/Hyk_jL3i0u0 Join  Josh Schachter , Kristi Faltorusso , Jon Johnson   & Mickey Powell as they chat with Jeff Kushmerek , Founder of Infinite Renewals . Jeff helps startups improve their customer success strategy. Episode Highlights - Consultants reset expectati...

Customer experience is more than just using the product. Every interaction with a customer is a touchpoint that can influence your relationship with them. Don't let your customers fall through the cracks. Ahmed Quadri, CCO at Heap, joins Josh Schachter, CEO of UpdateAI, to discuss how they navigate the value journey at Heap to maximize the value and relationship customers get. Josh and Ahmed...

Every customer-facing team has a hypothesis about what drives customer success.  How accurate is this hypothesis? Finding problems and fixing them in silos isn't going to give the full picture of what a successful customer journey needs to look and feel like from onboarding to renewal. Watch the uncut BTS & BS on our YouTube channel - https://youtu.be/DnAkuGOrG78 Ramli John joins  Josh Sc...

Shareth Ben , former VP of Customer Success at Securonics , joins Josh Schachter, CEO of UpdateAI to share his insights on the challenges faced by customer success teams and also discusses the three pillars of his customer success strategy: gap analysis, executive touchpoints, and value engineering team. Finally, Shareth shares his advice on how to handle conversations regarding alternative soluti...

Every decision goes through emotional processing. How we feel about something at heart is way more important and impactful than what we think about something. So we need to lead with the heart and rationalize with logic. Ed Powers, a principal consultant at Service Excellence, joins Josh Schachter for an unchurned conversation about how customer success teams can use psychology to manage expectati...

Do you want to make a career switch and break into CS? Join  Josh Schachter , Kristi Faltorusso , and Jon Johnson as they uncover the truth behind the preconceived notions of the customer success industry with Julie Raeder , CSM Dooly, who transitioned from education to customer success. Key Highlights - Importance of empathy and individualization in CS - Tailoring customer journeys and understand...

When every other business is cutting costs, it has become more important than ever to retain your customers. With a focus on retaining customers, Gillian Heltai , CCO of Lattice shares insights on her 2x2 framework to help you assess customer health and put in place strategies to retain customers during the downturn.   Key Highlights - Tech downturn impacting budgets and renewal cycles - An econom...

There has been a long-standing cold war between Sales and CS. This episode addresses the tiff. The disconnect between the teams' expectations makes it challenging for organizations to prioritize the long-term health of the customer. Hamish Stephenson , Founder & CEO of, Selr.io joins our hosts,  Josh Schachter , Kristi Faltorusso , Jon Johnson   & Mickey Powell to defuse the tension b...

The terrifying truth is that the prosperity or downfall of a SaaS organization depends on the value the product delivers to its customers. Despite the fact that the feedback loop between product and customer could be challenging, the efforts made by the CS & the product team to understand and prioritize customer input hugely decide the fate of our company.  Alli Tiscornia , CCO & Abby Hamm...

In this unchurned conversation, Nikola Mijic , the Founder of Matik joins Josh Schachter. Both of them dive into how Nikola got into the world of CS, and his experience working at Linkedin and also discuss: Using data-driven content can enable scaling The role of core values in guiding operations and solving conflicts Finding early customers who understand the startup mentality  He also shares his...