In this episode of Growth Pills, I unpack three shifts that are quietly breaking the old CS model.1 - Products are no longer selling features. They are delivering outcomes, fast. AI sets a new bar for time-to-value and customers expect results, not potential.2- Pricing is moving from access to usage. Consumption models force proof, not promises, and make renewals evidence-led in a world where switching is easy.3- And customers are no longer learning from your team. They are learning from AI, arriving smarter, faster, and expecting deeply relevant guidance.Ignore these shifts and CS becomes irrelevant.Master them and it becomes your strongest growth engine.
Measuring customer value is hard. That’s exactly why 56% of companies still avoid it.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth: not measuring value is even harder.
No evidence at renewal.
No clear signal on how your customer is really tracking.
No way to onboard a new decision maker with confidence.
In Customer Success, there’s no easy path. There’s only a choice between two types of hard.
In this Growth Pill, I break down why the teams that win long term choose the hard that compounds.
Hope is not a strategy. Data is.
Too many CSMs fall into the same trap. They build a brilliant relationship with one person inside the customer’s organisation, only to see everything fall apart the moment that person leaves. I’ve watched this play out for a decade and it still catches teams off guard.
In this Growth Pill, I break down how to turn a fragile single-threaded relationship into a strong multi-threaded one that protects your renewal and strengthens your influence inside the account.
You’ll learn:
• Why one strong relationship is never enough• How to use your existing champion to expand your reach• How to elevate conversations from tasks to value• Why a ready-to-run value story is your insurance policy
Follow for more fast, practical guidance to grow, retain and scale.
Most CS teams aren’t failing at AI because the tech is bad.
They’re failing because their data is a mess.
For years, CSMs held everything together.
Missing fields? Call someone.
Conflicting info? Chase three teams.
Weird behaviour? Dig through five systems.
Humans could patch it. AI cannot.
AI uses the data you have, as is.Messy data means messy outcomes.
The twist?
AI is also the fastest way to clean the chaos. If your AI isn’t delivering value, the first thing to fix is your data.
Most companies say they want to scale Customer Success.What they actually do is strip it of impact.In this Growth Pill, I call out the real reason scaled CS lags high touch by 5 to 10 retention points.Most teams still have no idea what their customers are trying to achieve.No goals. No progress tracking. No ability to tailor anything that moves the needle.The fix is straightforward:• Know the goal• Track it in product• Use AI to guide every customer individuallyIf CS is going to scale without bleeding retention, this is how we need to do it.
I used to believe success came from getting others to change — their mindset, their behaviour, their way of working.
But here’s the truth: you can’t change anyone. You can only change yourself.
How you show up.
How you communicate.
How you collaborate.
In this Growth Pill, I share why the quickest path to better results starts with changing you.
When customers need help, they’re not opening your help centre or watching your tutorials.
They’re asking ChatGPT.
And if your content isn’t AI Engine Optimised (AEO), AI won’t find it, or worse, it’ll make things up.
In this Growth Pill, I share how to make your content ready for the AI era so AI can find, understand, and trust it.
Because the new front line of customer education isn’t your team, it’s AI.
🎧 Learn how to make sure it teaches customers your story, not someone else’s.
Let's cut through the noise about AI “replacing” Customer Success.
The truth? AI will make CS teams more valuable than ever.
Here’s why: CS owns the value realisation journey, guides customers through complex change, and in a world where pricing is tied to usage, CS becomes the heartbeat of revenue.
If anything, the rise of AI is forcing CS to evolve from support to strategy, and that’s exactly where it belongs.
Too many CS leaders confuse measuring impact with tracking execution.
In this Growth Pill, Daphne breaks down why the two are completely different and why mastering both is the key to running a high-performing CS organisation.
You’ll learn:
💡 How to connect CS work directly to company outcomes (think GRR, NRR, and customer value delivered)📊 What “tracking execution” really means and how top CS teams do it🔥 Why activity metrics aren’t vanity metrics when tied to impact
Because great CS teams don’t just work hard, they know exactly which work drives results.
Increasing retention by 5% can improve your profits by 95%.
So getting your CS engine working is the key to durable growth. Learn 5 ways to do just that here.
And sign up to the newsletter here -> https://thisisgrowth.media/newsletter
If your “growth strategy” is just pushing CSMs to sell, you don’t have a growth strategy. You have a churn problem waiting to happen.
In this clip, I break down why giving CSMs quotas and tying them to expansions backfires, and what GTM and CS leaders should do instead:
⭐ Protect the value layer⭐ Sequence value before growth⭐ Instrument value measurement
Customer growth isn’t about forcing CSMs to sell more. It’s about delivering so much value that upsell becomes the natural next step.
In this episode, learn how to turn “value realisation” from a buzzword into a repeatable system that drives retention and growth.
Join Daphne Costa Lopes as she sits down with Natalia, a seasoned Customer Success leader with 15 years of experience across SaaS, consulting, and enterprise transformation, to explore how companies can prove ROI and deliver outcomes that truly matter to customers.
You’ll hear how Natalia defines value in the eyes of the customer, the frameworks she uses to surface ROI, and how she aligns Sales and CS to avoid the classic trap of over-promising and under-delivering. She also shares practical ways CSMs can capture insights, document customer stories, and turn them into measurable business outcomes that finance leaders and executives care about.
Whether you’re building your first value framework, trying to fix the disconnect between Sales and CS, or leading a team through tougher renewal conversations, this episode is packed with actionable insights and bold strategies.
Tune in to discover how to move from adoption to impact and make customer value your most powerful growth engine.
In this episode, learn how to align Customer Success and Product to drive impact at scale.
Join Daphne Costa Lopes as she sits down with Jon Dick, SVP of Customer Success at HubSpot, to explore how a business with over 250,000 customers builds systems, vision, and teams that scale without losing sight of the customer.
You'll hear how Jon thinks about segmenting strategy across HubSpot’s diverse customer base, the frameworks he uses to connect CS and Product teams, and how AI is reshaping the way Customer Success delivers value. He also shares why strong opinions and clear conviction are essential to leading in a fast-growing environment.
Whether you're building alignment across teams, navigating growth, or exploring how AI can power CS, this episode is packed with actionable insights and bold thinking.
Tune in to discover what it takes to scale Customer Success with intention and impact.
Links:
Ever wondered how companies effectively integrate customer feedback into products? I chat with Brian and Max, founders of Twine, an AI-driven platform that connects go-to-market and product teams.
We discuss turning insights into actions, the power of nonverbal communication, intriguing 'customer love' reports, and why fostering a customer-centric culture is crucial for success.
In this episode, discover how you can delver customer outcomes and improve customer retention in your long tail.
Join Daphne Costa Lopes as she explores how Gemma Cipriani-Espineira has built scalable CS teams at companies such as Chili Piper and Twilio. You'll hear about her journey from studying law to becoming a Customer Success Executive and founder of an angel investment fund.
In this episode you'll learn concepts, frameworks, processes and metrics that can help you to tap into the gold mine of your long-tail customer base for world-class retention.
Tune in for game-changing insights and strategies!
How AI is Transforming CS with Elias Torres, CTO Founder of Drift & Agency (Part 3)
In this series, we cut through the AI hype in Customer Success.
Join Daphne and Elias on "Redefining Customer Success" - exploring the real intersection of AI and CS beyond the buzzwords.
Our special guest Elias brings hands-on expertise in building and scaling AI solutions:
⚡️ Co-founded Drift (acquired by Salesloft for $1.2B)
⏫ Now building Agency, the AI Agent for B2B Customer Success
In this series, you'll discover how AI is genuinely transforming customer experience, and what it means for the future of Customer Success.
What we'll cover:
- Beyond the Hype: Real-world applications of AI in Customer Success that are making an impact today
- Experience Transformation: How AI is meaningfully enhancing customer experiences - with concrete examples
- Future Vision: What CS professionals need to know about their evolving role in an AI-powered world
Tune in for straight-talking insights from the frontlines of AI and CS!
In this series, we cut through the AI hype in Customer Success.
Join Daphne and Elias on "Redefining Customer Success" - exploring the real intersection of AI and CS beyond the buzzwords.
Our special guest Elias brings hands-on expertise in building and scaling AI solutions:
⚡️ Co-founded Drift (acquired by Salesloft for $1.2B)
⏫ Now building Agency, the AI Agent for B2B Customer Success
In this series, you'll discover how AI is genuinely transforming customer experience, and what it means for the future of Customer Success.
What we'll cover:
- Beyond the Hype: Real-world applications of AI in Customer Success that are making an impact today
- Experience Transformation: How AI is meaningfully enhancing customer experiences - with concrete examples
- Future Vision: What CS professionals need to know about their evolving role in an AI-powered world
Tune in for straight-talking insights from the frontlines of AI and CS!
In this episode, cut through the AI hype in Customer Success.
Join Daphne and Elias on "Redefining Customer Success" - exploring the real intersection of AI and CS beyond the buzzwords.
Our special guest Elias brings hands-on expertise in building and scaling AI solutions:
⚡️ Co-founded Drift (acquired by Salesloft for $1.2B)
⏫ Now building Agency, the AI Agent for B2B Customer Success
In this episode, you'll discover how AI is genuinely transforming customer experience, and what it means for the future of Customer Success.
What we'll cover:
Beyond the Hype: Real-world applications of AI in Customer Success that are making an impact today Experience Transformation: How AI is meaningfully enhancing customer experiences - with concrete examples Future Vision: What CS professionals need to know about their evolving role in an AI-powered worldTune in for straight-talking insights from the frontlines of AI and CS!
In this festive episode, I sat down with Kris Rudeegraap to unwrap the magic of gifting in business. Spoiler alert: it’s not just a nice-to-have—it’s a must-have! 🎁
We dive into the transformative power of gifting and direct mail, answering key questions like:
✨ How do you seamlessly integrate moments of delight into the customer journey—without treating them as an afterthought?
🎉 What are some standout examples of how teams are using gifting to supercharge sales and create unforgettable post-sales experiences?
💡 What’s the ROI of gifting, and how can you make a compelling case to your CFO that it’s worth the investment?
With the holidays around the corner, this episode is packed with festive cheer and practical advice to help you close deals faster and build lasting relationships. Whether you’re in sales, marketing, or customer success, Kris shares incredible insights (and a few fun anecdotes!) that’ll have you rethinking the power of a well-timed gift.
Tune in, grab some eggnog, and get ready to level up your gifting game! 🎄✨
What does it take to lead high-performing teams and drive meaningful business growth?
In this episode, Lara shares her journey of building a $50M pipeline and achieving 93% customer retention through human-first leadership.
Learn how aligning teams, focusing on value realization, and leveraging storytelling can transform customer success from a cost center to a revenue driver.
Perfect for leaders looking to inspire their teams and deliver measurable results.