The Customer Success Café Newsletter

The Customer Success Café Newsletter

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Turn Freemium Into Predictable Revenue In 7 Days
Most signups vanish after day one. Build proof in 72 hours, route accounts by behavior, and turn freemium into predictable upgrades.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
The Exec One-Pager That Protects Renewals
Production is the battleground. Use telemetry to create exec-ready proof, a reusable QBR pack, and a renewal timeline that pre-wires procurement.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
Stop Check-Ins. Start Renewal Control
A simple operating system for post-sale: standard inputs, trigger-based risk, repeatable plays, and QBR evidence that keeps renewals on rails.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
How To Spot Renewal Risk Early
Stop last-minute renewal drama. Use a simple system for risk, ownership, decision logs, and value proof that makes expansion easier.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
Turn AI Incidents Into QBR Proof, Not Renewal Drama
Agentic AI changes failure modes and ownership. This playbook helps CS prevent trust loss from becoming churn, with an exec-ready Excel system.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café

Recent posts

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Voice AI Governance: Prevent Renewal Surprises
Voice automation can trap cancellation intent with no handoff. Here’s the governance checklist and the escalation system that prevents silent churn.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
Make Every Risk Flag Produce An Owner And A Date
Stop shipping health scores. Standardize decision rules that convert risk into an owned plan, protect forecast integrity, and prevent renewal surprises.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
The Late Question That Kills AI Security Renewals
Renewals aren’t lost to outages or low usage. They’re lost when no one can explain risk at renewal time. What strong CS leaders do differently.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
The 25-Minute Review That Stops Onboarding Drift
Most onboarding failures don’t look like failures. They look “fine” until expansion slips and renewals surprise you. Here’s how leaders stop the drift.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
Why Solifi Hired a CCO: Renewal Risk, Not Just Customer Love
Solifi is the example. The pattern is bigger: lifecycle ownership, earlier risk detection, and renewals treated like an operating system.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
AI Added Features. It Also Added Renewal Risk
Renewals now fail without outages or SLA breaches. Here’s why AI shifted customer risk to CS and what leaders must do before Legal gets involved.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
Your Next Renewal Will Be Judged Like A Funding Round
New SVB and Carta data shows the ARR bar has jumped. Here’s what that shift means for renewals and how top CS teams protect price with proof.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
Monthly CS Exec Update Template That CFOs Trust
Stop rebuilding CS updates monthly. Use this 1-page template to show renewal exposure, what changed, and the decision you need.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
Customer Success Metrics Executives Actually Care About
CS teams report activity. Executives look for decisions. Here’s how to show CS impact with metrics leaders actually trust—and stop getting ignored.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
Stop Guessing And Prove CS Impact Weekly
Stop invisible CS work. One owner, one signal, and a 15-minute decision loop to prove what changed and defend CS impact.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
ServiceNow Spent $7.75B. Your CS Stack Is Next.
Platforms are consolidating fast. “Good engagement” won’t save your CS stack. Use a decision map and proof plan to survive budget cuts.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
Why Most Enterprise AI Churns After The Pilot
AI doesn’t fail because the model is weak. It fails because deployment is sloppy. Steal the rollout system to make outcomes measurable and expansion…
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café

NEWS

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ElevenLabs Raises $500M: Voice Agents Just Became a Renewal Surface
Customers won’t renew because you shipped an agent. They renew when trust stays intact. Here’s the Voice Agent Renewal OS and scorecard.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
Why Solifi Hired a CCO: Renewal Risk, Not Just Customer Love
Solifi is the example. The pattern is bigger: lifecycle ownership, earlier risk detection, and renewals treated like an operating system.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
AI Infrastructure Is the New Lock-In for Customer Success
A $20B AI infra surge shifts risk, SLAs, and performance expectations. Here’s what CS leaders must change to protect renewals and strengthen exec trust.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
AI Churn Isn’t a Model Problem. It’s an Infrastructure One
Most CS teams chase AI adoption while churn hides in SLAs, outages, and surprise costs. The system strong CS teams use to stay in control.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
Your Next Renewal Will Be Judged Like A Funding Round
New SVB and Carta data shows the ARR bar has jumped. Here’s what that shift means for renewals and how top CS teams protect price with proof.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
126% NRR in Legal AI Is an Adoption System Story
Conservative buyers don’t expand because features are better. They expand when trust is earned and workflow change feels safe. Here’s the system.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
Why Trust, Not Growth, Decides Fintech Renewals
Fintech and finance-adjacent SaaS don’t lose customers to bugs. They lose them to quiet doubt. Here’s the CS system that prevents it.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
ServiceNow Spent $7.75B. Your CS Stack Is Next.
Platforms are consolidating fast. “Good engagement” won’t save your CS stack. Use a decision map and proof plan to survive budget cuts.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
Why Most Enterprise AI Churns After The Pilot
AI doesn’t fail because the model is weak. It fails because deployment is sloppy. Steal the rollout system to make outcomes measurable and expansion…
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
Digital Twin Reliability: How Borealis Turns Operations Into Retention
This isn’t about AI hype. It’s about turning reliability into trust, and trust into renewals, using a system CS teams can apply today.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
Reliability Is Revenue: The CS Playbook For Incidents
Resolve AI’s $1B headline is a warning for CS leaders. Here’s the reliability-to-retention system that prevents surprise churn and protects expansion.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
MoEngage’s $280M Raise: The New CS Retention Playbook
This isn’t a marketing story. It’s a retention signal. See the shift behind MoEngage’s $280M and the lifecycle system premium members get.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café

TEMPLATES

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13 LinkedIn Templates That Get CS Pros Hired: 40%+ Response Rates
Stop sending LinkedIn messages that go nowhere. These 13 field-tested templates have helped CS professionals land interviews at top companies. Free…
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
Your Micro-OKR™ Playbook: Scale Customer Success Without Headcount Bloat
Stop drowning in chaos! Grab the exact framework that helped 42 teams boost retention & slash workload. Free template + step-by-step playbook inside.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
Value Discovery Template: The Ultimate CS Framework Guide
Get the template CS teams use to uncover $2,000-5,000 in monthly value. Includes 4 proven frameworks, conversation guides & implementation roadmap. Used…
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
The Ultimate CS Value Discovery Framework
Learn how CS teams achieve 37% better retention, save $50,000/year, and uncover 15-20% new revenue with my proven framework. Join 100+ CS leaders…
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
Quarterly Business Review (QBR) Guide + Agenda
A modern QBR agenda + decision flow to protect renewals, surface risk early, and earn exec trust.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
The Ultimate Customer Success Templates Collection: Boost Your CS Strategy
Improve customer success with my ultimate template collection. Boost efficiency, retention, and growth. Get started today!
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
10-Step Customer Onboarding Checklist: Set Your Customers Up for Success
Want to improve customer retention and satisfaction? My 10-step checklist helps you create an effective onboarding process. Download now and start…
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
Free Customer Success Plan Template | Boost Your CS Strategy
Get my comprehensive Customer Success Plan Template for free! 14-point plan, case study, and industry tips included. Subscribe to CS Café for instant…
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café

GUIDES

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Handle Any Escalation Like a Boardroom-Level CS Leader 🚀
Transform tough customer escalations into retention wins. Get expert frameworks, scripts, and tools trusted by 4,300+ CS leaders. Download your toolkit…
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
CSMs: Stop the 73% longer "quick sync" trap
'Just a quick sync' = 90-minute marathon. 4,200+ CS pros use these frameworks to save 8+ hours weekly. Finally take control of your calendar.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
The CS Leader’s Guide to Confident Price Conversations
Templates, ROI calculators, and battle-tested tactics to run price increases that customers respect. Built for Customer Success leaders, used by 4,200…
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
Stop Repeating Yourself: AI Video Docs for CS Teams
No more repeat how-to emails. Learn how top CS teams use AI videos to deflect tickets, boost NRR, and scale without burnout.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
Drowning in Emails? This AI Trick Fixes It
Learn how companies achieve 15%+ retention improvements with AI-powered CRMs. Includes implementation timelines for teams of all sizes.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
Stop 'Spray and Pray': Use These Triggers Instead
Stop sending generic newsletters to your free users! Here's how you can achieve 27% higher feature adoption in 30 days while reducing email volume by…
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
How a 5-Person CS Team Scaled to 500 Clients (Without Burning Out)
Stuck scaling your lean CS team? See the exact toolkit, automations, and sprint framework that replaced 4 FTEs. Join 4,100+ leaders mastering micro-team…
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
The Ultimate QBR Playbook: 42% Upsell Tactics from Gong & Snowflake
Discover how Gong & Snowflake transformed QBRs into boardroom wins. Free F.O.R.C.E. template + automation scripts inside. Turn vendors into partners.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
[Playbook] Fix Your Sales-to-CS Handoffs: Cut Churn 33%
Learn how this one company saved $180k by fixing broken sales handovers. Includes AI-powered promise detection framework and structured handover…
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
Stop Being the CS Helpdesk: Recover 296 Minutes Daily [Guide]
Discover the exact system that helped Angel go from daily firefighting to Director in 18 months. Includes templates, frameworks & implementation plan.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
🚨Turn Budget Cuts Into Career Growth [+ Templates]
Get the exact playbook that helped a CSM secure $2.7M in renewals & land a VP role during budget cuts. Includes templates from edu tech leaders.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
🚨 Customer Gone Silent? 5 Steps to Save Them (+ Templates)
Boost retention + your career now. Rescue at-risk accounts with battle-tested email scripts & diplomatic probing tactics. Ready-to-use scripts inside 👇
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
Join 4,300+ other Customer Success leaders and practitioners now!

CAREER

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The Age Of The Builder Is Reshaping Customer Success
When customers build instead of wait, CS either becomes strategic or reactive. Here’s how the role is changing and who wins.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
Crack Your Final VP of Customer Success Interview
Sitting down with the VP of Customer Success next? Get the leadership playbook, story framework, and Excel prep checklist that top CS candidates rely…
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
Build Receipts That Win Job Offers
Hiring isn’t bad—it’s selective. Use a 5-column Outcome Log and CRR stories to prove revenue impact. Paid: templates, talk tracks, and a 7-day build.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
Breaking Into Customer Success From Non-Tech Roles (Government, Education, Retail)
Practical playbook to pivot into CS: target roles, assets to build, tools to learn, resume metrics, interview scripts, and a 2-hour/day job search plan.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
How John Went From 2 Rejections To Same-Day Job Offer
After 2 final-round rejections, John mastered 1 strategic skill and got a same-day job offer. See the 3-act framework that transformed his career…
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
AI Jobs: Land $120K+ Roles in 2025
Microsoft data reveals 95% of top companies hiring AI CS roles. Discover the exact 90-day framework helping CS pros earn $25K-$75K salary increases.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
HR to Customer Success: Complete Career Transition Guide
Ready to pivot from HR to Customer Success? This practical guide shows you how to leverage your skills, ace interviews & land your first CSM role.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
Red Flags Most CSMs Miss (Until They Get Laid Off)
Too many talented CSMs ruin their careers chasing startup equity. Get the expert framework to evaluate opportunities and negotiate like a pro.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
The Shadow Portfolio™: How to Land a $120K CS Role Without Traditional Experience
Stuck with the CSM title but no real customer work? Learn how to build a strategic portfolio that demonstrates your CS expertise and lands premium…
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
CS Interview Mastery: The Path to 6-Figure Offers
Revealed: The interview questions 83% of CS leaders ask in 2025, plus word-for-word scripts that boosted one member's offer by $37K. Trusted by 4,200…
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
4 Traits of Top-Performing CSMs That Make $120K+ Salaries
Access my proven CS Portfolio Method™ that helps CSMs land interviews 2-3x faster and increase salaries by 28%. Discover the frameworks used by $120K…
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
From Code to Customer Success: A Developer's Career Transition Guide
Discover how your technical knowledge becomes your secret weapon in customer success. Learn the proven framework that's helped developers land…
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café

CS MY WAY

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Exclusive Interview: Lara Barnes, SVP Customer Success & Renewals at Sitecore
From first CSM to global SVP: Lara Barnes on telemetry, outcomes, and the playbooks that turn renewals into a non-event at Sitecore.
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
CS My Way #11: Gillian Core, Former SVP of Customer Success
Explore my exclusive interview with Gillian Core, former SVP of Customer Success at Placer AI, and discover her insights on customer success strategies…
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
CS My Way #10: Roxanne Rowe, AVP of Customer Success at TrackUnit
Discover exclusive strategies for driving customer success and boosting team performance with Roxanne Rowe, AVP of Customer Success at Trackunit. Dive…
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
CS My Way #9: Exclusive Interview with Kevin Herrholtz, Vice President of Customer Success at AddShoppers
Get actionable strategies from Kevin Herrholtz, VP of Customer Success at AddShoppers. Learn how to level up your customer success game in the field…
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
CS My Way #8: Exclusive Interview with Kirsten DiChiappari, VP of Customer Success at vCom Solutions
Explore Kirsten DiChiappari's journey at vCom Solutions. Learn about IT management strategies, customer retention, and industry insights shared in this…
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
CS My Way #7: Exclusive Interview with Krystel Leal - Head Of Customer Success, OneText
Discover exclusive insights on CS strategies, collaboration, and industry trends from Krystel Leal, Head of CS at OneText, only on the Customer Success…
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
CS My Way #6: Exclusive Interview with Melissa Garcia
Learn from the best! Get exclusive insights from Melissa Garcia, Director of Renewal Operations at Chief, in CS My Way #6. Accelerate your customer…
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
Jill Favro Sawatzky, Chief Customer Officer, Thought Industries
Explore my exclusive interview with Jill Favro Sawatzky, Chief Customer Officer at Thought Industries, and gain valuable insights into revolutionizing…
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
APAC Director, Customer Success at GitLab
Join Catherine Ballantyne, APAC Director, Customer Success at GitLab, on her unique CS journey. Gain insights into success strategies and achievements…
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
Christine Lavery, VP of Customer Success, AgentSync
Explore customer success strategies with Christine Lavery, VP of CS at AgentSync, in the exclusive 'CS My Way' interview. Gain insights into challenges…
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
Shirley Chapman, Head Of Customer Success, Forrester
Exclusive insights on customer success! Join Shirley Chapman, Forrester's Head of CS, in this in-depth interview. Discover strategies for success and…
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
Ming Zhang, VP Customer Success: Insights from A CS Expert
Explore the future of Customer Success with Ming Zhang, VP of CS. Gain insights on AI-driven strategies, operational efficiency, and career progression…
 • Hakan Ozturk | The CS Café
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