The Customer Success Café Newsletter

The Customer Success Café Newsletter

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The One Dashboard That Separates Good Enterprise CSMs From Great Ones
Turn uptime from a support metric into a revenue system. Download the exact 28-field dashboard, alert rules, and templates. Protects 7-figure accounts.
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The Customer Success Café
CSMs: Stop Guessing And Start Running This System
A simple CS workflow that sharpens your day, protects renewals, and gives you clarity in under 5 minutes. Includes the CS Daily Command Center XLSX…
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The Customer Success Café
Cut Kickoff Prep From 90 Minutes To 10
Turn 2-hour sales calls into a 5-minute AI workflow. This kickoff prep system cuts busywork, reduces surprise churn, and makes promotion talks easier to…
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The Customer Success Café
If Customers Repeat Themselves, Your AI Is Failing.
Sales teams now enter calls supercharged with AI. But when that context doesn’t reach Customer Success, churn starts at kickoff. Here’s how leaders fix…
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The Customer Success Café
Salesforce–Gainsight Incident: What CS Leaders Must Do Now
A clear breakdown of the Salesforce–Gainsight OAuth incident and what it means for your health scores, renewals, and executive trust. Includes your…
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The Customer Success Café

Recent posts

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CSM Overload: Fix The Role Before It Kills Your NRR
Turn CSM overload into a clear headcount and NRR story. Get the charter, capacity model, and Excel tool to show execs exactly where you are over the…
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The Customer Success Café
Best Customer Success Platforms 2025: Complete Buyer's Guide [10 Platforms Compared]
Expert guide that compares 10 leading CSPs including Gainsight, Vitally & SmartKarrot. Find your perfect platform to reduce churn, optimize workflows …
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The Customer Success 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…
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The Customer Success Café
Become The Vendor Champion Hiring Managers Remember
Templates trusted by 4,300+ CS pros: decks, scripts, tracker, and a step-by-step plan to ship assets and accelerate promotions.
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The Customer Success Café
Proof, Not Process: Turn CS Plays Into Promotions
Outcome-led playbook system: hit first value in 30 days with backward milestones and smart automations. Ship renewals. Protect revenue. Build promotion…
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The Customer Success Café
Shadow Your Top CSM—Save Month Two
You don’t need another health score. You need a sequence: Shadow → Extract → Encode. Get the signals, renewal path, and weekly rhythm to run now.
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The Customer Success Café
Why You’re Not Landing Director/VP CS Roles (And How To Fix It)
Copy/paste scripts, 90-day plan, PAER stories, and the interactive NRR Ladder Builder to prove impact in $$$.
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The Customer Success Café
Why CS Gets "Thanks" While Sales Pops Champagne
Turn CS into a revenue engine: 70/30–75/25 splits, uncapped expansion commissions, NRR≥110%, clean credit rules, and two Excel tools to ship the plan…
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The Customer Success Café
CS Traffic-Light Dashboard: See Risk In 60s
Get the step-by-step system: portal setup, secure-link checklist, traffic-light dashboard, and email scripts. Cut access pain, speed go-live, and…
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The Customer Success Café
Stop Begging For Job References (Do This Instead)
The exact 3-2-1 framework, scripts, and tracker to convert customer proof into interviews, intros, and job offers—without begging for references or cold…
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The Customer Success Café
The No-BS CS Workload Audit (+ XLSX Kits You Can Ship)
See where work really lives, rebalance fast, and protect renewals. Premium members get plug-and-play Excel kits, routing rules, and a 7-day rollout.
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The Customer Success Café
Protect $ Revenue Now: The 30-Day Anti-Churn OS.
Run the 48-hour rescue + 7-day stabilization, then ship an exec one-pager that proves $ value. Includes Anti-Churn OS (PDF) + Dashboard Kit (XLSX).
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The Customer Success Café

NEWS

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Salesforce Q3 FY26 Signals: Talk Like A VP, Win Budget Faster
Copy the investor language: cRPO-style forward book, agent impact metrics, data SLAs, and payback—plus scripts and calculators inside.
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The Customer Success Café
Yoodli’s $40M: Experiential Learning For Customer Success
Funding is news; execution is value. Unlock the premium playbook to pilot AI roleplays in 30 days, prove impact, and boost NRR with confidence.
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The Customer Success Café
Black Forest Labs’ $300M Raise: A CS Playbook Emerges
Black Forest Labs’ $300M funding shift signals new opportunities for CS leaders. See the rollout that boosts time-to-value, cuts costs, and drives…
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The Customer Success Café
Duvo.ai’s $15M Seed: AI Workforce For Retail—And Why CS Leaders Should Care
AI agents that survive retail can transform CS capacity. See the workflow, guardrails, and rollout that turn automation into renewals and expansion…
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The Customer Success Café
Supabase’s $5B Signal: Focus Beats Enterprise Sprawl
Turn “no” into margin and expansion. Use Red vs Green segmentation, single-owner renewals, and a 30-60-90 plan to boost NRR without enterprise sprawl.
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The Customer Success Café
2025 AI Funding Wave: The Customer Success Survival Plan for 2026
Billions are pouring into AI. This breakdown shows CS leaders exactly what to change in their roadmap now to keep NRR, renewals, and their role safe.
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The Customer Success Café
GetVocal’s $26M: What It Means For CX Teams Right Now
Auditable, policy-bound agents that Legal loves—scope, metrics, and handoff design to go live in 30 days, then scale with EU-ready controls.
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The Customer Success Café
Agentic AI In Mortgages: Why Tidalwave’s $22M Signals A Shift
From 40-day waits to instant checks: a 30-day plan for CS leaders to cut cycle time, reduce touches, and boost renewals—templates and scripts included.
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The Customer Success Café
What Does Model ML’s $75M Series A Mean For Customer Success In FinTech?
Premium breakdown of how verification-first onboarding turns AI pilots into expansion in 6 weeks—KPIs, templates, and roles that lift NRR in FinTech.
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The Customer Success Café
Salesforce–Gainsight Incident: What CS Leaders Must Do Now
A clear breakdown of the Salesforce–Gainsight OAuth incident and what it means for your health scores, renewals, and executive trust. Includes your…
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The Customer Success Café
Revenium’s $13.5M Seed Puts A Price Tag On AI Outcomes
AI is scaling—and so are costs. Here’s the CS playbook to track cost-per-outcome, add guardrails, and turn AI into NRR.
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The Customer Success Café
Asseta AI’s $4.2M Seed Round: Why Early Customer Success Hiring Wins
See how Asseta AI uses its $4.2M seed round to make customer success a growth engine, with a repeatable playbook for onboarding, health scores, and…
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The Customer Success 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…
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The Customer Success 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.
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The Customer Success 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…
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The Customer Success 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…
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The Customer Success Café
[Templates] QBRs: Why 72% of Customers Find Them Worthless
67% of QBRs fail to deliver value. Learn how industry leaders are transforming customer reviews with proven frameworks for success. Check these out now!
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The Customer Success 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!
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The Customer Success 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…
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The Customer Success 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…
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The Customer Success 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…
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The Customer Success 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.
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The Customer Success 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…
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The Customer Success 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.
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The Customer Success 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.
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The Customer Success 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…
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The Customer Success 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…
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The Customer Success 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.
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The Customer Success 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…
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The Customer Success 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.
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The Customer Success 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.
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The Customer Success 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 👇
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The Customer Success Café
Join 4,300+ other Customer Success leaders and practitioners now!

CAREER

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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…
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The Customer Success 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.
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The Customer Success 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.
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The Customer Success 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…
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The Customer Success 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.
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The Customer Success 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.
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The Customer Success 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.
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The Customer Success 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…
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The Customer Success 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…
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The Customer Success 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…
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The Customer Success 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…
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The Customer Success Café
Laid Off? Turn Customer Relationships Into a $120K+ Role
Skip the job boards! Learn the exact customer outreach strategy that helped 5 CS leaders secure Director+ roles with 20-40% salary increases after…
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The Customer Success 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.
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The Customer Success 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…
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The Customer Success 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…
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The Customer Success 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…
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The Customer Success 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…
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The Customer Success 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…
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The Customer Success 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…
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The Customer Success 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…
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The Customer Success 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…
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The Customer Success 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…
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The Customer Success 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…
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The Customer Success 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…
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The Customer Success Café
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