Customer Success Playbook Podcast S3 E52 - Katie Smith - From Stagnation to Strategy

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This episode of the Customer Success Playbook podcast is a breath of fresh Livingston, Montana air. Kevin Metzger sits down with Katie Smith, fractional CMO and founder of Wild Path Consulting, to unpack how strategic marketing and proactive customer listening can transform customer relationships and drive sustainable growth. Katie dives into tactics that ensure continuous customer engagement, especially in volatile markets, and shares actionable insights on how aligning customer feedback with marketing can unlock next-level success.

Detailed Analysis: Katie Smith's marketing philosophy is simple but potent: Always keep your ear to the ground. As a fractional Chief Marketing Officer, she specializes in building scalable strategies by embedding listening loops throughout the customer lifecycle. In this episode, Katie unpacks the critical role of subtle, continuous feedback gathering—from onboarding questions like "What are you most excited about?" to reflective prompts such as "What has changed the most for you?"

She emphasizes integrating these questions into everyday interactions rather than relying on clunky surveys. It's about embedding marketing intelligence into the customer success function. And here's the kicker: Katie makes a strong case that the insights from customer success should be fueling marketing strategy just as much as sales data does. That shift in mindset helps brands stay ahead of the curve—adjusting messaging, realigning offerings, and reinforcing value in real time.

The conversation also touches on the broader organizational alignment between marketing and customer success teams. With fast-moving market shifts, this collaboration isn’t just beneficial; it’s essential. Katie leaves us with a compelling preview of part two, where the focus sharpens on co-owning long-term value across departments.

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Episode Transcript

Kevin Metzger (00:05):
Customer success.
Hello and welcome to theCustomer Success Playbook
podcast, where we bring youactionable insights for creating
meaningful customer experiences.
I'm your host, Kevin Metzker.
Unfortunately, Roman's unable tojoin us today, but we're excited
to welcome someone who lives andbreathes adventure, both in

(00:27):
nature and in the world ofmarketing.
Our guest today is Katie Smith,the queen of the customer
journey, and founder of WildPath Consulting.
From her scenic base inLivingston, Montana, Katie
transforms stagnation intostatic strategic success by
aligning businesses with theright customers and share

(00:49):
customers and shared values.
Candy, we're thrilled to haveyou here today.
Can you tell us a little moreabout yourself?

Katie Smith (00:54):
Sure.
Thank you so much.
I'm really excited to chat withyou today.
So I'm a fractional chiefmarketing officer, so that means
that I help companies, um,create strategic planning from
their, for their marketing fromthe top down.
I love to come in help companieswho, you know, they've got their
business ops figured out,they're ready to scale and they

(01:16):
really need some help.
Just getting, figuring out whattheir marketing program should
be.
So I love being with them everystep of the way and building
that out.

Kevin Metzger (01:25):
So let's go ahead and jump right in.
What's your number one tip forensuring customers stay engaged
throughout their entirelifecycle, especially in the
fast changing markets?

Katie Smith (01:35):
So my number one tip is that you build into your
marketing practices, ways thatyou can check in with your
audience all of the time.
So you always have a finger onthe pulse of how they're
feeling, what they need, and youcan keep up with the changes as
their, as their needs change, asthe market changes.

(01:56):
Um, if you always have these.
Ways of listening.
So that could be, um, in, youknow, some of your, your sales
processes, you just have one ortwo questions thrown in there.
You have a few questions duringthe onboarding process, and then
when you're doing your regularcheck-ins.
You just have a few of thosemarketing type situational

(02:16):
questions thrown in that you'realways collecting that data and
then you're always analyzing itso you can see any changes
happening real time, and thenyou can make the adjustments
before any of your competitorsare even thinking about it.

Kevin Metzger (02:31):
So what's an example of those types of
questions or the kinds of followup that you wanna kind of be
asking throughout the process,the lifecycle?

Katie Smith (02:38):
Sure.
So, uh, I think when you'redoing onboarding, you really
wanna know, you know, what areyou hoping for or what does this
mean to you?
Um, so those are questions thatare, you know, forward thinking,
how is this going to change yourprogram?
And then you also wanna.
To get the questions of, youknow, what made you decide to

(02:59):
choose us, uh, what are you mostexcited about with our program?
And then if you're doing your,your regular, um, check-ins with
your customer, your customersuccess team, just have little
questions thrown in about, youknow, um, what are you looking?
You know, so it's forwardthinking questions.
So, you know, what do you haveplanning for your next quarter?

(03:22):
What are you working on?
What, how do you, how are youhoping to integrate this into
the next, you know, iteration ofyour, of your project prog or
your project schedule?
And then kind of looking backlike what's been the most
meaningful or, um, especiallythose first check-ins, you
could, you can ask things likewhat is, uh, what has changed?

(03:43):
What has this changed the mostfor you?
That was unexpected.
So you're always kind of miningfor little bits of information,
and if you just do it kind ofsuddenly subtly, um, you're not,
you don't, I'll have to send outa big long questionnaire all the
time.
You can.
Um, but there's other things.
This is just an easier way foryou, for your team and for your

(04:03):
customers to have a little bitof that two-way connection and
just kind of keeping your fingeron the pulse of.
Of what is really going on withyour customer's environments,
especially when things arechanging so fast like they are
right now.

Kevin Metzger (04:18):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it makes a lot of sense too.
I mean, I mean it's, it's thestrategic questioning of whether
or not you are accomplishing thegoals that you set with the
customer during the salesprocess, really.
Um, yeah.
And you know, if you are, whichis.
You know, any good customersuccess program and, and it

(04:39):
makes sense that thatinformation needs to get back to
the marketing team as well,because it's not just the sales,
it's not just the ongoingoperations.
It's not just the resell, butit's the, Hey, how, how do we
use this information, I guessreally to help with the funnel
and break dry traffic into thechannel as well.
Correct.

(04:59):
Very good.
Great.
Well, fantastic.
Katie, thank you for kicking offwith a powerful tip on
continuous customer engagement,and we'll see you on Wednesday
for our one big question abouthow customer success and
marketing teams can worktogether to drive long-term
value.

Katie Smith (05:17):
Oh, yeah.
I'm really excited.

Kevin Metzger (05:19):
I think we kind of just touched on it briefly,
and I'm excited to dive in.
So make sure to subscribe, uh,so you don't miss the Wednesday
episode or any of our episodes.
Like, listen, comment, we lookforward to it.
And until then, keep on playing.