May 21, 2024 • 19 mins
In the latest episode of the Customer Success Playbook Podcast, Kevin Metzger recapped his recent trip to St. Louis for the Gainsight Conference. The episode covered his experiences from networking events to insightful sessions on AI and customer success strategies. Highlights included discussions on Gainsight’s roadmap, innovative AI projects, and strategic planning for customer success initiatives. Kevin emphasized the importance of networking, shared key takeaways from various sessions, and is excited about upcoming guests for the podcast.
Detailed Analysis and Business-Relevant Insights
Networking and Community Engagement
Kevin’s trip began with a networking happy hour hosted by James from Atlanta Customer Success and Growth Molecules. Such events are crucial for fostering connections within the customer success community, allowing professionals to share experiences and insights. The value of these interactions cannot be overstated as they often lead to collaborations and new business opportunities.
AI and Customer Success: Gainsight’s Vision
The conference's main focus was on AI’s role in customer success. Gainsight CEO Nick opened the event with a session highlighting the company’s AI initiatives. Kevin noted the emphasis on AI-driven tools designed to enhance customer interactions and streamline success strategies. The demo showcased both current capabilities and future developments, reflecting the rapid integration of AI in customer success.
Vanessa Gotti from OpenAI also presented, providing insights into AI’s potential in customer success. Her sessions underscored the transformative impact of AI, from personalized customer interactions to predictive analytics. For businesses, adopting AI tools can lead to more efficient processes, improved customer satisfaction, and ultimately, better retention rates.
Project Prioritization and Implementation: LinkedIn’s Approach
A particularly enlightening session was presented by LinkedIn representatives, who discussed their project prioritization framework. This included evaluating project proposals based on potential impact and feasibility. They introduced "Project Stitch," an AI-driven initiative aimed at providing personalized guidance at scale. This project involved extensive prompt engineering and testing to ensure accuracy and reliability in automated customer interactions.
For businesses, the key takeaway is the importance of a structured approach to project management, especially when integrating new technologies like AI. Prioritizing projects that offer significant returns and aligning them with strategic goals can drive innovation while maintaining operational efficiency.
Customer Success and Financial Metrics
Jay Nathan’s session on understanding customer success from a P&L perspective was another highlight. He illustrated how changes in customer success strategies directly impact financial metrics such as gross margin and lifetime value (LTV). By linking customer success initiatives to tangible financial outcomes, businesses can better justify investments in this area and demonstrate their value to stakeholders.
Upcoming Guests and Future Events
Kevin’s successful networking efforts at the conference have led to exciting upcoming gue
Please Like, Comment, Share and Subscribe.
You can also find the CS Playbook Podcast:
YouTube - @CustomerSuccessPlaybookPodcast
Twitter - @CS_Playbook
You can find Kevin at:
Metzgerbusiness.com - Kevin's person web site
Kevin Metzger on Linked In.
You can find Roman at:
Roman Trebon on Linked In.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Roman Trebon (00:30):
right, welcome to the customer success playbook
podcast Kevin is back from histrip to st.
Louis my co host kevin metzger.
Kevin.
How are you doing today?
Kevin Metzger (00:39):
Man, I'm doing great.
Excited to be home just becausethere were so many takeaways and
so much stuff for me to gofollow up on that I'm, I'm, I'm
excited about everything thatcame out of it.
It was a, it was a great trip.
Roman Trebon (00:52):
So for our audience, if you didn't listen
to our last couple of episodes,Kevin, you were out in St.
Louis for the Gainsightconference.
Is that right?
That's that's correct.
Yep.
So you're there all, I think yougot there Tuesday and you came
home Friday.
So let's start with.
Let's start when you first getthere, Kev.
Let's start with Tuesday.
(01:12):
So I think you had a dinner thatnight, a reception.
What did you do Tuesday when yougot to town?
Kevin Metzger (01:16):
Yeah.
So, I mean, James from, you knowAtlanta customer success and one
of our former guests and, and Itwas going out there and his
company growth molecules andAmelia, who's the CEO of growth
molecules was also a guest.
Another guest of the same coupleof guys there.
They, they were hosting a happyhour.
(01:37):
So,
you
know got in in the afternoon, checked into the
conference, got one, got my Mylittle tag for the weekend.
I should've got that down herefor any video but got the tag
and all of that kind of stuffand registered.
And then once once we got in,went over to the, to the happy
hour and there were just a tonof people there got to meet lots
(02:01):
and lots of people at the happyhour.
Got to me and just and just havea lot of conversations and it
was it was just it.
Honestly, getting there andhaving that to do and going out
and being able to meet people.
It was a great, great experienceto, to execute on and just get
started and get into theconference.
Roman Trebon (02:21):
That's a great idea by James to have that on
the first day.
It sounds like, I guess theactual conference started
Wednesday.
If I was like the actualsessions to sort of Wednesday
cab.
So to come and have somethingTuesday.
You know, I think when you go tothese conferences, at least for
me, you want to, you know, youwant, you want learnings, you
want to take something back,right, something you can
incorporate, and thennetworking.
So to start out with the nicenetworking, and James is picking
(02:42):
up the tab, I mean, that's not abad way to start the the
conference, right?
Kevin Metzger (02:45):
Yeah, it wasn't bad at all.
Roman Trebon (02:47):
So Wednesday, so Wednesday is the first day of
sessions, Kev.
Let's, let's start withWednesday.
What were the highlights for youin terms of sessions on
Wednesday?
Kevin Metzger (02:56):
Yeah.
So, I mean, first it was, youknow, Nick opened it up, right.
And
Roman Trebon (03:02):
looking dapper, by the way, I don't know.
Nick's probably not listening,but man, did he look good?
I saw the LinkedIn post.
Kevin Metzger (03:08):
Yeah, he he, he's, he's definitely A better
dresser
Roman Trebon (03:11):
than me?
That's, that goes withoutsaying, Kev.
He's definitely a better dresserthan you and I.
Kevin Metzger (03:16):
Yeah, he's got some flair that I,
Roman Trebon (03:18):
I aspire to.
Kevin Metzger (03:19):
So, but they had a great session.
Talked a lot about whatGainsight's doing.
A lot of it's focused, it'sfocused on ai.
Kind of did a demo of whatthey've got planning planned
and.
Some, some of it I guess, is inplace and some of it's still on
the roadmap, but it was a goodsession to listen to and, and
hear what they have and whatthey're thinking about and where
(03:40):
they're going.
So, so that was great.
I got to hear from a couple ofyou know, very interesting
people about things that they'vebeen doing as well.
In, in the sessions of Vanessa.
Gotti talked from, she's a leadof customer success at OpenAI.
Oh,
Roman Trebon (03:56):
that's cool.
I'm sure you were all over thatlittle AI talk.
Kevin Metzger (04:00):
Yeah, yeah.
She also presented in a sessionon Thursday that I attended.
That was, that was great aswell.
So it was, it was very cool tohear her and her vision on the
panel, er, you know, with Nickand then to hear her also on the
panel as well.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Hey, so I'm
Roman Trebon (04:17):
curious.
How many people I this is, youknow, you're not gonna have a
real answer.
So I'm going to ask you to makeup an answer.
How many people do you thinkwere gains like customers that
were there versus people likejust interested in customer
success and wanted to learn moreabout the space
Kevin Metzger (04:33):
or network?
So, yeah, I mean, I will tellyou that there were some people
that were there like that I metthat I know were that were there
that were interested in thespace and the network.
Obviously a lot of the vendorsare, some of them are directly
in the space.
Calendar Lee was there.
They, you know, are associatedwith the space.
Roman Trebon (04:54):
Yeah.
Kevin Metzger (04:54):
So you kind of have that.
And
Ed Glavin and Roman, they gotthe game.
Customer success is their claimto fame.
On the podcast, they light thespark.
Elevating your skills, creatinga mark.
(05:15):
Let's dive deeper into theplaybook, the secrets they
share.
No need to look from onboardingto retention.
They've got it all, success isthe goal, gonna stand tall.
With each episode, they sharetheir views.
Strategies and tactics that youcan use from challenges to
(05:38):
triumphs to cover it all.
Helping you navigate when youhit a wall.
So tune in now and join thequest.
Kevin and Roman put you to thetest.
Empowering your journey incustomer success.
(06:01):
With insights and wisdom, you'llbe the best.
Um, Um, Helping you navigatewhen you hit a wall.
Um, So tune in now and join thequest.
(06:24):
then I think the large majority are.
Customers or potentialcustomers, and then and then
there are a few other folks thatwere there to network to, you
know, to meet people.
There's recruiters.
There are people who are lookingto hire people who are looking
(06:45):
for jobs there.
I think there was all kinds offolks there for various reasons.
Roman Trebon (06:49):
Yeah, no, I'm just curious.
I was thinking about it as youwere talking about the opening,
you know, the keynote withwhat's coming on the road map,
etc.
You know, and I'm assuming myguess was it was probably heavy
client.
So as someone that wasn't there,Kev on the you've heard.
I know it sounds like you wentto a bunch of sessions on AI.
About like where AI is gettingincorporated into space for for
(07:12):
us that we're on to we couldn'tmake it out there.
Like what?
What?
What did you hear that youwanted to share with with people
like myself in our audience interms of where is AI like
anything jump out at you?
It's like, oh, wow, I didn't.
That sounds new or that soundsexciting that we maybe we
haven't talked about in the showbefore.
Yeah, so
Kevin Metzger (07:31):
You know, I I think The linkedin did a did a
presentation and there were twopeople from linkedin That were
presenting and they talked abouttwo things.
I talked about one was Basicallyhow they prioritize projects and
the because one person wassitting on the prioritization
committee he was kind of You Ithink they had a CS and then the
(07:52):
other person was also a leaderin CS, but it, she, she had a
project proposal.
So they talked about the projectthat she went through and
proposed as well as the formatthey used for prioritizing
projects and looking at AIthings and how, how they were
making their decisions.
And one of the key takeawaysfrom him was like, A lot of
(08:14):
stuff's coming at
you
when you prioritize, you want to look at
your big bets.
You want to look at your homeruns where your small wins,
you're going to take a, youknow, ultimately you want to
select from that bunch, a few ofeach potentially to determine
what you're going to do.
And look at the costsassociated.
He talked about how you kind ofcategorize projects and put some
(08:37):
hard numbers around the project.
So you're kind of evaluatingfairly and looking at the return
and all of that from the samekind of perspective.
And then he talked about thefact that really you got to take
80 to 90 percent of the proposedprojects and realize that those
are junk and throw them out.
Roman Trebon (08:54):
Yeah.
So I like, I like that.
They kind of walk you throughtheir project kind of submittal
process, as how.
How projects, you know, go fromgetting, you know, submitted to
getting killed.
Even sometimes it sounds likemaking it to funding and, or,
you know, proof of concept,whatever it may be.
That's interesting.
Kevin Metzger (09:11):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I thought that was good.
And then really the project thatthey implemented and talked
about, they called projectstitch and really it was about
how you.
Bring personalized guidance at,at scale, right?
So how do you use AI overallproject and discussion was
interesting.
That's talked about how muchtime they spent working on
(09:33):
owning the know, the prompt andhow they put the information
around to get the prompts,right.
And all of that and how theyworked on really training it so
that it doesn't hallucinate andgive bad data, et cetera.
On top of that, what I foundreally interesting is they
(09:53):
actually have two algorithmsthat after they get a job.
So once they have been, she saidthere was a lot of testing in
the process and trying to getthrough and build it and trying
to make it right.
But ultimately, they were stillnot at like.
Generating 100 percent responsesthat they felt comfortable with
being able to send customersfrom an automations process.
(10:14):
So they built two new tools toadditional tools to actually
evaluate the results anddetermine whether or not it was
good or needed to be thrown out.
But now you've got a decisionmaking tree that allows you to
actually say, Hey, this there.
These are the things we'relooking for.
We don't see that.
Throw that out.
It didn't occur.
It, it wasn't generatedproperly.
Now go regenerate one and seewhether it comes out properly.
(10:38):
So you've automated the processand it gets the approval and
it's an automation of approvalthat you can send out,
Roman Trebon (10:44):
man.
The, the, the, that is a, that'sawesome.
And the, it's fun part beingbeing part of a big company, but
you can start to invest stufflike that, right?
Like that is, that's, that'spretty cool.
So you
Kevin Metzger (10:55):
talked, well, here's the thing.
That stuff is, is itunderstanding the projects and
where they're doing them at bigcompanies also allows you to
figure out how you might be ableto do some of that stuff and,
and the smaller companies aswell, which
Roman Trebon (11:08):
Oh, it'll eventually come down.
All of that stuff starts, youknow, you got to fund it
somehow.
Right.
And then it all gets scaled atsome point.
Right.
So, I'll look forward to it in2036.
That'll be awesome.
So actually it'll be muchfaster, you know technology
changes Things are here andthere may have taken me until
then, you know years ago now youcan accelerate that that time
(11:28):
You know, probably next yearright two years from now.
It'll be so much faster So so,you know kevin, you know, they
they have that like, you knowdrinking game if you hear this
words You're gonna drink WouldAI be the word at the Gainsight
conference you would've had todrink the most with, or was it
personalization?
What was the, what was thetrendy word at the conference?
Kevin Metzger (11:45):
So, so I'm te tell a story.
My, my celebration from cominghome from the conference which
we actually planned this wayback way back when, but we took
the kids to see Zach BrownManand Kenny Chesney on, oh geez
Saturday night.
We're still sitting in thestands.
I wasn't there while thishappened, but the girl in front
of us was so drunk, my wifeended up having to go get a
(12:06):
security guard to go to check onher.
And yeah, whatever.
That's how drunk I'd have beenif I was taking a shot.
Every time I heard the word
Roman Trebon (12:17):
AI.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Not shocking that AI was themost trendy word used and not,
not shocking that someone wasabsolutely hammered at a Kenny
Chesney concert, both are aboutas shocking as the sun coming up
this morning.
Right.
So so you, I know you saw Jamesout there.
You saw, you saw Amelia, anyother guests, any other former
guests you ran into when you'reout there?
(12:38):
Julie.
You saw Julie Fox?
Julie Fox.
New, has a new gig.
So I noticed you probably juststarted, right?
So probably probably a littletoo early to hear how that's
gone, but She is awesome as inperson as she was as a
Kevin Metzger (12:51):
guest.
She she's incredible.
Julie and I had a greatconversation.
We had lunch together.
Yeah, I talked with her abouther, about her search and how
that went and all of that.
And she's the best man.
She's fantastic.
Just great, great conversationand great to talk to her.
Yeah.
If you're listening to the show, just as
helpful in person as she was onthe podcast.
(13:13):
If you're not following her on
Roman Trebon (13:14):
LinkedIn, follow her on LinkedIn.
She's like a must follow.
She has the best posts.
She's the, she's the bestcontent.
I am jealous.
You met, you met her out there.
I'm so, Julie, if you'relistening, I'm taking a rain
check.
I'll, I'll see you at the next.
Big CS event.
Hopefully soon so what else?
What other highlights from thefrom the week?
Anything else you want to touchon from the big trip to Saint
(13:34):
Louis?
Kevin Metzger (13:35):
Yeah, I mean, so really both days.
Great conference.
Great conferences are greatsessions.
Yeah, I did sit in.
It was such a cool coincidence.
I sat in the J Nathan sectionsession on CSPNL or actually it
wasn't CSPNL.
It was understanding Customersuccess from the perspective of
(13:57):
a PNL, but it was a coincidencethat earlier in the day I had
retaken Dave Jackson's CS PNLclip and posted it to the site
as I have.
That's so cool, you know, andthen got to sit in a session and
listen to Jay talk about it andJay.
You know, kind of, he reallyhelped you understand how
(14:21):
certain changes actually impactthe PNL.
Yeah, and you know, byincreasing average revenue per
customer, what the impact is orincreasing gross revenue margin
per customer, the impact.
Basically, those impact yourgross margins increasing gross
retention rates basically helpsimpact your LTV.
Like, so he did a good job oftalking about how everything was
(14:45):
was associated to the balancesheet and where you, when you're
making changes, what thosechanges impact I'm sorry, not
the balance sheet, but the P& L.
Roman Trebon (14:54):
Yeah.
No, I mean, it's, if you, if youweren't at the conference, you
want to hear more about the pand l.
Listen to our episode with Dave.
I think it was our secondepisode.
It was one of our first guest,one of our early episodes.
Kev, one of my favorites still.
'cause I think Dave hit thatoutta the park, right?
He really talked about if, ifyou're not looking at p and l
for a customer success org,you're, you're gonna, you're
(15:15):
gonna be out of a job here soon,right?
You're, you're, you're just not.
You're not looking at it right.
You're become a service centerand it's going to be all cost.
And he was great.
So it's cool that they leveragedDave when you were there.
It's, it's too bad, Dave.
I'm sure Dave, I know Dave'sover in in Europe.
So he probably didn't make aguest appearance, but that
would've been cool to meet Daveas well.
So you're okay.
(15:35):
So St.
Louis good trip back in Atlanta.
The good news is I don't want toshare too much here, Kev, but
you were able to line up someguests that are going to be
coming on the show.
Is that accurate?
Kevin Metzger (15:46):
I was and yeah, we got some we've got some good
and exciting guests coming up.
I think I want to hold off onannouncing.
No,
Roman Trebon (15:57):
let's wait.
We gotta keep coming back.
Yeah That's you're gonna youknow, we don't want to tee it up
too much but Audience in caseyou know as you're listening
kevin didn't share the list withme prior to the show It's deep.
We had to get him to aconference every week.
We'd have guests every everycouple of days if we get him out
to a conference every week.
So he did a great job, Kev.
So kudos on your recruitment.
We need you for the recruit formy Pitt, Pitt football my, my
(16:19):
Pitt Panthers in football.
If you get this, if you getthose kinds of results, Kev, at
a conference, man, you need tobe recruiting for us.
Kevin Metzger (16:25):
Yeah, well, hopefully actually I can't
comment on I can't make thatcomment about my team.
I owe that.
No, no, I, we start talking tab,
Roman Trebon (16:34):
but we're going to go to a whole different rabbit
hole and this is going to take anew spin.
But so Kev, awesome conference.
It sounds like you got to meetguests.
You got to hear tons of awesometopics on CS lined up a bunch of
guests for us.
And yeah,
Kevin Metzger (16:51):
it was a great conference.
You know, I really enjoyed it,Roman.
I know we've got one moreannouncement.
We are.
What are we announcing, Kev?
I'll give you the date.
And that's what I probably justtold
Roman Trebon (17:04):
you.
Yeah, I know.
So, you're right.
On May 31st, right?
Is that the date, Kev, I'mthinking of?
May 31st, in Atlanta.
Kevin and I are going to behosting our Customer Success
Playbook.
Pickleball event.
So if you're in the Atlanta areaif you're in the south
southeast, I don't know come ondown take it It's gonna be
(17:26):
friday afternoon.
We're gonna send out a check outour linkedin pages.
We're gonna be announcing inhere soon RSVP check it out if
we welcome all levels it's morefor the networking than it is
for the actual pickleball, butGet a, get a paddle.
If you don't have one, I'm surewe can find you one.
It should be an awesome event.
Pickleball is a great, super funway to meet people, be a little
(17:51):
bit active and, and have a greatafternoon.
So
Kevin Metzger (17:54):
I'm looking forward to it.
And even if you've never done itbefore, it's not that hard to
learn.
Come on out.
No, we'll get you into a game.
Roman Trebon (18:00):
You'll get to come on out again.
You'll meet awesome people.
We've already had a lot ofpeople RSVP and let us know
they're interested.
So I'm excited for that.
So yes, the the first ofhopefully many Atlanta customer
success playbook pickleballgame.
So who knows?
Maybe that'll be a thing for usmoving forward.
Kevin Metzger (18:20):
Sounds good.
We might have to host themaround
Roman Trebon (18:21):
the
Kevin Metzger (18:21):
nation.
Roman Trebon (18:23):
I'm all in man.
I'm all in on a pickleball,customer success pickleball
tour.
We'll go to St.
Louis, man.
I didn't know Gainsight wasfounded out in St.
Louis.
So maybe that's our next stop.
We'll go to St.
Louis.
We'll play a little pickleballand go see a Cardinals game or
something.
That'd be awesome.
Sounds like a plan.
Well, hey Kev, thanks forsharing all the details of the
trip.
Lots of guests upcoming, so makesure you like, subscribe to our,
(18:45):
our our podcast feeds.
Check out our YouTube page,check us out on LinkedIn, at
Roman Trebon, at Kevin Metzger.
We also have a LinkedIn customersuccess playbook page as well.
Kev, you're doing a great jobwith the video feeds now, we got
video feeds in there, it'slooking great.
So you've taken the LinkedInpage to a new new level.
(19:06):
So check it out.
And with that Kev, keep onplaying
right, welcome to the customer success playbook
podcast Kevin is back from histrip to st.
Louis my co host kevin metzger.
Kevin.
How are you doing today?
Kevin Metzger (00:39):
Man, I'm doing great.
Excited to be home just becausethere were so many takeaways and
so much stuff for me to gofollow up on that I'm, I'm, I'm
excited about everything thatcame out of it.
It was a, it was a great trip.
Roman Trebon (00:52):
So for our audience, if you didn't listen
to our last couple of episodes,Kevin, you were out in St.
Louis for the Gainsightconference.
Is that right?
That's that's correct.
Yep.
So you're there all, I think yougot there Tuesday and you came
home Friday.
So let's start with.
Let's start when you first getthere, Kev.
Let's start with Tuesday.
(01:12):
So I think you had a dinner thatnight, a reception.
What did you do Tuesday when yougot to town?
Kevin Metzger (01:16):
Yeah.
So, I mean, James from, you knowAtlanta customer success and one
of our former guests and, and Itwas going out there and his
company growth molecules andAmelia, who's the CEO of growth
molecules was also a guest.
Another guest of the same coupleof guys there.
They, they were hosting a happyhour.
(01:37):
So,
you
know got in in the afternoon, checked into the
conference, got one, got my Mylittle tag for the weekend.
I should've got that down herefor any video but got the tag
and all of that kind of stuffand registered.
And then once once we got in,went over to the, to the happy
hour and there were just a tonof people there got to meet lots
(02:01):
and lots of people at the happyhour.
Got to me and just and just havea lot of conversations and it
was it was just it.
Honestly, getting there andhaving that to do and going out
and being able to meet people.
It was a great, great experienceto, to execute on and just get
started and get into theconference.
Roman Trebon (02:21):
That's a great idea by James to have that on
the first day.
It sounds like, I guess theactual conference started
Wednesday.
If I was like the actualsessions to sort of Wednesday
cab.
So to come and have somethingTuesday.
You know, I think when you go tothese conferences, at least for
me, you want to, you know, youwant, you want learnings, you
want to take something back,right, something you can
incorporate, and thennetworking.
So to start out with the nicenetworking, and James is picking
(02:42):
up the tab, I mean, that's not abad way to start the the
conference, right?
Kevin Metzger (02:45):
Yeah, it wasn't bad at all.
Roman Trebon (02:47):
So Wednesday, so Wednesday is the first day of
sessions, Kev.
Let's, let's start withWednesday.
What were the highlights for youin terms of sessions on
Wednesday?
Kevin Metzger (02:56):
Yeah.
So, I mean, first it was, youknow, Nick opened it up, right.
And
Roman Trebon (03:02):
looking dapper, by the way, I don't know.
Nick's probably not listening,but man, did he look good?
I saw the LinkedIn post.
Kevin Metzger (03:08):
Yeah, he he, he's, he's definitely A better
dresser
Roman Trebon (03:11):
than me?
That's, that goes withoutsaying, Kev.
He's definitely a better dresserthan you and I.
Kevin Metzger (03:16):
Yeah, he's got some flair that I,
Roman Trebon (03:18):
I aspire to.
Kevin Metzger (03:19):
So, but they had a great session.
Talked a lot about whatGainsight's doing.
A lot of it's focused, it'sfocused on ai.
Kind of did a demo of whatthey've got planning planned
and.
Some, some of it I guess, is inplace and some of it's still on
the roadmap, but it was a goodsession to listen to and, and
hear what they have and whatthey're thinking about and where
(03:40):
they're going.
So, so that was great.
I got to hear from a couple ofyou know, very interesting
people about things that they'vebeen doing as well.
In, in the sessions of Vanessa.
Gotti talked from, she's a leadof customer success at OpenAI.
Oh,
Roman Trebon (03:56):
that's cool.
I'm sure you were all over thatlittle AI talk.
Kevin Metzger (04:00):
Yeah, yeah.
She also presented in a sessionon Thursday that I attended.
That was, that was great aswell.
So it was, it was very cool tohear her and her vision on the
panel, er, you know, with Nickand then to hear her also on the
panel as well.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Hey, so I'm
Roman Trebon (04:17):
curious.
How many people I this is, youknow, you're not gonna have a
real answer.
So I'm going to ask you to makeup an answer.
How many people do you thinkwere gains like customers that
were there versus people likejust interested in customer
success and wanted to learn moreabout the space
Kevin Metzger (04:33):
or network?
So, yeah, I mean, I will tellyou that there were some people
that were there like that I metthat I know were that were there
that were interested in thespace and the network.
Obviously a lot of the vendorsare, some of them are directly
in the space.
Calendar Lee was there.
They, you know, are associatedwith the space.
Roman Trebon (04:54):
Yeah.
Kevin Metzger (04:54):
So you kind of have that.
And
Ed Glavin and Roman, they gotthe game.
Customer success is their claimto fame.
On the podcast, they light thespark.
Elevating your skills, creatinga mark.
(05:15):
Let's dive deeper into theplaybook, the secrets they
share.
No need to look from onboardingto retention.
They've got it all, success isthe goal, gonna stand tall.
With each episode, they sharetheir views.
Strategies and tactics that youcan use from challenges to
(05:38):
triumphs to cover it all.
Helping you navigate when youhit a wall.
So tune in now and join thequest.
Kevin and Roman put you to thetest.
Empowering your journey incustomer success.
(06:01):
With insights and wisdom, you'llbe the best.
Um, Um, Helping you navigatewhen you hit a wall.
Um, So tune in now and join thequest.
(06:24):
then I think the large majority are.
Customers or potentialcustomers, and then and then
there are a few other folks thatwere there to network to, you
know, to meet people.
There's recruiters.
There are people who are lookingto hire people who are looking
(06:45):
for jobs there.
I think there was all kinds offolks there for various reasons.
Roman Trebon (06:49):
Yeah, no, I'm just curious.
I was thinking about it as youwere talking about the opening,
you know, the keynote withwhat's coming on the road map,
etc.
You know, and I'm assuming myguess was it was probably heavy
client.
So as someone that wasn't there,Kev on the you've heard.
I know it sounds like you wentto a bunch of sessions on AI.
About like where AI is gettingincorporated into space for for
(07:12):
us that we're on to we couldn'tmake it out there.
Like what?
What?
What did you hear that youwanted to share with with people
like myself in our audience interms of where is AI like
anything jump out at you?
It's like, oh, wow, I didn't.
That sounds new or that soundsexciting that we maybe we
haven't talked about in the showbefore.
Yeah, so
Kevin Metzger (07:31):
You know, I I think The linkedin did a did a
presentation and there were twopeople from linkedin That were
presenting and they talked abouttwo things.
I talked about one was Basicallyhow they prioritize projects and
the because one person wassitting on the prioritization
committee he was kind of You Ithink they had a CS and then the
(07:52):
other person was also a leaderin CS, but it, she, she had a
project proposal.
So they talked about the projectthat she went through and
proposed as well as the formatthey used for prioritizing
projects and looking at AIthings and how, how they were
making their decisions.
And one of the key takeawaysfrom him was like, A lot of
(08:14):
stuff's coming at
you
when you prioritize, you want to look at
your big bets.
You want to look at your homeruns where your small wins,
you're going to take a, youknow, ultimately you want to
select from that bunch, a few ofeach potentially to determine
what you're going to do.
And look at the costsassociated.
He talked about how you kind ofcategorize projects and put some
(08:37):
hard numbers around the project.
So you're kind of evaluatingfairly and looking at the return
and all of that from the samekind of perspective.
And then he talked about thefact that really you got to take
80 to 90 percent of the proposedprojects and realize that those
are junk and throw them out.
Roman Trebon (08:54):
Yeah.
So I like, I like that.
They kind of walk you throughtheir project kind of submittal
process, as how.
How projects, you know, go fromgetting, you know, submitted to
getting killed.
Even sometimes it sounds likemaking it to funding and, or,
you know, proof of concept,whatever it may be.
That's interesting.
Kevin Metzger (09:11):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I thought that was good.
And then really the project thatthey implemented and talked
about, they called projectstitch and really it was about
how you.
Bring personalized guidance at,at scale, right?
So how do you use AI overallproject and discussion was
interesting.
That's talked about how muchtime they spent working on
(09:33):
owning the know, the prompt andhow they put the information
around to get the prompts,right.
And all of that and how theyworked on really training it so
that it doesn't hallucinate andgive bad data, et cetera.
On top of that, what I foundreally interesting is they
(09:53):
actually have two algorithmsthat after they get a job.
So once they have been, she saidthere was a lot of testing in
the process and trying to getthrough and build it and trying
to make it right.
But ultimately, they were stillnot at like.
Generating 100 percent responsesthat they felt comfortable with
being able to send customersfrom an automations process.
(10:14):
So they built two new tools toadditional tools to actually
evaluate the results anddetermine whether or not it was
good or needed to be thrown out.
But now you've got a decisionmaking tree that allows you to
actually say, Hey, this there.
These are the things we'relooking for.
We don't see that.
Throw that out.
It didn't occur.
It, it wasn't generatedproperly.
Now go regenerate one and seewhether it comes out properly.
(10:38):
So you've automated the processand it gets the approval and
it's an automation of approvalthat you can send out,
Roman Trebon (10:44):
man.
The, the, the, that is a, that'sawesome.
And the, it's fun part beingbeing part of a big company, but
you can start to invest stufflike that, right?
Like that is, that's, that'spretty cool.
So you
Kevin Metzger (10:55):
talked, well, here's the thing.
That stuff is, is itunderstanding the projects and
where they're doing them at bigcompanies also allows you to
figure out how you might be ableto do some of that stuff and,
and the smaller companies aswell, which
Roman Trebon (11:08):
Oh, it'll eventually come down.
All of that stuff starts, youknow, you got to fund it
somehow.
Right.
And then it all gets scaled atsome point.
Right.
So, I'll look forward to it in2036.
That'll be awesome.
So actually it'll be muchfaster, you know technology
changes Things are here andthere may have taken me until
then, you know years ago now youcan accelerate that that time
(11:28):
You know, probably next yearright two years from now.
It'll be so much faster So so,you know kevin, you know, they
they have that like, you knowdrinking game if you hear this
words You're gonna drink WouldAI be the word at the Gainsight
conference you would've had todrink the most with, or was it
personalization?
What was the, what was thetrendy word at the conference?
Kevin Metzger (11:45):
So, so I'm te tell a story.
My, my celebration from cominghome from the conference which
we actually planned this wayback way back when, but we took
the kids to see Zach BrownManand Kenny Chesney on, oh geez
Saturday night.
We're still sitting in thestands.
I wasn't there while thishappened, but the girl in front
of us was so drunk, my wifeended up having to go get a
(12:06):
security guard to go to check onher.
And yeah, whatever.
That's how drunk I'd have beenif I was taking a shot.
Every time I heard the word
Roman Trebon (12:17):
AI.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Not shocking that AI was themost trendy word used and not,
not shocking that someone wasabsolutely hammered at a Kenny
Chesney concert, both are aboutas shocking as the sun coming up
this morning.
Right.
So so you, I know you saw Jamesout there.
You saw, you saw Amelia, anyother guests, any other former
guests you ran into when you'reout there?
(12:38):
Julie.
You saw Julie Fox?
Julie Fox.
New, has a new gig.
So I noticed you probably juststarted, right?
So probably probably a littletoo early to hear how that's
gone, but She is awesome as inperson as she was as a
Kevin Metzger (12:51):
guest.
She she's incredible.
Julie and I had a greatconversation.
We had lunch together.
Yeah, I talked with her abouther, about her search and how
that went and all of that.
And she's the best man.
She's fantastic.
Just great, great conversationand great to talk to her.
Yeah.
If you're listening to the show, just as
helpful in person as she was onthe podcast.
(13:13):
If you're not following her on
Roman Trebon (13:14):
LinkedIn, follow her on LinkedIn.
She's like a must follow.
She has the best posts.
She's the, she's the bestcontent.
I am jealous.
You met, you met her out there.
I'm so, Julie, if you'relistening, I'm taking a rain
check.
I'll, I'll see you at the next.
Big CS event.
Hopefully soon so what else?
What other highlights from thefrom the week?
Anything else you want to touchon from the big trip to Saint
(13:34):
Louis?
Kevin Metzger (13:35):
Yeah, I mean, so really both days.
Great conference.
Great conferences are greatsessions.
Yeah, I did sit in.
It was such a cool coincidence.
I sat in the J Nathan sectionsession on CSPNL or actually it
wasn't CSPNL.
It was understanding Customersuccess from the perspective of
(13:57):
a PNL, but it was a coincidencethat earlier in the day I had
retaken Dave Jackson's CS PNLclip and posted it to the site
as I have.
That's so cool, you know, andthen got to sit in a session and
listen to Jay talk about it andJay.
You know, kind of, he reallyhelped you understand how
(14:21):
certain changes actually impactthe PNL.
Yeah, and you know, byincreasing average revenue per
customer, what the impact is orincreasing gross revenue margin
per customer, the impact.
Basically, those impact yourgross margins increasing gross
retention rates basically helpsimpact your LTV.
Like, so he did a good job oftalking about how everything was
(14:45):
was associated to the balancesheet and where you, when you're
making changes, what thosechanges impact I'm sorry, not
the balance sheet, but the P& L.
Roman Trebon (14:54):
Yeah.
No, I mean, it's, if you, if youweren't at the conference, you
want to hear more about the pand l.
Listen to our episode with Dave.
I think it was our secondepisode.
It was one of our first guest,one of our early episodes.
Kev, one of my favorites still.
'cause I think Dave hit thatoutta the park, right?
He really talked about if, ifyou're not looking at p and l
for a customer success org,you're, you're gonna, you're
(15:15):
gonna be out of a job here soon,right?
You're, you're, you're just not.
You're not looking at it right.
You're become a service centerand it's going to be all cost.
And he was great.
So it's cool that they leveragedDave when you were there.
It's, it's too bad, Dave.
I'm sure Dave, I know Dave'sover in in Europe.
So he probably didn't make aguest appearance, but that
would've been cool to meet Daveas well.
So you're okay.
(15:35):
So St.
Louis good trip back in Atlanta.
The good news is I don't want toshare too much here, Kev, but
you were able to line up someguests that are going to be
coming on the show.
Is that accurate?
Kevin Metzger (15:46):
I was and yeah, we got some we've got some good
and exciting guests coming up.
I think I want to hold off onannouncing.
No,
Roman Trebon (15:57):
let's wait.
We gotta keep coming back.
Yeah That's you're gonna youknow, we don't want to tee it up
too much but Audience in caseyou know as you're listening
kevin didn't share the list withme prior to the show It's deep.
We had to get him to aconference every week.
We'd have guests every everycouple of days if we get him out
to a conference every week.
So he did a great job, Kev.
So kudos on your recruitment.
We need you for the recruit formy Pitt, Pitt football my, my
(16:19):
Pitt Panthers in football.
If you get this, if you getthose kinds of results, Kev, at
a conference, man, you need tobe recruiting for us.
Kevin Metzger (16:25):
Yeah, well, hopefully actually I can't
comment on I can't make thatcomment about my team.
I owe that.
No, no, I, we start talking tab,
Roman Trebon (16:34):
but we're going to go to a whole different rabbit
hole and this is going to take anew spin.
But so Kev, awesome conference.
It sounds like you got to meetguests.
You got to hear tons of awesometopics on CS lined up a bunch of
guests for us.
And yeah,
Kevin Metzger (16:51):
it was a great conference.
You know, I really enjoyed it,Roman.
I know we've got one moreannouncement.
We are.
What are we announcing, Kev?
I'll give you the date.
And that's what I probably justtold
Roman Trebon (17:04):
you.
Yeah, I know.
So, you're right.
On May 31st, right?
Is that the date, Kev, I'mthinking of?
May 31st, in Atlanta.
Kevin and I are going to behosting our Customer Success
Playbook.
Pickleball event.
So if you're in the Atlanta areaif you're in the south
southeast, I don't know come ondown take it It's gonna be
(17:26):
friday afternoon.
We're gonna send out a check outour linkedin pages.
We're gonna be announcing inhere soon RSVP check it out if
we welcome all levels it's morefor the networking than it is
for the actual pickleball, butGet a, get a paddle.
If you don't have one, I'm surewe can find you one.
It should be an awesome event.
Pickleball is a great, super funway to meet people, be a little
(17:51):
bit active and, and have a greatafternoon.
So
Kevin Metzger (17:54):
I'm looking forward to it.
And even if you've never done itbefore, it's not that hard to
learn.
Come on out.
No, we'll get you into a game.
Roman Trebon (18:00):
You'll get to come on out again.
You'll meet awesome people.
We've already had a lot ofpeople RSVP and let us know
they're interested.
So I'm excited for that.
So yes, the the first ofhopefully many Atlanta customer
success playbook pickleballgame.
So who knows?
Maybe that'll be a thing for usmoving forward.
Kevin Metzger (18:20):
Sounds good.
We might have to host themaround
Roman Trebon (18:21):
the
Kevin Metzger (18:21):
nation.
Roman Trebon (18:23):
I'm all in man.
I'm all in on a pickleball,customer success pickleball
tour.
We'll go to St.
Louis, man.
I didn't know Gainsight wasfounded out in St.
Louis.
So maybe that's our next stop.
We'll go to St.
Louis.
We'll play a little pickleballand go see a Cardinals game or
something.
That'd be awesome.
Sounds like a plan.
Well, hey Kev, thanks forsharing all the details of the
trip.
Lots of guests upcoming, so makesure you like, subscribe to our,
(18:45):
our our podcast feeds.
Check out our YouTube page,check us out on LinkedIn, at
Roman Trebon, at Kevin Metzger.
We also have a LinkedIn customersuccess playbook page as well.
Kev, you're doing a great jobwith the video feeds now, we got
video feeds in there, it'slooking great.
So you've taken the LinkedInpage to a new new level.
(19:06):
So check it out.
And with that Kev, keep onplaying
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.