What Happens After the Build

[Un]Churned Chapter 008

Digital Customer Success is playing a bigger role and build vs. buy is becoming a bigger factor.

Here’s what’s been on my mind this week.

What Happens When You Apply Digital Motions to Your Biggest Accounts? ft. Christine Lavery (This Week’s [Un]Churned 🎙️)

This week on [Un]Churned, Christine Lavery, VP of Customer Success at Conga, shared a principle that I’ve never heard in all 150+ episodes of the podcast: digital CS should serve the entire customer ecosystem, not just the long-tail.

As Christine puts it, “At the end of the day, we want our users to use our product and maximize how they’re using it. That is the same no matter the size and span that you have with us.” If you’re reading this and thinking, “no shit”, I highly recommend you press play on this week’s episode.

Christine’s diverse background includes managing both white-glove enterprise CS at Typeform, and long-tail, PLG-led motions at Agent Sync. It’s clear how these experiences primed her to become the perfect strategist for this ‘1:all’ strategic motion. You’ll get her entire playbook, with tactics around customer journey mapping, achieving buy-in at the team and executive level, and collaboration with Marketing, Supporting, and PMM.

We also talk shop and hit on CS hot topics like AI’s role in CS and how living in the revenue org has opened up opportunities for expansion-driving partnerships.

If you’re interested in building a ‘1:all’ motion, Christine’s playbook is a must-have. If you’re not convinced, give us 34 minutes to change your mind.

The Hidden Cost of Building Fast

Prem’s post got me thinking about how we really took the limits imposed by engineering for granted. When building took time and money, it forced us to make choices. With those choices came focus. And with that focus we had intentional roadmaps.

Without that guardrail, teams can build faster than customers can absorb. This topic isn’t new, especially on [Un]Churned, but I think it’s important to come at it from all angles. Prem’s post isn’t about Customer Success directly, but it points at a shift CS leaders are already feeling.

If you’re seeing this tension show up with your customers, it’s worth reading.

Read the full post →

If You Build It… They’re Probably Building It Too

If you ever need a reminder of how fast the industry is moving, scroll LinkedIn. Just days after sharing my thoughts on build vs. buy for a Customer Success Platform, a post showed up from Ralphie at Deepgram sharing how her team built their own; and how much they improved it in one month.

This is the reality we have to lean into. Teams are building tools for themselves. And honestly, it’s impressive. When you know your own problems really well, you can move fast and make something that fits exactly what you need.

But building the first version isn’t the hardest part. The real challenge is keeping it running as the company grows. Launching, iterating, and maintaining a CSP at scale is a Herculean task.

That’s why teams that build often become the best buyers later. Building shows you where things get complicated and costly over time. It doesn’t make you anti-vendor, it actually helps you understand what the work really requires as you grow.

Read the full post →

Wrapping Up

Digital CS scales because it has to. Building shows up because teams want control. The leaders who win are the ones who treat both as real choices, not side projects.

See you next Monday 🧠

— Josh

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