Deidre Williams shares how her team turned a potential $2.2 million customer churn into a full renewal with expansion by mobilizing cross-functional resources and developing a strategic intervention plan. This customer success recovery story demonstrates the importance of proactive renewal planning, deep customer listening, and aligning solutions with specific business outcomes.

• Building a rigorous renewal process that starts 6-12 months before contract end dates
• Implementing a red-yellow-green forecasting system with clear intervention triggers
• Mobilizing cross-functional "red teams" for at-risk accounts below 40% renewal probability
• Sometimes breaking up with customers is necessary when product-market fit is lacking
• Maintaining candor and trust even when parting ways can lead to future opportunities
• Customer success must embrace revenue metrics (ARR, NRR, customer lifetime value)
• Creating strong partnerships across sales, marketing, and product teams
• Focus on solving customer problems: making money, saving money, or saving time
• Understanding the value of referrals and brand evangelism from satisfied customers

For more insights on customer success strategies, follow Deidre Williams on LinkedIn and check out her Star Trek-themed newsletter that breaks down customer success concepts.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/deedraswilliams/

🌐 Website
https://www.joedoestechtouch.com/

📰 Subscribe to the JDTT Newsletter –
Get raw insights, no-fluff frameworks, and tech touch tactics straight to your inbox: https://www.joedoestechtouch.com/jdttnewsletter
🎙️ Be a Guest on the Podcast
Have a CS horror story or digital-first strategy worth sharing? Submit to be a guest:https://www.joedoestechtouch.com/podcast

🔗 Connect with Joe on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/joedigrande/

📺 Watch Full Episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaH58ojbaWym4ej_PedQ4Fw

Customer success isn't just about building relationships – it's about understanding your customers' strategic outcomes and helping them achieve measurable business results.

• Building relationships without connecting to business outcomes leaves accounts vulnerable to churn
• Track customer data meaningfully and use it in authentic, non-cheesy ways to strengthen connections
• Ensure smooth information transfer from sales to implementation to customer success
• Multi-thread relationships within customer organizations to protect against stakeholder turnover
• Never confuse customer satisfaction with customer success – they aren't the same thing

Follow Justin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justchappell/

🌐 Website
https://www.joedoestechtouch.com/

📰 Subscribe to the JDTT Newsletter –
Get raw insights, no-fluff frameworks, and tech touch tactics straight to your inbox: https://www.joedoestechtouch.com/jdttnewsletter
🎙️ Be a Guest on the Podcast
Have a CS horror story or digital-first strategy worth sharing? Submit to be a guest:https://www.joedoestechtouch.com/podcast

🔗 Connect with Joe on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/joedigrande/

📺 Watch Full Episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaH58ojbaWym4ej_PedQ4Fw

What happens when leadership doesn't understand the fundamental differences between customer success and sales? Dillon Young, founder of Lifetime Value Media and host of the Daily Stand-Up podcast, shares hard-won wisdom from 15 years in customer success on this revealing episode of Customer Unsuccess.

At the heart of many CS struggles is a critical misunderstanding: sales operates in the realm of expectations while customer success deals with experiences. As Dillon explains, "In sales, it's all about expectations. You can sell a dream because customers have no basis for understanding what you can actually deliver." But when renewal time approaches, customers have accumulated a year of real experiences with your product, making empty promises worthless.

This disconnect creates painful scenarios where CS teams are left managing disappointed clients who realize they're not getting what they were sold. Dillon shares a powerful story about confronting leadership over a top-performing salesperson who consistently sold "vaporware" - wasting implementation resources and guaranteeing eventual churn. Despite the obvious damage to the company's reputation and customer retention, leadership hesitated to address the issue because of short-term revenue targets driven by investor demands.

The conversation explores practical strategies for success despite these challenges. Both hosts advocate for a "default to action" approach - starting with small, imperfect solutions rather than attempting to build comprehensive systems from scratch. As Dillon suggests, "If replacing a tool later would be relatively simple, don't spend more than 30 minutes deciding which one to implement." This philosophy prevents analysis paralysis and keeps teams moving forward through experimentation.

Ready to transform your approach to customer success? Subscribe to Customer Unsuccess for more candid conversations about what doesn't work in CS—and how to turn those failures into your greatest opportunities for growth.

🌐 Website
https://www.joedoestechtouch.com/

📰 Subscribe to the JDTT Newsletter –
Get raw insights, no-fluff frameworks, and tech touch tactics straight to your inbox: https://www.joedoestechtouch.com/jdttnewsletter
🎙️ Be a Guest on the Podcast
Have a CS horror story or digital-first strategy worth sharing? Submit to be a guest:https://www.joedoestechtouch.com/podcast

🔗 Connect with Joe on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/joedigrande/

📺 Watch Full Episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaH58ojbaWym4ej_PedQ4Fw