61. Leadership and Customer Success with Jess Osborn

Mission First People Always's podcast

Introduction:

Over the past decade, the role of customer success has gained importance and prestige. On this episode of the podcast, we have an industry veteran and thought leader who is going to tell us not only why customer success is critical, but how to build high-performing customer success teams and develop leaders from within those teams. So, whether you’re interested in the customer success function or you’re not even sure what customer success means, there will be value for you in this episode because we’re talking about leadership, developing people, and accomplishing an important mission.

About the Guest

Jess Osborn is the Vice President of Customer Success at GoCardless where she leads a team that is revolutionizing customer experiences worldwide. Her achievements include steering multi-million dollar portfolios to unprecedented success, all while cultivating a culture of excellence recognized for its impact on company retention and growth.

Jess has leveraged her experience and passion for human-centric leadership to become a sought after speaker on the customer success circuit. Connect with Jessica via her LinkedIn account.

Social Links

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

What You’ll Learn

• Why customer success has become a critical function in many industries
• Why Human Centric Leadership is critical in for customer success
• What does it mean to align business success with compassionate leadership
• How do you build a high-performing customer success team

Connect with Dr. Mike:

• Website: https://www.drmikepatterson.com
• Book: https://www.missionfirstpeoplealwaysbook.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drmichaellpatterson
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealdrmikepatterson
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/drmikepatterson
• Buy The Book!: Mission First People Always

Episode Minute By Minute:

• 0:00 Introduction to the importance of customer service and building a high-performing customer success team.
• 1:23 Dr. Mike introduces Jess Osborne, Vice President of Customer Success at GoCardless.
• 2:50 Introduction to customer success and its importance in the subscription economy.
• 4:07 What a customer success professional does daily, including the importance of knowing their customers and the difference between face-to-face and digital approaches.
• 6:07 The difference between an account manager and a customer success manager.
• 6:54 Jess shares her career journey into customer success and emphasizes the importance of drive and resilience in hiring.
• 10:00 Jess's passion for helping people achieve their career aspirations and how it became her calling.
• 13:55 Differentiating between rock stars and shooting stars in a team and handling underperformance.
• 15:06 Creating opportunities for growth within a company and characteristics of a culture that fosters growth.
• 17:24 Importance of emotional intelligence and relationship intelligence in leadership, with Jess's analogy of a manager as a gardener.
• 19:25 The variance in team cultures within tech companies and the importance of team bonding outside of work.
• 22:51 Quarterly meetups for team building and business meetings to address the challenges of leading a global team with remote workers.
• 27:08 The future of customer success: importance of commercial acumen and AI in the field.