
Maturing a Customer Success Mindset, the Status of Customer Success in Europe: Takeaways from the Amsterdam CS Snack Breakfast
In the dynamic world of Customer Success Management (CSM), it’s often said that “more is more.” While it’s true that continuous improvement and innovation are essential, there’s an equally important concept – subtraction.
Successful CSM teams aren’t just about adding new strategies; they’re also adept at subtracting those that no longer serve their customers or their business objectives. This might involve discontinuing underperforming initiatives, streamlining processes, or even letting go of outdated metrics.
Now, the question isn’t just about what to do, but also what to stop doing. Successful teams are those that can discern the strategies that drive value from those that hinder progress. During our CS Snack Event in Amsterdam, we discussed the importance of identifying strategies that drive value and those that hinder progress, using the Start-Stop-Continue framework.
We gathered a diverse panel of CSM professionals, including moderators – Pieter Boon, Sanne van der meer, Eline Wolters, Wout Hermans, Denny Burda, Federico Lai and Jaimy Ryan, and Mick Weijers, to share their expertise and contribute to this article.
Here are the topics we covered:
- Efficiency & Prompt Engineering (AI)
- Customer Success Enablement
- GTM Alignment with Sales & Marketing
- Value-Based Communication & Stakeholder Management
- Client Change Management & Tooling
- Communities, Playbooks, & Automation
- Customer Marketing (Cases/Multi-Threading)
- Team Structure & Compensation
Below, we will share our learnings from the above topics:
Efficiency & Prompt Engineering (AI)
Nowadays, it’s not about whether AI is dubbed as a solution but rather how to ensure it remains a solution and not a problem in the pipeline. In our recent Amsterdam session, which Pieter Boon moderated, we streamlined a framework that made it easier to grasp how to better adapt to the trend of AI in the CS landscape.



Here we’ve highlighted new insights.
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🟢 Unleash the Potential of Call Recordings: AI can transform raw call data into actionable insights. 🟢 Optimize Company Reports with AI: AI can crunch massive amounts of customer feedback data, revealing hidden trends and patterns. 🟢 Know Your Customers Like Never Before: AI can integrate data from various sources, painting a comprehensive picture of your customers. 🟢 Craft Engaging Conversations: AI can generate personalized email templates and subject lines, ensuring your messages resonate with customers. 🟢 Provide Instant Answers: AI-powered chatbots can provide instant answers to common questions, reducing wait times and improving customer satisfaction. 🟢 Create Exceptional Content: AI can generate high-quality explainer articles helping customers find the information they need quickly. 🟢 Protect Customer Data: AI-powered security solutions can safeguard sensitive information, ensuring compliance with privacy regulations. | 🔴 Uncritical Acceptance of Findings: Don’t blindly trust AI-generated insights. 🔴 Disjointed Data Sources: Using data from disparate sources can lead to inaccurate conclusions. 🔴 Manual Data Gathering: Avoid wasting time on manual data gathering tasks that can be automated. 🔴 Overwhelming Users: Excessive chatbots or AI interactions can be overwhelming. 🔴 Manual Email Writing: Leverage AI to automate email generation, saving time and ensuring consistency. 🔴 Unused Pro Accounts: Evaluate the value of premium AI tools and avoid unnecessary costs. 🔴 Establish clear protocols for AI usage. Be cautious about sharing sensitive data with AI tools. 🔴 Assuming Comfort with AI: Consider user preferences and provide options for human interaction when necessary. 🔴 Relying on Uncited Sources: AI tools may not always cite their sources. 🔴 Ignoring Operational Integration: Avoid using AI in isolation. | 🟠 Data Fusion: Combine data from various sources (CRM, marketing automation, social media, public records) to create a comprehensive customer profile. 🟠 Advanced Analytics: Utilize AI-powered analytics to identify trends, patterns, and predictive insights. 🟠 Real-time Insights: Leverage AI to provide real-time updates on customer behaviour, sentiment, and engagement. 🟠 Personalized Sales Pitches: Generate personalized sales pitches based on customer data and preferences. 🟠 Intelligent Coaching: Use AI to provide real-time feedback and coaching to sales representatives during calls. 🟠 Predictive Sales Forecasting: Accurately forecast sales performance using AI-powered predictive models. 🟠 AI-Powered Chatbots: Implement AI-powered chatbots to provide 24/7 customer support and address common inquiries. 🟠 Personalized Marketing: Deliver highly targeted marketing campaigns based on customer preferences and behaviour. |
The group also shared the tools they are currently using, find a list below:
Data Capture and Analysis 📌Call Transcription: Gong, Clari, Chorus, Microsoft Teams 📌Website and Public Report Analysis: ChatGPT 📌CRM & Marketing Automation : Salesforce, HubSpot | Sales Enablement 📌Account Planning Templates: Lucidchart 📌Email Scoring and Feedback: JOCHEN.ai, ChatGPT 📌Personalized Email Generation: ChatGPT (Pro) |
AI Governance and Implementation: 📌Internal Guidelines and Templates: Studytube’s prompt templates 📌Data Privacy Protocols: Defined Protocols 📌Onboarding and Training Programs: AI product owner, internal guidance | Customer Experience: 📌AI Chatbots: Internal Resources Focus on Operations: 📌AI Integration for Workflows: ChatGPT, AI for operations and workflows |
Artificial Intelligence was not the only topic discussed. While the attendees shared breakfast and ideas, CS enablement was another breakout topic.
CS Enablement
Ever wondered how technology can bridge the gap between the digital world and those with disabilities? That’s where CS Enablement comes in. By focusing on accessibility and inclusivity, CS Enablement ensures that everyone, regardless of their physical or cognitive limitations, can fully participate in the digital age.


In the session spearheaded by Moderator, Sanne van der Meer, we were able to pool different strategies which companies in Europe are also implementing, as well as future suggestions.
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🟢 Optimize Meetings for Maximum Impact: By prioritizing essential meetings, and setting clear objectives, CS teams can optimize their processes, reduce time waste, and foster a more collaborative environment. Implementing strategies like knowledge sharing through observation and recording. 🟢 Bringing Product and Customers Together for Enhanced CS Enablement: The early involvement of customers in the product development process is a crucial strategy for CS enablement. It fosters a deeper understanding of customer needs and pain points, ensuring that new features and functionalities are truly valuable. | 🟠 Foster Knowledge Sharing: Encourage a culture of collaboration and learning within the CS team. This can be achieved through activities like shadowing colleagues’ customer interactions, recording sessions for feedback, and actively seeking support when needed. 🟠 Evaluate Enablement Effectiveness: Continuously assess the effectiveness of enablement programs and initiatives. This includes gathering feedback from CS representatives, analyzing performance metrics, and making necessary adjustments to ensure that the team is equipped with the tools and resources they need to succeed. |
Here are resources to use:
📌Reducing Internal Meetings: Carv
📌Handover Tool: Gong
GTM Alignment with Sales & Marketing
While GTM alignment often focuses on the synergy between sales and marketing, it’s equally important to consider the role of customer success (CSM) in this equation. A well-aligned GTM strategy involves a seamless collaboration between these three departments to ensure a positive customer experience and drive long-term business growth. Eline Wolters moderated the session where we, then again created a Start-Stop-Continue Framework.
The proposed framework outlines several strategies that can significantly enhance GTM alignment, especially within the realm of customer success management (CSM).
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🟢 Implementing a Team Bonus Structure: It fosters a customer-centric focus, which ultimately leads to improved retention and loyalty. 🟢 Using AI to Create CSM Personas: AI-generated CSM personas provide detailed customer information, enabling CSMs to offer personalized support and proactively address potential issues. 🟢 Building a Business Case for Effective GTM: By highlighting the costs associated with poor GTM practices, it motivates organizations to implement better processes and procedures. 🟢 Incentivizing and Recognizing CSMs: Recognizing and rewarding CSMs for their achievements boosts morale and encourages continuous improvement. | 🔴 Unowned Customer Journeys: Allowing the customer journey to remain unowned can lead to inconsistent experiences, missed opportunities, and customer dissatisfaction. Instead, assign clear ownership for each stage of the customer journey, ensuring accountability and continuity. 🔴 Improper Customer Handoffs: Letting sales throw customers “over the fence” without proper handover can lead to customer dissatisfaction, confusion, and a breakdown in communication between sales and customer success teams. To alleviate problems like this, implement a structured handover process that includes detailed information about the customer, their needs, and any existing challenges. | 🟠 Optimizing Processes: Organizations should prioritize their Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), foster collaboration between marketing and CSM, and optimize event planning. By focusing on these areas, businesses can ensure that all teams are working towards a common goal. 🟠 Organize Joint Events for GTM Alignment: By organizing joint events, companies can strengthen customer relationships, enhance brand awareness, generate leads, and showcase their expertise as industry leaders. To ensure continued success, organizations should tailor events to their specific goals, implement effective follow-up strategies, and continuously evaluate and improve their event planning process. |
These approaches not only enhance the effectiveness of the events but also set the stage for deeper engagement with stakeholders. From here, we pivot towards discussing value-based communication and stakeholder management, where it becomes clear that aligning our messaging and strategies with the values and needs of our audience is paramount.


Value-Based Communication & Stakeholder Management
Investing in value-based communication and stakeholder management is not just a tactical decision; it’s a strategic imperative that can significantly impact your bottom line. Focus on value and stakeholders to create a ripple effect of positive outcomes, from increased customer satisfaction to enhanced brand reputation and long-term profitability.
Customer value is a critical component of a successful SaaS business. It encompasses the benefits that customers derive from using a product or service, and it can be measured in both monetary and non-monetary terms.
Defining Value
While the definition of value can vary across different SaaS solutions, it generally involves the benefits that customers derive from using the product or service. These benefits can be categorized into four main areas:
- Revenue: Increased revenue or cost savings generated by the product or service.
- Cost: Reduced costs associated with using the product or service.
- Quality: Improved quality or performance of the product or service.
- Risk: Reduced risk or uncertainty associated with using the product or service.
Pieter Boon, along with numerous participants, shared insights to make this framework more concise.
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🟢 Implementing a Team Bonus Structure: Ensure that your company’s KPIs are aligned with the specific needs and goals of your customers. 🟢 Defining value clearly (monetary or non-monetary): Clearly articulate the value your product or service delivers to customers, both in terms of monetary benefits and non-monetary benefits. 🟢 Calculating monetary ROI where possible: Whenever possible, quantify the monetary return on investment (ROI) that customers can expect from your product or service. 🟢 Mapping stakeholder-specific value: Understand the unique needs and priorities of different stakeholders within your customer organization. 🟢 Showing adoption and value data transparently: Share data that demonstrates the adoption of your product or service and the value it is delivering to customers. 🟢 Being transparent about product’s fit within tech stacks: Be open and honest about the compatibility of your product or service with customers’ existing technology stacks. | 🔴 Unowned Customer Journeys: If customers don’t have clear goals, they may not fully understand how your product or service can benefit them. 🔴 Focusing solely on non-monetary benefits: While non-monetary benefits are important, quantifying monetary value can help customers justify the investment in your product or service. 🔴 Ignoring different stakeholder perspectives: By addressing the concerns of all stakeholders, you can increase adoption and satisfaction. 🔴 Assuming current stakeholders are enough: By staying aware of these changes, you can ensure that your communication and value messaging remains relevant. 🔴 Assuming customers understand all product features: If customers don’t fully understand the capabilities of your product or service, they may not be using it to its full potential. 🔴 Assuming internal communication is sufficient: Misaligned internal communication can lead to inconsistent messaging and a poor customer experience. | 🟠 Identifying and documenting customer KPIs during onboarding: Through this, organizations can ensure that their efforts are aligned with the specific goals and objectives of their customers. 🟠 Understanding the 4 value categories – revenue, cost, quality, and risk. The four value categories—provides a comprehensive framework for assessing the value of a product or service. 🟠 Building ROI calculators to quantify value: By showcasing the ROI, organizations can more effectively justify investments in their products or services, both internally and externally. 🟠 Providing proactive data to customers on product adoption and value: Sharing data openly and honestly demonstrates transparency and builds trust with customers. This can lead to stronger relationships and increased loyalty. 🟠 Uncovering additional use cases and conducting whitespace analysis: Discovering new use cases can help organizations expand their market reach and target new customer segments. |
Essential Resources include:
📌Success Plans: Customized plans outlining goals, KPIs, and strategies for each customer.Onboarding Documentation: Comprehensive guides for new customers, ensuring a smooth transition.
📌Stakeholder Mapping Tools: Visual representations of key stakeholders and their influence.
📌Strategic Business Reviews: Regular meetings to align goals and ensure value delivery.
Value-based communication focuses on delivering messages that resonate with stakeholders, addressing their specific concerns and aspirations. This approach fosters stronger relationships, as it demonstrates a genuine understanding of what stakeholders value. By prioritizing these elements in our communications, we can ensure that our interactions are meaningful and impactful.
This foundational understanding becomes especially crucial in the context of our next topic – client change management and tooling.
Client Change Management & Tooling
In this session, spearheaded by Mick Weijers, the discussion was split up between High Volume (Tech touch) and Low Volume (Enterprise touch) which are wide topics in the field of client change management.



High-Volume Customers
For SaaS businesses with a large customer base, effective community management is essential for driving customer satisfaction and loyalty. One strategy is to leverage onboarding wizards to streamline the customer onboarding process. These video-based wizards can guide customers through the necessary steps, answer common questions, and provide personalized support. Additionally, implementing targeted campaigns with triggers can help to engage customers at the right time with relevant messages. By tracking and measuring the performance of these campaigns, businesses can optimize their efforts and identify areas for improvement.
Low-Volume: Enterprise Customers
When dealing with enterprise customers, a specialized engagement model is often necessary. This may involve assigning dedicated roles such as Customer Success Managers or Implementation Specialists to provide tailored support. For highly technical products, professional services teams may be best equipped to handle implementation. Adopting a “the art of the possible” approach can help to understand the customer’s environment and goals before planning workshops or training sessions. Utilizing project management tools like Jira can streamline implementation processes and ensure accountability. Finally, to facilitate stakeholder change, workshops and KPIs can be used to empower stakeholders and drive adoption.
By implementing these strategies, SaaS businesses can build thriving communities, foster strong customer relationships, and drive long-term success.
Client change management and tooling have become increasingly vital for businesses operating in today’s dynamic and competitive landscape. In the session we shared amongst CS Professionals, we were able to standardize the insights into the Start – Stop – Continue framework.
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🟢 Enabling Teams to Understand Change Management Philosophies: Providing comprehensive training, fostering a culture of adaptability, and ensuring leadership buy-in are essential. 🟢 Keeping Sales Accountable for Handover: Implementing standardized procedures, and establishing accountability metrics can help ensure that handovers are effective and consistent. 🟢 Breaking Silos and Fostering Collaboration: Creating cross-functional teams, establishing shared goals, and encouraging open communication can help break down silos and foster collaboration among teams, leading to more effective change management. | 🔴 Doing Manual Stuff: In the realm of onboarding, manual processes can often lead to inefficiencies, errors, and a subpar customer experience. To improve efficiency and accuracy in change management, organizations should avoid manual processes and leverage technology. By utilizing tools and automation, businesses can streamline workflows, reduce errors, and make data-driven decisions. 🔴 Working on what you can’t influence: In change management, it’s essential to focus your efforts on areas where you have the most control and can make a significant impact. This strategic approach can lead to more efficient and effective change implementation. | 🟠 Onboarding Calls: Internal and External: To ensure a smooth transition and minimize confusion, conduct thorough onboarding sessions for both internal teams and external clients or end-users. Internal onboarding helps align teams and clarify expectations, while external onboarding educates customers about the change. 🟠 Keep Validating with Customers: Regularly seek feedback from customers to understand their experiences and identify any challenges or concerns. Be prepared to make adjustments based on this feedback. 🟠 Look at it from the Customer Perspective: It’s essential to adopt a customer-centric perspective. |
Anticipating and proactively addressing potential concerns builds trust and minimizes resistance. Additionally, aligning the change management process with customer priorities and goals demonstrates the value of the change and increases customer buy-in.
This principle is equally important when transitioning to customer marketing, especially in the context of case studies and multi-threading strategies.
Customer Marketing (Cases/Multi-Threading)
There were numerous questions that were raised during the Customer Marketing (Cases/Multi-Threading), session, which was led by Mick Weijers and Wout. Some of these are about customer case studies to enhance marketing efforts and key elements you consider essential when creating a compelling customer case study.
These starter questions have been vital in juggling the insights of the participants towards these unsolved problems in the landscape of customer marketing.
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🟢 Identifying Marketing Skills and Responsibilities: Evaluate the CSM team’s existing marketing skills and clearly outline the responsibilities of the new role, including content creation, campaign management, and customer communications. 🟢 Creating a Principal CSM Role for Customer Marketing at Scale: Provide the Principal CSM with specialized marketing training to equip them with the necessary skills and knowledge. It is also important to empower the Principal CSM to lead and coordinate customer marketing efforts across the CSM team. 🟢 Establishing an Internal Marketing and Design Agency: This may sound odd, but is a really helpful strategy to start upon. Allocate two days per week then implement an internal billing system to track the time and resources spent on these projects and measure their success. | 🔴 Reusing New Business Whitepapers in the Community: Reusing new business whitepapers in the community can lead to a lack of personalization and engagement. Customers are more likely to be interested in content that is tailored to their specific needs and challenges. 🔴 Using General Marketing for the Customer: Generic marketing messages may not resonate with customers and can lead to a lack of engagement. It’s important to tailor your messaging to the specific needs and interests of your target audience. 🔴 Overpromising to customers: When customers feel that they’ve been misled, it can damage the trust they have in your organization and its products or services. It can also increase churn. Dissatisfied customers may be more likely to churn if they feel that their expectations were not met. | 🟠 Double Down on Community and 1-to-Many Communication: Building a strong community and leveraging 1-to-many communication channels can foster a sense of belonging and engagement among customers. 🟠 Review and Analyze Customer Communication Templates and Campaigns: Regularly reviewing and analyzing communication templates and campaigns helps to ensure that they are effective, engaging, and aligned with the company’s messaging. In relevance, regular analysis allows for continuous improvement and ensures that communication strategies remain relevant and effective over time. 🟠 Conduct Real-Time Surveys During Business Reviews: By actively seeking and responding to customer feedback, organizations can demonstrate their commitment to customer satisfaction and build stronger relationships. |
In addition, teams can leverage copywriting and design training as valuable resources to enhance their communication and presentation skills. This focus on skill development directly ties into our team structure and compensation strategies. By investing in the training of team members, we empower them to create more effective messaging and visually appealing materials that resonate with our clients. Let’s explore it further below.
Team Structure & Compensation
With Managers, Directors and VPs attending this session, we were able to come up with relevant insights that can help shape the CSM to success. This session was moderated by Eline Wolters.


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🟢 Compensating CSMs is a motivation boost: A well-compensated CSM team is more likely to prioritize customer satisfaction and retention, leading to improved outcomes. 🟢 Rewarding Customer Centricity NRR and Renewals: Implementing compensation structures based on Net Revenue Retention (NRR) and customer renewals encourages CSMs to focus on building long-term relationships and driving recurring revenue. 🟢 Positioning CS as a Revenue-Generating Team: This can enhance their job security and motivation. 🟢 Compensating CSMs for Bringing Leads Incentivizing Lead Generation: It can encourage them to actively seek out new opportunities and contribute to the overall growth of the business. | 🔴 Differential Compensation for Sales and CSM: There’s always the fear of team frustration. Implementing different compensation plans for sales and CSM teams can create resentment and hinder collaboration. 🔴 Compensation Plans that Drive Wrong Behaviors: We don’t want to lose customer focus. Ensure that compensation plans incentivize behaviours and are aligned with customer success goals, such as customer satisfaction, retention, and upselling. 🔴 Frequent Changes to Compensation Plans: Change may look healthy at some point but also it can bring unhappiness and uncertainty. Frequent changes to compensation plans can create uncertainty and dissatisfaction among employees. |
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🟠 Rewarding for upsells and renewals: Incentivizing Revenue Growth links the team’s performance and the company’s standing. Upsells and renewals demonstrate the value that CSMs provide to customers and the organization. Recognizing these achievements through compensation can boost morale and encourage continued excellence. |
Our Customer Success Snack events are made to inform and educate CS Professionals all over Europe on the latest trends, challenges, and strategies from which each can benefit. If you’d like to know more, join our events and engage with over 2000 colleagues.
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