Customer Success Journey: What I Learned, So You Don't Have To
If you are a founder losing sleep over churn, struggling to know if customers are actually adopting your product, or wondering when you can stop being the de facto CS team, this session is for you.
Join us at Onward HQ for a hands-on Customer Success Learning Session with Addison Caldwell, Director of Customer Success at AccountableHQ. With 10 years in B2B SaaS and experience consulting Seed through Series B startups on Customer Journeys and CS Operations, Addison will share practical frameworks founders can implement immediately.
What we will dig into
The CS questions that trip up early-stage founders the most, including:
You know you need your first CS hire but you have no idea what "good" looks like. What profile should you actually be hiring for, and when is the right time?
Two of your AMs handle customers completely differently. One is high-touch, one barely checks in. Should you standardize the experience or let them run their own playbook?
You lost 3 customers last quarter and each one gave a different reason. How do you figure out what is actually driving churn vs. what customers just say on the way out?
Your customers say they like your product but usage is flat. How do you get them to truly own and adopt it instead of treating it like shelfware?
You are sending NPS surveys but you do not know what to do with a 42. What metrics actually matter for early-stage CS, and what is vanity?
Your best customer loves you but is paying what they signed for 18 months ago. When is the right time to start expansion and upsell conversations without jeopardizing the relationship?
You want customers to feel like partners, not just accounts. How do you build mutual relationships that create real accountability on both sides?
You want to build CS that scales, not a team that breaks every time you add 10 customers. What does a scalable CS org look like when you are still figuring out your ICP?
Where does AI actually help in CS right now vs. where is it just hype? What tools are founders using today that work, and what is a waste of money at your stage?
This will be interactive and shaped by your questions. Come ready to share your biggest challenges around onboarding, retention, and growth.
Whether you are Pre-Seed or scaling toward Series A, you will leave with specific frameworks and next steps to make Customer Success a real revenue driver, not just a cost center you will figure out later.