78 - Hire For Customer Success, Not Customer Support (Megan Bowen, COO at Refine Labs)

Megan Bowen is COO at Refine Labs. If you don't know her, you're missing out because she's a smart, kind and genuine leader. Prior to Refine Labs, Megan was VP of Customer Success at Platterz, COO at Managed by Q, and held leadership roles at GrubHub and ZocDoc.

I’ve had MJ Peters, now at Refine Labs, on the show (Episode 9 - we talked a lot about voice of customer research and insights) and of course Chris Walker (Episode 35 - “over-prioritizing sales is your SaaS startup’s biggest mistake”). Now Megan!

Refine Labs is a demand accelerator for B2B SaaS companies. They help companies increase marketing’s contribution to qualified pipeline and revenue while lowering CAC.

Here's what we talk about: 

Customer onboarding, success, retention is SO important but often we create our marketing plan and we leave that part out, we’re so focused on creating awareness and acquiring new customers. What does strong customer success look like for an early stage startup (HINT: it's NOT customer support);

When is the best time to hire a dedicated customer success person or team (HINT: as soon as you have customers);

Who should you hire (HINT: Megan shares a framework for building your team);

What are the most common pitfalls when it comes to customer onboarding/success;

How to ensure customer success + sales + marketing + product is fully aligned, and on what things do they need to align on;

What does Customer Success look like at Refine Labs (HINT: we've recently revamped our onboarding);

Megan embraces a “human-first” leadership approach - what does this mean and what are top 1-2 leadership lessons to share;

What are some goals Megan wants to accomplish (personal, professional) this year.

You can reach Megan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meganwhitebowen/

Find out more about Refine Labs: www.refinelabs.com

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.io

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You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!