Mastering CS: Candid Leader Insights

Ep 68 | Alexandra Ardelean

In this episode of the podcast, Irina Cismas [https://www.linkedin.com/in/irinabucurenciu/], Head of Marketing at Custify, sits down with Alexandra Ardelean [https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-ardelean/], Senior Customer Success Manager at BigTime, a professional service automation platform for project-based businesses. Alexandra brings a uniquely diverse background to Customer Success, combining a design degree, Lean Black Belt certification, and years of operational experience—including time spent as a customer of the very platform she now supports. She shares what post-acquisition CS integration looks like in practice, why localizing playbooks requires human expertise beyond AI prompts, and why patience remains one of the most important skills she continues to develop. What You’ll Learn: ☑️ What CS looks like during a post-acquisition integration—and what the role involves day to day ☑️ Why localizing CS playbooks requires cultural knowledge, not just AI prompts ☑️ How cultural differences between the US, Eastern Europe, and Poland affect CS interactions ☑️ Why being a former customer gives Alexandra a unique advantage as a CSM ☑️ How call transcripts and AI help surface insights for product discussions ☑️ What “form follows function” means in Customer Success ☑️ How Alexandra applies Lean principles when building CS processes from scratch ☑️ Why patience is a critical professional skill—and one she’s still developing ---- With Custify, you can: ☑️ automate daily tasks through Playbooks ☑️ build individual customer #HealthScores ☑️ create customer segments ☑️ improve your customer communication strategy ☑️ streamline your onboarding process ☑️ track customers’ journeys every step of the way ☑️ get a 360 view of their progress Want to do great things with your customer success initiative? Keep in touch with us below: * ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Custify Website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://custify.com/] * ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://linkedin.com/company/custify] * ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://twitter.com/custifysrl] * ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.facebook.com/Custify/] * ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Contact Us⁠ [https://www.custify.com/contact]

Ep 67 | Silviana Prodan

In this episode of the podcast, Irina Cismas [https://www.linkedin.com/in/irinabucurenciu/], Head of Marketing at Custify, sits down with Silvana Prodan [https://www.linkedin.com/in/prodan/], Team Lead Customer Success at Bloomflow, a platform that helps large organizations deploy and manage their innovation programs. Silvana brings a unique background to Customer Success, combining a PhD in communication, a career in conference interpreting, and experience working across German-, French-, and English-speaking clients. She shares how these experiences shape her approach to enterprise relationships, navigating champion and sponsor dynamics, and balancing AI tools with critical thinking. What You’ll Learn: ☑️ What Customer Success looks like inside an innovation platform serving global enterprises ☑️ How Silvana’s background in languages, interpreting, and research influences her client approach ☑️ How to manage champion and sponsor relationships without losing trust ☑️ What strong adoption looks like beyond login metrics—and how to track data quality ☑️ How Silvana uses AI and automation to create more time for critical thinking ☑️ What was hardest about transitioning from project management into CS ☑️ What advice Silvana would give to someone considering a career in Customer Success ---- With Custify, you can: ☑️ automate daily tasks through Playbooks ☑️ build individual customer #HealthScores ☑️ create customer segments ☑️ improve your customer communication strategy ☑️ streamline your onboarding process ☑️ track customers’ journeys every step of the way ☑️ get a 360 view of their progress Want to do great things with your customer success initiative? Keep in touch with us below: * ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Custify Website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://custify.com/] * ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://linkedin.com/company/custify] * ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://twitter.com/custifysrl] * ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.facebook.com/Custify/] * ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Contact Us⁠ [https://www.custify.com/contact]

Ep 66 | Anne LiCata

In this episode of the podcast, Irina Cismas [https://www.linkedin.com/in/irinabucurenciu/], Head of Marketing at Custify, sits down with Anne LiCata [https://www.linkedin.com/in/anne-licata-4a19163/], VP of Customer Success at Huma.AI, an AI-powered analytics platform for pharma and life science teams. Anne shares what it takes to drive adoption of AI in highly regulated organizations, why traditional SaaS metrics often fail to capture AI value, and why she believes AI may transform customer service but will never replace Customer Success. What You’ll Learn: ☑️ What Customer Success looks like inside an AI-powered pharma analytics startup ☑️ Why change management is the biggest challenge when introducing AI to life science teams ☑️ How Anne builds trust with customers moving away from long-established manual processes ☑️ Why traditional SaaS metrics fall short when measuring AI product value ☑️ How Anne uses AI in her day-to-day work—and where she draws the line ☑️ What skills matter most when hiring for CS in an AI and life science environment ☑️ Why Anne believes AI will replace customer service but not Customer Success ☑️ What getting back to basics means—and why it still works ---- With Custify, you can: ☑️ automate daily tasks through Playbooks ☑️ build individual customer #HealthScores ☑️ create customer segments ☑️ improve your customer communication strategy ☑️ streamline your onboarding process ☑️ track customers’ journeys every step of the way ☑️ get a 360 view of their progress Want to do great things with your customer success initiative? Keep in touch with us below: * ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Custify Website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://custify.com/] * ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://linkedin.com/company/custify] * ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://twitter.com/custifysrl] * ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.facebook.com/Custify/] * ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Contact Us⁠ [https://www.custify.com/contact]

Ep 65 | Vlad Zholnerchuk

In this episode of the podcast, Irina Cismas [https://www.linkedin.com/in/irinabucurenciu/], Head of Marketing at Custify, sits down with Vlad Zholnerchuk [https://www.linkedin.com/in/vlad-zholnerchuk-027040160/], CS Team Lead at Health Samurai, a platform that helps healthcare organizations build and scale interoperable clinical data systems. Vlad shares what Customer Success looks like when your customers are engineers building clinical systems on a highly technical platform, why he restructured his team to embed engineers directly into CS, and how Health Samurai built an AI agent that can reproduce customer issues in minutes instead of hours. What You’ll Learn: ☑️ What Customer Success looks like in a highly technical healthcare platform company ☑️ Why Vlad integrated engineers directly into the CS team ☑️ How Health Samurai measures customer health beyond product usage ☑️ What the Sales → CS handoff looks like when CS is involved from pre-sales onward ☑️ How an AI agent reproduces customer issues in minutes instead of hours ☑️ Which roles Vlad would prioritize when building a three-person CS team ☑️ What was most challenging about moving from e-commerce and SEO into healthcare CS ---- With Custify, you can: ☑️ automate daily tasks through Playbooks ☑️ build individual customer #HealthScores ☑️ create customer segments ☑️ improve your customer communication strategy ☑️ streamline your onboarding process ☑️ track customers’ journeys every step of the way ☑️ get a 360 view of their progress Want to do great things with your customer success initiative? Keep in touch with us below: * ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Custify Website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://custify.com/] * ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://linkedin.com/company/custify] * ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://twitter.com/custifysrl] * ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.facebook.com/Custify/] * ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Contact Us⁠ [https://www.custify.com/contact]

Ep 64 | Kiko Rodríguez Moreno

In this episode of the podcast, Irina Cismas [https://www.linkedin.com/in/irinabucurenciu/], Head of Marketing at Custify, sits down with Kiko Rodríguez Moreno [https://www.linkedin.com/in/franciscorodmor/], Customer Success Manager at Wazuh, an open source security platform helping organizations detect threats, monitor their infrastructure, and stay compliant. Kiko shares how he transitioned from a linguistics background into cybersecurity, what Customer Success really looks like in a highly technical industry, and why communicating with technical customers is often more challenging than people expect. He also offers practical advice for anyone stepping into a technical role without a technical background. What You’ll Learn: ☑️ What Customer Success looks like inside a cybersecurity company ☑️ How to measure success when enterprise projects take years to complete ☑️ Why technical customers communicate differently—and what CSMs often get wrong ☑️ How Kiko learned a highly technical product without a technical background ☑️ Where AI is making CS easier—and where it adds complexity ☑️ What tools and automations save the most time in day-to-day CS work ☑️ What non-technical professionals should know before entering a technical CS role ---- With Custify, you can: ☑️ automate daily tasks through Playbooks ☑️ build individual customer #HealthScores ☑️ create customer segments ☑️ improve your customer communication strategy ☑️ streamline your onboarding process ☑️ track customers’ journeys every step of the way ☑️ get a 360 view of their progress Want to do great things with your customer success initiative? Keep in touch with us below: * ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Custify Website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://custify.com/] * ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://linkedin.com/company/custify] * ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://twitter.com/custifysrl] * ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.facebook.com/Custify/] * ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Contact Us⁠ [https://www.custify.com/contact]