Mastering CS: Candid Leader Insights

Ep 74 | Kate Panasenko

In this episode of the podcast, Irina Cismas [https://www.linkedin.com/in/irinabucurenciu/], Head of Marketing at Custify, sits down with Kate Panasenko [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-panasenko/], Customer Success Manager at Raccoon Gang, a company that builds and customizes e-learning platforms. Kate's path into Customer Success is anything but conventional—from selling apples at a market at age eight to working in industrial sales before managing customer relationships across Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas. She shares what CS looks like when every client receives a fully customized product, why onboarding is fundamentally different in software development, and how early career experiences shaped her approach to forecasting, accountability, and customer relationships. What You’ll Learn: ☑️ What Customer Success looks like when every client receives a customized solution ☑️ How Raccoon Gang supports customers across regions, time zones, and market segments ☑️ Why onboarding in software development is about aligning stakeholders—not just teaching the product ☑️ How Kate defines customer health and what drives renewals in a custom development environment ☑️ What the operational and AI infrastructure behind the CS function looks like ☑️ Why clean, reliable data is the foundation for successful AI initiatives ☑️ What industrial sales taught Kate about patience, forecasting, and accountability ---- 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 73 | Patrick Ford

In this episode of the podcast, Irina Cismas [https://www.linkedin.com/in/irinabucurenciu/], Head of Marketing at Custify, sits down with Patrick Ford [https://www.linkedin.com/in/pfordmedia/], Customer Success Manager at Softr, a no-code platform for building apps and client portals. Patrick brings a background in education and instructional design, which shapes how he helps customers solve problems and build the software they need. He shares what onboarding looks like when customers must be convinced not only to use a product, but to create something with it, and how Softr’s CS team combines support, sales engineering, and product feedback into a single role. What You’ll Learn: ☑️ What Customer Success looks like at a no-code platform ☑️ How CS, Support, and Sales Engineering blend into one role ☑️ How Softr’s shift from PLG to a hybrid GTM model is reshaping CS ☑️ Why onboarding in no-code requires convincing customers of two things, not one ☑️ What a healthy customer looks like across SMB, mid-market, and enterprise segments ☑️ How the CS team uses AI and dashboards built within Softr itself ☑️ Why many PLG customers still prefer human support over AI chatbots ☑️ How to think about the build-versus-buy decision when customers build on your platform ---- 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 72 | Viola Marku

In this episode of the podcast, Irina Cismas [https://www.linkedin.com/in/irinabucurenciu/], Head of Marketing at Custify, sits down with Viola Marku [https://www.linkedin.com/in/viola-marku-08574292/], Head of Customer Success at WunderGraph, an open source platform that helps engineering teams manage their APIs at scale. Recently promoted from individual contributor to Head of CS, Viola shares what that transition really looks like, how her lean technical team uses AI to resolve issues faster, and why curiosity remains the most important habit she has carried throughout her career. What You’ll Learn: ☑️ How WunderGraph structures a small but highly technical CS team ☑️ How Viola balances customer-facing work with leadership responsibilities ☑️ What tools and processes keep a lean CS team productive without added overhead ☑️ How AI and Claude help the team resolve issues without engineering escalations ☑️ What changed when Viola moved from individual contributor to Head of CS ☑️ What’s next for the CS team, including health scoring across all customer tiers ☑️ Why curiosity and getting to the “why” are essential skills in technical 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 71 | Veronica Bianchini

In this episode of the podcast, Irina Cismas [https://www.linkedin.com/in/irinabucurenciu/], Head of Marketing at Custify, sits down with Veronica Bianchini [https://www.linkedin.com/in/veronicabianchini/], Senior Strategy Customer Success Manager at Discuss, a qualitative research platform for enterprise insights teams. Veronica brings a unique blend of experience in political science, data science, research, and consulting across three countries and five languages. She shares why customer silence concerns her more than complaints, how she proves value when success isn't measured through feature adoption, and why she believes technology will always follow people—not the other way around. What You’ll Learn: ☑️ How Veronica’s background shapes her approach to Customer Success ☑️ What an effective first 90 days of onboarding looks like ☑️ Why easier onboarding can create new renewal challenges ☑️ The earliest warning sign of an account at risk—before it appears in the data ☑️ How to tell the difference between engaged pushback and an oversold customer ☑️ How to align multiple stakeholders within a complex enterprise account ☑️ How to measure and prove value when success is about decision quality, not usage ☑️ How Veronica uses AI with a data science mindset—and what she chooses not to automate ---- 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 70 | Katrin Loodus

In this episode of the podcast, Irina Cismas [https://www.linkedin.com/in/irinabucurenciu/], Head of Marketing at Custify, sits down with Katrin Loodus [https://www.linkedin.com/in/katrinloodus/], Customer Success Manager in the cybersecurity space. After more than a decade with the same organization, Katrin shares how working across multiple roles shaped her approach to Customer Success, why deep product and organizational knowledge help her serve customers more effectively, and how AI is helping her save time while delivering more value. She also discusses a personal social engineering incident that changed her perspective on cybersecurity and the human skills that will remain essential as AI continues to evolve. What You’ll Learn: ☑️ How working across multiple roles creates a stronger CS foundation ☑️ The advantages of deep product and organizational knowledge ☑️ How cybersecurity readiness is measured beyond training completion ☑️ What a real-world social engineering attempt taught Katrin about security ☑️ Practical ways AI can automate and improve Customer Success work ☑️ How to communicate customer needs more effectively to product teams ☑️ Which skills will remain valuable as AI transforms Customer Success ☑️ Why curiosity and continuous learning matter more than ever ---- 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]