The customer success team’s mission is to ensure people are getting the full value out of the Auvik product. They’re relationship-builders and curious problem-solvers. And while they work closely with technical support and sales, they are a separate function dedicated to helping our customers.
We sat down with a few members of the team to chat about what being part of the customer success team at Auvik means to them.
They talked about how customer success can often be misunderstood, and how it’s not a sales or a technical support role. Auvik’s customer success team is set up so you can expect to be supported and trusted when you join the team. Priya, Jesse, and Michelle shared what that’s looked like for them.
Meet Priya Verma
Customer Success Manager
Focus on the full customer journey
Customer success can mean very different things at different companies. My last role was a customer success/sales hybrid, and I was looking to join a company that had an established and trusted customer success function with a role that’s purely helping out customers.
That’s what I’ve found at Auvik. Of course we work closely with the support and sales teams, but our goals are different. In customer success we want to help customers use our product to its maximum potential, there’s no hidden agenda and we’re not going to pitch people on any extra upgrades or hidden add-ons.
In fact, I recently reached out to one Auvik customer about how they can upgrade for a more efficient package and that would save them money. They were genuinely surprised that I’d proactively connected with them. But that’s just what we do. Our team is always looking out for what’s best for the customer, and they’re often very thankful when we do.
Another way our team prioritizes customers is through our training programs, certification, and support that’s all free of charge—something not every company offers. I work with small business accounts, and it’s fantastic being able to refer customers to our training team, or our many resources, and reassure them that working with Auvik means we’re committed to helping them out.
Thanks to how our team is set up, I’m able to really focus on my customers, and I can trust our support and sales teams to help and focus on their side of the business.
No assholes policy
You can’t choose everyone you work with, and yet the team around you has such a big impact on how you work and how it feels to show up to work everyday.
It’s hard to find a company that openly says, “being an asshole is not acceptable here.” The Auvik Way principles were part of what attracted me to Auvik. “No assholes” and “kindergarten rules” were values that got my attention. I wanted to work for a company that stands for something, and commits to saying what forms their culture and what they won’t tolerate.
The Auvik Way isn’t just internal, it’s also what we commit to in working with our customers as well. In my experience, Auvik’s customer success team has been the most collaborative I’ve ever worked with. Everyone is super helpful, makes an effort to communicate, especially as we’re remote, and I’ve never felt like I’m on my own.
Meet Jesse Hildebrand
Customer Success Manager
Customer success is well supported and data-driven
Customer success is a very respected part of the organization. On some success teams, things get tossed over the wall from sales and there’s not a lot of support for people doing the success side. But here it’s not like that. While we work closely with sales, our team’s role of engaging customers and keeping revenue is just as valuable as the people bringing the revenue in. I haven’t seen another organization do that as well as Auvik.
We’re also data-driven, but we don’t just track everything for the sake of it — we have a dedicated team that uses the data to help solve problems. The success operations team uses all the data gathered from the product, and our internal systems, to give us insights that help us better serve our customers.
For example, I’m currently working on a project with the operations team to target customers who have experienced growth in specific areas, to allow us to reach out to them proactively—hopefully right when they need us. By analyzing customer data and trends, we can help customers achieve what they’re trying to do with the product right now, rather than a more general, non-targeted approach which may not reach the right people at the right time.
How we see direct impact with our customers long term
We work with very technical IT teams who loooove to get into the details. They’re the people who answer help desk questions all day, so when they talk to us they always have questions themselves. Asking the right questions between our teams can be a powerful way to get to the root of a problem, and proactively unearthing the issues that really need to be solved, versus just reacting to information at the surface.
I’ve been here a year now, and I’ve seen the impact we’re having on customers long term. Like one customer, who I talked to in my first month at Auvik, who’s now doubled in size. When we caught up recently, they remark on how our team’s ability to help with their tools and processes was a big factor in enabling them to expand their business.
It’s rewarding building these strong, trusting relationships with customers where we can see the long term impact of our product, and how we were part of their success.
But I also want to be honest. It’s not all happy days. The challenging ones may involve a mismatch of expectations with customers. If a customer feels their issue is that they are paying too much, it’s our role to and approach with a want to collaborate, rather than being defensive. Customer success is about constantly learning — the product, how businesses work, and ultimately, knowing your customers inside out.
I’ve found Auvik has all the small business agility with all the medium to large size business maturity, so there’s process in place but lots of room to grow and learn from others which is a big part of what keeps me around.
Meet Michelle Gauthier
Senior Customer Success Manager
Culture is taken seriously here
I could tell there was an emphasis on transparency at Auvik right from the get go. I had an Auvik Way culture interview where they turned the tables and I could ask lots of questions about what the team was really like, and meet people at different levels.
When I started, the onboarding process was so supportive. You have a lot of info and resources about how to get up to speed, and regular check-ins with not only your manager, but a peer buddy who works with you too.
It’s these ways that they go above and beyond—to make you feel like you’re valued and recognized no matter what position you’re in. We’re adults, and we trust each other to get our work done right from the time you start.
Customer success attracts curious people with diverse backgrounds
Most people will tell you they fell into a career in customer success — myself included! I studied music, then worked in communications, and then search management. But I always seemed to fall back into customer management, even before I even had a title defined.
Customer success attracts curious people and lifelong learners. People who love to meet new people. We’re not sales people, we’re here to better understand people’s experiences with our product and to build relationships.
It’s a field that gives you exposure to many other internal teams too: sales, technical support, product and operations. It is a great place to learn and grow your career. Working in customer success has helped me personally develop in ways beyond what I’d expected.
Fifteen years ago, when I started my career, the thought of standing in front of customers doing a presentation would’ve been so scary. Now I do it regularly! Over time, I’ve learned so much from the people around me and have become much more comfortable in my work.
Is customer success for you? If you’re ready to get out of your comfort zone, learn new things, work with a ton of different people and teams everyday, all while building meaningful relationships with customers to help them in their work? Then yes!
Often you hear from people that the first three months of their job they love it, but then the honeymoon period wears off. I’m a year in, and the honeymoon hasn’t ended yet! I’m happy being here at Auvik, and it feels like the team I’ve been looking for for so many years.
If you’re interested in joining the Auvik team, check out our current career opportunities here.
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