I worked for years to earn Oracle's trust. That's not an exaggeration. Oracle wasn't the kind of account you walked into and immediately owned. They were sophisticated, skeptical, and had seen enough vendors come and go to know the difference between a CSM who was present and one who actually gave a damn. I gave a damn. I showed up consistently. I learned their business. I anticipated their needs before they surfaced. Over time, I stopped feeling like a vendor and started fee

Last week I was on a call with a customer and about ten minutes in she paused and said, “Kristi, can I be honest? You’re one of the only people we work with who doesn’t make us sit through slides.” I laughed. But I also noted it. Because that comment says a lot about where customers are right now and what they actually need from CS. They don’t want more meetings. They don’t want another deck. They don’t want another “just checking in.” They want help that is fast, relevant, a

When I was an IC, I was scared to create boundaries and stand up for myself. I took the stance that the customer was always right, which meant it was my job to take whatever came my way and figure out how to navigate it. I absorbed frustration and swallowed comments. I told myself it was just part of the job. As I matured in my Customer Success career and found myself navigating more and more of these situations, I learned when and how to draw a line. I’ll never forget

I was recently scrolling through LinkedIn and came across a post encouraging CSMs to ask more questions. At first, I barely paused. It felt harmless enough. But the more I sat with it, the more it bothered me. Do we actually need more questions? Or do we need better questions? Because if we just pile on more basic, surface level questions, we are not doing real discovery. We are filling the air with noise and still walking away without the insight we need to drive impact. Qua

I’ve coached hundreds of Customer Success Managers over the years. Different companies, different products, different regions, different markets. Yet the same pattern appears over and over again. CSMs do not feel empowered. They are not empowered to say no. They are not empowered to drive change. They are not empowered to raise red flags. They are not empowered to make tough decisions. They are not empowered to prioritize for their customers. They are not empowered to deviate

Let’s clear something up: Showing up to weekly or bi-weekly calls with your customers does NOT make you proactive. And it definitely does...

In Customer Success, we spend a lot of time talking about value realization. But over the years, I’ve come to realize something just as...

After 13+ years in Customer Success, there’s one lesson that has proven itself time and time again: People do what you pay them to do. If...

When I first stepped into CS leadership, I found myself managing a high-performing, high-engagement team full of hungry, driven CSMs. ...

I broke into Customer Success as a subject matter expert. I spent the first decade of my career in Marketing—hell, I even had big dreams...

In this episode of Your Customer, Your Success, host Gary Marra sits down with Kristi Faltorusso, Chief Customer Officer at ClientSuccess...

My CS Superpower? Marketing. Before transitioning into Customer Success, I spent the first decade of my career immersed in the world of...

If you don’t know your customers’ goals by the end of January, that’s a you problem. Let me explain. As a Customer Success Manager (CSM),...