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Welcome to
After the Close
the Blog
Thoughtful insights and honest perspectives on Customer Success and leadership, focused on the work that happens after the deal is done.
After the Close is a space for reflection, insight, and the conversations that don’t always happen in the meeting or the deck. This blog is here to share real stories, practical lessons, and honest perspectives on Customer Success and leadership.
Whether you’re a CSM, a CS leader, or an executive, you’ll find insight on what happens after the deal is signed. From navigating adoption and retention to leading teams and driving impact, the goal is simple: help you think more clearly, act more intentionally, and build work that lasts.
“Figure It Out” Is Not Leadership: Why founders accidentally set their first leaders up to fail
“Figure it out.” It’s a phrase that sounds empowering on the surface. But most of the time, it’s not empowerment. It’s leadership abandonment. And founders and CEOs need to hear this. I’ve seen this happen over and over again in early-stage companies. In fact, it happened to me more than once earlier in my Customer Success career. A founder or CEO pulls you aside and says something like: "Kristi, this is a big opportunity. You've never done this before, but I believe in you.
Kristi Faltorusso
1 day ago3 min read
Stop Sweating the Small Stuff: The Career Lesson That Changed Everything
The fastest way to stall your career is to sweat the small stuff. It sounds simple. Almost cliché. But figuring this out completely changed my career trajectory and my overall happiness at work. Early in my career, everything seemed to bother me. Not the big things. The small, daily annoyances. Someone talking over me in meetings Being asked to do something I had already completed Not being given opportunities, I clearly believed I deserved Coworkers not understanding why we
Kristi Faltorusso
1 day ago3 min read
The Journey: #61 Be Ready, Or Not
There is something I tell every CSM I've ever led or coached, and I say it often enough that they can probably hear it in their sleep. Be prepared. Be prepared for your customer to tell you they’re evaluating competitive solutions. Be prepared for your customer to tell you the product isn't meeting their needs. Be prepared for your champion to share that they’ve been promoted and are moving into a different role. Be prepared to learn about a recent acquisition that could pres
Kristi Faltorusso
4 days ago4 min read
Not All Money Is Good Money
I wish more founders and CEOs would remember that not all money is good money. Some revenue brings opportunity. Other revenue brings sacrifice. And if you’ve ever led Customer Success, you know exactly what I mean. For 14 years in CS leadership, I often had to live with business decisions that were made in the name of growth. My team and I were the ones who had to “make it work.” We were the ones told to “figure it out.” And when things went sideways, we were often the ones a
Kristi Faltorusso
Feb 273 min read
There’s No Hill to Die On in Customer Success
Do you ever just want to scream at someone, “Get off that hill, you’re gonna hurt yourself!” Or is that just me? That’s how I feel every time I hear someone say, “I’ll die on that hill.” Why? Because it’s embarrassing. Truly. The only hill I’d ever die on is the “there’s no hill to die on” hill. I’ve built Customer Success five different times at five different companies. Early stage, late stage, VC-backed, PE-backed, private. SMB focus. Enterprise focus. From $3M in ARR to n
Kristi Faltorusso
Feb 233 min read
If You’ve Never Experienced Your Own Customer Journey, It Shows
There’s something I say to leadership teams all the time, and it usually lands a little uncomfortably: Not enough companies go through their own customer processes. And it shows. You can see it in the messy onboarding. You can feel it in the clunky handoffs. You can hear it in the awkward renewal conversations. Most of the time, customers are polite about it. But they notice. They always notice. When I work with companies on Customer Success strategy and operations, one of th
Kristi Faltorusso
Feb 224 min read
Customer Success vs. Revenue Retention: Why They’re Not the Same Thing
Most Series A and B founders don’t actually want Customer Success. They want revenue retention. And those two things are not the same. That might sound provocative, but it’s a pattern I see constantly when I come into early- and growth-stage organizations. Early on, when you’re growing fast, closing new deals is the priority. Revenue now feels urgent. Retention later feels manageable. And for a while, it is. New logos are coming in, the pipeline is moving, and the focus is on
Kristi Faltorusso
Feb 183 min read
Customers Don’t Want More Meetings. They Want More Context.
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
Kristi Faltorusso
Feb 173 min read
The Journey: #58 Context is King
The worst thing I’ve done in my Customer Success career is take something at face value. Early on, I wanted to believe that what a customer said was the whole story. I would think that what I read in a note or ticket was all I needed. That a single piece of feedback represented reality. But here’s the truth. Most of the time, it doesn’t. I was leading a team a few years back and a customer had submitted a feature idea into our idea bank, but never mentioned it to their CSM. S
Kristi Faltorusso
Feb 83 min read
The Journey: #56 Not on My Watch
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
Kristi Faltorusso
Jan 253 min read
[Un]Churned: 3 CS Trends that Will Define 2026 with Kristi Faltorusso
The customer success landscape is about to shift dramatically. Kristi Faltorusso, fresh off her departure from ClientSuccess after five years, reveals the three trends that will define CS in 2026—and the second one might surprise you. From the explosion of CS Ops to the “ERR apocalypse” hitting tech stacks across the industry, Kristi breaks down what’s coming and how to prepare. Plus, she shares the uncomfortable truth about why she left a job she loved and how an hour a day
Kristi Faltorusso
Jan 91 min read
The future of CX Is contextual: AI is the new standard
Every year tons of brands rush to release their industry trend reports, and while I save most and read some, I do so with a mix of excitement and skepticism. Let’s face it, some feel completely out of touch. I literally sit there wondering who fills out these surveys. And then there are some who feel aspirational. Like yes, in some alternate universe with unlimited budget and resources that could possibly be a reality. And then there are the few that hit so painfully close to
Kristi Faltorusso
Dec 9, 20255 min read
The Coaching Mistake That Almost Broke Me and the Framework That Saved Me
Coaching is one of the hardest parts of leadership and I learned that the hard way. When I first moved from being an individual contributor to a leader, I thought coaching meant carrying my team. I believed my job was to have every answer, jump in at every sign of trouble, solve every problem, and of course, do it all faster and better. At least that was the story I was telling myself. In reality, all I did was exhaust myself and unintentionally signal to my team that I did n
Kristi Faltorusso
Dec 6, 20253 min read
The Hidden Risk in Customer Success That No One Is Talking About: Feature Ideas
Every Customer Success leader wants to talk about churn, forecasting, onboarding, product adoption… but there’s a quiet little monster living in the background that most teams aren’t paying enough attention to: Feature ideas. Not the ideas themselves, those are gold. The way we manage them, that’s the problem. Most companies have figured out how to collect requests: forms, spreadsheets, portals, Slack messages, emails with subject lines like “Quick thought”… even the occasion
Kristi Faltorusso
Nov 20, 20253 min read
The Empowerment Gap: Why CSMs Don’t Feel Empowered (Even When Leaders Think They Are)
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
Kristi Faltorusso
Nov 14, 20253 min read
Customer Success Isn’t Just Growing, It’s Defining Market Value
I love when data validates what many of us in Customer Success have been saying for years: customer-led growth is the engine of modern business performance. The latest Public Market Pulse Report from Certinia analyzed more than 4,000 public company earnings reports and the findings are a massive win for Customer Success. The data shows a clear pattern: companies that talk about Customer Success are creating more value, and the market is rewarding them for it. Let’s unpack wha
Kristi Faltorusso
Oct 28, 20252 min read
The Journey: #31 Product Perception Penalty
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...
Kristi Faltorusso
Aug 10, 20253 min read
The Journey: #29 The Research Edge
When I started my first role in Customer Success, I thought I had it all figured out. I had been a power user of the product.I knew the...
Kristi Faltorusso
Jul 22, 20253 min read
Compensation Is Strategy: Why Your CS Comp Plan Might Be Sending the Wrong Message
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...
Kristi Faltorusso
Jul 18, 20253 min read
The Silent Silo Killing Customer Value: Services
Everyone in SaaS loves to talk about breaking down silos between Sales and Customer Success. You’ve heard the calls to “align GTM” and...
Kristi Faltorusso
Jul 17, 20252 min read
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