Customer Success is a sh-tshow. New roles being outlined with zero direction for what their responsibilities are. During interviews, new CXM and CEM roles were told they need to have a technical background. CSS role is changing to become way more administrative and way less technical - grade 11's doing the work of grade 8's. CXM/CEM paid more than CSS's but don't do anything. Just a repeat of CSE's. This company is LOST.
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CX let go the good talented engineers especially the CX Data lake engineers were chopped . The mis-management of CX data lake engineering price was paid by core engineers. Still Cisco has opportunity to track such leaders and black list them. A director in CX DL made he-l lot of ruckus and because her the whole CX DL engineering got punished
@1fsf+1vFVeitb - maybe some segments the AMs position and negotiate renewals, but as a Renewals Manager in Commercial my AMs are completely hands off in 90% of the opps. I do everything start to finish and my AM just cashes the overlay check. They will jump in if I ask them to (and sometimes I do need their relationship) but they trust me to work and close those deals. The 10% of deals they're involved in are extremely large multi-architecture EA renewals with a LOT of resources involved.
That said you are spot on with the other CX roles. Adoption and Success are HARD to do. These need to be extremely skilled, technical resources and you probably need to pay them better than an SE to attract the sort of talent you'd need. That certainly isn't happening...
I hear they are having one he-l of a time finding talent - they are having coffee barista's applying for these roles from what I was told.
Yes, the CX management is really terrible. Every day they are busy making PPT and Excel. No manager dares to face the problem and really think about what the company needs CX to do. Here, people who speak the truth will be isolated by the manager. This team should be completely merged into the technical support team, and all people above the manager level should pack up and go home.
@1fsf+1vFVeitb MM was fired almost a year ago now. Instead of doing a serious revamp or starting from scratch why is Liz allowing things to just continue? This is her responsibility now
This is MM's fault and Chuck's by proxy.
MM created a completely redundant role bc she did'nt take the time to understand the delivery organization.
Then hired Mckenzie to create The Racetrack and aligned responsibilities to different roles.
The problem is no one focused on how to actually evaluate and quantify the value customers were getting from our solutions. The marketing nonsense of business outcomes wasn't real and customers didn't believe it.
People in these role were never setup to succeed because the Company itself did't provide them with anything that was quantifiable and real. Same thing w/the Renewal Teams - that was just a way to reduce Account Manager's comp - although its still the AM that has to position and negotiate with the Customer.
Its not the people in these roles fault. Its MM's and by proxy CR for allowing it to spiral out of control for years.
Didn't two VP's just suddenly resign also? Writing is on the wall....
It really is insanity. The same people who have been leading the CX teams (Directors and Sr. Directors) the past 5 years are almost all still there and almost all are lifers with zero real customer success experience. What's even more mind boggling is the CX 'Strategy & Planning' teams are ALL still intact, after 5 years of creating NO VALUE ie 'the cx console' and 'CX Cloud'. Total sh*tshow.
Don’t worry, be happy they will all go next round. Cisco tests these role and make changes quarterly.