Monday Guest Emma Hunter-Y3-W33
Get to know Emma Hunter
By: Mohammed Alqaq | August 12, 2024 | Year 3 – Week 33/2024
Before transitioning to Customer Success, I had a diverse career, from working on a live TV show to running a national volunteer programme for an animal charity. My passion for building strong relationships and working with people has been a constant throughout my career, leading me to Customer Success, where I found my true calling.
As a Customer Success leader, I advocate for my clients, viewing our work as a partnership to achieve their goals. I enjoy sharing my knowledge with my team and discovering the unique needs of each client to deliver true value and success. I currently live in London, I enjoy exploring culinary delights and walking with my partner and our toy cockapoo, Teddy.
We asked Emma to take us through a journey telling us about her career path, how she spends her workday, what advice she can share with someone starting as a customer success manager, and many other questions.
Enjoy reading this interview
Table of Contents
Tell us about your career path?
I studied English Literature at the University of Exeter and began my career in TV as a runner, eventually becoming a Researcher on Channel 5’s “The Wright Stuff.” There, I honed my skills in interviewing and engaging with diverse personalities, which now helps me excel in Customer Success. Not to mention, my experience with challenging situations on the show has prepared me well for handling difficult clients.
Then motivated by a desire to contribute to a good cause, I became a founding member of a new animal charity in the UK. I leveraged my relationship-building skills to create and manage their global volunteer programme for four years, growing it from zero to hundreds of volunteers. This role parallels Customer Success, where individual engagement and nurturing small contributions into significant roles are key.
I discovered Customer Success as my true career path in a serendipitous way, starting as an Account Manager at Beauhurst. There, I worked across various sectors, tailoring data to meet unique industry needs. My role involved upselling, sparking my interest in the commercial side of things.
I then joined Reachdesk, a B2B gifting platform, where I used gifting to build business relationships. Promoted to Senior Customer Success Manager, I managed strategic accounts and shared my expertise with the team.
My interest in cyber security then led me to CultureAI, focusing on human risk management. As a Senior Customer Success Manager turned Team Lead, I manage a team tackling human cyber risk with innovative, data-driven solutions. In this role, I empower my team to excel and oversee a portfolio of strategic clients.
At CultureAI, I guide security teams from traditional security awareness to new, beneficial approaches. I work with Cyber Security leaders and CISOs across sectors, addressing their security concerns and implementing tangible solutions.
Leading the Customer Success and Support team, I impact team members’ growth and customer satisfaction. Mentoring and developing my team brings fulfillment, as I watch them grow and achieve their goals. I strive to create a supportive environment with coaching, feedback, and recognition, fostering excellence.
My leadership is built on trust and understanding, ensuring strong relationships. By being open and trustworthy, I ensure my team is well-supported and our customers feel valued.
How did you join Customer Success?
Before I met my partner, I had no idea what Customer Success was. During the pandemic, I was furloughed from my job at an animal charity, and with my partner working from our small flat in Central London, I overheard a few of the calls and saw some work. I was instantly hooked! It seemed like a perfect fit for my skills and interests from previous roles.
Curiosity led me to research more about Customer Success, and I realized it was exactly what I wanted to do. Throughout the lockdown, I found myself shadowing my partner unintentionally, asking questions, and brainstorming solutions together. By the end, I had completed an informal placement as a Customer Success Manager. I applied for my first role, highlighting the transferability of my skills, and landed the job. The rest is history!
How would you describe the ideal CSM candidate?
Customer Success isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. The ideal CSM candidate understands this and avoids being pushed into actions that don’t truly benefit the client. While internal goals matter, they shouldn’t drive Customer Success strategies. Relying on stale email cadences and playbooks can make clients feel unimportant and could lead to churn, which is the exact opposite of our goal!
The ideal CSM treats each client as unique, asking deep discovery questions to understand their reasons for buying, their goals with the product, and their broader company objectives. They create a collaborative success plan tailored to these insights, often uncovering additional use cases that align with the client’s mission. This approach turns the CSM into a trusted advisor.
Recognizing that business goals can change, the ideal CSM maintains ongoing conversations throughout the customer lifecycle, ensuring continued success. When done well, this leads to client success, retention, and ultimately, the achievement of internal goals as a natural byproduct of brilliant, tailored Customer Success.
What one piece of advice would you give to someone just starting out as a Customer Success Manager?
When starting out in Customer Success it is important to make sure that you take the time to understand your clients, their business, roles, and goals. Consider the ways you can use that information to help your clients look good internally by using your tool. It can be tempting for new Customer Success Managers to dive into day-to-day actions without taking time for this research. However, if you use that information to help your stakeholders succeed with your product, they will truly value you, your business, and the relationship you build with them.
Take the time to understand your clients, their business, roles, and goals.
Can you take us on a journey describing what your workday looks like?
Each morning, I start my day by enjoying a cup of coffee and a bowl of porridge while reviewing my calendar to set my goals. I take this time to sit quietly before the workday begins, ensuring I know what success looks like for the day ahead. This helps me prioritize and stay focused.
As I manage clients and my team, my day blends client meetings, team discussions, and one-to-ones. I ensure time to review our KPIs and strategize to achieve them. I work on optimizing team processes and technologies, which includes attending demos, evaluating tools, and delivering training sessions.
Each week, I lead our Renewals & Red Flags meeting to strategize on renewals and mitigate risks. I also conduct bi-weekly Customer Success skill-sharing sessions to continually develop the team. Recently, I discussed objection-handling techniques and their application in CS scenarios.
I prioritize a daily lunch break to walk with my cockapoo, Teddy, which helps me tackle challenges with fresh ideas and reduces stress, even on the busiest days. Protecting this time is essential for my productivity and well-being.
What makes you feel inspired or motivated?
I feel most inspired and motivated when I am outside in nature, taking in the beauty of the plants and animals I can see and hear around me. I like to take the time to fully absorb it all, breathe, and feel the peace of the moment, appreciating being alive and recognizing that I am just a small part of a much bigger world. This helps me put things into perspective and draw inspiration from the natural world.
Taking that time away from the busyness of day-to-day life gives me the mental space to feel inspired and motivated to live the best life I can while appreciating every opportunity and moment.
What’s one thing that people are generally surprised to find out about you?
People are usually surprised when I tell them that I was a member of the security team at William and Kate’s Royal wedding. I was a police cadet at the time, and I was selected to go and be in the security team at the entrance to the wedding. I had to ask guests if they had any metallic objects in their pockets or bags before they went through the scanner. This meant that I met every guest that was going to the wedding. Some of my favorites were Victoria and David Beckham and Elton John!
What are your top 3 priorities now?
At work, my first priority is getting our two newest team members up to speed so that our team can function at full capacity.
After that, my next priority is to create a more streamlined and structured onboarding process that can be more easily tracked than what we have now. What we have is great and works well, but I know we could level it up even more. So, I am excited to start working on this project!
In my personal life, my priority is getting everything ready for the big move to Scotland with my partner and dog at the end of the year.
What advice would you give to Customer Success Managers to grow and develop their careers?
Always look for any learnings you can take away from every situation and how that could be applied the next time you find yourself facing something similar. Even when things go wrong, and we face something like an unexpected client churn, it is helpful to take time to reflect and find out what learnings you can carry forward to develop.
I would also say it is great to find a mentor in a more senior position than you within CS that you can talk to about situations you are facing and learn from them.
What’s your favorite book, and why?
The book that has helped me the most in my career in CS has been ‘Never Split the Difference’ by Chris Voss. Chris Voss was an international hostage negotiator for the FBI and in this book, he offers an insightful approach to high-stakes negotiations. One of my favourite tips that I picked up from this book is around what Chris calls ‘email magic – how to never be ignored again’. His technique is simply asking a question such as ‘have you given up on this project?’ when someone is not replying to your emails. He explains that this question works as it plays on your counterpart’s natural human aversion to loss. He outlines that “the ‘no’ answer the email demands, offers the other party a feeling of safety and the illusion of control while encouraging them to define their position and explain it to you”. It also helps to provoke a response as there is an implicit suggestion in the question that you might stop chasing them or walk away after this. For me, it often provokes a response of ‘no, we have just been super busy with x,y and z’. This is great because it opens the conversation back up again for you, which is what you are aiming to achieve. I have found it works 90% of the time. This book is full of simple but effective techniques like this that are easy to apply to Customer Success.
» Check out the 10 Books a CSM should read to advance and improve their skills.
Have you had your “I’ve made it” moment yet?
Not yet, I am always looking for ways to grow and develop in life and my career. I think my I’ve made it moment might come when I reach my goal of becoming a CCO one day.
What should I have asked you but didn’t?
Perhaps, have you read or listened to anything recently that has had an impact on your life?
I have recently discovered the Mel Robbins podcast, and there is a particular episode where she talks about letting go of trying to control situations with the people in your life. Her theory is that when you “”Let Them” do whatever it is that they want to do, it creates more control and emotional peace for you and a better relationship with the people in your life”.
I have been applying that ever since, and I have found it to be profoundly impactful. If you want to hear the full explanation behind this, and examples where you could apply this.
You can listen to the Mel Robbins episode about this here
Where can people go to find out more about you?
I’d be happy to connect on Linkedin, feel free to reach out:
Thank you, Emma, for sharing your knowledge and for the opportunity to know you more.
Do you have a Customer Success Leader, Expert, or Influencer you would like to know more about?
