Monday Guest Tom Carnewal-Y3-W45
Get to know Tom Carnewal
By: Mohammed Alqaq | November 04, 2024 | Year 3 – Week 45/2024
Hi I’m Tom Carnewal, father of two millennial sons and married to Elsie for 25 years. Today I’m the CCO of The House of Retention, a service company that helps ambitious SaaS companies to grow their recurring revenue rapidly and durably. I have a 25 year track record in the software and SaaS business. Throughout my career I helped more than 100 companies to reach success. I relax on sports, cooking, a good glass of wine and the small sustainable bio-farm I run together with my eldest son.
We asked Tom to take us through a journey telling us about his career path, how he spends his workday, what advice he 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 started my career in sales & marketing. The first software company I ever worked for was Showcase, in 1998. It was an IBM spin-off and we sold data warehousing software for the AS-400. In the early 2000s I became a consultant for Selligent, a Belgian CRM vendor.
There was no SaaS at that time and all installations were on-site. We were like a one-man-army at that time. The analysis, installation, configuration, custom developments, data loads, user trainings … we would do pretty much everything ourselves. I later went on to become a Technical Account Manager, a Project Manager, Service Manager, Service Director and in the end Customer Success Director.
In 2018, I became Customer Experience Director at Dun & Bradstreet-Altares and later on Director Digital Transformation. In 2023, I became Head of Customer Operations (CCO) at Customer Cross, which was merged into The House of Retention earlier this year.
Along the road, I also co-founded 2 SaaS startups: FunkyTime in 2016 and Certables.com in 2018.
How did you join Customer Success?
Well, it all went very organically. Ever since 2002, I worked in the software customer service or ‘after sales department’ as some would call it back then. Before SaaS arrived, we wouldn’t call it ‘customer success’ or CSMs, we were called ‘implementation consultants’ or ‘technical account managers’ .
Later on, when we moved to SaaS and introduced the CSM function. I was a Service Director by that time. So, the paradox is that despite almost 25 years in CS, I actually never wore the CSM title 😊 .
How would you describe the ideal CSM candidate?
Well, it obviously depends on your definition of CS. In the classic CSM definition, this is a relationship manager that brings customers to such a successful usage of your product or service so they renew their contract.
In that definition, the ideal candidate is a pro-active, empathic and result focused customer centric person. And data driven, of course. A CSM should always be data and metric driven.
What one piece of advice would you give to someone just starting out as a Customer Success Manager?
Your customer bought your product for a reason. In most cases to solve a problem or to achieve something. Make sure you know what that is, measure it and act upon it.
Your customer bought your product for a reason
Can you take us on a journey describing what your workday looks like?
If I’m not travelling, my average working day looks more or less like this:
06h00: get up and exercise 30 to 45 minutes
06h45: feed the animals, water the vegetable garden and greenhouse (summertime only)
07h30: breakfast & newspaper (home office) or drive to the office (urgent calls from the car)
08h00: finish urgent to do’s, check emails and urgent calls
09h00: meetings/calls
12h00: emails & socials
13h00: lunch
13h30: finish urgent to do’s
14h00: meetings/calls
17h00: finish to do’s, while watching webinar replays or webcasts
18h00: drive home (and listen to podcast or BBC worldservice)
18h30: prepare dinner (I’m the cook at home)
19h30: dinner with my wife (and the boys if they happen to be at home)
20h30: finish to do’s
22h00: do some reading or watch some Netflix
What makes you feel inspired or motivated?
New challenges and working with people
What’s one thing that people are generally surprised to find out about you?
That I’m a ‘would-be’ sustainable farmer 😊
Who do you look up to the most?
Private: my mother. Despite so many setbacks in life, she always had/has a positive attitude
Professional: Mark Benioff. He is a true visionary without losing touch with reality and humanity
What are your top 3 priorities now?
These are my top 3 priorities:
Let my family life in joy
Bring The House of Retention to the next level of growth
Become a better human being
What advice would you give to Customer Success Managers to grow and develop their careers?
Focus on opportunities, not on threats. E.g.: if your portfolio is under pressure, focus on the orange customers, not the red ones. It takes less effort to bring an orange customer to a green status than a red one.
Always think customer centric. In every decision you or your organization takes, ask yourself “does it impact the customer?” . If so, how would I react if I where the customer?
Be data driven. Always track the right KPIs . You better track one good one than 5 bad ones. E.g.: NPS is a bad KPI in terms of CS, because there is no correlation whatsoever between the NPS score and the time a customer will stay with you. NPS has its merits in marketing or product management but not in CS, it was never designed to be a CS KPI. Track customer results or usage data if you want a good churn risk indicator.
What’s your favorite book, and why?
Private: The unbearable lightness of being by Milan Kundera
It combines fantastic complex characters with a great narrative structure where storytelling blends in with philosophy and the complexity of live. The good thing about this novel is, if you don’t like reading: the movie almost reaches the same level as the book.
Professional: ‘The Day after Tomorrow’ by Peter Hinssen.
This was the first management book that caught my attention from the first to the last sentence.
» 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?
Oh yes, a couple of times LOL
The only problem with people like me is that they always keep on finding new challenges, so the story never ends.
What should I have asked you but didn’t?
What is your favorite wine?
(the answer is: Chassagne Montrachet – La Maltroye 1er Cru 2018)
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,Tom, 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?
