May 17, 2022
From global to local: How to expand CS in EMEA
Key takeaways
Leading a CS team in EMEA and working with EMEA customers can be quite different from other parts of the world. So, how does local culture play into expanding your CS operations? How do you strategize globally but execute locally? And what sort of CS strategy works best in EMEA?
In this episode, our host Anika Zubair chats with Marija Skobe-Pilley, Head of Customer Success (EMEA) at Clickup about leading a CS team in EMEA and working with EMEA customers.
Marija Skobe-Pilley is leading European Customer Success team at the productivity platform ClickUp. She's building and scaling a high-performing and productive success team with the main emphasis on culture, personal and professional wellbeing.the
Marija is also a founder of Women in Customer Success Podcast, a platform she created during the pandemic to provide a space for women to connect, inspire and champion each other. She is committed to bringing remarkable ladies to the show, from all career stages and backgrounds, to share their inspirational story and practical tools to help others succeed and make an impact.
As many other SaaS companies, Clickup was expanding outside of the US and needed people on the ground. Marija joined as one of the first CS team members in EMEA and had the opportunity to discover and understand their customer so they could start supporting them in the best possible way.
“Our customers were so thrilled to have someone in the region. They had been very self-sufficient, but as soon as we landed they felt confident to start talking to us. Finally they had someone they can speak with in their own language and in their time zone.”
Leading a Customer Success team in EMEA but having the head office in the US definitely comes with a couple of challenges including global alignment. So, how do you lead the EMEA team while still aligning to the global initiatives and the global strategy for customer success?
“Since I joined, I had the opportunity to visit my CS leadership in the US twice for strategic conversations and planing. We have weekly leadership meetings where we align on our goals and strategies. That helps all of us to have a greater understanding of what is happening in each segment and region. We also do regular enablement sessions where we make sure to update all teams about any new processes, new initiatives or things that we want to implement.”
Listen now to the full conversation with Marija and Anika to learn more about leading a CS team in EMEA and working with EMEA customers.
