Transforming Customer Experience: Insights from Atul Nanda's Journey in Tech

In our January 2024 session of CCO Online, we were joined by Atul Nanda , a prominent figure in cloud computing, customer success, and technical support with a rich background in industry pillars like Google Cloud , Salesforce , and SAP . Atul lends his expertise to advise companies on Customer Experience strategies and explores the frontiers of emerging technologies such as Large Language Models (LLMs) and Generative AI.

Omid Razavi: Welcome, Atul! It's great to have you with us today. Please share your thoughts on joining CCO Online as a guest speaker.

Atul Nanda: Thank you, Omid. It's fantastic to be here, especially as a fan of your program. I'm excited to share insights and hope the attendees take away valuable nuggets from our discussion.

Omid Razavi: Let's dive into your journey. Can you tell us about your experiences at Google Cloud, Salesforce, and SAP?

Atul Nanda: Absolutely. My tech journey began in 1998 at Ross Systems, eventually leading me to pivotal roles at Salesforce and Google Cloud. At Salesforce, I witnessed incredible growth and was part of a team that crafted a Customer Experience model many companies still look up to. My chapter at Google Cloud was about helping build the Customer Experience organization and preparing Google to be "Enterprise Ready." Both experiences taught me the importance of time-to-value, leveraging analytics, and the transformative impact of addressing root causes over symptoms.

Omid Razavi: How have you seen tech companies' Customer Experience functions evolve?

Atul Nanda: The landscape has dramatically changed, especially with the rise of the cloud. Support and Engineering are now more closely aligned than ever to deliver a better customer experience.? Professional Services, while still focused on time-to-value, prioritize partner enablement over services revenue.? The role of Customer Success Managers has evolved to focus more on achieving business outcomes rather than just adoption and churn reduction. There's also been a significant shift towards leveraging AI and analytics to deliver personalized, scalable experiences.

Omid Razavi: Speaking of evolution, how has the Customer Success Management role changed?

Atul Nanda: The CSM role has evolved from relationship management focused on driving adoption and churn reduction to a more strategic one aimed at helping customers achieve their desired business outcomes. At the same time, we also see the role of incorporating opportunity identification and utilizing AI and data analytics to provide richer insights to guide the customer journey more effectively.? With the growth of LLMs and GenAI, we are likely to see a significant uptick in the use of technology to deliver personalized onboarding and guidance, automating a lot of the manual tasks and allowing the CSM to focus on providing higher-value services.

Omid Razavi: How do Success and Support now interact with Product and Engineering teams?

Atul Nanda: There's been a shift towards a customer-centric approach in product development. More than ever, Support and Success teams now work closely with Product and Engineering to leverage customer feedback and data analytics in order to shape product roadmaps.? For this to work well, the tone often needs to be set at the very top, and teams need to be held accountable to shared metrics. Product and Engineering teams work hard to build great products and want to hear what’s working vs not.? The key is to share these insights leveraging a mix of data and first-hand customer feedback.

Omid Razavi: Can you elaborate on the evolution of metrics in Customer Success?

Atul Nanda: Initially, we focused on lagging indicators like churn and renewal rates. Now, there's a move towards leading indicators and Success Scorecards that reflect what customers care about, such as adoption/usage scores, system performance, and service reliability. AI is playing a significant role in this transition, enabling more sophisticated analysis and the generation of personalized strategies.

Omid Razavi: Finally, what trends are you observing in AI and tech, and how do they impact Customer Success?

Atul Nanda: AI, especially with the rise of LLMs and GenAI, is opening new avenues for enhancing customer engagement and support. We're moving towards integrated customer experiences where a single AI assistant/bot assists in onboarding, feature usage, and even Technical Support, signaling a convergence of technology that could redefine customer portals and interactions. The future is about harnessing these technologies to deliver seamless, efficient, and personalized customer experiences.

Atul Nanda's insights not only shed light on the dynamic field of Customer Success but also highlight the pivotal role of emerging technologies in shaping the future of customer engagement and business strategies. We thank Atul for sharing his wisdom and insights and enriching our understanding of customer success.

About CCO Online:

CCO Online is a monthly forum that brings together customer-centric leaders to exchange insights and strategies to elevate their roles. It's a space dedicated to shaping the future of customer engagement and success, featuring insightful discussions, active idea exchange, and speakers who bring fresh perspectives to customer-centric discourse.

Our next forum features Randy Wootton , CEO at Maxio , discussing "SaaS Metrics and Strategies for the Maverick CxO" on February 22, 2022. For more information and to apply to join, visit lu.ma/cco222.