Customer Success on Google Cloud: The Power of Human Touch & AI for Business Transformation

Arham: I have with me today the customer success team from Zazmic: Rushelle Forsman and Courtney Bledsoe. Rushelle, Courtney, tell us a bit about how you both found yourself in customer success, and what exactly are you guys responsible for? 

Rushelle: A couple of years ago, I started out as a BDR in sales for GCP. But I realized I was more passionate about building long-term relationships and helping customers succeed, rather than just closing deals. So I made the switch to customer success and I never looked back.

I’ve been a customer success manager at Zazmic for almost two years now. It’s been incredibly rewarding to see our customers grow and thrive on GCP. Our goal as customer success managers is to be the customers’ dedicated partners throughout their Google Cloud journey, providing support, expertise, and guidance every step of the way.

Courtney: I’ve been with Zazmic for over three years now. I’ve always known that I love helping people. And my goal is to make sure we put our customers first and they achieve their goals. Customer retention is my big focus, making sure they stay happy on GCP, with Zazmic, and that we can just fulfill their needs as much as possible.

Arham: Looking at the term itself, we’ve often heard “customer support,” which is probably more reactive to customer actions as opposed to “customer success” that involves a more proactive approach to ensure customers have a better experience. Could you share what your work looks like and how you integrate that proactiveness into your daily routine?

Courtney: I’d say it’s about consistently reaching out to customers. Customer retention is key. We also identify upsell opportunities, ensuring customers know about relevant Google Cloud products and are leveraging available credit programs. Essentially, we want our customers to understand all the benefits we offer, along with making sure that they’re happy, satisfied, and wanting to continue our partnership.

Arham: Considering the distinction between customer success in tech versus non-tech companies—Zazmic being on the tech and SaaS side—are there particular customer differences or more effective approaches when it comes to tech companies?

Rushelle: The biggest difference lies in the nature of partner relationships. In tech, especially SaaS, the ongoing subscription model means customer success is heavily focused on retention, reducing churn, and ensuring continuous product value to customers. In non-tech, relationships might be more transactional, focused on a single project or purchase.

Courtney: In tech, there’s always something new coming up. It’s an ongoing learning journey, and we’ve both gained significant knowledge about the tech industry in our roles. With the rise of AI and GenAI—current buzzwords—we’re consistently learning alongside our customer engineers, learning just as much from the tech side as we can.

Arham: I think we’re at a point where we might need to look beyond traditional metrics for defining a successful customer success manager. Where do you see this evolving? We typically focus on churn rates, but I’m sure you consider other factors. Of course, everyone wants happy customers, but how do you actually keep that in check?

Courtney: I think that even with challenging customers, being attentive to their actual needs and requests is crucial. Even if a resolution isn’t immediate, proactively reaching out, communicating updates and demonstrating consistent support is key. When you achieve a favorable outcome with a challenge, you get an even more loyal customer. They appreciate the hard work you put in for their benefit.

Rushelle: The quality of engagement. It’s not just about how often they log in, or how they’re using specific features or services. The view of their engagement helps us spot potential roadblocks and gather customer feedback. Like Courtney mentioned, support tickets and even social media provide insights into the overall customer health.

Arham: To solidify these points, could you share a specific example or case study of a challenging customer situation?

Rushelle: We had a small startup client struggling to gain traction and close to churning. We realized they weren’t using a key feature that would have made a huge difference for them. We did a personalized walkthrough, showed them how it worked, and their engagement skyrocketed. And they not only stayed on, but became one of our biggest advocates.

Courtney: We always have to be very careful around security. One of our customers did not have the security in place, and their system got hacked, resulting in over $250K spending within three days. There was a very big spike in their GCP Cloud usage. We guided them through shutting everything down and got back most of the funds for them. It was an external, terrible event. And they are still customers today because we were able to help them out so proficiently.

Arham: I want to dive deeper into these cases. Do you remember what it felt like at that moment?

Rushelle: When you see something like that, your instant reaction is, “What’s going on? Let’s get to the bottom of this.” First, we reach out to the customer and then involve Google to get adjustments. We’ve had a few customers experience this. I think a huge part of our role is to keep an eye on their billing console and help them keep track of those costs and those spends.

Courtney: It was a valuable learning process for us all. We now have a documented procedure for such incidents, outlining all necessary information to collect. We definitely learned from that experience.

Arham: Rushelle, do you want to talk more about your customer, or even perhaps bring another case you have?

Rushelle: There are quite a few. I can add to that last one. We had a customer who was really struggling with GCP and wanted to churn. Of course, I panicked; I didn’t want them to leave. Getting the Google team involved helped immensely. As a team, we focused on keeping them “sticky” to GCP, assisting with their project, and essentially helping them figure everything out. A major factor was their lack of staff to navigate their projects, so we stepped in to help with that.

Arham: I appreciate you both sharing those examples. To foster a truly customer-centric culture within an organization—which is essential for genuinely delivering that experience—I’m curious: what aspects of your team enable this customer-focused approach?

Courtney: I’d say it’s about ensuring customers are properly set up from the start. Whenever we onboard a new customer, our entire team—from the head architect to customer engineers—is involved. This full team effort ensures they achieve maximum success on GCP. We constantly bounce ideas off each other, whether through chat or one-on-one meetings. Our customers’ success stems from this collective effort, making sure we provide every opportunity for them to thrive on GCP. This includes proper initial setup and assessing if they need help with staffing, perhaps augmenting their team, or suggesting future needs they can’t currently afford.

Rushelle: Definitely, from the very beginning, it’s about making them feel special and valued. We sit down with customers to understand their goals right from the get-go. What’s their desired outcome? Once you know their objectives, you can tailor their onboarding process to help them reach their milestones. This is huge—like the first day of preschool, but without overwhelming them. It’s about creating that human touch; they’re not just a sale. Onboarding is truly about building a strong foundation for a long-lasting customer relationship.

Arham: I love Rushelle’s analogy of a child’s first day at nursery—a mix of fear, curiosity, and hope. This brings us to a key part of your customer success role: helping Google customers manage costs and optimize their Google Cloud Platform. Could you elaborate on how you assist customers with these aspects within GCP?

Rushelle: To help with optimization, we set up a call with them and go through their services if they’re struggling with keeping their costs down, or seeking ways to reduce them. That’s pretty big. That’s one thing that we do help them with.

Courtney: I’d say sometimes, it’s about identifying “low-hanging fruit,” like instances running unnecessarily. We ensure those are shut down right away—these are the easiest ways to lower costs. Also, billing reports have options for committed use discounts. That sometimes can save customers up to 50%, depending on whether they do a one or a three-year commit. Many customers are unaware of these valuable tools on the GCP console. We highlight these opportunities during one-on-one screen-sharing calls, explaining how the programs work.

Rushelle: Having unused resources is like leaving the lights on in an empty room. Unused storage, idle VMs – they all add to your bill. So regular cleanup of your cloud environment can eliminate these unnecessary costs.

Arham: So that brings me to my next question: for Google Cloud customers watching, what are three common things they can do to save money on their platform? What do you wish every customer already knew?

Rushelle: I would say right-size your resources, delete unused resources, and take advantage of discounts – that’s basically your cost optimization.

Courtney: Sometimes, there are various programs, like credit programs, we might not be aware of. If you’re really looking to save and budget for the upcoming year, always constantly check your platform’s health. Like Rushelle said, ensure you’re not using any unnecessary instances or products.

Rushelle: And it’s all right there in their billing console, under the FinOps tab. They can go in and see how to save costs. The GCP console offers many tools for this.

Courtney: I think Google is actually coming out with a Gemini cost tab now. Gemini should be able to help with billing needs and identify areas where you can cut costs.

Arham: Awesome. This conversation wouldn’t be complete without discussing the current buzzword. I argued in the last podcast that the AI and GenAI honeymoon phase might be over. We’re now waiting for results and aiming for more practicality, having seen its potential. I recently explored NotebookLM and shared an example with the team. This podcast, potentially much cleaner, could have been generated by it. You can input PDFs, videos, anything, and it generates an audio conversation between two people. It was mind-blowing and available for testing! It even captured human conversational quirks; it was quite crazy.

Courtney: That said, it also takes away the human experience, right? It might become too programmed. I hope you keep a few of our fumbles in this edit, because that makes us human. When you add so much artificial intelligence, it can take away relatability. That’s why customer success, and having a team customers can reach out to, won’t be super automated. Yes, our team uses Gemini for emails, scheduling meetings, and all the things we love Gemini for. But I definitely still think there’s something special about that human touch and experience.

Arham: Absolutely. Rushelle, please go ahead.

Rushelle: It’s definitely about finding a balance with the human touch. AI can certainly boost efficiency; for instance, AI chatbots can answer common questions about fees or transaction status, which is a win for both the customer and the company. But, when it comes to complex issues like account security or resolving disputed transactions, the human touch is essential. Customers want to know they’re dealing with a real person who understands their concerns and can offer a personalized approach. 

Courtney: Yeah, we all get frustrated on automated phone calls.

Rushelle: That’s exactly what I’m thinking! By leveraging AI for what it does best and empowering humans to do what they do best, companies can create a truly exceptional customer experience that’s both efficient and empathetic.

Arham: McKinsey reports that AI will significantly impact four industries, with customer operations—including customer success—being one. As Rushelle just mentioned, the human touch becomes crucial, especially with sensitive matters like finances or health. I recently had a personal experience with finances: one site denied receiving a transaction while the other confirmed sending it. I was in a frustrating loop with an automated messenger, getting responses like, “We understand your frustration, but…” At that point, I just needed to speak to a human!

Arham: You’ve mentioned using Gemini for emails and booking meetings. Can you elaborate on where you see generative AI going in customer success? It’s perhaps still relatively new to our field compared to others. What are your ideas on its future impact?

Rushelle: I’d say, looking ahead, I see teams becoming more data-driven and proactive. We might use AI to anticipate customer needs, identify potential churn risks, and personalize interactions at scale.

Courtney: Upselling opportunities too. We could plug in, “Hey, these are what they’re using right now. What does that look like in six months? What could we offer?”

Rushelle: Definitely. We’ll focus on upskilling our team to work efficiently with AI, allowing us to concentrate on high-value tasks that require human expertise. There’s a lot to look forward to.

Arham: We’re also seeing advanced voice assistants and audio interfaces. Google launched Duplex six years ago, capable of making reservations. With our current pace of growth, do you ever fear or foresee customer success being replaced by something so advanced it can imitate human emotion?

Courtney: Probably. I’m sure it’s already there. Our customers truly value our timely email responses. While AI could respond instantly, it might not fully grasp the exact question. There’s a human element of interpretation. Customers know they have our support when needed, and that we care about their product as much as they do. There’s a sense that we want them to succeed, and I question if AI wants them to succeed or if it’s just about data. For example, I have a customer whose product I really love and anticipate; I’m always asking when they’ll soft launch so I can order it. That human interaction with your customer and shared enthusiasm for a product and support is something special.

Arham: So the essence of customer success is building strong connections with customers. It’s more than just fulfilling their requests; it’s about that human connection. Sometimes it even extends beyond work, as Courtney mentioned, wanting to order from new businesses they were launching. That’s clearly something AI can’t do so far. I believe this human connection opens up so much that AI simply wouldn’t be able to.

Rushelle, I want to ask you about the uses of AI. What processes have you been able to offload so far? I’m sure there are many administrative tasks that sometimes limit the time for human connection, time and effort you can invest. Through GenAI or AI, what have you offloaded? And in the future, what would you like AI to take care of so you don’t have to?

Rushelle: Honestly, I’ve mostly used AI for emails, specifically Gemini. Beyond that, I haven’t heavily relied on it. In the future, I’d like to see more automation regarding customer data to become more proactive. Currently, we manually review a significant amount of data, so automated customer reports would be beneficial. This would help us stay ahead of the curve and be more proactive with their costs, among other things.

Courtney: I think it’s hard because our personalities are so hands-on; it’s really difficult to say, “Oh, I want AI to take care of this for me,” even if it’s out of my control. That’s really difficult for both Rushelle and me, because we like to be involved and focus on the details. However, it would be amazing if AI could instantly detect a spike or a potential security breach, triggering an alert. Something truly proactive, as Rushelle mentioned.

Rushelle: I agree with that. There are many times when AI generates something in the billing console, and I’ll double-check it anyway. I just prefer that hands-on approach, ensuring it’s correct. I don’t know why I should double-check AI.

Arham: Awesome. And before we go, you both can share your wisdom on this. What are the three, or however many, things that make a great customer success team?

Courtney: I’d say, especially on a team, that you’re willing to learn from your mistakes. It’s a true team effort, where everyone feels comfortable bouncing ideas off each other, like “Hey, I’m having a problem with this, how would you solve it?” Being open and communicative, especially when you make mistakes, “How can I do this better next time?” I also think our entire company—not just the customer success team—is invested in our customers’ wins. That comes from the head architect, customer engineers, the marketing team – we all put our heads together, and I believe that makes us very successful as a group.

Rushelle: I agree. Communication is really big, huge. And it absolutely takes a team, not just one person. I’d also add embracing continuous learning. This means being a customer advocate, building a strong network, and embracing change, as Courtney said. It’s about constantly learning from everyone, not just yourself—learning from your own mistakes and those of your colleagues too.

Arham: Thank you both so much. It was a pleasure speaking with you. Thank you for sharing your experiences in customer success and how teams can leverage AI as a tool instead of fearing being replaced by it. You’ve shown how to maintain that balance of efficiency and human touch. To everyone listening, thank you. Until next time, bye-bye!

Courtney: Absolutely. Thanks for having us.

Rushelle: Thank you.