We’re delighted to share a customer success story with you!
The Okta Customer Success team has been with us since the early days of the Amplified Group. It has been a privilege to work together as they cultivate their customer success management during hypergrowth.
Find out how the Okta Customer Success team were able to create a sustainable positive culture to keep up with the company’s hypergrowth.
Customer Story
How Okta are Winning the War on Talent. Read the full story: Organisational Fitness – Amplified Group
Get Amplified Podcast
Listen to our conversation with Andy Bryars, Director of EMEA Customer Success at Okta: Organisational Fitness = Hyper Growth, (buzzsprout.com)
Team Recognition
And the really exciting news is that the team have been recognised internally and are winning awards! Congratulations to all involved.
Team Award: UKI CSMs | UKI Top Team Q1-FY23
Manager Award: Jamie McDonnell | Special Recognition EMEA Q1-FY23
An Intro to their Story
The Challenge
Keeping up with hyper-growth naturally brings organisational growing pains. It can see employees transition in and out of the business through various growth stages as different expertise is required to keep up with the fast pace.
Planning for Scale
Recognising the importance of people to the business, Andy Bryars, Director of EMEA Customer Success, engaged with the Amplified Group in 2019. His intention was to help build a framework on how to operate as a team, to enable the Customer Success team to scale.
Okta’s investment enabled the great talent within the team to develop, ensuring career development paths to manager levels, while maintaining the culture as new members join.
As Tony Roberts, Regional Customer Success Manager for Benelux & Nordics, commented,
“We start the week as a team and we end it as a team, no work talk, just time to be together and build relationships that foster trust and transparency.”
Benefits of Creating a Team Framework – an Operating System for Teams
1. Team Culture: Operate as a single entity
Creating one team, with one united voice, and a single vision.
2. Talent Attraction: Create a team that others want to join
This is their USP. Attract the right talent that has the attributes for customer success and are team players first and foremost. The team believes in shared values and culture rather than monetary rewards alone.
3. Employee Retention
The team has seen zero attrition over the last seven years, growing from 4 to 25 people. They nurture home-grown talent, ensuring personal development and promotions within the team.
Look after your people and the numbers will follow
Whilst number reviews are vital, the WW Customer Success Leadership has a strong belief that you need to look after the people to hit the number.
This is top of Andy’s mind when there is a need to hit a short-term revenue goal.
“There’s a balancing act. We need to remind ourselves that we need to look after our people first and foremost and the execution will follow.”
What’s clear to see is that the team has built up resilience as the pace gets more intense. They are able to handle whatever comes their way. Andy commented,
“Some weeks can be extremely challenging but with the right team in place, we are able to get over the bumps. We have also recognised that in this fast-paced industry we need to enjoy the journey, the collaboration and have fun along the way!”
Team Muscle Memory
“With the Amplified Group framework, we are living and breathing it in what we do. What we learn is always top of mind. We conduct monthly surveys, undertake the DiSC assessment for every new starter, and we’re now working on ‘train the trainer’ so that this all becomes muscle memory. We will need the Amplified Group to help guide us as we continue to grow as it’s the external point of view that’s really valuable.”
– Andy Bryars
Learn more about the Operating System for Teams.
Ask us questions! Email us at team@amplifiedgroup.co.uk
