The “Discuss Employee Spotlight” is a Q&A series dedicated to showcasing all of the amazing talent at Discuss.
For this month’s profile, we talked with Cayleigh McCarthy, Global Director of Customer Success, who joined the Discuss team in late February 2023 and is based out of Boston, MA.
- Tell our readers a little bit about your role at Discuss.
Discuss has made huge investments (and will continue to do so going forward!) in our customer experience. My team and I build valuable relationships across the users at each of our customers by activating first-time users, delivering business reviews and product training, consulting on product use cases, implementing and/or advocating for the feedback they provide, and more. Overall, we work with each customer to define and deliver their definition of success with our software. - Which of Discuss’ core values are you most inspired by? (Empathize, Collaborate, Obsess, Out Innovate, Excel)
It may go without saying, but I tend to obsess over the customer experience, as that’s the nature of my role. That said, as CS is a new function for Discuss, it’s been pivotally important for me to empathize and collaborate. Empathize for our customers, yes, but also our internal teams while my team and I slice out exactly where we fit internally within the organization. I couldn’t have built this function as quickly without the collaboration across the entire company – the openness to new ideas and willingness to jump in, help develop and deliver them has really set Discuss apart for me as a team I feel grateful to be a part of in my career. - Tell us about your team and the mindset (and approach) you’re instilling.
As we grow the team even more next year, I talk to my team frequently about how important it is to stay curious. What can really set a Customer Success Manager apart from the pack is making sure you’re asking impactful, insightful questions that are connected directly to the experience of the individual customer you’re working with. The more you know about the research efforts, goals and tangible metrics of your customer (notice I didn’t only say qualitative research), the better, faster insights and value you can deliver. Additionally, generative AI is taking the research industry by storm right now – and there’s so much to learn. Genie, our generative AI tool, has changed the game for our customers and I expect my team and I to stay ahead of the curve, always ready to deliver expert consultation on how to best leverage Discuss’ AI tools and what’s coming next. - What project or initiative are you most proud of at Discuss?
I’m in a unique position where I was brought on board at Discuss with the specific goal of building a Customer Success function that fit Discuss’ updated SaaS business model. Since we officially launched the team on April 1, 2023, I’ve made hires in in North America and across the globe (with another open role right now if you’re interested and are UK-based!), as we plan to offer additional layer of service and support to more of our customer base in 2024. We’ve seen early returns on the team investment already with extremely positive feedback from customers, and it’s so exciting to have a full year’s runway up ahead to grow with more Customer Success Managers on the team driving higher CSAT, product adoption, defining and measuring time-to-value and securing long term customer relationships based on the learnings from this year. - What is something unique about you (a fun fact) that few people know about?
My name, Cayleigh, comes from the Irish word Céilí; which is a social gathering with dancing involved. While I definitely enjoy a good social gathering, I left Irish step-dancing lessons behind around the time I turned 10. I’ll leave the jig to the professionals!
