CASE STUDY • CUSTOMER SUCCESS
Customer Success &
Retention Strategy
CORL Technologies • Cybersecurity SaaS
Helping build a Customer Success operating model from the ground up by introducing customer health practices, strategic QBRs, retention frameworks, technology evaluation, and scalable team processes.
IMPACT AT A GLANCE
THE OPPORTUNITY
Building the systems behind strong customer relationships.
As a founding member of CORL's Customer Success team, I had the opportunity to help define how the organization would understand customer health, identify retention risk, measure engagement, and communicate value to clients.
Rather than inheriting a mature Customer Success operating model, I helped research and develop many of the foundational practices the new function needed.
CUSTOMER HEALTH
Defining what a healthy customer relationship looks like.
I researched Customer Success use cases and practices from other organizations to understand how established CS functions evaluated customer health.
I then translated those concepts into recommendations appropriate for CORL's environment, including ways our existing tools—such as HubSpot and Power BI—could support customer health tracking.
I also evaluated where existing tooling had limitations and researched dedicated Customer Success technology that could strengthen the model.
TECHNOLOGY EVALUATION
Evaluating technology around the process—not the other way around.
As part of the customer health initiative, I piloted the implementation of ChurnZero to evaluate whether a dedicated Customer Success platform could improve visibility into engagement, health, lifecycle activity, and retention risk.
The objective was not simply to introduce another platform. I wanted to understand what information the team actually needed and determine whether existing systems or specialized technology were best positioned to provide it.
QBR STRATEGY
Creating a dedicated conversation about outcomes and value.
Customer health conversations and discussions about the state of the customer's contract had previously been combined.
I recommended separating these conversations and created a formal Quarterly Business Review framework that provided customers and their delivery teams with a dedicated opportunity to discuss progress, risk reduction, outcomes, priorities, and demonstrated value.
KEY INSIGHT
We could not demonstrate value effectively if we were not measuring what customers themselves considered valuable.
I incorporated an important question into the process: What data and outcomes does the customer find meaningful?
When appropriate, those answers could then inform what we tracked going forward, allowing future reviews to connect internal reporting with customer-defined value.
Combined Conversation
Health + contract status + operational discussion within the same touchpoint.
Strategic QBR
Dedicated review of outcomes, progress, risk, priorities, and customer-defined value.
RETENTION STRATEGY
Turning customer risk into structured action.
I piloted a customer retention strategy designed around recurring risks we observed in customer behavior and relationships.
The objective was to create a repeatable playbook that helped the team move from recognizing that an account was at risk to determining what should happen next.
Identify Risk
Recognize behavioral or relationship indicators.
Understand
Determine the underlying concern or source of friction.
Correct
Create an actionable corrective action plan.
Remediate
Address the customer's immediate concerns.
Exceed
Identify opportunities to go beyond remediation.
Monitor
Evaluate whether customer health improves.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE
Scaling the model through a changing organization.
As leadership and organizational priorities evolved, Customer Success transitioned into a broader Customer Experience function.
I moved into a senior role and helped train associates on customer lifecycle processes, health practices, strategic reviews, risk identification, retention, escalation management, and customer communication.
When workforce reductions required customer portfolios to transition to new owners, I helped associates take ownership of those relationships and became an escalation point when customers experienced issues.
The goal was to preserve continuity for customers while helping newly assigned team members become effective as quickly as possible.
BUSINESS IMPACT
reduction in client churn.
The organization experienced reduced churn and stronger customer engagement as more structured customer-health, QBR, engagement, and retention practices were introduced.
Customer data is only valuable when it leads to action.
My approach connected customer behavior, meaningful data, direct feedback, risk identification, structured action, and measurable outcomes into a repeatable Customer Success operating model.