Episode 58: The Key to Scaling: Customer Success Operations

In this episode of the RevOpsAF podcast, co-host Camela Thompson sits down with Shachar Avrahami (VP of Product & Strategy at EverAfter) to explore the fast-evolving world of Customer Success Operations (CS Ops). From his early days as one of EverAfter’s first employees to building scalable post-sales programs for hundreds of organizations, Shachar brings a rare perspective on why CS Ops has become mission-critical for protecting revenue, driving expansion, and ensuring customers achieve outcomes—not just “delight.”

Together, Camela and Shachar dig into how RevOps leaders can elevate customer experience by productizing programs, bridging handoffs between sales and CS, and using data to guide the customer journey from onboarding to expansion.

CS Ops Comes of Age

Not long ago, Customer Success was often the last team to receive dedicated operations support. Shachar recalls starting his first CS Ops role nearly a decade ago, when the job barely existed.

“When I tried to understand if there were other people like me in the world, I found very few. It was pretty unique back then.”

Today, market realities have shifted. Renewal and expansion are just as important as net-new logos, and companies are investing earlier in CS Ops to safeguard revenue and scale efficiently. The role now acts as a critical bridge across onboarding, customer health, and expansion strategies.

Treating RevOps Like Product Management

Shachar shares his philosophy of treating RevOps as if it were product management: every process is a “feature” to be prioritized, measured, and improved.

“I always looked at myself as the product manager of the GTM. Every process I built, I treated like a product feature.”

This mindset not only brings rigor to post-sales operations, it also helps justify CS Ops investments during times of layoffs or restructuring—when automation, efficiency, and measurable outcomes matter most.

Bridging Sales to CS: Onboarding That Works

One of the biggest gaps between sales and customer success is the onboarding process. Too often, handoffs are messy and expectations misaligned. Shachar offers a tactical example of how CS Ops can fix this:

• Automated Pre-Kickoff Questionnaire: The moment a deal closes, trigger a survey to decision-makers to capture goals, system needs, and context.
• Use Motivation Peak: Customers are most engaged right after signing. Leverage that energy to gather information and set expectations.
• Productize the Flow: Feed inputs back into CRM, align them to onboarding, and shorten time-to-value.

This not only accelerates implementation but creates a feedback loop to sales when expectations don’t match reality .

Scaling Success Plans Beyond Enterprise

Traditionally, success plans were reserved for high-touch enterprise accounts due to the manual work required. But Shachar argues RevOps can productize success plans for every customer segment.

1. Gather customer goals at scale through forms or workflows.
2. Curate tailored recommendations tied directly to those goals.
3. Loop insights back to sales and marketing to refine ICP definitions and messaging.

This creates a flywheel effect: customer outcomes improve, retention strengthens, and GTM teams gain visibility into what truly drives value .

From CS Ops to CSQLs

A growing focus in the industry is on Customer Success Qualified Leads (CSQLs)—upsell and expansion opportunities sourced from CS motions. By building processes that allow customers to “raise their hands” (instead of relying solely on outbound expansion pushes), RevOps can create a scalable pipeline of post-sales opportunities.

As Camela points out, too few companies think about how to gracefully re-engage customers who may want to explore new modules, upgrade tiers, or re-enter the funnel. Done right, CSQL programs can rival inbound marketing in their efficiency.

Key Takeaways for Operators

• Think Like a PM: Treat every GTM process like a product feature with clear goals, measurement, and prioritization.
• Fix the Handoffs: Use automation and structured questionnaires to create smooth transitions from sales to CS.
• Productize Programs: Success plans and onboarding flows shouldn’t be manual luxuries—scale them with technology.
• Build the Flywheel: Feed customer outcomes back into ICP definition, sales messaging, and marketing campaigns.
• Don’t Overlook CSQLs: Create processes that allow customers to surface expansion opportunities proactively.

Final Thoughts

Customer Success Operations has evolved from an afterthought to a revenue engine. As Shachar emphasizes, RevOps teams are uniquely positioned to bring macro-level visibility, productize customer programs, and align GTM teams around outcomes.

“When the customer experience is optimal, everyone wins.”

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