Well, James, what makes you the right person for the job as Head of Customer Success at Govin?
“I started my career in Customer Success in 2013 and have been a leader of customer-facing departments operating in the B2B SaaS space for nearly a decade. With experience across many pre- and post-sales departments, I specialise in leading post-sales teams and piloting cross-departmental strategies to maximise customer success and optimise the customer journey. I have grown and scaled pan-European teams and departments with the underlying goal of retaining and growing revenue from the customer base through the creation of data-driven processes, playbooks and strategies. I am inherently drawn to Customer Success as I really enjoy building strong customer relationships. Customer Success is where the rubber meets the road – we get to work directly with the end users of the product as well as all internal teams (such as Marketing, Sales, Engineering, etc.) – helping to ensure that we deliver the best product to our customers and that they attain the goals that they set out to achieve using the platform.”
So, why Govin?
“Well, I believe that there’s nothing out there like the corporate governance platform that Govin is building. The benefits, insights, and time and cost savings that the platform delivers will be life changing for venture capitalists and founders. Not to mention the peace of mind it will provide, allowing directors and owners to be comfortable that they are in compliance and acting within their liability. Creating a world-class customer experience can seem a daunting task, but we are taking a very real problem for our customers and providing them with a solution that doesn’t exist for them anywhere in the world, today. Moving them away from the status quo to a solution like Govin means that we are making a significant difference in their lives! Moreover, having already gone through the start-up to scale-up process in my career, I can put my experience to good use at Govin. It’s a great opportunity to start with a blank canvas and build a Customer Success process from scratch again.”
And what are your top priorities for your first few months on the job?
“I have three top priorities for my first few months on the job:
Learning from the Govin team and community. There is such a strong team here at Govin that have more knowledge of corporate governance in the VC and Founder space than I have and so one of my key priorities will be to soak up as much of that knowledge as possible to help shape and inform my strategies into the future.
Interacting with customers. It’s really important to develop strong relationships with our customers and to seek feedback on all aspects of their experience to make sure that the platform is truly delivering tangible and quantifiable benefits and doing all the things that they expect it to do. And to then use this feedback as input to optimise our product and provide the ultimate customer experience.
Building a solid foundation for scalable post-sale interactions. Using my experience of what works (and sometimes what doesn’t!) to create clear and concise processes and playbooks for the whole post-sales customer experience. Ensuring that we are operating consistently as a Customer Success team and learning from our customers; relaying information to the wider Govin team to constantly improve the Govin platform.”
What do you think is the most important factor in creating a successful customer experience?
“Trust. This is something that is developed through direct and honest communication from both sides. To gain their trust we need to show the customer that we have their best interests at heart, which sometimes involves being forthright in communicating short-comings to them, and then pivoting to determine how we can still meet the objectives they set. This focus on the customer’s success isn’t just a departmental approach; it flows right through the entire Govin organisation. When we achieve that level of trust, we are no longer viewed as just another software vendor, but rather we operate as an extension of the customer’s team – helping them to achieve one of the most important aspects of running a business – good governance.”
James Greig (38) was born and raised in Australia and has been living in the Netherlands since 2012. He has over 9 years of customer-facing experience in the B2B SaaS field. Before joining Govin, he was Director of Customer Solutions at Workiva, a leading cloud platform for regulatory, financial, and ESG reporting. James holds a BA in Applied Science from the University of Sydney.
