Kathleen Paluso is one of the original members of the StorySlab team. As our Director of Project Management, she’s been keeping our team organized and efficient for the past 7+ years. She’s also one of the people helping our Customer Success team onboard and support StorySlab users.

We asked her what her experience at a growing company has taught her about providing a consistently positive experience for customers. Here’s what she had to say.

How has StorySlab evolved over the years?

When we started the business, everyone just did whatever needed to be done. Titles didn’t matter. I was doing all the coordination, what limited marketing we had, all customer relations, and all QA. Sometimes I was putting 10,000 pieces of content into an app. Sometimes I was creating all the assets for an app. Now we’ve evolved and the platform has evolved. 

How can growing companies provide consistent customer support?

Join each other’s calls. When we were small, we’d be able to be on the call and hand off from a sales rep to a customer success rep every single time. 

Being able to get data from the sales team and have that information when you’re sitting down with a customer for the first time is crucial. That way when a sales rep passes a customer off, it feels like a smooth transition for the customer. You’re just carrying on the same conversation they’ve been having with the sales rep.

It’s also important to document all your processes so that even if 10 people are doing a job, it’s consistent.

How can companies maintain the same level of organization and communication as they grow?

You want the relationship with your customers to be the same it always has been as you grow so it feels like there’s no transition. There are some customers I’ve been working with for 7 years so every time I bring somebody new into the Customer Success team, someone who’s going to handle that relationship I’ve built, I want to make sure that customer still feels like we’re hearing their concerns.

It’s important to bring in new hires and train them to get comfortable with our brand and really get to know our customers. When someone new starts, we’ll handle the customer together for a while until the person really understands the customer.

What did you do prior to working at StorySlab?

My background is in journalism. When I came out of school, no one was hiring at traditional media so I got a job at a .com startup that ran websites for sports teams. I got to work with the Buffalo Bills. I got to go to LPGA events and do stats. I ran the first down line for an NFL game just to say that I could. 

Then I ended up going into client services and client management and I’ve been dedicated to helping customers ever since.

How does your journalism background help you coach new customers?

Just like with journalism, you have to ask the right questions to get the answers you need. When we bring in a new client, we need to learn about their products and how they sell them. We have to learn all of that really quickly so that when we put the app together, it’s telling the right story.