In this episode of Mastering CS: Candid Leader Insights, Irina Cismas sits down with Beatriz Furlan Toledo, Customer Success Manager at iRaiser, a digital fundraising platform for charities and nonprofits. Beatriz brings an unusual background to CS, starting in linguistics and academic research before finding her way into the tech world through a passion for communication.
She shares what customer success looks like when your clients are nonprofits running fundraising campaigns, why rebuilding trust with an existing account is harder than building it from scratch, what the earliest warning signs of churn actually look like, and how she thinks about the role of AI in a job that is fundamentally built on human relationships.
What You’ll Learn
- How a linguistics and research background translates into a stronger CS practice
- What customer success looks like in the nonprofit and digital fundraising space
- Why onboarding a migrating client is a different challenge than onboarding a new one
- What the sales-to-CS handoff needs to include to set the relationship up for success
- The earliest signals that an account is starting to drift
- What metrics matter most in a nonprofit SaaS context
- How AI fits into the day-to-day CS role without replacing the human side of it
- What usually breaks first in the customer experience
Key Insights & Takeaways
- Onboarding shapes everything that follows. The way a client first experiences the platform and the CSM sets the tone for the entire relationship. It’s easier to build trust from scratch than to rebuild it after it’s been lost.
- Migration is a stressful moment that CS has to own. When clients are moving from another platform, the emotional and operational weight is high. The CSM’s job is to make the transition feel smooth and positive.
- The biggest red flag is losing your place as the first point of contact. When a client starts reaching out to someone else instead of their CSM, trust has already eroded. That’s the moment escalation kicks in.
- Feature adoption is a health signal. Whether clients are testing new features, running A/B tests, and using the full suite of tools available to them tells you a lot about how engaged and confident they are.
- Solution orientation is a core CSM skill. Clients come with problems. The CSM’s job is to stay focused on the solution, not get pulled into the problem.
- AI handles the operational, humans handle the relational. AI is useful for summarizing notes, drafting emails, and translating technical feedback. But trust, escalation management, and relationship-building are not things it can replace.
- Lack of transparency is what breaks the customer experience. When clients don’t get updates on technical issues or feature requests, the relationship deteriorates. Visibility and communication are what keep it intact.
Podcast transcript
Intro
Irina (0:06 – 0:24)
I’m your host, Irina Cismas, and today I’m joined by Beatriz Toledo, Customer Success Manager, iRaiser, a digital fundraising platform for charities and non-profits. Beatriz, I’m really happy to have you here, thanks for joining.
Beatriz (0:24 – 0:31)
Thank you, Irina, for the invitation, really glad to join and to share a bit about my experience with you.
From Linguistics to Customer Success: Beatriz’s Journey
Irina (0:32 – 0:38)
Talking about this experience, Beatriz, let’s start with your story and how did you end up working in customer success?
Beatriz (0:38 – 1:56)
Yes, so I have a bit of a different path of customer success because I did both my undergraduate and master’s in linguistics and was during my last year of my master’s that I wanted to get to know a bit more about the corporate world and to do this change from a very academic background I had to more of how to apply communications in a tech environment. And during this last year of my master’s, I started an MBA in marketing. And that’s when I first started working in the customer success area.
I worked with a platform that was called Workplace from Meta. It was a platform focused on internal communications for enterprises. And then was the turning point of my career.
It was when I really moved from a very academic background. I was a researcher after, before that. And after I was really able to apply my communications interest in a tech environment.
And in the same consulting company, I then worked with another tool, more focused on project management, monday.com.
Irina (1:57 – 1:58)
Everybody knows monday.com.
Beatriz (1:59 – 2:05)
Yeah. And it’s really a nice product for project management. I really enjoy it.
What iRaiser Does and What Success Looks Like for Nonprofit Clients
Irina (2:05 – 2:34)
And I think it is an experience. It’s a very well known organization. Maybe we do a follow up at some point and you tell us the story.
How was it on monday.com for everyone who is following the company and wants to join their company. But now let’s talk about iRaise. For anyone who is not familiar with them, who are the customers that you work with and what does success look like for your customers?
Beatriz (2:35 – 3:54)
Okay. iRaiser provides solutions for nonprofit organizations to help them grow their fundraising. So that includes tools like donation forms, also a peer-to-peer and crowdfunding platform.
And we also offer a CRM that’s really tailored for the specific needs of nonprofits. And we work with organizations across Europe, mostly in France, but we also work with countries like Belgium, Italy, the UK, Denmark, and Germany. And while all of our clients are nonprofits, they operate in a wide range of solutions.
They are from humanitarian organizations to education, healthcare, medical research, sports. It’s very broad. And in terms of what success looks like for them, it’s really about being able to run efficient fundraising campaigns, also how to engage their donor base and how to increase the amount and the consistency of donation over time.
And for us, it’s also about how they will adopt the tools and how they can become more autonomous and strategic when they are managing their fundraising with our solutions.
What the Day-to-Day CS Role Actually Looks Like
Irina (3:55 – 3:58)
And where do you sit in this world? What does your role actually look like day by day?
Beatriz (3:59 – 5:21)
So my role is to support and advise our clients on how they can make the best use of our tools so they can maximize their fundraising and to reach their goals. So each association, each nonprofit organization has their goals.
And as we provide a wide range of solutions, my role is to advise them on how to use each of them. And for example, I can work with them on how to increase, let’s say, the number of regular donors or also how to acquire new ones. And my role is also to encourage them to adopt and test the new features we launch.
And I also help them to run things like setting A/B tests to see which features could work best in a donation form, for example. And more broadly, I accompany them through the whole project. So really end-to-end from the initial idea they have until the implementation.
And also we will analyze the results together to see how can we improve or if we reach our goals, what’s due to which aspects. So I really would say that’s my day-to-day job.
The Hardest Part of the Customer Journey
Irina (5:21 – 5:44)
You are managing the overall client relationship from the moment they onboard until they decide they no longer see the value in iRaiser. What’s the most difficult part of this journey? Is it the onboarding, the adoption, the renewal?
Beatriz (5:45 – 6:35)
I would say for me, the most easy use case is when the client starts with me. So when it’s me doing their onboarding. Because in my opinion, onboarding can really shape the way the client perceives the platform.
And the harder part I would say is when you have a client that was already using our solutions and either didn’t have a customer success assigned or wasn’t facing a lot of issues, either technical or alignment with the previous CSM or really lacking support. So I would say that’s the hardest case because you need to rebuild trust. When you are doing the onboard, you are just on the phase of building trust.
So it’s easier than to rebuild something that was already a bit drift.
How Onboarding Works at iRaiser
Irina (6:36 – 6:47)
How does your onboarding process look like? How does that very first interaction happen with your clients, those that are defining long lasting relationship?
Beatriz (6:47 – 9:36)
Our onboarding in iRaiser is always followed by someone either on support or our customer success manager. So that is not a self-onboarding platform. So there’s also someone will accompany the clients during this process.
And for me, I’ve already experienced some onboarding. Normally the clients are migrating from a platform to our platform. That’s the most common use case.
So they use it another tool for their fundraising and they migrate. So there’s the onboarding, but there’s also the part of dealing with the migration, which is normally some stressful moment for the client. It requires a lot of work on their side with their internal teams.
So the onboarding experience on the customer success side is to make it easy as possible. So the client can really rely on us to say, okay, the migration is positive. See it as a positive thing.
And I never experienced the case of a client that was not using some tools before. So I would say that it would be a bit easier because they don’t have the solution. So they are always on this positive mindset of, okay, I’m lacking of a solution.
I’m lacking of tools. But when they are migrating, we really need to make sure the experience runs smoothly. So the cones of a migration can overcome the pros that these solutions they are using now can bring to them.
How important is in your case, the sales to CS handover process? Very important. I would say in all my experience, not only in iRaiser, but in the other companies I worked, the sales handover is crucial to have all the information CS need.
So we really need to be aligned at this point. And we need to know what promise were made so we can keep it consistent. I think the most crucial part is what are their goals with the platforms?
The main goals. Why did they choose us? Which are the reasons they choose us?
And what they are expecting from a short to long term. So we can really in the CSM role, we can really follow through all these points and show the clients that we are aligned with what they were promised before. And we are because we are the one facing them and delivering the results.
So that’s the most important part is to show that the sales handle was clear. We know they don’t need to repeat themselves. That’s also reassuring for the client.
Early Warning Signs: When an Account Starts to Drift
Irina (9:38 – 9:58)
I also want to talk about when things go south, because usually those things happen and you cannot always prevent them. What do you notice first when an account is starting to feel not so healthy? What are the signals that you might have a churn?
Beatriz (9:58 – 11:21)
For me, the early signs that we notice when an account is starting to drift a bit is when the client stops being very open to test new features, to hear your advice and really testing new things with the platform. That’s one sign. And for me, the most important and the biggest red flag is when you are no longer their first point of contact.
So they prefer to reach out to someone else, maybe the sales or some other person in their enterprise instead of you. For me, it’s the biggest red flag. It means that the trust was not built strongly enough.
So when escalation kicks in, I would say. Yes, I would say because on the other hand, when you feel the account is doing well, that the relationship is healthy, you are always their first point of contact because you’ve managed to build a strong relationship and you consistently help them to overcome challenges or really guide them and advise them in a good way to reach their goals. So you are the first point of contact because you are the person they rely on and they know that the solution is coming from you.
So I think that’s the opposite side when things are going well.
Irina (11:22 – 11:42)
We talked about some of the signals that make you reconsider and investigate the relationship, but what are the data points that guide you along the way? What are the most important things that you measure on a day-to-day basis?
Beatriz (11:42 – 13:13)
I think it’s the adoption of new features. The first one we are looking. So as SaaS companies, we are always launching some new features and our clients are, should be the first ones to know about it.
And I think when there’s adoption of these new features, when the client is consistently doing A, B tests to check on, okay, this new feature can help me for example, to have more regular gifts. So that’s a good sign and a good indicator we can have. And also the, the comparison between one year to another, or in fundraising, we have some campaigns throughout the year.
They are most of the time the same. So when we do the analysis between, okay, what were the results for last year and this year, and we see there’s improvement, that’s a good sign. On the other side, if there’s not improvement, why not?
Is it related to some other aspects? Is it related of, with the way they are using the solution? And I would say the, in, in the case of an enterprise that offers multiple solutions, iRaiser, are they using all of them or are they just using one of them?
And for example, only donation forms and not the crowdfunding platform? Why not? So I would say the adoption of new features and the adoption of all the, all the tools that are available on their portfolio of options.
The Skills That Make a Good CSM
Irina (13:14 – 13:21)
You know what, I’m curious, what helps you do the CS job very well?
Beatriz (13:21 – 14:13)
I think as the CSM, the most important skills you might have is being solution oriented. So always focusing on the solution and not on the problem, because most of the times the clients are reaching out to us either because of a technical issue or some challenge they’re facing. So we need to be focused on the solutions always.
And the second thing is to like working with people, because this, this work’s all about human relationship is really being empathetic, liking to listen to the other, really show the clients that, that you care about the, their context, what they are doing, that you’re interested. I think it’s liking working with people. This human part is very important to do your job and to like what you’re doing for sure.
AI in Customer Success: Useful Tool or Future Replacement?
Irina (14:13 – 14:36)
You emphasized a lot on the relationship and the trust part. I have to ask, what’s your take on AI? Are you already using it, and what’s your use case? Do you think it will ever get to the point where it can fully replace the work that you do?
Beatriz (14:37 – 15:51)
And I use AI in my day to day work for many things. is very useful for organizing, let’s say to make me more efficient on summarizing notes, drafting my emails. And I also use it a lot to translate some technical aspects. So it helps me on my day to day.
And I would say AI is very useful for all this type of work and organization that it’s not focused on the human side of the job. So I don’t think, especially for customer success that would be ever replaced by this type of things, because AI is still is a tool, but the trust and the escalation and really the interaction wouldn’t be some things that they can be replaced. And for me, building trust is the base for a good relationship with your client.
And that implies the adoption and the trust on the product. I think the trust on the product also goes through the, this right hand that is the, your CSM for your account.
The Tools That Support the Day-to-Day
Irina (15:51 – 16:03)
And besides AI, what other tools does it ease your day-to-day job and help speed things up so that you can focus on the building relationship?
Beatriz (16:03 – 16:32)
Today, most of the time I’m using HubSpot for note taking and to keeping track of my client interactions. And for project management, I use the Notion to organize. And I would say these are the main tools we are using internally.
What Usually Breaks First in the Customer Experience
Irina (16:24 – 16:32)
And the last question before we wrap up this conversation, from everything you have seen so far, what usually breaks first in customer experience?
Beatriz (16:24 – 17:40)
Let’s say in my experience, most of the time when something breaks in is related to the lack of updates and transparency. Either on how to solve or how is the deadline? So what’s the deadline to solve technical issues or some clients has a feature request and we don’t give visibility on how it will be handled or prioritize it.
So the lack of transparency and updates is a red flag. And another thing that I mentioned before, and that I truly believe it can impact the relationship and the engagement on platform use is the approved onboarding. Because the onboarding is the first point of contact from the client with the tool and with the person that will help them, the person, the teams, because we are talking about customer success, but we are not the ones dealing with everything that is happening to impact customer success.
And I would say a bad onboarding experience make things harder and it can really impact negatively the experience.
Irina (17:41 – 17:56)
Thanks so much for being here! I really enjoyed the conversation, especially hearing about your journey into CS and what your role looks like today. And I think there’s a lot people can learn from your experience.
Beatriz (17:57 – 18:04)
Thank you. It was a pleasure to share a bit of my experience and my vision on the role and how it’s been for me, my journey.
Irina (18:05 – 18:13)
Everyone listening, thanks for tuning in. Until next time, stay curious, keep learning and mastering customer success.
