Get to know: Celisse Moyer

Meet Celisse Moyer, Lumin's customer success octopus. She touches every part of our customers' journeys; from the moment they're inbound to the minute they renew for the 10th year in a row.

What is your role at Lumin?

So my role is as Head of Customer Success. In customer success we manage customers post sales as their first point of contact. We’re trusted advisors and advocates. We help them to manage implementation, onboarding and the rest of their Lumin journey.

So instead of being reactive, we're very proactive. We understand what it is customers need and how we can provide it as an accessory to their already existing business processes.

My role also encompasses inbound sales. I take customers through the sales pipeline from start to finish, and then I am privileged and lucky enough to actually see them post sales as well! I'm basically their Samwise Gamgee.

What’s the difference between customer success and customer support?

Customer success and support work hand in hand. We could not do what we do without customer support. They’re there when something goes wrong, and they are superstars in that regard. They're the technical experts, and so we leave them to be the technical experts.

Success is ensuring when customers implement Lumin into their business they feel comfortable with the process, and they know that they will have an advocate for their needs within Lumin.

Part of your role is giving demos. Why are demos important to you?

The most important thing for me is understanding what the problem is. And I know that's really generic, and everybody says that. But really, why are you here?

Time is our most valuable resource, and the last thing that I would ever do is take up somebody's time by demonstrating a product that isn't going to work for them. But most people in that stage don't know what they need. They just know that they need something. So part of the process of a demo is to uncover what that need is.

How did you come to work in tech?

At the the ripe young age of 33 I decided to go back to university and get a Master's degree. I was coming in with absolutely no foundation, no coding or SQL or anything. I started out thinking that I was going to go into network administration - absolutely not. That lasted five seconds.

At the end of the day, Celisse is a people person. I needed to do something that matched my personality, and IT project management was the course that I eventually settled on. It led me to have a real appreciation of that technical detail of technology, but also the design bit of it, the marketing and the people aspect of it.

How did you find Lumin?

When I saw the role at Lumin advertised I thought "no".I didn't want to work for a startup, because in my mind I was thinking about startup bro culture: waking up at 4am and doing a two hour workout, working for nine hours, partying all night with table tennis and beer pong and bean bags.

I wasn't looking for that. But my career in banking had run its course, and I was looking for a challenge. A few weeks later, a friend brought the role up to me again. She said to me: “not every startup is the same. Just give it a try and see what happens.” And so I did. And I got a call a couple weeks later from Caleb, who is now my boss.

Best piece of advice you have received?

As a millennial we were all fed girlbossing, lean in, waking up super early to work on a treadmill. You don’t have to carry that burden. You can be successful as a woman without the “tough woman” mentality or attitude.

It took me a while to hone my empathy and to bring out that softer side, and to hone my own vulnerability. My dad said to me - he's very wise, my dad - that if all else fails, people will follow you because of how you made them feel.

People just want to know somebody's listening, even if they're wrong. Even if you know they've messed up, if you're actually listening to them it's a better result than just “I need you to get better” without kind of hearing a little bit more.

As a leader, what do you say the most to the people who work with you?

Just come and talk to me.

Watching: Dark

Listening to: Podcasts about the golden age of piracy

Reading: The news - it’s an election year for me!

Obsessed over: Science and medical debunking side of social media. Sunscreen is SAFE, people!