CS My Way #7: Exclusive Interview with Krystel Leal - Head Of Customer Success, OneText
Welcome To CS My Way #7
Welcome to this exciting new space—CS My Way—where you can learn from the best in the industry and get ahead in Customer Success and beyond.
Each week, I engage in conversations with top executives — Chief Customer Officers, VP/Head of CS, founders, and CEOs. Together, we discuss how they drive success for their customers.
💡I always learn a lot from these exclusive interviews, packed with massive value, practical examples, key takeaways, and best practices from each leader.
I hope they’ll inspire you to build world-class CS organizations and accelerate your career in Customer Success and beyond.
💥I'm thrilled to bring you today my latest conversation with Krystel Leal, Head Of Customer Success at OneText, a conversational sales company that helps brands increase sales through automated text-to-buy.
Thank you, Krystel, for sharing your story with us on The CS Café — #1 Weekly Customer Success Newsletter!
Your insights of working at an early-stage startup are a boost for our community 🚀
The stage is yours!
P.S. Want to share your own story? Fill out this quick form and I’ll get back to you over email.
About OneText
OneText is a text-to-buy and conversational sales company.
Our mission is to make it easy for any brand that has customer phone numbers to treat those numbers like cards on file.
At a resort, you are able to pay for your mojito with your room number — we're here to bring that same level of convenience to online shopping.
With OneText, you can literally make a purchase with just one word and one text.
About You
I'm originally from Portugal and studied Communication in Paris, France.
After doing a couple of internships in the industry, I decided to become a remote freelancer in marketing and web development.
When I moved to California in 2017, I had to not only brush up on my English skills but also make new connections and figure out how I could work for a tech startup in Silicon Valley one day.
Fast forward six years, and here I am working at a tech startup in Silicon Valley, all thanks to meeting Jonathan Fudem, CEO and co-founder of OneText, when he started his journey of building the company.
Every single day, I'm committed to learning, growing, and pushing myself to make this adventure the greatest one yet.
The Shift from Operations to Customer Success
You transitioned from being the Head of Operations at StartSe to leading Customer Success at OneText. How did your experience in operations contribute to your approach to customer success, and what key lessons can others in similar transitions apply?
When it comes to changing careers or pursuing new opportunities, it's key to take a close look at your transferable skills.
These skills are often underestimated but they are so important.
In my personal experience, I found that even though I came from a theoretical background, there were skills from my college education that could be applied in the digital world.
This realization helped when I decided to become a freelancer.
Transitioning from being a freelancer to a web project manager, and then to operations and now CS, I noticed one thing was constant: I work and speak with people on a daily basis.
Soft skills play a vital role in every aspect of my journey.
Additionally, from my time in operations and as a web project manager, I learned how to work with different stakeholders and efficiently organize and prioritize different demands and needs.
Driving Customer Success in a Frictionless Commerce Environment
OneText's mission is to make commerce frictionless. How does the focus on turning every phone number into a universal payment method impact your customer success strategy, and what unique challenges and opportunities does it present?
At OneText, we work with Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) brands.
When it comes to segmentation, it is not an easy task in the retail and ecommerce industry.
Why?
Because every single brand is unique. We can try to categorize them based on factors like ARR or Market, but the truth is that, depending on who their customers are, they will have different challenges and needs when using OneText.
The differences we find among all our merchants can be seen as both a challenge and an opportunity.
On one hand, it makes it incredibly challenging to create a standardized customer journey for everyone.
On the other hand, it allows us to constantly rethink our product, features, and verticals to better serve the diverse needs of our merchants.
[End Of Part 1]
Here’s what we’ve covered in the 2nd part of our conversation:
Daily Routines for Customer Success Excellence
How To Best Collaborate With Other Departments
From Marketing Strategist to Customer Success Leader
Lessons Learned from EdTech to Fintech
Applying Her University Experience to Tech
Her Perspective on Customer Success Layoffs
International Experience and Cultural Sensitivity
Lessons Learned from Digital Nomadism
Her Tech Stack
Personal Insights & Leadership Philosophy
And more!
Daily Routines for Customer Success Excellence
As the Head of Customer Success at OneText, can you walk us through a typical day in your role? What routines or practices do you prioritize to ensure excellence in customer success on a daily basis?
Similar to everyone in Customer Success, I feel that I don't have a typical day.
But let me start by saying that I'm a huge fan of time-blocking.
Here’s why: …
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