[Un]Churned – The No. 1 Podcast for Customer Retention

Gainsight
  • 5.0 (98)
  • Business
  • Updated Weekly

If you're experimenting with automation, questioning the traditional post-sales model, or trying to drive more value with less headcount, you're in the right place. AI won’t fix churn, but these conversations might. Retention is the new growth, AI is rewriting the rules. Hosted by Josh Schachter, SVP of Atlas at Gainsight, [Un]Churned—the No. 1 podcast for retention and Customer Success leaders—features real talk with the sharpest minds in the Customer Success space. We dig into how teams are scaling smarter, activating AI agents, and redesigning the customer journey for lasting impact.

  1. How AWS's Developer Community Grew 3,600 Builders Across 110 Countries ft. Jason Dunn

    1d ago

    How AWS's Developer Community Grew 3,600 Builders Across 110 Countries ft. Jason Dunn

    Two hands. A free Slack channel. A spreadsheet. That was the entire toolkit when AWS asked Jason Dunn to build a developer community. Jason Dunn spent five years on building something people actually want to belong to. He grew a developer community into thousands of members spread across more than a hundred countries, working with far less budget and tooling than you'd expect. This conversation digs into what separates a living community from a glorified contact list. Why your earliest members carry so much weight. When to keep the door open and when to guard it. How to prove value when your best wins resist a dashboard. Why technical people walk the second something smells like a pitch. And how one small, slightly absurd reward became a badge people chased for months. A Real talk on getting people to show up for each other. Josh is writing a book on building customer relationships. Follow his journey and insights at www.joshschachter.com --- What You'll Learn - Why the first members you pick set the tone forever - The day-zero choice: community for everyone or for someone - How to measure community when it's basically a vibe - The trick to getting members to report their own wins - Gamification with a lowercase G (and why it works) - The golden jacket story and pent-up demand - Why developers reject sales and marketing pipelines - Scrappy tools beat fancy platforms every time - The AI warning every new community manager needs --- Want the playbook, not just the conversation? Subscribe for deep-dive, actionable breakdowns from every episode at unchurned.substack.com. --- Timestamps 0:00 - Preview and Meet Jason Dunn 2:22 - What community meant at AWS in 2019 3:45 - The day-zero decision every builder faces 5:05 - From 200 invited seeds to 3,600 members 6:39 - Keeping the gates too open, too early 9:12 - Defining high-value member activity 11:23 - Measuring & reporting up: output, reach, and Dev.to 14:53 - The Content Reporting Tool (CRT) 16:02 - The real motivation behind self-reporting 18:24 - The Golden Jacket origin story & 130 jackets in one quarter 21:28 - The AWS Community toolkit 23:42 - Advice for new community managers 51:00 — Don't fall in love with the tools 53:00 — Humanity connecting with humanity --- Where to Find the Guest Jason Dunn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonrobertdunn/ --- Where to Find Josh: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jschachter/ Unchurned Substack: https://unchurned.substack.com/

    26 min
  2. The Retention Killer Hiding in Your Product Demos ft. Kellie Snyder (LinkSquares)

    4d ago

    The Retention Killer Hiding in Your Product Demos ft. Kellie Snyder (LinkSquares)

    What if giving customers more value is exactly what's making them leave? Kellie Snyder, Chief Customer Officer at LinkSquares, joins Josh Schachter after a two-year replatform to fully agentic contract management. She unpacks how AI reshaped their customer 360, the retention mistake hiding in their onboarding, why digital-first went too far, and how to bring human engagement back without losing scale. A candid look at retention, migration, and rebuilding human engagement in the AI era. Josh is writing a book on building customer relationships. Follow his journey and insights at www.joshschachter.com --- What You'll Learn - How LinkSquares went fully agentic in contract management - Building a real customer 360 - Why "show them everything" was killing retention - Migrating legacy customers without scaring them off - AI enablement when teams sit at different skill levels - Right-sizing human engagement after over-rotating on digital-first - Tying value realization to pre-sales business outcomes --- Want the playbook, not just the conversation? Subscribe for deep-dive, actionable breakdowns from every episode at unchurned.substack.com. --- Timestamps 0:00 - Preview and Meet Kellie Snyder 1:50 - What LinkSquares does, new agentic platform 3:10 - Kelly's remit as the CCO at LinkSquares 3:50 - Rob's story and the golf scholarship 6:06 - AI transformation inside the post-sales team 7:39 - Building the customer 360 9:09 - How Kellie personally uses Claude 10:45 - Sharing skills and wins across CSMs 11:30 - Biggest speed bump going AI-native 13:48 - The two-year replatform & impact on post-sales 18:29 - Migration & killing one-size-fits-all onboarding 20:27 - Investing in customer education 22:33 - Quantifying value realization 23:23 - What's taken longer than expected 25:40 - Success one year out 26:52 - A question for other CCOs --- Where to Find the Guest Kellie Snyder: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellieasnyder/ --- Where to Find Josh: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jschachter/ Unchurned Substack: https://unchurned.substack.com/

    29 min
  3. The GTM Playbook Behind 133 Million Learners ft. Monika Saha (Articulate)

    Jun 16

    The GTM Playbook Behind 133 Million Learners ft. Monika Saha (Articulate)

    133 million learners. 100% of the Fortune 100. And the woman steering go-to-market behind those numbers will tell you to stop chasing churn. Monika Saha, CCO of Articulate, doesn't trade in best-practice platitudes. In this episode she takes the sacred cows out back: why "customer education is a cost center" is half-wrong instead of all-wrong, when fighting retention is a flat waste of energy, and why PLG companies are quietly light-years ahead while everyone else optimizes the wrong thing. Host Josh Schachter pokes the bear. Co-host Samantha Murray pushes back. Monika doesn't blink. If you run customer success, education, or GTM and you're tired of being told what you already know, this one's built to make you uncomfortable in the good way. Josh is writing a book on building customer relationships. Follow his journey and insights at www.joshschachter.com --- What You'll Learn - Why "customer education is a cost center" is partly true - How to standardize and modularize content so you stop reinventing the wheel - When improving churn is actually a waste of energy - How to segment a long tail so you invest where returns are real - Why PLG companies dominate in-app and digital motion - A simple QBR exercise to find AI-ready process bottlenecks - How to structure a number across a core product plus early cross-sells --- Want the playbook, not just the conversation? Subscribe for deep-dive, actionable breakdowns from every episode at unchurned.substack.com. --- Timestamps 0:00 - Preview and Meet Mac, Monika's dog 1:08 - Meet Sam Murray, Gainsight & Monika Saha, Articulate 2:11 - Articulate's Overview 4:20 - Monika's remit as Chief Commercial Officer: trial to renewal 5:37 - Lessons from her Gainsight CMO days 9:00 - Customer education & internal enablement 14:53 - Debate: is customer education a cost center? 20:30 - Controversial take: when fixing churn is pointless 23:43 - Why digital motion is foundational at a PLG company 26:56 - Can non-PLG B2B companies experiment like this? 28:48 - Embracing efficiency with AI 32:30 - Hitting the number: core product vs cross-sell --- Where to Find the Guest Samantha Murray: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-murray613/ Monika Saha: https://www.linkedin.com/in/monikasaha/ --- Where to Find Josh: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jschachter/ Unchurned Substack: https://unchurned.substack.com/

    35 min
  4. Why Selling Software Isn't Enough Anymore ft. Chuck Ganapathi (Gainsight)

    Jun 8

    Why Selling Software Isn't Enough Anymore ft. Chuck Ganapathi (Gainsight)

    Most companies think selling software is enough, but the real shift is owning the outcome. In this episode of the [Un]Churned Podcast, Josh Schachter sits down with Chuck Ganapathi, CEO of Gainsight, live from Pulse 2026 at Caesars Forum in Las Vegas, to unpack why the next era of SaaS isn't about selling seats, it's about delivering results. Chuck shares the thinking behind Gainsight's biggest strategic shift in 15 years, why the build vs. buy debate is a false choice, and how agentic AI is finally making it possible to serve every customer, not just the top 20%. They also dive into: - Why outcome-based services are the future of enterprise software - The "build, buy, or hire" framework redefining customer success - How the long tail of customers has been silently ignored and why that's changing - What human-agent collaboration actually looks like in practice - Why your smallest customers today might be your most strategic accounts tomorrow If you're leading a SaaS business, scaling customer success, or trying to understand where agentic AI is actually creating leverage, this episode is a front-row seat to the next evolution of this category. --- Want the playbook, not just the conversation? Subscribe for deep-dive, actionable breakdowns from every episode at unchurned.substack.com. --- Chapters 00:00 – Intro to Chuck Ganapathi 01:45 – Chuck Ganapathi on Taking the CEO Role at Gainsight 04:10 – Why Chuck Is an AI Optimist in a Room Full of Doomers 07:18 – The One Question Every CEO, CFO & Board Is Asking Right Now 09:15 – The False Choice Between Build and Buy 11:40 – Announcing Atlas: Gainsight's First AI Native Service 14:05 – Why SaaS Has Always Struggled to Prove ROI 18:45 – Build, Buy, or Just Hire Gainsight 22:50 – The Long Tail Problem Nobody in SaaS Wants to Talk About 27:00 – What Humans Actually Do in a Human-Agent Collaboration Model --- Where to Find the Guest Chuck Ganapathi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckganapathi/ --- Where to Find Josh: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jschachter/ Unchurned Substack: https://unchurned.substack.com/

    30 min
  5. What Happens When CS Teams Cross the Commercial Line ft. Chael Banks (Okta)

    Jun 3

    What Happens When CS Teams Cross the Commercial Line ft. Chael Banks (Okta)

    Everybody can build with Claude now, but nobody figured out the responsibility part yet. Chael Banks runs customer success at Okta. 20,000 customers. Billions of logins a day. In this episode he breaks down a hard rule: his team will never sell. Ever. Why? Trust. In identity security, trust is everything. The moment money becomes the motive, the relationship tarnishes. Chael draws a sharp line between commercials and consulting. His team carries the value narrative instead. He also gets real about the AI supernova. Too much building, not enough consolidation. He shares how Okta uses AI to make people more effective, not just efficient. Plus: the identity maturity model, value realization at scale, the long-tail digital motion, and a personal story about Lane 6 that shaped how he leads. Josh is writing a book on building customer relationships. Follow his journey and insights at www.joshschachter.com --- What You'll Learn - How to split selling from guiding without losing revenue - Why trust beats commission in high-stakes industries - How AI makes junior reps sound senior - The identity maturity model as a value framework - How to scale one consistent conversation across all customer segments - Why efficiency only matters in service of effectiveness - How to run value realization without renewal panic - A leadership lesson on grit from Lane 6 --- Want the playbook, not just the conversation? Subscribe for deep-dive, actionable breakdowns from every episode at unchurned.substack.com. --- Timestamps 0:00 - Preview & introduction 1:30 - Overview of Okta & inside their CS org 4:08 - Everyone is building with AI. Now what? 6:00 - The identity maturity model explained 9:03 - Customers DO NOT want salespeople & why Chael's team will never do commercials 13:30 - What's working at OkTa with the 20% AI transformation 17:15 - Okta's long-tail digital motion 20:10 - Value realization: the train analogy 24:00 - Big rocks at Okta & Chael's message on AI & jobs 28:10 - Lane 6: grit, persistence, and leadership --- Where to Find the Guest Chael Banks: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chaelbanks/ --- Where to Find Josh: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jschachter/ Unchurned Substack: https://unchurned.substack.com/

    31 min
  6. The Creator of NPS Says It Was Never Built for Surveys ft. Fred Reichheld (Bain & Company)

    May 27

    The Creator of NPS Says It Was Never Built for Surveys ft. Fred Reichheld (Bain & Company)

    Heading to Vegas this May? Join Josh at Pulse 2026 and come say hi—your oversized fluorescent daiquiri is on him. No catch. Grab your ticket at gainsightpulse.com and use code UNCHURNED for a special rate. Most companies think customer loyalty is about retention but the real metric is referrals. In this episode of the UnChurned Podcast, Josh Schachter sits down with Fred Reichheld the creator of Net Promoter Score (NPS) & Author of Winning on Purpose, to unpack why the companies that grow the fastest aren’t just keeping customers happy they’re creating customers who bring others with them. Fred shares the origin story behind NPS, why traditional customer satisfaction metrics failed, and how referral-driven growth became the hidden engine behind some of the world’s most successful businesses. They also dive into: - The moral principles behind enduring companies - Why referrals matter more than repeat purchases - How customer experience connects directly to shareholder value - The viral nature of trust and word of mouth - Why entrepreneurs should obsess over “bring your friends” growth If you're building a business, scaling customer success, or trying to create real word-of-mouth momentum, this episode is a masterclass in profitable growth. Josh is writing a book on building customer relationships. Follow his journey and insights at www.joshschachter.com --- Timestamps 00:00 – Intro to Fred Reichheld & the Origins of NPS 02:05 – The Hidden Pattern Behind the World’s Best Companies 04:32 – “Back for More and Bring Your Friends” 07:18 – Why Customer Satisfaction Metrics Failed 10:41 – The Moral Foundation of Great Businesses 14:05 – How NPS Went Viral Before Social Media 17:12 – Why Trust Still Drives Buying Decisions 20:46 – The Real Economics Behind Referrals 24:18 – Investing Based on Net Promoter Scores 28:02 – Why Referrals Are the Ultimate Growth Engine --- Want the playbook, not just the conversation? Subscribe for deep-dive, actionable breakdowns from every episode at unchurned.substack.com. --- Where to Find the Guest Fred Reichheld: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fredreichheld/ --- Where to Find Josh: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jschachter/ Unchurned Substack: https://unchurned.substack.com/

    48 min
  7. Why The Best CS Leaders Start With The Boardroom, Not The Product ft. Adnan Rahman (Paycor)

    May 20

    Why The Best CS Leaders Start With The Boardroom, Not The Product ft. Adnan Rahman (Paycor)

    Heading to Vegas this May? Join Josh at Pulse 2026 and come say hi—your oversized fluorescent daiquiri is on him. No catch. Grab your ticket at gainsightpulse.com and use code UNCHURNED for a special rate. Most CS teams are stuck in a loop. Monitor the health score. Chase the red account. Run the QBR. Hope the renewal sticks. Adnan Rahman saw the loop. And broke it. As the Head of Customer & Partner Success at Paycor, Adnan manages 35,000 customer relationships across different segments with a team of nearly 100 CSMs. That kind of scale forces clarity fast. And what became clear? The problem was never the metrics. It was the conversation. In this episode, Adnan breaks down the value realization framework his team built from scratch that is now deployed across 28 enterprise CSMs and 17 mid-market CSMs, with a goal of 75% active success plans by year end. He gets into the exact discovery questions that replaced fear with candor, why executives are now showing up to meetings they used to skip, and how joint success plans replaced the product demo masquerading as a QBR. Josh is writing a book on building customer relationships. Follow his journey and insights at www.joshschachter.com. --- Timestamps 0:00 - Preview & introduction 1:17 - Meet Adnan Rahman & Overview of Paycor 4:50 - The value realization framework explained 7:07 - Do customers arrive knowing their outcomes? 8:05 - Bob London's UBR method & the most disruptive questions CSMs ask 9:06 - Implementing the framework & outcomes 11:56 - How to build your own value framework from scratch 16:31 - How Paycor is drawing insights & enhancing efficiency with AI 18:38 - Paycor's agentic future: renewals, expansions, risk 20:40 - Paycor's learning & community inititative 24:29 - Where Paycor CS is headed by year end --- What You’ll Learn - How to build a value realization framework - The exact disruptive questions that unlock executive conversations - What a joint success plan looks like vs a traditional QBR How to connect every CSM touchpoint back to measurable business outcomes - How to ask about renewal without making it awkward - Where AI agents will hit CS teams first - What community looks like when answer engines exist - How to scale personalized outreach without scaling headcount --- Want the playbook, not just the conversation? Subscribe for deep-dive, actionable breakdowns from every episode at unchurned.substack.com. --- Where to Find the Guest Adnan Rahman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adnan-rahman-irvine/ --- Where to Find Josh: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jschachter/ Unchurned Substack: https://unchurned.substack.com/

    26 min
  8. The AI Acceleration Decade Is Coming. Are You Ready? ft. Scott Barker (Enfold Institute)

    May 13

    The AI Acceleration Decade Is Coming. Are You Ready? ft. Scott Barker (Enfold Institute)

    Heading to Vegas this May? Join Josh at Pulse 2026 and come say hi—your oversized fluorescent daiquiri is on him. No catch. Grab your ticket at gainsightpulse.com and use code UNCHURNED for a special rate. Most people in tech are sprinting toward AI. Scott Barker, Partner & MD at Enfold Institute, Ex-Partner at GTMfund, and the youngest director in Outreach history, is among the few who stopped, looked back, and said: I've seen where this road ends. He was the youngest director in Outreach history. Helped take the company from $20M to $250M ARR. Built a venture fund to $100M under management. Then walked away from all of it, not for a sabbatical, not for a rebrand. Because it was breaking him. Four months in Indian ashrams. Ten hours of meditation a day. No phone, no fund, no identity. What he came back with isn't a mindfulness pitch. It's a strategic argument: the AI era is about to force the entire tech industry into the same acceleration decade that nearly destroyed him. And unlike his, yours won't be a choice. This episode is the conversation the industry needs to have and keeps skipping over to talk about agents. --- Timestamps 0:00 - Preview & introduction 2:07 - Meet Jenny Calvert & Scott Barker 3:35 - Scaling GTM Fund to $100M and why it wasn't enough 6:33 - How to Prepare for the Next Decade (The viral article) 10:28 - Strategy 1: Slowing down as strategy (the 6-hour silence block) 16:50 - Strategy 2: Build depth, not route skills 20:33 - The future of currency 22:30 - Strategy 3: Train your nervous system daily 25:33 - Give yourself permission 29:55 - Challenge your old programming & redefine success 34:14 - Final takeaways + close --- What You’ll Learn - Why AI acceleration is a forced decade of chaos and how to build a foundation before it hits -The 6-hour silence block and why your brain produces better output without inputs - Why skills are becoming a commodity and the one thing AI still can't replicate - How to identify and dismantle the old programming driving your definition of success - The daily non-negotiable practice (movement, stillness, breath, solitude) that trains your nervous system for chaos - Why the next scarce currency isn't money --- Want the playbook, not just the conversation? Subscribe for deep-dive, actionable breakdowns from every episode at unchurned.substack.com. --- Where to Find the Guest Scott Barker: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ssbarker/ Scott's Substack Article: https://thewakeupcallnewsletter.substack.com/p/how-to-prepare-for-the-next-decade --- Where to Find Josh: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jschachter/ Unchurned Substack: https://unchurned.substack.com/

    37 min
See All (205)

5
out of 5
98 Ratings

About

If you're experimenting with automation, questioning the traditional post-sales model, or trying to drive more value with less headcount, you're in the right place. AI won’t fix churn, but these conversations might. Retention is the new growth, AI is rewriting the rules. Hosted by Josh Schachter, SVP of Atlas at Gainsight, [Un]Churned—the No. 1 podcast for retention and Customer Success leaders—features real talk with the sharpest minds in the Customer Success space. We dig into how teams are scaling smarter, activating AI agents, and redesigning the customer journey for lasting impact.

Information

You Might Also Like