Onboarding Therapy #9: The Hospitality Mindset in Customer Success with Em Wingrove

In this episode of Onboarding Therapy, we sit down with Em Wingrove, Chief Experience Officer at Aptitude 8, to explore how a hospitality mindset can transform customer success. Drawing from her background in marketing and leadership, Em shares tactical insights on how businesses can create seamless, high-value experiences for their customers—just like great hospitality brands do. Whether you're in customer success or leading CX efforts, you’ll walk away with practical strategies to elevate your customer interactions.

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A Non-Traditional Path to Customer Success

Em’s career didn’t begin in customer success. Instead, she spent over 15 years in B2B SaaS marketing, honing her skills in demand generation, storytelling, and consumer psychology. However, when she joined Aptitude 8, a technical consulting firm specializing in HubSpot implementations, she saw a gap—not in marketing, but in how companies managed the experience of their customers post-sale.

She initially leaned on her marketing background to help shape customer interactions, but as the company evolved, it became clear that customer experience required a dedicated focus. “Marketing can only take you so far,” Em explains. “At some point, you have to ensure that your customers are having a phenomenal experience beyond the initial purchase.”

Applying a Hospitality Mindset to CX

One of the key themes Em emphasizes is how customer success should be approached with a hospitality mindset. The best hotels, restaurants, and service brands anticipate needs, personalize experiences, and create a sense of belonging.

Customer success professionals can apply this mindset by:

• Anticipating customer needs – Stay ahead of common challenges and proactively offer solutions before issues arise.
• Personalizing the experience – Small touches, such as acknowledging milestones or tailoring onboarding paths, can make customers feel valued.
• Delivering effortless service – Customers should never have to struggle to get help. Make it seamless for them to navigate your product or service.

By thinking like hospitality leaders, CS teams can build customer loyalty and create experiences that keep users engaged long-term.

The Connection Between CX and Marketing

A common misconception in the business world is that marketing and customer success operate in separate silos. Em challenges this notion, arguing that the two disciplines share significant overlap. Both require:

• A deep understanding of psychology – Persuading someone to buy a product and ensuring they stay engaged post-sale both rely on influencing behavior.
• Creativity – Customer success requires creative approaches to engagement, personalization, and problem-solving.
• Authenticity and communication skills – Just as marketers work to create authentic brand messaging, customer success teams need to foster genuine, trust-based relationships with customers.

For Aptitude 8, this synergy was so strong that both marketing and CX now sit under the same leadership structure, allowing for seamless collaboration and a unified customer journey.

Tactical Steps for Customer Success Leaders

For those looking to level up their approach to customer success, Em provides tactical strategies:

1. Map out the customer journey like a hospitality brand – Identify high-impact moments where customers need guidance, reassurance, or a personal touch.
2. Standardize service excellence – Just like luxury hotels have service standards, CS teams should establish clear, repeatable processes to ensure customers always receive exceptional support.
3. Measure and improve experience touchpoints – Gather customer feedback at different stages and refine your approach based on what truly enhances their experience.

Final Thoughts

Em’s insights reinforce that customer success is about delivering an experience so seamless and thoughtful that customers naturally want to stay. By adopting a hospitality-inspired approach, CS leaders can elevate their service, improve engagement, and ultimately drive long-term business growth.

Want More Insights?

This discussion came from our weekly Onboarding Therapy series, where we dig into real challenges in customer success and onboarding. Subscribe to join the conversation and hear more honest discussions about building better customer relationships.