Featured Guest: Asha May
In this episode of The CustomerX Files, host Alison Bukowski welcomes customer marketing and advocacy thought leader Asha May for a deep and practical conversation about one of the most important — yet sometimes undervalued — levers for customer program success: the partnership between Customer Marketing & Advocacy (CMA) and Customer Success (CS).
With more than two decades of experience working across both customer success and customer marketing domains, Asha brings a unique and highly strategic perspective to how these two functions can collaborate to not just support customers but also drive measurable business value. Throughout the episode, she shares real-world examples, lessons learned, and actionable guidance that CMA and CS professionals can implement to strengthen relationships, streamline collaboration, and ultimately deliver better outcomes for customers and the business.
While organizations often operate CMA and CS as separate functions, Asha and Alison challenge that status quo by highlighting why alignment between these teams is critical in today’s customer-centric business environment. Far from operating in silos, the most effective customer programs exist where success teams and marketing and advocacy professionals co-design strategies, share insights, and partner closely on execution. In this conversation, listeners gain a clear understanding of what true partnership looks like and how to get there.
One of the episode’s key themes is the shared mission between CMA and CS: ensuring customers are not only satisfied, but empowered to participate, advocate, and grow. Asha explains how customer success teams are often the first to understand customer challenges, goals, and journey dynamics, while CMA and advocacy teams are experts in amplifying customer voices, storytelling, and program engagement. When these strengths are combined, the organization can build more purposeful advocacy programs that resonate with customers and internal stakeholders alike.
Asha outlines several practical collaboration strategies that CMA and CS teams can adopt. This includes establishing regular communication cadences, co-creating customer engagement plans, and developing shared performance indicators. By aligning on goals and expectations, teams can ensure they’re working toward common outcomes — such as improved retention, stronger reference pipelines, and higher advocacy participation rates.
The discussion also dives into how to break down relationship barriers that often exist between CMA and CS teams. Asha shares thoughtful advice on building empathy across functions, understanding differing priorities, and creating shared language around customer value. These insights are valuable for leaders who want to foster a culture of partnership, not competition, across customer-facing groups.
Measurement is another topic Asha addresses thoughtfully. She emphasizes the importance of defining success metrics that reflect both operational excellence and strategic business impact. For example, this includes metrics that recognize improvements in customer health, satisfaction, reference readiness, and advocacy engagement — all of which are strengthened when CMA and CS work in harmony.
Throughout the episode, listeners will gain valuable insights into:
Whether you’re leading a customer marketing function, driving customer success initiatives, or working at the intersection of both, this episode offers perspectives and practical advice you can put into action immediately. You’ll come away with a stronger appreciation for how purposeful collaboration fuels better customer experiences, builds stronger advocacy pipelines, and elevates the impact of your entire organization.
Listen now and discover how cultivating an intentional partnership between CMA and CS can unlock new opportunities for customer connection and business growth.
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