Rachel Fisher

Pro Tip: If I send you an email about thousands of dollars in expense items on your final bill—including questions about flights booked on the same day and expenses incurred in December that don't get billed until late May—you might want to give me serious, thoughtful, even apologetic answers. Vague, verbal hand-waving that basically amounts to "Things happen. Billing is hard." are likely to cause me to do a full audit of all of your direct expenses for the entire matter. #LegalOpsEfficiency #ExpenseAudit #TransparentBilling #ClientCare #BillingBestPractices

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Jeff Erickson’s post below highlights some of the most common reasons to explore Forecastr If you know any companies in your network that need support in these areas, feel free to reach out—we’d be stoked to lend a hand!

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"I'm trying to reach ecomm businesses over $10M in revenue; as I have something to sell to them. How can I perfect my outreach process and outsource it?" One of my mastermind colleagues asked this at our group chat. I've encountered this question so many times so thought I'd share my best advice here. 💥My answer: To outsource? Easy. We've done this for many clients as an outsourcing company (and I'm sure a lot of people here have done it too!). The clincher is perfecting the process and tools. A few suggestions: 1. You can hire a few SDRs to "test" a few things and see which approaches work best. They need to be reporting data properly and giving qualitative feedback. 2. Have ONE PERSON to lead this process and iterate as needed. Could be you or someone else, they need to own the whole process and be accountable for the results. 3. May be best to hire ONE CONSULTANT and pay for their time/ advice, as well as what's worked for someone in the same niche/ agency as you. If you have direct access to them for quick questions too that will accelerate your process. 4. Have you considered finding affiliates for this? Aligned industry service providers (that are not competitors) that have access to these businesses who can do a personal intro. Easier sales conversations and trust is higher than mere outreach. I have an affiliate buildout consultant (Alexander Booth) who's also strong at customer success. Hope this helps everyone who wants to shine at outreach buildouts. Outbound marketing is not the easiest game, so I hope you get out of it alive and profitable. :)

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I've evaluated Customer Success as an ideal entry-point to the tech industry, and it aligns perfectly with my plan to transition into QA later on. Here's why: **Firsthand Customer Insights** Engaging directly with customers and understanding their feedback and concerns provides invaluable insights for QA professionals. Knowing real-world user pain points helps prioritize testing efforts effectively. **Understanding User Requirements** Working closely with customers allows for a deep understanding of their needs and expectations. This knowledge is crucial for informing test cases and ensuring comprehensive test coverage in QA. **Empathy and User-Centric Mindset** Customer Success roles cultivate a high level of empathy and a user-centric mindset, essential qualities for QA professionals. Developing these skills ensures advocacy for the customer’s perspective and alignment with their needs. **Cross-Functional Collaboration** In Customer Success, collaboration with various teams (product development, engineering, support) is common. This cross-functional experience is invaluable in QA, where teamwork with developers, product managers, and other stakeholders is key. **Continuous Improvement** Customer Success focuses on enhancing the customer experience through continuous improvement. This aligns perfectly with the QA philosophy of identifying and resolving issues to deliver a high-quality product. Starting in a Customer Success role provides invaluable insights into customer pain points, user requirements, and the importance of a user-centric approach – all crucial for a successful career in QA. #CustomerSuccess #QualityAssurance #CareerTransition #TechIndustry #ContinuousImprovement #UserExperience

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Every ops leader I talk to thinks they have a super unique problem…but they really don’t. The inability to ingest, clean, and use unstructured data is at the center of 99% of our customers’ problems. They’ve all got data — carrier updates, packing lists, customer support tickets, etc. — coming to their teams in difficult-to-access formats like PDFs, emails, and links to other content. Lots of operators tell me AI hasn’t worked for them yet, BUT this is where AI can *actually* help. AI can extract data from PDFs and emails and standardize it, making it easy to plug into whatever format or systems you already rely on. And the magic really happens when this is paired with your team's ability to build bespoke processes and apply business logic. That’s how the best companies are leveraging the actual power of AI. I know it sometimes feels like you’re trudging through this data wasteland alone, but trust me when I say your peers are figuring out how to automate data extraction and let their teams cook on projects that really move the needle — not manual data entry.

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Business Ops Chronicles #2 Process vs. Adding more operations managers When facing new challenges, higher workloads, or rapid growth/restructuring, the instinctive solution is often to hire more project/operations managers. However, this may not always be the right approach, as it can lead to unintended results: - Lack of Ownership - Bringing in additional operational managers can diffuse accountability and ownership. Team members may feel less empowered to take initiative and make decisions, instead deferring to the growing number of managers. - Increasing Complexity - As each operations manager manages a different domain/area/flow, when adding more ops managers it can cause different communication channels, processes and expectations. It can become a challenge to navigate between processes and get things done efficiently. - More Bureaucracy and less visibility - With more managers usually come more meetings, status updates, and methods. What was once a streamlined workflow can turn into a bureaucratic nightmare. Although we are the first one to recognize and appreciate the contribution of an Ops manager to a team/company and their critical importance for the business, we should consider focusing on optimizing existing processes, empowering your teams with the right tools and training, identifying bottlenecks and streamlining handoffs between departments. Building a well-oiled business operations machine doesn't always require throwing more people at the problem. Sometimes, less is more. Our approach, especially for established companies, is to prioritize the development of scalable and efficient processes before/in parallel to expanding the team. If you decide to bring in additional resources, please remember, it's impractical to expect newcomers to construct complex processes without your mentorship. Roy MatasaroRachel Shimoni Marilus 🎗️Sagit CahalonJonathan MeshorerOrnit Friedman

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🙏 This Thanksgiving, I’m Grateful for: Check Out Buttons That Actually Work ✅ Nothing is more frustrating than a checkout button that doesn’t respond—especially for your customers during the holiday rush. The stakes are high, and the statistics speak volumes: ⛔ 42% of cart abandonments happen because of unexpected errors like payment failures or site crashes​. 📲 53% of mobile users abandon carts if the checkout process takes longer than 3 seconds​. 🚨 23% of online shoppers experience glitches during checkout, leading to a 35% drop in conversion rates​. 📉 11% of online payments fail on average, costing billions annually in lost revenue​. Thanksgiving and Black Friday are all about speed and convenience, and every click matters. Its now when attention span matters. When customers are ready to buy, even a small glitch can send them to a competitor, taking their trust and wallet with them. With Out Of The Blue™, those worries are a thing of the past: 🚨 Real-time issue detection ensures you’re the first to know if something goes wrong. 🔧 Instant resolutions eliminate barriers for your customers. 🌟 Seamless experiences drive higher sales and happy customers. This Thanksgiving, let’s ensure your checkout works flawlessly, keeping every hard-earned sale exactly where it belongs—with you. 🔗Link to sign up for a free 7-day trial in the comments! #eCommerceSuccess #HolidaySales #ThanksgivingReady #BFCM #BlackFriday #CyberMonday #Shopping

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Hello friends, just thought I’d rant for a moment. Something I’ve noticed in my professional career is how difficult progression really is in the work force. We’re typically incentivized to remain working over an extended period of time just to feel stuck in a position without linear growth. When we finally take that leap of faith and try to move onward and upward, the competitive job market starts to deter us. Switching fields is harder than ever as job requirements care more about years of experience than your education. While many of us get caught in this loop, I think it’s important to remember our values! Don’t settle for less because an opportunity didn’t favor you, as it could be a blessing in disguise. Don’t revert to old habits because you feel lost, any moment can be groundbreaking. Lastly, don’t lose hope!! Everyone’s progression is different, so don’t compare your path to your peers. I hope you’re all having a blessed day, and I’m always open for conversation whenever needed. Love you all ❤️ #LinkedIn #Career #Hope #Growth

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When companies *openly* engage their employees in cutting costs and increasing revenue (w/o layoffs), there typically is a deluge of good ideas, hidden gems, low hanging fruit, invisible wastes, and hard to acknowledge, but ultimately important to face challenges. Which begs the question...why don't companies do this more often? Some ideas: - Leadership may not trust employees to contribute valuable ideas - Misalignment of goals between leadership and employees (principal-agent problem) - Employees may not feel safe sharing ideas if there isn’t psychological safety - Groupthink and confirmation bias - Short-term financial pressures. Incentive structures may reward short-term gains, making layoffs more appealing. - Sorting through numerous employee suggestions can feel overwhelming. But in many cases, there's an assumption that if these ideas haven’t already bubbled to the surface, or if people haven’t taken action, they simply don’t exist (or were not feasible, or something/someone was standing in the way). Paradoxically, if those ideas do emerge and lead to change, it could cast doubt on previous efforts, creating a reluctance to explore them in the first place.

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📣📣📣 I'M HIRING!!! 📣📣📣 Are you a HubSpot kween or king? Do you love building stuff? Are you into geeking out over documenting integrations and pipeline measurement? Would you like to make a legit impact in a high viz ops role at a growing company that eats/breaths/sleeps learning? Do you want to work with a team that'll actually make you lol, not just type "lol"? Oh, and most importantly, DO YOU LIKE GIFS?! (actually not the most important part but it may/may not give you bonus points) If this sounds like you or someone you know, in the words of the great Fetty Wap... "WON'T YOU COME MY WAYYYY" and apply to become the Marketing Operations Manager at OpenSesame. This is not a "here are our email open rates for the week" kinda role. This is highkey execution, leadership, and impact. Our marketing team reports on revenue all the way up the pipeline, and this role is a critical part of making that happen. I am looking for someone with tenacity, tact, and a GSD track record. You'll oversee our techstack (it ain't tiny) and help shape the future of our GTM operations. Job description in comments. Please tag anyone you may know, and shoot me a message with questions! PS- got word today from my HR partner that we're at 90 applicants in less than 6 hours - yay or yikes? 😅 😂 🚀 #marketingops #marketingjobs #marketingoperations

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The Ops Economics — It’s just cheaper. (What I learned in SaaS Operations. Part II) ⬇️ As much as you want to downplay your Ops colleague (sometimes), there’s a reason they have their place in the business. Think about it this way — people pay to understand themselves for a reason. They go to therapy, take advice from a dietician, and hire personal trainers. Companies buy professional services, get access to masterminds, or run workshops with management consultants. All of that is to get a better picture of their life or their business and understand the next best move. So, Operations, when done right, are the same people you’d hire to unblock your teams. Instead of paying hefty prices for limited access, you get professionals with a better internal context of the company’s goals and vision. One note: Ops ≠ Admin. Admin is admin. All teams do their own respective boring work. Ops is not “the boring work” team. It’s the people work team.

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As a programmer, I’ve spent countless hours staring at screens, chasing the perfect logic. As a CSM, I’ve worked to ensure others succeed. But amidst all that hustle, I realized I’d forgotten someone crucial: myself. After 10 years of practice, I’ve finally achieved a lifelong dream—completing my 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training from Yoga Alliance! 🎉🧘‍♀️ Yoga has taught me how to reset, recharge, and reconnect. It’s like a wellness patch update for life—one we all need. Now, I want to pay it forward by offering free yoga classes to help others find balance in their busy lives. Think of it as debugging stress, one pose at a time. 😉 Whether you’re feeling tight from typing, stuck in meetings, or just curious about how a programmer-turned-yogi can help you stretch more than your deadlines—I’d love to have you join me. Let’s work on your inner code and create some flow (pun intended)! Reach out if you’d like to roll out a mat together. Namaste and see you in the down dog! 🐾 #YogaLife #WellnessJourney #FromCodeToCalm #YogaForEveryone

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One of our core company values here at Squizify is BE CUSTOMER OBSESSED. It's at the heart of everything we strive to do across all levels of our business. Every customer is different and it's often its the small things that can make the biggest impact. I find having a congruent set of company values is important to having your team aligned particularly in todays work from home world. Our Squizify company values are: ✅ BE CUSTOMER OBSESSED ✅ BE HUNGRY ✅ BE HUMBLE ✅ BE JOYFUL ✅ BE CURIOUS Company values can sometimes be written down, filed in a draw somewhere and forgotten about. In my experience the key is to alway connect with them as a team, discuss and talk about it with staff on a semi regular basis and you will find that when it comes to making key decisions, if your all aligned on your values, it can make making key business decisions much easier. #SquizSquad

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A new employee starting working at Offsite on Monday. We’re a remote-first company, and yet…we’re flying her into NYC today to work IRL with me and her manager. Why? Just because you’re remote-first, doesn’t mean that relationships cannot be invested in IRL. In fact, I’d argue those in-person moments build the necessary trust, alignment, and communicative foundations to succeed long-term as remote-first teams. Plus, we wouldn’t be Offsite without having our own mini sales and marketing offsite to welcome a new Account Executive. What better way to do learning and development, strategic planning for Q1, and teambuilding with a new hire than to fly them in for a couple days?! Managers, take note… Because how you onboard someone is just as important as how you hire. And onboarding with an offsite is an 11/10 experience for most people. Do you agree? I’d love to hear what you think in the comments…

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There are two gut home renovations happening on my block. Both have been in progress for over a year. One is nearly complete. They hired a professional contractor, went through the proper permitting processes, have built for quality, and made thoughtful choices that take time. It's a beautiful, fully updated house. The other is still months out from being finished. They had hired hands pouring concrete around the foundation with a wheelbarrow. The owners have "DIY'd" everything from putting in windows to flooring to applying stucco - which is already cracking. It's painful walking past it every day. Dollars to donuts it takes it in the chin during even a minor earthquake. One house will be an asset that will appreciate in value and likely be worth multiples more than the investment put into it. The other will be an expensive headache to maintain and a (nearly) unsellable asset given the lack of permitting. Both have been on a similar timeline to build...although arguably, one definitely has cost more given the professional effort. Interesting parallels for building things of worth...know what your end goals are, be thoughtful about what you need to get there, and be careful where you cut corners. Your house could literally fall down around you.

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It drives me nuts that there isn’t more education on how to run customer interviews. Most resources are just generic interview question lists. Talking to customers isn't as simple as asking a bunch of questions and calling it a day. It’s so much more complex than everyone makes it out to be. You need to know how to: -Manage your bias -Avoid their bias -Navigate the conversation -Redirect tangents -Pick up on subtle cues like body language or tone of voice -Build rapport -Probe deeper  -Know when to back off -Incentivize people to open up and be honest Before my psychotherapy training I thought these skills were common sense. But in Month 1 of my program I learned I was doing a lot of it wrong. In fact, in the 14+ years I’ve been doing customer interviews, I still refer back to what I learned in my training. It’s not rocket science but it's not intuitive either. That's why I made a course about how I run customer interviews, so I could teach other marketers what I know. If you don’t know how to get customers to open up on a 30-minute call, you won’t get to the truth about why they buy. And without that, your marketing and sales (even your product) will fall flat. ___ I’ve trained dozens of teams on how to get the gold from customer interviews. If your team is doing interviews and you’re wondering if they’re playing it safe and missing valuable insights (which is very common), DM me “CUSTOMER.” I can train them on your next offsite.

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I know I’ve mentioned this before, but one of the true highlights of my role is meeting with our customers and hearing about their experiences with Sendspark. It's always exciting to learn how they’re using our platform to achieve their goals. 🤓 In my last meeting with my buddy Mike Holmes at Vereigen Media, he shared some exciting news! After a VERY long time of trying to connect with a prospect who seemed unreachable, he finally broke through!!! 💥 And can you guess what made the difference? Yes... a personalized video! And in this case, specifically a Sendspark personalized video. (take a peek at the clip to see what I mean) ✨ Hearing these kinds of experiences daily is exactly why I’m so passionate about what we do at Sendspark. It’s incredible how a simple, personalized video can break through the noise and create meaningful connections that were once out of reach. It's so awesome to see the power of your sales skills shine in a video! #CustomerSuccess #PersonalizedVideo #Sendspark #SuccessStory

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Not sure if this is necessarily a hot take, but I don't think I'm going to make any friends with this: Schedulers should be graded based upon their ability to match forecasted volume (not actual) AND satisfy agent demand. The first part is easy enough to find in the data. And I already hear the schedulers saying "Well, I don't have enough people to hit service levels. It's not my fault!" Right. That's why I said to match forecasted volume. How well are you at adjusting schedules to match the volume pattern so that you minimize the peaks and valleys of volume. Schedules should be used to control occupancy and utilization to be as flat as possible. Now to the second part, I said what I said. Schedules should NOT only be about meeting business demands (minimizing available time) and customer demands (acceptable service levels). If your schedules hit profitability goals and service level goals but cause your attrition rate to skyrocket, well that's a problem. The WFM team should be sending out a survey, or working with another team to have WFM questions included in a survey, to get a sense of how well the agents like the schedules. This does not mean we have to do anything they ask. This doesn't mean we throw our other measurements of success out the window. But it does mean that we need to be capturing their voice and opinion on the schedules as a data point to consider how well we are doing. If the agents overwhelmingly hate every schedule created, then that likely means the WFM team isn't doing their job. #WFM #scheduling #measurementofsuccess #surveying

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I just received a review from a client on Trustpilot that truly made my day. I don't usually share these kinds of things, but this one hit home. Working in relocation, I have the privilege of helping people take huge steps towards new lives—whether it's moving closer to family, pursuing career opportunities abroad, or following the dream of starting a business in a new country. Getting positive feedback reminds me why I love this work so much. Relocation is never just about logistics; it’s about people, dreams, and the journeys that change lives. When someone takes the time to acknowledge our work, it’s not just rewarding; it's a reminder of why I pour my energy into each case, each person. #GlobalMobility #Relocation #Portugal #GlobalCitizen #Immigration

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