The Future of Customer Success: A Conversation with Daphne Costa Lopes (HubSpot)

Introduction

Spending an hour with Daphne Costa Lopes quickly reveals why she has become one of the most respected voices in customer success today.

As Global Director of Customer Success at HubSpot, Daphne sits at the intersection of global expansion, customer behaviour, and the rapid rise of AI. She blends operational depth with an unusually human understanding of how people adopt change — or don’t. She is equal parts strategist, coach, and technologist, and she brings a perspective shaped across Brazil, Ireland, the U.S., and now Asia.

In this Baskey Conversation, Brian sat down with Daphne to explore how customer success is evolving, what leaders often get wrong, and why the future of CS will be shaped as much by humanity as by technology.

From Chemistry Graduate to CS Leader

Daphne’s journey into customer success was anything but linear.

She studied chemistry. She moved from Brazil to Ireland on a one-year plan. She took a business analyst role almost by accident. But one theme emerged early: she was drawn to solving complex problems and improving the systems people rely on.

What came next was a series of roles where technology, behaviour, and process collided. She saw first-hand why teams adopt tools, why they reject them, and why logic alone never drives change.

Those early experiences — including navigating global data privacy rollouts during the rise of GDPR — shaped the empathetic, practical approach she brings to her work today.

Scaling Customer Success Across Cultures

One of Daphne’s biggest lessons in a global role is that scaling customer success is not about creating the “perfect” process and handing it to every region.

In her words, global scale requires:

“80% standardisation, 20% adaptation.”

You need a strong global foundation — but you also need room for local nuance.
And the key, she says, is simple:

Bring regional teams into the design early.

Not at rollout.
Not during QA.
Early.

Most organisations design centrally and then ask markets like Japan, Germany, or France to “make it fit.” But without their input woven in from the beginning, the process may scale — but it won’t work.

Daphne’s framework isn’t about compromise.
It’s about building global systems that respect cultural reality.

AI and the Future of Customer Success

AI is already reshaping customer success in profound ways.

At HubSpot, 75% of support tickets are now resolved by AI, which frees CS teams from repetitive troubleshooting and allows them to focus on strategic, high-impact work.

But Daphne sees this shift not as automation replacing people — but as an opportunity for evolution:

• More meaningful conversations with customers

• More context-aware guidance

• More time spent understanding goals, not fixing issues

• More proactive insights surfaced by AI before humans notice them

When customers do reach a human, expectations are higher than ever.
The job now requires deeper problem-solving, more business understanding, and clearer strategic thinking.

As Daphne puts it, AI removes the noise so CS teams can finally operate at the level they’ve always aspired to.

Why People Resist Change — Even When It Helps Them

One of the most relatable stories Daphne shared came from early in her career.

She helped roll out a new tool that:

• automated hours of manual work

• improved data accuracy

• streamlined the entire workflow

It should have been an instant win.

Instead, people resisted it.

And the reason wasn’t performance, usability, or training.
It was identity.

Many team members had mastered the old process. They had been praised for it, rewarded for it, and recognised for their ability to “do it better than anyone else.”

Replacing it didn’t threaten the task — it threatened their confidence.

Her realisation:

“People don’t resist better tools. They resist losing what they were good at.”

Customer success, she says, is not just about logic.
It’s about emotion, trust, and the psychology of change.

Retention, Referrals, and Why Agencies Should Think Differently

When Brian asked Daphne what agencies should prioritise, she didn’t hesitate:

Retention over acquisition.

Winning the first project is expensive.
Winning the second, third, and fourth often comes down to:

• delivering real value

• understanding your clients’ business

• helping them meet outcomes

• building strong working relationships

And the most powerful indicator of trust?
Not NPS. Not survey scores.

“A better question than ‘Would you recommend us?’ is ‘Have you recommended us?’”

Referrals represent action, not sentiment.
And as people switch jobs every two years, strong relationships follow them into their next organisation.

For agencies, that continuity can become a quiet but powerful growth engine.

Feedback Is Everywhere — but Human Conversations Still Matter

AI can now analyse sentiment across thousands of emails, calls, and tickets in seconds. It can identify trends, spot risks, and highlight friction points with incredible accuracy.

But Daphne emphasised something crucial:

AI can tell you how a customer feels.
Only a conversation can tell you why.

Her advice was simple:

“If you’re not getting a positive response from a survey, the next step is to pick up the phone and talk to the customer.”

Customers need to know their feedback isn’t disappearing into a system.
They need space to be heard, understood, and acknowledged.

AI scales listening.
People make listening meaningful.

Rethinking the Metrics That Matter

In a quick-fire round, we asked Daphne to answer instinctively — no context, no time to think.

The question:
“What’s one thing CS teams obsess over that isn’t actually that important?”

Her response:
“NPS.”

Not because it’s useless, but because:

• it measures sentiment, not action

• it fluctuates easily

• it doesn’t predict outcomes like renewal or referral

The most valuable metrics, she argues, are those connected to behaviour — not just how customers feel today, but what they do over time.

Key Takeaways for Customer Success Leaders

Across the conversation, several themes stood out:

1. Customer success is becoming more human, not less.

AI handles the volume. People handle the meaning.

2. The best global processes are co-created.

Scale comes from collaboration, not centralisation.

3. Change is emotional, not procedural.

Adoption requires empathy as much as efficiency.

4. Retention and referrals are the real growth engine.

Advocacy matters more than surveys.

5. Conversations still matter.

Feedback is only powerful when customers feel heard.

Join the Conversation

How is AI changing the way your team works with customers?
And what’s one part of customer success you believe will look completely different in the next 5 years?

Share your thoughts below — or follow Baskey as we continue exploring the ideas and people shaping the future of customer success.