Customer Success Lead · Client Operations · Retention & Growth

Wilma D'Souza

I build strong client relationships, stronger teams and the operating habits that keep both performing.

20+ years across customer operations, coaching, commercial growth and team leadership — with experience turning around poor client satisfaction, building processes from scratch, developing people and expanding revenue.

37% → 98%CSAT turnaround in 30 days for a 15-person underperforming team
8+ CrDelivered against a 3 crore annual upsell target in a pan-India operation
35%Reduction in customer escalations through training and performance improvement
500K+Revenue influenced through cold outreach in a later commercial role
Leadership profile

Client success with an operator's mindset.

My background does not sit neatly in one box. I have led customer service and quality operations, built and coached teams, run my own client-facing business, trained people through performance problems and worked directly on revenue generation.

That mix shapes how I lead Customer Success. I care about the relationship, but I also care about whether the client is moving, whether the team knows what good looks like, whether risks are visible early and whether the process works without constant firefighting.

I am most useful in businesses that need somebody who can stay close to clients while also improving the way the team operates behind the scenes.

Client lifecycle leadershipTeam coachingRetention & riskSOPs & processExecutive reportingUpsell & expansionEscalation managementCRM discipline
What I bring at lead level

More than account management.

01

Lead the client journey

Set expectations early, create clear next steps, keep momentum visible and step in before silence or confusion becomes churn.

02

Raise team performance

Coach people individually, make standards practical and use performance data to decide where support, training or accountability is actually needed.

03

Build repeatable operations

Create SOPs, reporting rhythms and handoffs that reduce dependence on memory and make a growing client base easier to manage well.

04

Protect retention

Look for the early signals: disengagement, missed actions, lack of visible progress, unclear ownership and mismatched expectations.

05

Connect CS to revenue

Understand when a successful client is ready for the next step and surface expansion naturally, without turning the relationship into a constant sales conversation.

06

Give leadership visibility

Translate client experience and team performance into useful reporting for senior stakeholders, not just activity updates.

Selected outcomes

Evidence from the work.

Team turnaround · ICICI Prudential

From 37% to 98% customer satisfaction in 30 days

A 15-person team was sitting at 37% customer satisfaction and needed a rapid turnaround without extra resources or a ready-made playbook.

Worked with each person individually, identified what was getting in the way, introduced clearer accountability and used consistent coaching and recognition to rebuild both capability and confidence.

Customer satisfaction reached 98% within 30 days. Team members later progressed into trainer, auditor and management roles.

Commercial CS · ICICI Prudential

Exceeded a 3 crore annual upsell target by more than 2.5×

Owned a pan-India upsell operation across multiple locations with an annual target of 3 crores.

Stayed close to customer conversations, team performance and vendor delivery, using the information coming from the front line to improve execution and identify genuine expansion opportunities.

Delivered more than 8 crores against the 3 crore target while managing quality and operational performance across the programme.

Client experience · Coaching business

Built a global client business around repeat trust and referrals

Built and delivered a coaching business serving hundreds of clients across multiple countries, owning the relationship from first contact through ongoing support.

Started with the client's definition of success, tracked progress, checked in proactively and used coaching to work through the real blockers behind stalled action.

Hundreds of testimonials, strong referral-led growth and no client complaints reported across five years of the business.

Process improvement · Sales & outreach

Recovered performance when an outreach system stopped converting

After months of consistent outbound activity, the existing approach began producing weaker qualified bookings and show-up performance.

Reviewed the conversations, changed the approach rather than waiting for instruction, tested the revised messaging and coached new team members on the updated process.

Performance recovered, with an 85% show-up rate maintained and 500K+ in revenue generated across the wider 14-month period.

Figures above are selected results from previous roles and businesses, included to show the level of ownership and operating experience Wilma brings into Customer Success leadership.

Career experience

A career built around people, performance and outcomes.

Apr 2025 – Aug 2026

Growth & Lead Generation Specialist

Chat Funnels · Remote
  • Generated 500K+ in revenue from cold outreach across multiple verticals and maintained an 85% show-up rate.
  • Owned high-volume qualification and pipeline activity across 25,000+ outbound conversations.
  • Reworked messaging when conversion dropped and trained newer team members on outreach and qualification.
  • Tracked CRM and conversion performance with regular stakeholder reporting.
2013 – 2025

Founder & Lead Coach

Life Makeovers with Wilma D'Souza · Global
  • Built a client-facing coaching business serving hundreds of people across multiple countries.
  • Owned onboarding, milestone tracking, ongoing support, engagement, renewals and referral-driven growth.
  • Ran weekly group sessions with 100–200 attendees and developed a large body of client testimonials.
  • Used coaching and accountability to help clients work through behavioural and mindset barriers that were blocking progress.
2004 – 2013

Customer Service, Quality & Operations Leadership

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance · India
  • Progressed through customer service, quality and operations leadership roles, including management of teams and country-level reporting.
  • Managed a team of 17 and turned a 15-person underperforming group from 37% to 98% CSAT in 30 days.
  • Owned pan-India upsell operations, delivering more than 8 crores against a 3 crore annual target.
  • Reduced customer escalations by 35% and improved team KPIs through structured training and quality programmes.
  • Presented performance reporting and recommendations to CEO/VP-level stakeholders and built SOPs across operational functions.
2001 – 2004

Customer Service Agent → Quality Auditor

Three Global Services · Telecoms
  • Promoted from frontline customer service into quality work through strong performance.
  • Helped build back-office processes in an environment with limited existing structure.
  • Trained and supported agents on service quality and call-handling standards.
Customer Success leadership

How I run the work.

01 · Handover

Remove ambiguity early

Confirm what was sold, what success means to the client, who owns what and what the first meaningful milestone is.

02 · Onboarding

Create confidence, not overload

Give the client enough information to move. Do not mistake a large welcome pack for a good onboarding experience.

03 · Health & risk

Watch behaviour, not just sentiment

Missed actions, silence, low engagement and unclear progress often tell you more than a client saying everything is fine.

04 · Accountability

Coach without rescuing

Diagnose the actual blocker, make the next step clear and keep responsibility where it belongs.

05 · Team standards

Make good CS observable

Use call reviews, SOPs, examples, metrics and coaching so the team knows what strong execution actually looks like.

06 · Escalations

Own the path to resolution

Clarify the issue, assign ownership and timelines, communicate proactively and make sure the client is never chasing the business for an update.

07 · Retention

Build renewal before renewal

Surface wins and progress throughout the relationship. Renewal should be the continuation of visible value, not a last-minute save attempt.

08 · Leadership visibility

Turn client signals into decisions

Bring patterns back to sales, delivery and leadership so the same problem is not solved one client at a time forever.

Operating toolkit

Commercial enough to understand revenue. Operational enough to build the system.

Client & revenue

Onboarding, success planning, high-touch communication, retention, churn prevention, upsell, expansion, referrals and stakeholder management.

People leadership

1:1 coaching, training, performance improvement, accountability, call-quality standards, team motivation and manager development.

Operations & data

SOP development, KPI reporting, client health tracking, quality assurance, pipeline reporting, escalation workflows and executive reporting.

Tools used: GoHighLevel, Salesforce, Airtable and CRM-based pipeline systems.

Development
Career Accelerator – Road to CSMCustomer Success development
RSJA – Undeniable CloserCommercial communication
Appointment Setting / Remote Sales TrainingMultiple programmes
Bachelor of CommerceRanked 3rd in college · 12th at state level
Contact

Building a stronger post-sale function?

I am interested in Customer Success Lead and senior client-success opportunities where I can own client outcomes, help develop the team and improve the systems behind the experience.