Behind the Screen: Inside Our Customer Success Team

What’s your background and how did you get here?

Growing up in Pakistan, I was always interested in climate change because natural resources were scarce. My passion led me to study Environmental Economics at UC Berkeley, after which I stumbled into tech in San Francisco. I worked for multiple companies in customer success roles, but I felt a growing need to align my career with my passion for environmental impact. So I decided to return to academia and relocated to London to study Environmental Technology. It is through Imperial College’s alumni channels that I learned about Granular Energy. Having focused my MSc research on energy access and the energy sector, the role aligned with my ambition. It felt like a great fit, and here we are today.

What are your responsibilities?

A lot of my work revolves around customer relationship management, acting as the bridge between our clients and internal teams. From the moment a customer decides they want to move forward with Granular Energy, I serve as the internal project manager, orchestrating a clear and structured onboarding process. I ensure that the process is smooth while setting clear expectations and outlining the next steps to help the customers feel fully informed.

As their main point of contact, I make it a priority to view Granular Energy as an integral extension of their own operations. Whether it is addressing inquiries or coordinating internal efforts, my goal is to manage projects efficiently to meet the client’s needs. While I may not resolve every query directly, I am adept at mobilising the right people within our team to get things done. I am our customers’ internal advocate to ensure their voices are heard, and prioritised and that no request gets overlooked.

Beyond the logistics, my role is all about crafting an experience where customers not only understand but are excited about their journey with Granular Energy.

What are the key skills you need to succeed in customer success?

People assume that customer-facing functions require being an extrovert - I’m not, I’m actually quite a shy person. But that has really helped me: I’m quite observant and am able to pick up on subtle nuances that might otherwise go unnoticed. This sensitivity is critical for customer success, where understanding and anticipating needs is often dependent more on what isn’t said. In my role, it’s important to have a pulse and a feel for how customers feel about topics we discuss and perceive when issues escalate or turn into bigger issues than they are.

In terms of core skills, you need to be well organised in this function, to ensure all parts of the project are moving forward in harmony. A lot of customer success comes down to organisational prowess. These don’t just apply to clients; internally I have a good rapport with my colleagues to secure their buy-in to get client work prioritised and done.

What does a typical week look like?

About half my time is spent on external client calls, where I catch up with customers, progress on their platform use, collect their feedback, host product workshops, and find opportunities for further collaboration.

The rest of the time I work internally to progress on client-facing projects. I have a daily to-do list, which features planning for calls ahead, checking which requirements and features are needed, and pulling resources internally to get it done.

Given this is still a relatively new function, a significant amount of my time is spent on laying the groundwork for us. How can I turn my work into a function? How should customer success collaborate with other teams? I spend time improving our framework, processes and team communications. This thought process is an almost constant evolution as our company grows and our needs evolve.

What project are you most proud of?

I’ve created a nifty visualisation of how various parts of the commercial teams work together, and how our business development, technical solutions and customer success interact. I’ve been thinking about it since I was hired, and it took multiple evolutions to develop into what it is today. It’s great to have - this clarity helps avoid friction between teams. It’s important to note that the process isn’t set in stone, and as we progress, we will iterate and adjust.

Favourite thing here at Granular Energy?

I have great respect for and enjoy working with the humans behind the screens at Granular Energy. While we are a remote company, I’ve met everyone in person. I have frequent interactions with my colleagues daily and get to see them thanks to our camera-on culture. Not a day goes by without me collaborating with someone on the team - I really don’t feel the downside of working remotely!

A big plus of our fully remote work is our in-person gatherings every few months which is a great reminder of how far we’ve come and where we are headed. It is thrilling to see the team expand and I feel very excited about our work at Granular Energy!