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When it comes to Customer Success, Tracy Anderson is always running at full speed because she is a pacesetter.
Customer Success is a long-term endeavor that involves strategy when working with customers today … and the next day and so on and so forth. There is no finish line. It’s a tireless job, and it’s all about keeping up the pace or picking up the pace, if need be, based on the customer’s needs.
Tracy, PrismHR’s new vice president of Customer Success who works and lives in the Phoenix area, should know a thing or two about going the distance. She’s been running for years, especially in the Arizona Rock ’n’ Roll marathon, which is held every January in Tempe. And she’s been helping her customers go the distance ever since she entered the Customer Success realm about eight years ago.
By the way, her best marathon time is an eye-opening 3 hours and 2 minutes. If you think that’s fast, you haven’t seen her jump into action to help customers strategize a business plan—it’s faster than you can sing the Laverne & Shirley theme song, a show that’s based in her hometown of Milwaukee.
And just like the song’s lyrics, she’s “never heard the word impossible.”
Run It Back
Tracy was born in Milwaukee, but she didn’t stay there long. When she was 2 weeks old, she, her mom, and her brother flew to Germany to be with her dad, who was stationed there during his service in the military. They lived there till she was about 4 years old. She doesn’t have many memories of her time abroad, but the one thing that has stuck with her is a simple German phrase: “Öffne das Fenster” (“open the window”).
When they left Germany, they came back to the States and spent some time in Fort Carson, Colorado, before moving back to Milwaukee to be close to family. Then, a window of opportunity opened, and they decided to move to the Phoenix area, where Tracy has lived since she was 11 years old.
It was in high school that she found her first calling—in chemistry—but it was a bit of a bumpy road to get there.
“I didn’t like chemistry at all,” she says. “I was a sophomore in high school, it was a required course, and it wasn’t very interesting to me.”
But things changed quickly when a teacher she liked persuaded her to enroll in his advanced chemistry course. So, as a high school senior—when many students opt for courses that are easy A’s—Tracy decided to give advanced chemistry a go as her elective. And she loved it.
“It just clicked for me. It made sense when he explained how chemistry worked. I had always been a problem-solver that would tinker with things. I would take things apart and put them back together in a different way or try to create something new by putting different ingredients together. Chemistry is like that, so that was the path I pursued.”
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She later majored in chemical engineering at Arizona State University and went on to work for Motorola after graduation.
Tracy met her husband, Erik, while in college. To this day, they reserve Friday nights as their night. Non-negotiable. “We have a standing date every Friday night to reconnect. It is always on my calendar because he is a priority to me,” she says. Sometimes they go for craft beers or dinner, and maybe even start noodling on one of her favorite topics, such as Atlantis or Marilyn Monroe.
After a few years at Motorola, Tracy became a stay-at-home mom for her daughter, Hannah. A second daughter, Kayla, entered the picture soon after. Several years had passed before Tracy decided it was the right time for her to return to the workforce, but she wanted to try something different. Something very different indeed. She pursued a second degree in Eastern medicine. “I wanted to do something that I felt was really fulfilling,” she said.
Fast Forward …
She used her second degree to become a physical therapist, where she worked for about seven years before finding another fulfilling field: Customer Success—although it wasn’t called that yet. She became a senior patient solutions team lead for one the world’s largest pharmacy benefit managers.
After several different experiences in triaging customer issues, deciphering executive resolutions and formulating a variety of strategic action plans, she got her first taste of the Human Capital Management space with a large, publicly traded payroll and HR software company. She learned the ins and outs of payroll and HR solutions there, but, more importantly, she became adept at delighting tech customers—even ones that seemed like they might be ready to move on.
At a subsequent HR tech provider, she remembers one large customer that seemed to be on the fence about staying with the company until she and her manager came up with a plan to enhance their solution with several additional services. “By the time we were done, they were one of our happiest customers,” she says, proudly.
Later, when an opportunity presented itself to continue her career leading the Customer Success team at PrismHR, Tracy knew she had what it took to hit the ground running.
“Customer Success is here to be your partner,” she says.
Adding, “It’s all about helping customers meet their goals and desired business outcomes. We’re here to create and foster a long-term business relationship. We’re their trusted adviser, their liaison and their voice within the company. That means I’m going to do everything in my power to ensure that they’re growing efficiently and finding value—and that we trust each other on the path to success. I want our customers to be raving fans of PrismHR. That’s what I’m here to do.”
Tracy “brings our Customer Success team to another level for our customers,” says Aleksandra Boruk, PrismHR’s senior vice president of customer success and client growth. She goes “beyond traditional customer support and relationship management to focus on long-term value creation and strategic alignment between the customer’s goals and PrismHR’s offerings. We are excited to see the changes she implements to help our clients grow, achieve more value, and drive greater operational efficiency.”
Nowadays, when Tracy’s not helping customers, you might find her snuggling with her kitties, reading a good book, or running a race with her daughter, Kayla.
As long as it’s not on a Friday night, of course!
Whether it’s spending time with family or helping customers succeed, her full attention is always where it needs to be.
No matter what challenge comes her way, Tracy knows how to run with it until she crosses the finish line and she can move on to the next challenge.
Ready to run? Tracy sure is …
James Tehrani is PrismHR’s content marketing manager. He is an award-winning writer and editor based in the Chicago area.
