6 real-world examples of customer intimacy to inspire your CS strategy

Keeping up with customer relationships can feel like a moving target. As a Customer Success Manager (CSM), you want to offer every customer a personal, thoughtful experience – but the reality is, there’s often more work than time. 

With digital touchpoints, shifting priorities and growing account volumes, staying genuinely close to each customer can be tough. That’s where customer intimacy comes in – not as a buzzword, but as a real strategy. 

It’s about understanding your customers well enough to meet them where they are and help them reach where they want to go. In our deep dive on customer intimacy, we explored what it looks like in theory. 

In this blog, we’re focusing on the practice. We’ll walk through fresh, real-world examples of companies building meaningful customer relationships in ways that are practical, repeatable and relevant to your work in Customer Success.

1. Leveraging customer feedback: Intuit’s ‘Follow Me Home’ program

One of the most effective ways to build empathy with customers is to see the product through their eyes. That’s the thinking behind Intuit’s “Follow Me Home” program. 

Instead of relying only on surveys or usage data, Intuit employees observe real users as they interact with the product in their natural environment – whether that’s a home office, a retail shop or a tax prep center. It’s not a usability test. It’s a chance to quietly watch and listen.

As explained in Intuit’s own breakdown of the approach, this practice helps teams notice things that users don’t always say out loud – confusion, workarounds or small frustrations that add up over time. The goal is simple: build better products by deeply understanding customer context.

This is customer intimacy in action. It’s about showing up with curiosity, not assumptions. And it’s led to countless product improvements that reflect how people actually work – not how teams think they work.

You might not be able to shadow every customer, but the lesson holds: find ways to observe, not just ask. Next, let’s look at how Salesforce scaled that kind of connection through a thriving user community.

2. Creating community engagement: Salesforce’s Trailblazer Community

Not every customer needs one-on-one support. Sometimes, they just want to connect with others who are facing similar problems. Salesforce recognized this and built the Trailblazer Community – a platform where customers, partners and experts can collaborate, ask questions, share ideas and learn together.

It’s a straightforward but effective way to build customer intimacy. By giving users a space to engage with peers, Salesforce creates value that goes beyond the product. Thus, it’s not just about troubleshooting – it’s about fostering a sense of belonging and shared purpose.

The result is a community that drives itself. Customers are more likely to stick around when they feel part of something bigger. And because the content and support come from real users, it often feels more relatable and relevant.

Next, we’ll shift from community-driven support to personalization at scale – and see how Spotify uses customer data to tailor every interaction.

3. Personalized customer experience: Spotify’s curated playlists

Personalization is most effective when it feels effortless. Spotify gets this right by analyzing listening habits to create custom playlists like Discover Weekly, Daily Mix and Release Radar. 

These aren’t just static recommendations – they’re updated regularly based on each user’s evolving behavior. As Spotify explains, these “Made for You” playlists are built using real-time data, reflecting not only what users listen to, but also how, when and with what frequency. 

This kind of tailored content gives users the sense that the platform actually understands their taste – without them having to do much at all. That’s the essence of customer intimacy. 

It’s not just about responding to needs but anticipating them in ways that feel personal and relevant.

In the next example, we’ll shift from digital personalization to real-time, in-person experiences and look at how Cisco brings intimacy into customer engagements through its Experience Centers.

4. Proactive problem-solving: Cisco’s Customer Experience Centers

Customer intimacy isn’t always about digital touchpoints. Sometimes, it’s about creating the space “literally” for deeper collaboration. Cisco does this through its Customer Experience Centers, where customers can engage with Cisco experts in hands-on sessions, see tailored demos and co-create solutions for their specific business needs.

These aren’t generic sales presentations. The experience is built around each customer’s goals, challenges and industry context. It’s designed to make the customer feel like a partner in the process – not just a buyer.

This kind of tailored, face-to-face (or virtual) collaboration builds trust and gives customers more confidence in the solutions they’re investing in. It also positions Cisco not just as a vendor, but as a strategic advisor.

While Cisco focuses on strategic sessions, others are applying personalization earlier in the journey. Next, let’s look at how Mailchimp tailors onboarding based on customer roles and experience levels.

5. Segment-specific support: Mailchimp’s role-based onboarding

Personalization doesn’t need to wait until after onboarding, it can start from the very first interaction. Mailchimp puts this into practice by segmenting new users based on their experience level, goals and industry. 

Using this context, their onboarding services provide tailored walkthroughs, content and support that feel relevant from the start. 

Instead of sending every user through the same generic product tour, Mailchimp adjusts the experience based on how someone actually plans to use the platform – whether that’s sending a newsletter, building automations or launching an e-commerce campaign. 

This approach helps users reach value faster, without having to dig through features they don’t need. It’s a strong example of customer intimacy at scale – showing how even automated processes can feel personal when they’re designed around the customer’s intent, not just the product.

From here, we shift to what happens after onboarding. Asana takes a long-term view by helping users deepen their engagement through content tailored to their specific use case.

6. Use-case driven content: Asana’s targeted education hubs

Learning a new platform often means figuring out how it fits into your specific workflow. Asana addresses this by offering curated learning paths through the Asana Academy, organizing content around common roles and use cases – like marketing, product management and IT operations.

Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, users can access training that reflects how they actually plan to use Asana. It’s less about learning every feature and more about applying the right ones in the right context. 

That shift – from product training to problem-solving – is what makes it feel personal. This kind of education helps customers get more value over time, which leads to higher adoption rates and stickiness across departments. It also positions Asana as a long-term partner, not just a tool.

Conclusion

These examples show that customer intimacy doesn’t hinge on one specific tool or tactic –it’s about choosing strategies that reflect a real understanding of your customers. 

Whether it’s tailored onboarding, use-case-specific education, community support or face-to-face collaboration, the goal is the same: to make customers feel seen, supported, and valued.

For CSMs, this isn’t just a nice-to-have. Building stronger relationships through personalized, context-aware experiences directly impacts retention, satisfaction and long-term growth. It helps turn customers into partners and partners into advocates.

There’s no single blueprint, but the takeaway is clear: customer intimacy is something you build through consistent, thoughtful effort. Start with one area – onboarding, success planning, feedback loops – and iterate from there. As customer expectations shift, so should your approach.

Staying close to your customers isn’t just about tracking activity. It’s about understanding what matters to them –and showing them that it matters to you, too.