Cristina Afonso

Mercaux is a Series A retail technology SaaS company. Joined as first CS hire to build the function globally.

– Built and scaled the global CS function from zero across EMEA, North America, and APAC, including playbooks, onboarding frameworks, health scoring in Gainsight, and QBR cadences

– Managed a $5M+ ARR portfolio achieving 98% NRR, outperforming industry benchmarks for enterprise SaaS

– Drove 15% YoY expansion revenue growth from existing customers through structured upsell and cross-sell programmes in partnership with Sales

– Improved product adoption from 46% to 78% across the customer base via targeted lifecycle intervention programmes and in-app engagement campaigns

– Scaled CS team from 2 to 7+ CSMs, including hiring, onboarding, and ongoing coaching; implemented team OKRs and performance reviews

– Partnered with Product to establish a structured VoC loop, contributing to 3 major feature releases directly driven by customer feedback

Nosto is an eCommerce personalisation platform. Hired to establish and lead the UK & Ireland CS function.

– Established the regional CS function from scratch, defining KPIs, lifecycle frameworks, adoption playbooks, and renewal processes tracked in Salesforce

– Managed a portfolio of 80+ enterprise eCommerce clients on a pay-as-you-go model, maintaining churn below 10% and driving 32% adoption growth through targeted engagement strategies

– Applied a consultative selling approach to identify upsell and cross-sell opportunities within existing accounts, contributing to a 12% increase in regional expansion ARR

– Partnered with the Sales team to align on account strategy, ensuring CS-led adoption metrics translated directly into commercial outcomes

– Intentional career break for personal development and travel prior to transitioning into Customer Success leadership