I've found two KPIs to be difficult to commit to: 1. Customer Health. If you have a robust algorithm to measure customer health (influenced by a number of inputs ), it can be hard commit to a certain outcome. To frame this another way, I've often observed customer health scores as being a bit of a black box where it's hard to tie the actions you take to specific outcomes when there could be a number of variables outside of your control that influence the ultimate score. I much prefer to commit to lead measures that are directly within the control of the team. KPIs related to customer engagement are a good example of things that are more directly within the team's control. 2. Upgrade rate. Many CSM teams are measured on Net Revenue Retention. As part of this, your CSMs may be responsible for identifying growth opportunities within the install base of customers. I find it's effective to measure the team on how many growth opportunities the team identifies but not the close rate or upgrade rate, especially if the Sales or Account Management team owns the closing motion. 

The best metrics to use to justify a pay raise are those that tie to revenue and direct value impact (internally and customer-facing). I like to keep a private list (for example, Asana) of the projects I've worked on and my contributions to them so I can refer to it during performance reviews, promotion advocacy, etc. Revenue metrics - must be quatifiable: * Net Revenue Retention in my portfolio * Expansion revenue * Renewal win rate (this is a ratio or percentage, not a $ amount) * CSQLs provided to sales (Customer Success Qualified Leads) Value Impact: * Significant contributions of customer advocacy events, including customer speakers / event participation, referencability, creation of case studies * Creation of 1:many customer-facing value drivers, such as webinars, podcasts, training series, enablement materials

You have to look at what the business cares about and then work backwards to how Customer Success fits into those overall targets. For example, if the business has a retention problem, it's probably important to have a Gross Revenue Retention KPI. If, however, the business is more interested in price increases and cross-sell and upsell, then tie CSMs to Net Revenue Retention. At AlertMedia, there was a business-wide push to build out our Advocacy program so we incentivized CSMs to source advocates and add them to our pool. This dramatically increased the number of advocates we have to pull from going forward.

We have a leader over post-sale who rolls into our Chief Revenue Officer. We call this org Customer Value and Adoption. Within this umbrella, we have Support, Services, and Customer Success. Within Customer Success, I oversee: * Customer Education (Community, Knowledge Base, Training) * Digital Adoption (In-app Engagement) * Product Success (Technical Specialists, Liaisons to Product) * CSM Having all of these teams aligned under Customer Success allows us to drive product adoption and value realization at scale and maximize the value of one-to-one CSM time with customers. Our CSM team is split by Region and Segment (EMEA vs. NA and Enterprise vs. Commercial). We don't have dedicated enablement or operations under our team, since we have centralized teams that support us (and do it well!).

Unlike a lot of Customer Success departments, we’ve chosen to align our team to customer KPIs rather than commercial/upsell targets. As such, we have less overlap in goals between CS and Sales. Of course, we’re both targeting Gross Renewal Rate and ensuring we maintain the customer base, but we don’t extend that to upsell targets in the same way as commission-based CS teams. Currently, we’re focused on exploring how we can share “time spent” efficiency and reach KPIs to help keep us accountable for spending as much face time with our customers, tech, and agency partners as we can over the course of many key city hubs whilst being mindful of the cost of trips.

There are two questions I always like to ask during an initial interview with a candidate: 1. Tell me about a problem you have worked on and how you solved it? - In full transparency, I actually borrowed this question from an article I read about Elon Musk's interview questions. I found the reasoning behind this question to be extremely interesting. First, you gain insight into the types of challenges the candidate has come across and their thought process for overcoming those challenges. Second, Musk says that this question shows him if the candidate truly worked on resolving this problem. Someone who was integral in the solution of a problem will know all the details and be able to explain in length what they were thinking was during the process. I have found a lot of success in asking this question. 2. I ask candidates to share with me a time they had to articulate value of their product/solution to a customer. As I mentioned in another question, showcasing your company's value is one of the most important responsibilities of a CSM. If a candidate does not have experience with this, how can I expect them to articulate value to our customers?

Absolutely, piloting the customer success function in an organization is a unique and exciting opportunity for growth and learning. Understanding the company's goals and objectives, defining clear objectives and KPIs, evaluating segmentation and existing processes, and fostering cross-functional collaboration are indeed crucial initial steps. From there, you can dive into developing customer-centric strategies, effective engagement methodologies, and continuously iterating and improving based on feedback and learnings. It's a journey filled with challenges and opportunities, but with dedication and perseverance, you'll be well-equipped to drive success for both your customers and your organization. Best of luck on your journey, and may it be filled with valuable insights and accomplishments!

This answer is entirely dependent on the what field/product the CSM works with, who their target persona is and what resources are available based on company maturity. For someone dealing in cybersecurity, working mostly with CISOs, technical skills are more important. For someone in general CRM, maybe not so much. My feeling is that process experts > product experts. I find the best CSMs have strong business acumen, can step into a customer relationship and understand where there is opportunity to either (1) inject their product into existing process to create efficiency or (2) suggest a new process built around their product that drives better outcomes. That is less about deep technical knowledge and more about an ability to understand what value means to your customers and how your product can deliver that. Assuming that you have resources available to you that allows you or the customer to solve a technical issue when they arise, your true value is driving results vs. troubleshooting.

1. Surveys: Surveys are a popular way to gather feedback and needs from our customers. You can use surveys to ask specific questions about your products or services, customer service, pricing, and more. 2. Customer interviews: This method is particularly useful when you want to gain deeper insights into specific issues or topics. We interview all our churned customers to learn from the churn and solve systemic problems. 3. Customer feedback through support channels: Customer feedback can also be gathered through support channels such as email, phone, or chat. This feedback can help you identify common issues and areas for improvement. 4. Community: We use the customer community to solicit ideas and feedback from our customers. Our product, support and CS team regularly monitors our customer community. We use Insided from Gainsight. 5. Adoption analytics: Adoption analytics can provide insights into customer behavior, such as how they navigate your site, what pages they visit, and how long they spend on each page. This information can help you identify areas where customers may be experiencing issues or where they may be looking for more information. We use Gainsight PX for adoption analytics. 6. Persona-specific events: We create several events catering to different personas of our customers to learn about the customer needs. Think CXO summits, VP Coffee chats, Product beta cohorts, Product advisory board, Admin office hours, etc. Almost all of these are done virtually.

Customer feedback can be a goldmine for improving product adoption rates. A wealth of information can be gleaned if you go about it the right way. A key point to note is that it is important to leverage both solicited and unsolicited feedback to continuously optimize your strategy: Solicited Feedback: Targeted Surveys: Conduct surveys at key points in the customer journey, like onboarding, feature adoption, and renewal periods. Tailor questions to gather specific insights on the user experience, their effort and satisfaction. In-App Feedback Tools: Embed tools within your product that allow users to easily submit feedback, report bugs, or suggest improvements. Unsolicited Feedback: Active Listening: Develop your active listening skills during customer calls, training sessions, or support interactions. Pay attention to user language, hesitations, or workarounds – these can reveal hidden challenges. Support Ticket Analysis: Mine your support tickets for common themes and recurring issues. Look beyond the specific problem to identify underlying factors impacting adoption. Social Listening: Monitor social media platforms, user forums, and industry review sites (example Gartner Peer Review). Analyze conversations to identify trends in user sentiment and pain points related to your product. Turning Feedback into Action: Actionable Insights, Not Just Data: Don't get bogged down in data. Analyze both solicited and unsolicited feedback to identify recurring themes and pain points. Focus on actionable insights that can be translated into concrete improvements. Prioritize Based on Impact: Not all feedback is created equal. Prioritize issues based on their potential impact on adoption. Address critical usability hurdles or roadblocks that hinder core workflows. Close the Loop: Communicate back to users how their feedback is being used. Demonstrate that their voice matters. This builds trust and encourages continued engagement. Targeted Onboarding: Use feedback to personalize onboarding experiences. Highlight features that address common pain points for new users of a specific segment. Focus on the "Why" Behind the Feedback: Don't just fix the "what." Understand the underlying motivations and goals behind both solicited and unsolicited feedback. This helps you solve the root cause of adoption roadblocks. Important Point: Establish a feedback loop with your Product Development and Product Management teams. Share customer insights directly with those who can translate them into product improvements. By actively soliciting feedback through surveys and in-app tools, while also being a keen listener for unsolicited feedback in conversations and online discussions, you'll gain a well-rounded understanding of your user base. This comprehensive approach enables you to continuously refine your product and the onboarding process, thereby creating a user-centric experience that drives product adoption and long-term customer success.