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.

Rather than just asking a candidate about their background, I prefer to ask about real situational questions. Here are a few of my favorites: * Tell me about a time you had an unhappy customer. What was the issue and how did you resolve it? * Take me through a time when a customer provided a churn notice and you were able to save them. What was your process and how did you turn things around? * Walk me through one of your recent renewals. When did you start the renewal conversation and what did the entire process look like? Also, in my opinion, all candidates need to do some type of live presentation for the hiring manager/team before an offer is sent out. Keep in mind, presenting to customers is a major part of a CSM's job and is not a skill I recommend you judge based on an interview and/or resume. While a candidate can tell you all about their communication style and experience, I believe the only way to truly judge their presentation skills is to see it live. 

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.

Customer success KPIs for a self-serve product may differ from those for a more traditional, high-touch product. This is more of a 1:Many methodology driven based on these strategies. Here's how they typically change: 1. Customer Onboarding and Activation: With a self-serve product, the focus shifts to ensuring customers can quickly and easily onboard themselves and activate key features without human intervention. KPIs may include time to first value, activation rate, and completion of onboarding tasks. 2. User Engagement and Adoption: Tracking user engagement and adoption becomes critical in a self-serve model. KPIs may include metrics such as active users and feature adoption rates. 3. Customer Satisfaction and Support | NPS: While self-serve products aim to reduce the need for human support, it's still important to measure customer satisfaction and provide resources for self-help. KPIs may include customer satisfaction scores (CSAT), self-service resolution rates, and the effectiveness of knowledge base articles or tutorials. 4. Churn Prevention: Preventing churn becomes even more crucial with self-serve products, as customers can easily switch to competitors if they don't see value or encounter roadblocks. KPIs may include churn rate, customer retention rate, and reasons for cancellation. 5. Expansion Revenue: Driving expansion revenue from self-serve customers requires a focus on upselling and cross-selling opportunities within the product experience. KPIs may include upgrade rates. 6. Product Feedback and Iteration: With direct user interactions, self-serve products provide valuable feedback for product iteration and improvement. KPIs may include the quantity and quality of feedback collected, as well as the speed of implementing product enhancements. In a nutshell, KPIs for self-serve products will revolve mainly around the onboarding effectiveness, use of KB or bot, use of digital motions to capture feedback at the feature level, milestone level, and ease of use.

There's no magic bullet here, but I've found a few key ingredients to retaining great talent. 1. Care deeply about the people on your team. Get to know them on a human level. Celebrate their wins. Understand how they want to grow, and be intentional about supporting that growth. 2. Orient everyone around the mission. It's hard to push through the tough days if you don't connect with a reward or benefit. It's even harder if you think you're the only one fighting. The team needs to know that they're all in the same boat (you included!) and that you're moving toward something great. It could be a brighter future for the team (we're fixing this process), or it could be a great accomplishment (we'll hit quota). Put that goal front and center and keep all eyes on it. Make sure to celebrate wins, however small, along the way. 3. Bring people along. Change is hard, and also constant in CS. Give your team space to share ideas, voice concerns, and help craft the program. We hold brainstorms and debates to make better decisions and the team appreciates the trust and transparency that we extend to them. Open-door policies are great, but if you're not willing to adjust tack, what's the point? 4. Be humbly human. You don't need to be right all the time, and you don't need to be emotionless. Admit to your mistakes, seek feedback often, and let your humanity show. It creates a safe space for your team members to bring their whole selves to work as well.

For recent graduates who are interested in entering the field of customer success, there are a few critical pieces of advice to keep in mind: • Gaining relevant experience: Look for opportunities to gain experience in customer-facing roles, such as internships or entry-level positions in customer service or support. This will help you develop the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in a customer role. Or you could also apply to more junior roles, such as success associate, and learn on the job. • Develop your soft skills: Strong communication, problem-solving, and customer service skills - some of this can be obtained by shadowing senior Success folks, Support folks. • Build your industry knowledge - Understand the industry’s products, services, and customers. Talk to Product Management, Product Marketing. • Gaining technical skills: Acquire technical skills (if required) such as product knowledge, data analysis, and project management. • Be open to learning and be persistent. This is the hard part. Don’t give up! Overall, it's essential to be proactive in seeking opportunities to gain experience, develop relevant skills, and network with professionals in the field. You can do it!

No technical skills are not always necessary to be an effective CSM, however having a basic understanding of technical concepts can he helpful particularly if working in certain subsegments of the tech industry. The level technical skill required is also to a degree dependent on the company and the scope of the role. Some CS roles in deeply technical companies may require you to have a level of familiarity with technical concepts however for many CS roles this is not the case. However in either scenario familiarity with the product or service being supported can be beneficial as as a CSM while you may not be responsible for technical troubleshooting you will be required to have a good understanding of the product offering and will need to be capable having conversations with customers about the products features, functions and capabilities.

I think the most frustrating thing about Customer Success is that without agreement across the organization about the importance and role of Customer Success, it can become a catch-all. As the quarterback of the customer relationship, that means all things can fall to the CSM. If there are not very clear swim lanes, paths of escalation and role definition, this means the CSM may soon find themselves as; * Customer Support * Collections Specialist * Renewal/Contract Manager * IB seller * Product Specialist * Escalations Manager While a great CSM possesses skills that can help in each of those categories, they cant be all of those things without burning out quickly.