AMA: SurveyMonkey Sr Director of Customer Success, Cormac Kelly on Customer Success KPIs

Is there such a thing as a bad metric !! I think once you measure, you are doing something right and have an ability to take action. What you might thinking about how you measure, AND how you communicate So a brain dump of questions to ask yourself Are the measurements related to the company goals? Can you actually measure what you want with accuracy? How is the data that inputs to the metric - good bad, messy? Are you clear that if you measure the metric, you'll be in a position to click down a ...Read More

First of all, congratulations, that's awesome that your company is investing in such and important space, and also, that you are the customer success artist that has a blank canvas to create your masterpiece! For me the first thing to do is to define what customer success means for you and your company. There are a number of things that I believe are integral to core culture of what a good customer success organization is. Customer-Centricity - table stakes right? But it needs to be called out, ...Read More

This is a great question, because what metrics you look at and what standards you set are incredibly important. It also really depends on what Customer Success means to your business, sometimes CS owns renewals, some times support, sometimes not. The critical element to think through is what value you are driving for the business. For me, the CS team should own renewals as an example, and should have some ownership of NRR or expansion. This way, you can demonstrate really tangible results for th ...Read More

The number one metric has to be customer time. That could be business reviews, cadence calls, webinars etc , but an instance where you can speak to the customer, ideally ask them questions , meet with multiple contacts and learn about how they are using (or not) the product. You'll also learn so much about how you or your team speak to customers, prep, structure and run calls as well as what piques customer interest or not. Its critical you speak to them . You'll also spot risk and opportunity, ...Read More

The answer is a keep it to a few :) Keep them tight and keep focussed. As a customer success function, be super clear on what the key value that you are bringing to the table for the company is, and then anchor around that. This will help the team focus on the most relevant and impactful activities, it will tie what they do every day into what they are hearing not only from the customer leader, but also from the company leadership. This is critical, as if the team feel more connected to the comp ...Read More