What kind of KPIs can I hold my team accountable for if they're extremely bandwidth constrained?

KPIs are the ultimate indicator of where you want your team to spend their time. The old adage that people do what they're get paid to do holds true. If you're paying people to do QBRs, they'll do them. If you're not, it will be harder for them to do so. So as you're developing your KPIs, think about where you want your team to spend their time. If that's where they're spending their time today, great. Write some KPIs that will add motivation to their already busy days. If, however, they're spen ...Read More

When bandwidth is extremely tight, focus on high-leverage KPIs that align with essential business outcomes and don't create unnecessary admin overhead: Must-Have Metrics Critical account retention rates Revenue at risk identification Core product adoption milestones Basic customer health scoring (simple red/yellow/green) - AI generated and not CSM-owned (NO MANUAL SCORING!) Minimum touch frequency for key accounts Efficient Activity Metrics % of proactive vs reactive work High-risk account cover ...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

When the team is bandwidth-constrained, it’s critical to focus on a few high-impact output metrics rather than spreading effort across multiple inputs. I’d ask for accountability around a small set of measurable outcomes such as: Executed X customer engagement plans that delivered Y business impact Prevented X amount of churn through targeted retention actions Supported $X in expansion by driving defined customer engagements When very busy my approach would be to simplify focus, align effort to ...Read More