What's your process for figuring out what metrics to hold customer success accountable for?

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 advocat ...Read More

Let me walk you through a systematic approach for developing customer success metrics: Start with core business objectives: Customer retention/churn rate Expansion revenue/upsells Customer lifetime value (CLV) Logo retention (especially for enterprise) Break those down into leading indicators Product adoption rates ROI delivered across the customer base QBRs completed on schedule Customer response times: AI can help identify this very easily (Across emails and support) Customer engagement levels ...Read More

I'd structure my thoughts tailored to the company's goals, customer needs, and product/service offerings, distinguish between leading and lagging indicators, establish the median metric numbers, and improvise as we go from time to time. Understand Company Goals: I will start by understanding the company's goals. These could include revenue growth, customer retention, market share expansion, specific product adoption targets, and multi-product strategies. Align with Business Objectives: Identify ...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