I used to think I had a great way of building Customer Success organizations. Now I realize…it doesn’t work.
Enough is enough. It’s time to turn everything on its head.
I’ve built CS organizations myself and I’ve coached 100s of leaders on doing it.
This isn’t easy to admit. It doesn’t work.
Well, that’s not entirely true. It does work – for a while. But CS eventually runs into the same issues everywhere, and it stalls.
–> Rising churn.
–> Bad fit customers taking up all our time.
–> New features designed to attract new clients, not retain existing ones.
–> Weak data on the impact we’re making.
–> CS becomes the “everything department”, reacting not leading.
Why is this the story of 99% of CS organizations out there?
Because CS is not an organization, it’s a MINDSET.
Without the mindset, CS is doomed.
Everyone thinks, ” We’ll build the CS team first, then grow the mindset from there.”
No. I have NEVER seen this work.
It has to START with the mindset. This means complete alignment from the CEO and the leadership team.
–> Product vision that delivers quantifiable impact on the customer problem we promised to solve.
–> Marketing laser focused on our ideal customers and making promises we can deliver on.
–> Sales incented to only sell to good fit customers with long-term growth potential.
–> All teams aligned across the customer journey, and their role in it.
–> Leadership committed to the long-term success of customers above all else.
Once you have alignment on this, then and only then, build your CS function.
The beautiful part?
–> It’ll be half the size. You don’t have as many gaps to fill.
–> CS is proactive and strategic.
–> CS is a valued role in the company.
–> You attract and retain the best people because you’re one of the few companies doing CS right.
When incrementally better isn’t good enough, it’s time for dramatically different.
