Here in Canada, hockey is a big deal.
And no team is bigger than the Toronto Maple Leafs.
They haven’t won a Stanley Cup since 1967.
They’ve lost in the first round of the playoffs in 7 of the last 9 seasons.
They were just knocked out again on Sunday.
Every time this happens, fans are devastated.
They demand answers.
The Leafs head office responds with tweaks to the lineup.
–> A new defenceman here.
–> A new centre there.
–> A new goalie.
But the outcome never changes.
They lose.
Every year.
I’ve been thinking about how familiar this sounds to what I hear from so many CS leaders.
They’re facing unprecedented pressure to reduce churn, increase upsell and shrink the team.
So they make tweaks.
–> They improve the sales to CS handoff.
–> They shorten onboarding.
–> They add new KPIs to identify churn risk.
And sure, it feels like progress.
But the numbers don’t change.
So year after year, they get hammered.
Just like the Leafs, at some point you have to admit it’s not working.
We’re way past tweaking our way out of this.
It’s time to look at the whole system that’s failing us.
It won’t be easy.
But unless you want to keep having these conversations for another 10 years, it’s the only way.
