The Changing Landscape of Customer Success

I was listening to a panel of Customer Success (CS) leaders recently, and wow—this function is in the middle of a massive transformation! The world has shifted from growth at all costs to real focus on usage: In the last couple of years, every B2B company has struggled with customer retention even more than customer acquisition. You want to drive churn down? Usage. You want to drive downgrades down? Usage. You want to drive upgrades up? Usage. Customer Success needs to drive usage but also make sure that the entire company is focused on usage. CS leaders need to be more like marketers: They can’t just react to problems; they need to actively engage customers, much like marketers do. Proactive, engaging experiences build loyalty, not just putting out fires. The goal? Make CS as compelling and essential as your best marketing campaign. CS leaders need to go from operating in silos to orchestrating the entire customer journeys: Disconnected teams create disconnected experiences. CS leaders are stepping into a new role: journey orchestrators. They’re aligning sales, marketing, and support to deliver a seamless, cohesive customer journey. It’s no longer enough to excel at your piece of the puzzle—CS must ensure the whole puzzle comes together. CS leaders cant just deliver results on heroics, they need excellence in CS systems. Relying on heroic individual efforts isn’t sustainable. CS needs the right systems, tools, and data to operate at scale. Real-time product insights aren’t a nice-to-have—they’re a must. Excellence in systems, not just effort, is what will drive success in the age of usage. CS leaders have a tough job. So help them help you. Whether it’s investing in tools, aligning teams, or driving a culture of customer-centricity, the better your CS function, the stronger your business. 

🚨 The Hard Truth About Customer Success (aka as what I learned from looking in the mirror this past week) Here’s the uncomfortable truth: Most Customer Success Managers today aren’t really "doing" Customer Success. They’re often running renewals. They’re starting to chase expansions. They’re still solving tickets/customer issues. That’s Account Management in disguise, versus a healthy blend of the two disciplines (CSM+AM). And now comes the bigger challenge: AI is coming for those motions. 🩺 Health scores to help predict renewals? Automated. 📬 “How are things going?” emails to source for risk and growth opportunities? Automated. 📈 Data gathering and reporting to determine how well we're engaging and solving problems? Automated. If your CSM team is built around defensive renewals and low-value tasks, the future is clear: AI will do it faster, cheaper, and better. And as I looked in the mirror, I had to wonder: ⁉️ Is this what I've asked my CSM team to do this year? ⚡ So what should great CS leaders do next (aka get real with yourself, David)? To thrive in the AI era, Customer Success has to evolve: 1️⃣ Redesign roles around outcomes, not tasks. Make your CSMs strategic advisors who link product use to business value. Have I teed up our CSMs to speak to the core business impact of our product and solutions? 2️⃣ Build change management muscle. Train teams to drive adoption across complex organizations, not just manage accounts. Our customers need to think differently to make the most of our unique insights, and our teams need tools, playbooks, and space to help enable and drive that change. 3️⃣ Automate the “busy work.” Embrace AI to handle reporting, nudges, and playbook triggers so your people can focus where machines can’t. We've started that process, and now is the time to double down. 4️⃣ Elevate your metrics. Track ROI delivered, time-to-value, and advocacy, not just NPS or renewal risk. Again, we've started this process but need to ensure it gets priority against all the other competing pressures that pull on our amazing CSMs time. 5️⃣ Develop future-ready skills. Upskill your team in storytelling, financial fluency, and consultative leadership. These are the differentiators AI can’t replace. 🏁 The challenge for all of us. Stop rebranding Account Management as Customer Success, and vice versa. I'm more convinced than ever these two disciplines converge (QUICKLY) when it's the right fit for your GTM. It's the journey we are on at DISQO. And when your GTM doesn't call for it, stop pretending. Start building teams that engineer outcomes into the customer journey. Because here’s the reality: AI won’t kill Customer Success. Complacency will. #CustomerSuccess #Leadership #AI #FutureOfWork #CreateTheFuture #GrowthMindset #DigitalTransformation #CustomerExperience #Innovation #BusinessOutcomes

Customer Success Managers who only manage relationships will be replaced. Customer Success Managers who manage value will become irreplaceable. That’s the shift happening right now. For years, CS was measured on: -QBRs delivered -Tickets resolved -NPS scores “Strong relationships” But here’s what’s changing... Executives don’t want activity. They want durable revenue. Now, Customer Success is being pulled closer to: • Net Revenue Retention • Expansion targets • Gross churn reduction • Lifetime Value And AI is accelerating this shift. - Reporting? Automated. - Health scores? Automated. - Usage dashboards? Automated. So what’s left for the CSM? 1. Translating customer behavior into revenue strategy. 2. Quantifying risk before churn happens. 3. Identifying expansion paths tied to business outcomes. 4. Feeding product and pricing teams with monetizable insight. This is the rise of the Value Manager. Not a relationship coordinator. Not a reactive firefighter. Not a post-sale support buffer. A revenue strategist embedded in the customer lifecycle. Because here’s the uncomfortable truth: Relationships open doors. Value keeps contracts. The CSMs who thrive in the next 3–5 years will: • Speak in retention impact, not sentiment. • Frame feedback in revenue exposure, not frustration. • Model expansion opportunities, not just suggest them. • Influence product and pricing with financial language. Customer Success is no longer about being liked. It’s about being financially indispensable. So the real question is: Are you managing accounts… Or governing predictable growth? #CustomerSuccess #RevenueRetention #NetRevenueRetention #SaaSLeadership #CSLeadership #ValueRealization #ExpansionRevenue #B2BStrategy

After 15+ years in Customer Success, across SMB, Mid-Market, and Enterprise, I can say this with confidence: They are three completely different jobs. Even though we use the same title. We should not use the same playbook. SMB is about velocity and scale. High volume. Short lifecycles. Automation-first. Success comes from product-led experiences, clean segmentation, and removing friction before a human ever gets involved. If something breaks, churn doesn’t wait for a QBR. It shows up next month or even tomorrow. Mid-Market is the hardest segment to run well. You’re balancing growth and risk at the same time. You need process, but you also need judgment. Customers want guidance, not hand-holding. You’re expected to drive outcomes while managing a portfolio that’s too big to treat every account like Enterprise and too valuable to treat like SMB. Enterprise is not customer support. It’s not even traditional Customer Success. It’s strategic account leadership. You are navigating complex orgs with competing priorities. Legal, security, finance, IT, procurement, and executives all have a vote. Your job is alignment. Trust. Business impact. One renewal can take months. One expansion can define a year. Here’s the failure point I see over and over: Companies design one Customer Success model and expect it to work across all segments. Same KPIs. Same job description. Same tooling. Same expectations. That’s how you get burned-out CSMs and confused customers. Each segment demands different strengths: SMB needs builders of systems and automation. Mid-Market needs operators who can prioritize and influence. Enterprise needs strategists with executive presence and patience. There is no “best” segment. Only the one that matches how you think and how you work. Some people thrive on speed and scale. Some thrive on relationships and problem-solving. Some thrive on complexity and long-term impact. Strong CS organizations don’t force one model everywhere. They respect the game being played. Know your segment. Design for it. Hire for it. Measure it properly. That’s how Customer Success actually works. #customersuccess #leadership #saas #enterprise #midmarket #smb #retention #growth #careers #scaling

Customer Success Is Entering Its Strategic Era Customer Success is no longer fighting for legitimacy. It is fighting for clarity. As organizations mature, the question is no longer whether CS matters. The question is whether leaders are willing to let it operate as a strategic function instead of a reactive one. The future of Customer Success will be defined by three shifts. First, CS will move from account management to value orchestration. The strongest teams will stop tracking usage in isolation and start translating adoption into business outcomes that executives actually care about. Second, CS will become a primary signal for business health. Not through anecdotal feedback, but through disciplined operating models that connect customer behavior to revenue risk and opportunity early. Third, CS leaders will be expected to influence decisions far beyond their department. Product prioritization. Go to market strategy. Retention forecasting. CS will no longer be downstream. It will be embedded. Customer Success is becoming less about service and more about stewardship. Organizations that recognize this will scale with intention. Those that do not will continue to mislabel CS as a cost instead of a growth lever. #CustomerSuccess #CSLeadership #FutureOfCustomerSuccess #RevenueLeadership #ExecutiveLeadership #CS2026

Customer Success is a revenue function. Stop treating it like a help desk. For too many SaaS companies, CS has become the department of "did you turn it on and off again?" — then leadership wonders why retention is suffering. The most successful organizations I've worked with take a fundamentally different approach: they build Customer Success with the same rigor as their sales organization. Here's how forward-thinking CS leaders are making this shift: 1️⃣. Reframing onboarding as value acceleration, not feature training When a new customer joins, the focus shouldn't be "here's how to navigate our UI." It should be "here's how we'll help you achieve the business outcome you purchased us for." The best CS teams are scrapping feature-focused training for value-focused activation that connects directly to ROI. 2️⃣. Running discovery as deep as sales does Elite CS organizations don't accept the sales handoff at face value. They conduct their own thorough discovery to uncover the true business objectives behind the purchase. This allows them to create success plans that address actual priorities rather than assumed ones. 3️⃣. Building a renewal pipeline with the same discipline as sales Assuming renewals will happen is the fastest path to churn. Top CS functions forecast renewals using objective data: stakeholder engagement, milestone achievement, and demonstrated business impact. They track timelines, decision paths, and apply the same forecasting rigor sales teams use for new deals. 4️⃣. Measuring outcomes, not activity Login counts and feature usage don't convince CFOs to renew. Business impact does. Progressive CS teams are shifting from product usage metrics to business outcome metrics: time saved, revenue influenced, costs reduced. 5️⃣. Developing commercial acumen in CS teams Renewal conversations are business discussions, not friendship check-ins. The best CS leaders invest in teaching their teams how to handle procurement objections, negotiate effectively, and recognize early warning signs. --- Is your Customer Success function built to maintain licenses or drive business growth? When customers consider whether to renew your solution, they ask one question: "Did this make us more successful than we would have been without it?" Not "Was our CSM responsive?" Not "Did we use all the features?" Not "Were the QBRs well-organized?" Revenue impact. That's the bar.

The next wave of SaaS growth will be led by Customer Success. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been sharing a belief that’s only getting stronger. The VP of Customer Success will be one of the highest-paid execs in SaaS within 5 years. Here’s why, and how the smartest companies are preparing for it. 1. The Case for Change Acquisition alone isn’t enough anymore. CAC is rising, sales cycles are lengthening, and competition is multiplying. Meanwhile, the largest and most profitable revenue opportunities live after the first deal. ~ Renewals ~ Upsells ~ Cross-sells ~ Advocacy-driven referrals Yet most org charts still place CS below the revenue line, without the tools, budget, or headcount to match their impact. 2. The Revenue Team of the Future The companies that win will unite Sales, CS, and RevOps into one revenue team. ~ Shared targets for NRR, not just ARR ~ Unified tech stack and data flows ~ One GTM leader accountable for both new and expansion revenue ~ Compensation plans rewarding total customer value growth No more silos or handoff black holes, just a single, coordinated strategy. 3. The Playbook for Earning a Seat CS leaders who want that seat at the GTM table need to speak the language of revenue (NRR, expansion ARR, churn impact). ~ Own a number, and beat it consistently ~ Get involved in late-stage deals to plant expansion seeds early ~ Build trust across Sales, RevOps, and Marketing ~ Bring hard data, not anecdotes 4. From Support to Strategy Customer Success isn’t a cost center, it’s a growth center. When given revenue accountability, resources, and a voice in GTM strategy, CS transforms from reactive to predictive. ~ Retention becomes a competitive moat ~ Expansion becomes forecastable ~ Advocacy becomes a repeatable channel 5. The Competitive Advantage Retention is more than a metric, it’s a barrier to entry. The stickier your customers, the harder it is for competitors to touch you, and the earlier you make this shift, the bigger your compounding advantage becomes. The future of SaaS growth won’t be owned by teams that can only win new business, it will be owned by revenue leaders who can keep and grow the customers they’ve already earned. ---------------------- Hey, I’m Nicholas 👋 I run Lucidly, the Customer Intelligence Platform for post-sale revenue growth. I post every weekday morning (8:30am PST) about retention, expansion, and building a SaaS from the ground up. Follow for ideas you can put to work the same day. DM anytime.

Is Customer Success... dead? Not quite. But the ground beneath it is shifting. Here’s what CS professionals are saying right now: ❝ I'm tired of feeling like glorified customer support. ❞ ❝ CS isn't being valued as a growth engine anymore. ❞ ❝ I don’t even know what the role will look like in 3 years. ❞ Let’s call it what it is: → Budgets are tighter → Layoffs are hitting CS teams first → And leadership is struggling to define clear CS ROI So what happens next? Here’s what I think: 1. CS isn’t going away. But it is evolving. It’s moving closer to RevOps, Sales, and even Product. (Success = retention = revenue → and revenue wins every boardroom) 2. The “generalist CSM” is fading fast. Specialists will rise. → CSMs with data skills → CSMs who can upsell → CSMs who own a number 3. Titles will change. Metrics will sharpen. Roles will blend. CS of the future? Think “Revenue Enablement” not “Support-lite.” If you’re in CS now? → Learn GTM. → Learn how to talk pipeline. → Learn how to measure impact beyond “happy customers.” CS isn’t dying. It’s just maturing. The question is: Are you evolving with it?

Customer Success in 2025 will be simple: evolve or become obsolete The CS playbook from last decade won’t cut it anymore. Here are my bold predictions for 2025 that will shake up CS as we know it: 1. NPS will finally die (about time) Leaders will realize that chasing a vanity metric from early 2000s is as useful as a fax machine in 2025. Instead, CS will obsess over predictive & actionable metrics- CES, health scores & retention rates. Outcomes over opinions- because if you can’t tie it to churn, ARR or expansion, it’s irrelevant. 2. "Customer success generalist" is done No more “jack-of-all-trades CSMs” juggling implementation, renewals, support & therapy sessions. CS orgs will demand specialized skills: implementation pros (maybe with tech knowledge), revenue experts, outcome gurus. Efficiency & scale demand experts, with depth & skills. 3. Tech stacks will explode with AI-first tools (already happening!) AI will dominate the CS tech stack, automating mundane tasks (bye-bye manual reports & decks), predicting churn faster than your gut ever could & guiding onboarding with precision. Human CSMs? They’ll focus on strategic relationships, deep business discovery, with AI feeding them the play-by-play. Think co-pilots & assistants, not replacements. 4. The headcount bloat is over Boards & CFOs will demand leaner teams with measurable ROI. ARR per CSM will become the gold standard. If your team can’t justify its cost with retention & expansion dollars, you’re on the chopping block. Efficiency & tact is the new empathy. 5. CS will "own" more revenue responsibility The days of being a cost center are gone. CS will step into revenue accountability - renewing, cross-selling, upselling & driving expansions like seasoned sales pros. Your job isn’t just “making customers happy”; it’s success which means - growing their accounts & your ARR. In case the contract negotiation cycles are long & detailed - another team could take away the operational aspects (till AI replaces that). 6. Most Q/E Business Reviews will go extinct Customers are done wasting time on generic, PowerPoint-laden QBRs/ EBRs. In 2025, value will be delivered in "real-time" via automated reporting, interactive dashboards & strategic "1-conversation-at-a-time" approaches. If your 'X'BR doesn’t feel indispensable, don’t bother. 7. Pricing models will be based on value & outcome Value/ outcome is why a purchase happens & in 2025 that will define how customers buy/ renew/ expand. Value/ outcome based pricing models instead of flat rates defined by access. What does this mean for you? If your CS org is stuck in 2023, you’re in trouble. It’s time to unlearn old habits, stop chasing fluffy metrics & start operating like a growth engine. 2025 won’t wait for you to figure it out. Which of these predictions will define CS in 2025? What’s missing? Block 1:1 coaching for your CS 2025 Strategy & Plan- https://lnkd.in/gjQxGq7f #CustomerSuccess #B2BSaaS #Predictions #CSLeadership #Founders

Customer Success is heading into 2026 with an identity crisis. AI is taking work off the table. Other departments are pulling pieces of the role. Layoffs are coming left, right and centre as CS is viewed as a cost centre. And our customers are already asking whether they’ll get a human or a bot on the other end. If we don’t define what CS is right now, the market will do it for us, and not in our favour. That’s what's been the focus for my Customer Success 2026 Playbook. It’s not theory. It’s not another list of “top tips.” It’s the six things every CS and Revenue leader needs to tackle if they actually want to win the next 12–18 months: ✅ Renewal probability over health scores ✅ AI used to give time back, not pile more accounts on ✅ Evolving QBRs to become live Success Plans ✅ Treating NPS as a living confidence signal ✅ Making LTV the North Star ✅ And the big one, CS reclaiming its identity This isn’t about dashboards or buzzwords. It’s about whether the function survives the AI wave or drifts back into “relationship management” while the rest of the org moves on. And it's why I'm not hiding this behind a paywall or a sign up page. Because the CS community works best when we are all taking each others ideas, plans, theories and adopting them to give us the best possible results for our teams and, ultimately, our customers. Which of the six do you think will be the toughest for CS teams to actually execute? Anything you think we should focus on for 2026 that I didn't highlight?Let me know!