How to Drive Customer Success at Scale

The generalist CSM model is becoming outdated. As customer needs grow more complex and outcome-driven, leading organizations are restructuring their Customer Success teams with specialized roles, smarter coverage models, and scalable engagement strategies to meet the moment. We’ve already seen the shift toward scaling Customer Success—now, we’re witnessing a new evolution: delivering high-touch, personalized experiences at scale. This transformation is accelerating the move away from the generalist CSM model. Here’s what we're seeing: 🔹 Strategic Value-based CSMs → Focus: Executive alignment, business outcomes, long-term value realization → Look for: Consultative thinkers, commercial acumen, relationship builders with enterprise experience 🔹 Adoption/Product Consultants → Focus: Driving usage, behavior change, and time-to-value → Look for: Enablement, change management, persona-based engagement 🔹 Technical Advisors → Focus: Deep technical guidance, product integration, onboarding success → Look for: Product depth, cross-functional collaboration, IT & DevOps fluency 🔹 Renewal Analysts → Focus: Churn prediction, risk mitigation, contract forecasting → Look for: Data-savvy, RevOps fluent, outcome-oriented The Shift in Models: From 1:1 to Scalable Coverage Organizations are also moving from traditional 1:1 account ownership to specialized and shared coverage models to drive efficiency and outcomes across the full customer base: 🔸 Dedicated (1:1): Best for top Strategic/Enterprise accounts needing white-glove services/custom planning 🔸 Pooled/Pod Models: Shared CSM resources based on triggers (e.g., lifecycle stage, risk signals), supported by playbooks and automation 🔸 Digital-Led: Tech-touch engagements at scale, powered by AI, in-product guidance, success centers, and lifecycle campaigns 🔸 Hybrid Models: Blend high-touch and digital support based on customer segmentation, value potential, or complexity Why Make the Shift? Because expecting one person to be a product expert, change manager, data analyst, and executive whisperer is unrealistic. Why condition your customers to expect high-touch support across every product—often delivered inconsistently—when you can instead scale the right expertise, at the right moment, through the right channels? Specialized roles and right-fit coverage models enable teams to scale effectively, align to customer needs, reduce burnout, and ultimately drive retention and growth. How is your team evolving to meet modern customer expectations? Which role or model has made the biggest impact? #CustomerSuccess #CSMStrategy #OrgDesign #DigitalCS #Scale #Leadership #PostSalesTransformation #CustomerExperience

Customer Success Leaders—If you're not actively shaping the Product Roadmap, you're missing a critical opportunity. The most effective organizations don’t treat CS as a participant—they rely on it as a strategic partner. Product teams should be co-designing the future with their customers. That means: ✅ Understanding emerging use cases and evolving needs ✅ Enhancing the product based on real customer insights ✅ Prioritizing with business impact and revenue in mind In today’s market—where consolidation, cost-cutting, and efficiency are top priorities—building a product that truly solves business challenges is the difference between success and irrelevance. So, how do you drive better alignment between CS and Product? Here’s what I've seen work: 1️⃣ Lead with Data & Insights -Identify the most adopted and least adopted product features -Pinpoint where customers are dropping off and why -Find personas and use cases that drive the most value -Look for patterns and trends across your customer base 2️⃣ Support Data with Customer Stories -Conduct interviews and surveys to capture direct feedback -Dive into workflows and edge cases to understand nuances -Align product evolution with customer goals and business objectives 3️⃣ Prioritize Product Feedback Strategically -Leverage customer data to rank impact and urgency -Tie feedback to revenue—renewals, expansions, and upsells -Ensure recommendations align with the broader product vision 4️⃣ Maintain an Open Dialogue -Establish a structured collaboration rhythm (bi-weekly syncs, Slack channels, shared roadmaps) -Keep all teams informed on designs, timelines, and priorities -Be clear, concise, and adaptable—Product is balancing competing priorities across the org 5️⃣ Close the Loop—Every Time -Set clear expectations with customers early and often -Enable Product teams to engage directly with customers for firsthand learning -Continue gathering feedback even after launch (beta programs, customer advisory boards) At the end of the day, great products are built by teams who stay close to the customer. CS should not be a passive observer in product development—it should be a driving force. When you get this right, you influence retention, expansion, and advocacy. And that’s a business win. __________________ 📣 If you liked my post, you’ll love my newsletter. Every week I share learnings, advice and strategies from my experience going from CSM to CCO. Join 12k+ subscribers of The Journey and turn insights into action. Sign up on my profile.

Triggers are the secret in Scaled Customer Success, but not the triggers you think. We shouldn't be spending so much time looking for triggers that an account is in danger. Like I said last week, that's too late. Instead, we should look for triggers to expand usage. Customer did a manual task 5 times? Tell them about your automation tools. Customer added someone with a sales title to the account for the first time? Time to highlight sales features they've never needed before. Customer acquires another company? Remind them about your onboarding programs. Customer sends a massive email for the first time? Invite them to an email deliverability workshop. These offers won't just help your customers, they'll also be more likely to be read and opened and acted on because the customer has an acute need in that moment. There are so many amazing triggers left on the table because we're focused on saving customers instead of setting them up for success and helping them grow in the moments when they both most need it and are most receptive!

Customer success has been overcomplicated. Here's what it actually is... An organizational skillset focused on measuring and improving customers' results with your product. (My friend Dave J. calls it an "organizational capability" which I love). Here are the six steps of a complete customer success motion: 1/ Analyze Gather and analyze customer results. Identify data points that are a proxy for the results your customers are getting. Hint: go check out your pricing page. What's the most prevalent "value metric" you can find? Start with that. 2/ Benchmark Compare results across groups of similar customers (cohorts). Yes, you'll need someone focused on this. Working closely with customer-facing experts (CSMs, Services, Support) to get it right. 3/ Communicate Communicate results and benchmarks to each customer. Not just to your champion and day-to-day users, send a brief summary to your economic sponsors, too. How high or low-touch this is depends on your unit economics. 4/ Consult Provide recommendations on how to improve results. Personalize this to the extent you can afford to. Customers too small to meet with each on individually? Build a dashboard in your product or send the customer an automated progress report email with their metrics. Facilitate recurring webinars to discuss and share best practices amongst customers. Again, adjust according to unit economics. 5/ Assist Help customers implement changes that will improve their results. Do it for them if you must. Charge them if you must. This might be a valuable professional service and a self-funding part of your business. 6/ Monitor Rinse and repeat this process. Keep measuring and monitoring customer results. -- Looks a lot like consulting, right? In a SaaS company our job is to do this at scale, for all of our customers. The implementation will be unique to your customers, user personas, go-to-market (price points, volume, etc.), team capabilities, and product and company maturity. But these are the core steps. Have you implemented something like this at scale? If so, tell me more👇 #customersuccess #saas Jay Nathan GrowthCurve

Warmly, went from 100 to 250+ paying customers in 2024 (3x ARR). Here how we (tried) to handle it building a repeatable Customer Success Motion: (& for the hyper-critical founder inside me: here’s how we transitioned from founder-led customer success to CSM-led success) Overview: ↳Q1: Founder Led CS, CS Leader Involved ↳Q2: CS Leader-Led CS, Founder Involved ↳Q3: CSM-Led CS, Founder Involved ↳Q4: CSM-Led CS, CS Leader Run Q1: Founder Led CS, CS Leader Involved ----- ↳👨👩👧👦Customers: 100-130 ↳🤬Problem: Eng team upset by bug reporting process (no repro steps! User error!) ↳💯Metric: Ticket resolution time ↳⚡️Strategies: set bug reporting standards, hire QA support, on-call engineer ↳❓Questions: (1) can we get back to our customers in a timely manner? (2) what are/can we solve 10 customer issues? ↳🛠️Tools:  Intercom (Help Center), Slack (customer communication) ↳🤠Who: Alan, CS Leader Ryan Q2: CS Leader-Led CS, Founder Involved ----- ↳👨👩👧👦Customers: 130-170 ↳🤬Problem: Customers were slow to get activated resulting in losing excitement ↳💯Metric: TTFV (Time to First Value) ↳⚡️Strategies: one-call onboardings, pre-onboarding pre-work for speed, align expectations with customer, create a dashboard charting activated customers ↳❓Questions: (1) can I get any renewals? (2) can I build trust with this CS leader to build a team around them? (3) are there happiest customer patterns?  ↳🛠️ Tools: Customer.io (Product Marketing), Loom (async scaling customer replies), Tourial (customer how-to playbooks) ↳🤠Who: Alan, Ryan, CSM (Nicole) Q3: CSM-Led CS, Founder Involved ----- ↳👨👩👧👦Customers: 170-210 ↳🤬Problem: CSM book size / capacity ↳💯Metric: # of Warmbound (our value metric - # of warm leads actioned) ↳⚡️ Strategies: asking customers if they plan to renew on every call, create superfan program to let customers evangelize us ↳❓Questions: (1) can our CS leader hit GRR & NRR renewal goals? (2) can we hire CS Operations abroad to help scale CSMs? (3) How big should book size be? ↳🛠️Tools: Pylon (scaled Slack support), Revops.io (upsell quotes), Warmly, Chatbot (customer live-in product alerts → chat with them) ↳🤠Who: Ryan, CSMs (Nicole, Kiran), Ops (Muhammad, Abeer), Alan Q4: CSM-Led CS, CS Leader Run ----- ↳👨👩👧👦Customers: 210-250 ↳🤬Problem: Decision makers won’t renew if they can’t easily attribute ROI ↳💯Metric: NRR ↳⚡️Strategies: QBRs + product vision from cofounders, post-sale multithreading (3+ contacts per account), no-meetings-day for CSM deep work ↳❓Questions: (1) can I (founder) step away from CS altogether? (2) can CSMs hit GRR & NRR renewal goals each month? (3) can CS leader drive upsells? ↳🛠️Tools: PostHog (customer session replies + analytics), Supademo (speedy fun customer tutorials), Retool (internal customer health dashboard), Warmly, Job Change Alerts (save accounts when champions leave) ↳🤠Who: Ryan, CSMs (Niki, Kiran), CS Ops (Ali, Abeer) ps. We're hiring for 2 Senior CSMs - apply now! #csm

What if your biggest growth opportunity isn’t in your sales pipeline, but in your post-sale experience? While most revenue teams obsess over lead volume and top-of-funnel performance, high-performing organizations are reallocating resources toward the one area most overlooked (and most profitable): customer retention. You’re not losing revenue because you can’t acquire customers; it’s because you can’t keep them. Customer experience, loyalty, and client services are no longer “support” functions. They’re strategic growth levers. And the cost of ignoring them is compounding: - Customer acquisition costs (CAC) are rising 60–75% - Churn is erasing pipeline gains before they hit the forecast - Siloed orgs are failing to act on critical post-sale insights Here’s how growth leaders are operationalizing customer-centricity to outpace competitors: ✅ Shift GTM strategy from funnel-filling to journey stewardship. Map the full customer lifecycle, then build cross-functional ownership for every phase beyond the sale. ✅ Hardwire retention into revenue models. Redefine revenue metrics: CLV, NRR, and CSAT become as critical as quota attainment. ✅ Turn customer success into a revenue function. Enable CS teams to identify expansion triggers, churn signals, and feedback loops that inform both product and GTM. ✅ Engineer feedback into daily operations. Surface real-time insights from support, community, and product usage–not quarterly surveys or lagging indicators. The companies doing this right see up to a 25% lift in renewals, 35% higher LTV, and customer referrals that shorten sales cycles by 30–50%. Want to build a revenue engine that scales and sustains? Start by asking: How are we designing for the customer after the contract is signed? Read the full post: https://lnkd.in/dY3Rxsc9 __________ For more on growth and building trust, check out my previous posts. Christine Alemany Join me on my journey, and let's build a more trustworthy world together. #Fintech #Strategy #Growth