Rethinking Customer Success in 2024
Dec 12, 2023
The tides are changing for Customer Success.
For years, many companies viewed CS as a soft function - a feel-good team that makes customers happy. But the economic downturn has exposed a hard truth: happy customers alone don’t justify CS budgets.
As leaders scrutinize spends, Customer Success must prove its strategic worth. Those unable to connect CS outcomes to revenue growth and business health will struggle to earn ongoing investment.
2023 began revealing who really understands the concrete impact of Customer Success. The leaders doubling down have aligned CS around clear performance charters with measurable targets:
Increased customer retention and expansion
Higher lifetime value and share of wallet
Shorter time-to-value and faster adoption
They can also quantify the lift CS delivers on revenue and margins. They know the hard ROI.
Most importantly, their customers recognize the real benefits - the business value they derive from strategic Customer Success programs. From onboarding to adoption to renewals and advocacy, customers connect the dots to their own objectives.
2024 brings an inflection point. Business leaders can no longer afford vague definitions of Customer Success tied to fuzzy emotions like satisfaction or happiness.
To step up as strategic partners, CS teams must realign around customer and company health, not superficial surveys. They must speak the language of revenue expansion, ROI, reduced churn and greater wallet share.
The economic tide has receded, exposing those still stuck in outdated thinking. 2024 calls Customer Success leaders to actively showcase CS’ financial impact. With clear charters, robust analytics and a customer-first mindset focused on agreed outcomes, they can earn a valued seat at the executive table.
The time is now to redefine Customer Success as a revenue function and demonstrate how CS accelerates growth. Leaders not seizing this moment risk being left behind.
