3 things Customer Success Leaders Must Have

The role of CS Leaders in scaling up CS Teams 

Scaling Customer Success requires strong leadership. 

Stakeholders hesitate to scale Customer Success. Despite the proven value it delivers, there’s still little understanding of what it does and how it works in a business. This leads to difficulties for Customer Success leaders to promote scaling up the CS Team, especially when they, too, lack Customer Success leadership experience as the field is still relatively new. 

Customer Success benefits an organization in so many ways than one. It retains its customers, understands them and brings exactly what they want, identifies opportunities for account growth and product enhancement, and much more. To do all this, a Customer Success team focuses on implementing the right strategies at the right moment. Here, a Customer Success leader glues the CS team to the organization’s goals and influences their ability to generate measurable outcomes. They communicate their company’s vision and make sure everyone is on the same page. But, what does a Customer Success leader require to do all this? 

1. The full support of the Senior Leaders 

It is important to remember that not all organizations have the full support of their senior leaders, which is a critical factor in determining how much of an influence your department can make within the company. Sometimes it comes from the lack of experience of a CS Leader but solving this lack of support is not impossible. 

A Customer Success leader must gain recognition from stakeholders for the importance of Customer Success within the company. For that, trust plays a massive role in influencing these senior decision-makers. To earn their confidence, you must show value just like how Customer Success Managers illustrate it to customers; you must be able to communicate how the department is working to help the company get closer to its goals through measurable KPIs that matter. 

Learn more on some Essential KPIs in Customer Success here: https://practicalcsm.com/6-essential-kpis-in-customer-success/. 

2. Authority and independence 

Once the stakeholders trust a CS Leader, they gain control of the CS department’s budget and decision-making without the need to report it to others. This freedom and authority then improve the efficiency of the approval and implementation of CS strategies.  

With this authority, the CS Leader is fully responsible for achieving the business’s target outcomes that, when reached, further improve the department’s standing within the organization and gain more support from the senior leaders. Hence, the selection of SMART KPIs is very crucial to have meaningful targets that are taken seriously by the business decision-makers.   

3. Appropriate systems and processes 

A Customer Success team is more efficient with tools, but not just any kind of tools. It should also be tailored to the needs of a team, including systems, processes, frameworks, training, and development. Without the right one, a CS department would be left having to do more work rather than having more customer interaction. If this happens, it would be devastating to the CS department as, rather than driving revenue, you are making the company lose more money.  

Hence, it is important to take your time and identify what your department truly needs and begin searching for the best solution, whether it be automation, such as for emails, a framework like our very own Customer Success Framework, or training for teams. Before going out and purchasing and implementing anything, consider its benefit and how it helps your CS Team.  

Should you wish to know more about Customer Success Team training, check out: https://practicalcsm.com/practical-csm-academy-for-teams/.