How to Structure a High-Performing Customer Success Team

Customer Success (CS) teams are vital to any business, adding significant value by helping customers find ROI with the product, boosting retention rates, and contributing to revenue growth. Structuring a successful customer success team to maximize their impact begins at the foundational level, ensuring they are set up for success from the start. Successfully structuring a high performing team includes defining clear roles and implementing customer-centric culture.

Define Clear Roles and Responsibilities

A well-structured Customer Success department begins with clearly defined roles and responsibilities. Each team member plays a crucial part in achieving overall goals and serves as the foundation for a successful team. Essential roles to advance a dynamic team include:

• Chief Customer Officer (CCO): The highest role of this department. The CCO will be responsible for collaborating with the executive board to create and implement strategies for the customer success team. 
• Vice President of Customer Success: This role, similar to the CCO, will work on the development and implementation of strategies and put them into place along with the CCO. The VP will also work on assessing customer journeys, reporting and gathering insights on processes and programs that are working well within the CS organization.
• Director of Customer Success: The director strengthens customer relationships by anticipating and advocating for their needs while overseeing the management and support of internal team members.
• Customer Success Manager (CSM): The primary point of contact for customers, working one on one to guide them through the customer journey. They will advocate for and anticipate the customers' business needs.
• Customer Success Operations: This person oversees team workflow and procedures to maintain efficiency, assists team members in enhancing their performance and goal achievement, and implements an early warning system for potential problems.

Implementing a Customer-Centric Culture

Building a strong foundation for your Customer Success team is essential for success. Customer Success is not just a department but a mindset that should resonate throughout the entire organization. As the first point of contact for most customers, the CS team must accurately reflect the brand, values, and loyalty necessary to establish strong customer relationships. Setting up high performance CS teams starts within the organization, two important first steps will include:

• Training & Development: Implement regular training to keep your team up to date on new processes, enablement tools and best practices. 
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Ensure that all internal teams (CS, Sales, Marketing, Product) are aligned on new developments, policies and product launches to get the best outcome for approaching the customer.