Customer Success KPIs: What CSMs Need to Know
There are too many customer success KPIs to track at once. Learn which matter most and how to roll usage, adoption, NPS, and sentiment into one success score.
TL;DR
- The core problem with customer success KPIs is that there are too many data points (NPS, churn, revenue retention, usage) to track and prioritize at once.
- The solution is a single Customer Success Score that combines multiple KPIs, including product usage rates, user adoption, NPS and feedback, contact engagement, and account sentiment and health.
- A single score answers "how are our customers doing?" at a glance and can be shared across the organization without extra context.
How does your CSM team measure success? Whether you’re working with large enterprise customers or smaller startups, the metrics you use will be the same. Customer success teams rely heavily on KPIs and success identifiers to understand if they provide the right level of support and attention to their customers. If your team is still trying to figure out which KPIs are suitable for your customers, here is what you need to know NOW.
The problem
If there is one identifiable problem with customer success KPIs, it is that there are just too many data points out there. From NPS to churn rates to revenue retention to product usage rates, dozens of metrics can be used to develop KPIs for a customer success team. The questions arise when it comes to measuring and monitoring these KPIs.
*How can we track all of these at once? *
*Which KPIs are the most critical? *
How can we prioritize these data points?
It’s important to realize that these are questions that nearly all customer success teams have at one point or another. Of course, you’re most likely measuring all of these metrics and dutifully tracking when a customer changes course. But how do you know which KPIs truly measure things like customer sentiment, customer health, and, of course, customer retention?
The solution
Modern customer success teams need a single source of truth that shows a customer’s overall health and success with a glance. This Customer Success Score should take into account multiple KPIs, including:
- Product and platform usage rates
- User adoption percentages
- User feedback and NPS
- Customer contact engagement
- Customer sentiment and account health
With a single customer success “score” that considers all of the above KPIs and more, customer success managers (as well as team leaders, department heads, and executive team members) can have a clear, concise answer to the question “how are our customers doing?”. Additionally, this Customer Success Score can be shared across your organization, and anyone can understand exactly what the score means without needing any background information or additional context points.
Today’s SaaS organizations rely heavily on strong foundational customers, and building a corporate culture of customer success is one of the building blocks behind this mentality. By incorporating a Customer Success Score into your overarching customer strategy, your team can make the most of the KPIs available while making customer success approachable and understandable across your organization.
How is your team managing your customer success KPIs?
Once you know what KPIs matter most to your organization, customers, and team, you can develop your Customer Success Score to measure and track customers. You can get more insights on customer success KPIs and the metrics your team should be tracking with these additional resources from ClientSuccess:
- Webinar:5 Metrics that Matter to Customer Success and Product Teams
- eBook: Ultimate Guide to Customer Success Metrics
- Toolkit: Customer Success Metrics Toolkit
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Frequently Asked Questions
What KPIs should customer success teams track?
Why do customer success teams struggle with KPIs?
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