For most startups, and particularly SaaS startups, having a strong Customer Success team is crucial for customer retention — and a prosperous future.
But great Customer Success teams don’t happen by mistake. Startups must intentionally and diligently implement strategies for building and maintaining a first-class Customer Success team — one that will serve both customers and the business well.
So, how do you get there? What is the ideal Customer Success team setup for startups? We’ll look at some of the key points your business should focus on when creating and managing a thriving Customer Success team.
First things first: Make a plan. When creating your Customer Success plan, you will need to determine your needs and answer some critical questions. These include:
Once you understand your business’s specific needs and can answer these questions, you can create a plan that highlights your approach.
Once you have your roadmap for Customer Success, it’s time to put the team together.
According to Nick Mehta, the founder and CEO of Gainsight and an early champion of Customer Success, companies should hire Customer Success Managers (CSMs) when they have reached 15 to 25 employees. However, depending on your business, product, and customer demographic, this may need to happen sooner.
When you determine the point at which your startup needs to take on dedicated Customer Success employees, it’s crucial to hire smart. You need team players who can communicate clearly — not only about your product, but also about your customers’ goals.
Mehta says he considers what qualities a CSM should have based on whether the product is a horizontal or vertical solution with a high or low average sales price. For example:
Horizontal Solution | Vertical Solution | |
High ASP |
Strategic (often ex-consultant) |
Domain expert (often hired from domain) |
Low ASP |
Hungry (often first position in tech) |
Technical (often from SE/IT) |
You’ve created your Customer Success plan and you know what qualities you want in Customer Success hires. Now is a prime time to consider what processes can be automated. This is key: It allows you to use simple tools to carry the weight of certain tasks, which in turn helps maintain your budget by not over-hiring and keeps your team focused on the areas in which their skills are best utilized.
What should you automate? The amount you automate should be determined by the nature of your customer base and the tools at your disposal. For example, HubSpot built its Customer Success model based on the buyer’s journey the company mapped to the target buyer personas identified in its planning phase.
HubSpot suggests asking these questions to determine what can be automated:
Before scaling Customer Success, be clear on how you want the organizational structure to function. There is no hard-and-fast rule for this: Growth Consultant and Customer Success specialist Lincoln Murphy says, “It doesn’t really matter where Customer Success reports … culture comes first, and then structure.” Scaling will be much easier if you have repeatable processes in place as part of the system you set up.
A few core business metrics can determine what will trigger scaling. Dave Blake, a former Adobe executive and the CEO and founder of ClientSuccess, recommends the following as important considerations:
And don’t forget your budget: To keep scaling cost-effective, consider the benefits of remote teams and offshoring. For example, you can hire two offshore team members for the cost of one in your local market, allowing you to double your support while slowing your cash burn.
The makeup and structure of an ideal Customer Success team will vary between startups. Use the lessons and research of those who have had success to pave the way for your journey, but know that your path will be — and should be — uniquely yours to walk.
Bolton Remote is an experienced partner to startups at every level who need to streamline their customer success capabilities.