5 Steps to Starting a Customer Success Team

Most founders and owners know that customer retention, renewals, and upsells are critical to growth - but figuring out how to structure a Customer Success (CS) team can feel overwhelming.

The fear of the unknown and the ‘what ifs’ can often be the biggest reason founders hesitate to start building their customer success (CS) team.

• "I want to start, but where do I even begin without making costly mistakes?"
• "What if building a CS team is harder than I think?"
• "Do I even know enough about customer success to make it work?"
• "Is our churn problem really big enough to focus on, or am I overthinking it?"
• "What if I invest in CS and still lose customers?"

But it doesn’t need to be this way.

Nearly everything in life has a recipe. Whether it’s getting fit, building wealth, or climbing the Everest, there is always a formula - a clear roadmap - to get you to the next level.

And building your customer success practice is no different.  

There’s absolutely a clear, step-by-step customer success approach to increasing retention, upsells and loyalty.

…avoiding the trap of uncertainty that often leads to procrastination, wasted time, and decisions that hold your business back.

It's called The Customer Method™ and I build it for our private clients and Academy members to help them build and scale a high-performing CS team as they go through each step with confidence.

There are 5 key steps. Let’s break it down:

Step 1: Set the Fundamentals

Start with a solid foundation:

• Assess your current state to identify gaps and opportunities.
• Define key metrics (KPIs), segment your customers, and create a team charter to guide your company through the next stages of the transformation with clarity.

Step 2: Strengthen Your Customer Value Proposition

Clearly articulate and deliver your unique value to customers to help them maximize value and see a stronger ROI.

• Enhance and clearly outline your client value proposition
• Define your Customer Value KPIs
• Align your cross-functional teams to consistently communicate and deliver that value.

Step 3: Design and Launch a Proactive Engagement Model

Anticipate customer needs instead of reacting to them.

• Map the customer journey to ensure you’re addressing their needs and reinforcing the value of your solution.
• Build playbooks for proactive outreach during key lifecycle moments, such as onboarding, adoption, and renewal.

Step 4: Improve Your Financial Performance

Retention is the backbone of growth.

• Ensure your team is prepared to address challenges before they become problems using our unique customer healthscore design process.
• Develop system that identifies at-risk accounts early and analyzing churn reasons effectively
• Use renewal strategies that focus on increasing your financial position with each renewal cycle

Step 5: Expand Your Customer Coverage with a Systematic Approach

Scaling your CS efforts requires the right tools and processes.

• Leverage technology, templates, and clear guidelines to streamline operations.
• Use automation to expand customer engagement without overloading your team.
• Ensure a systematic approach that allows you to increase your customer coverage while maintaining quality.

Most founders are stuck in a reactive mode. They’re either not seeing much impact on renewals or upsells, or they’ve got a whole segment of smaller customers they’re not even engaging with.

Not by choice. Simply because they aren't sure what their next step is. 

That’s why we’ve removed all the guesswork for our Academy members - It includes a clear roadmap with checklists on how to move through these five steps and drive meaningful growth for your business.

To building a high performing Customer Success practice more quickly, fewer resources and with confidence.

So, if you’re ready to take action, I’d love to help you map out a customized CS plan for your business.

Book a free CS Strategy Call, and we’ll:

1️⃣ Uncover the biggest obstacle holding you back.

2️⃣ Map out your current state and your goals for the future.

3️⃣ Develop a tailored five-step plan to achieve faster, measurable results.

Book your call: Click here

All my best,

Irit