Customer Success Has an Identity Crisis

The role of the CSM continues to evolve but what has remained is the ambiguity in what it means to be a customer success manager for many CS organizations.

A misconception that a CSM should take on the role of a superhero that should do whatever is necessary to make the customer successful is wrong.

This Superhero mentality has perpetuated the identity crisis of the CSM. It's causing burnout and team morale issues.

Speakers from the Pulse event shared their thoughts:

• Austin Kwon from box mentioned that their CSMs had somewhat of an identity crisis. They re-tooled the team to focus on client outcomes.
• Cassie Young from Sailthru implemented time tracking for the CSM team. Cassie now has a much better grasp of what her team is doing.
• Tim Sedwitz and Lauren Crocett from the Yext team outlined how they retired the CSM Swiss Army knife mentality.