If I had to build a Customer Success org from scratch today, here’s what I’d do. (And what I'd avoid.)

Customer Success today isn’t just about satisfaction; it’s about retention, growth, and trusted partnerships.

This is far from perfect, and I'm shooting from the hip here, but I think I qualify for this advise based on the experiences and successes that I had, working alongside brilliant teams. Here’s my blueprint:

Key Takeaways

• Start with Outcomes, Not Activities Before a single KPI is set, define what value customers need to see. Faster onboarding? Stronger adoption curves? Clearer ROI? You can’t measure what you don’t prioritize. And, you can't improve what you don't measure.

• Build Cross-Functional Bridges Early CS can’t operate in a silo. Day 1, I'd set standing collaboration between CS, Product, Sales, and Support. (I've learned this the hard way, so please do not ignore this often overlooked area of synergy.) It’s easier to build influence than to beg for it later. (Creating trust between teams is paramount.)

• Design for Scale from Day 1 Playbooks, tech-touch programs, lifecycle health models — not as an afterthought, but as a foundation. If you don’t build assuming growth, you end up stuck firefighting. (This is a position you'd like to spend the least time on, but in practice this is where most CS orgs, especially in Support spend the most time and resources on.) To counter this, you need to build your Support functions with Scaling in mind from Day 1, and take care of the people, train them, give them tools, and nurture their ambition. You need their buy-in from the start, without which this would not work.

• Tier Engagement, Not Care High-touch, pooled, or digital-led, sure. But every customer, regardless of spend, should feel strategically supported. In practice, this is hard to execute and even harder to maintain, because you realize that customer requirements grow organically, and your organization needs to adapt and scale quickly with your customers. Be mindful of scope creep as well.

• Invest in CSM Enablement First, Not Last Your CSMs aren’t support agents. Train them to be strategic advisors that are fluent in outcomes, business value, and customer advocacy. As mentioned in the Design for Scale item, emphasize agent development and growth. Provide a path and an inspiration to become strategic advisors that will win you contracts and repeat business.

Final thought:

CS isn’t a "nice to have" anymore. It's a growth engine. Built right, it’s the team that customers trust and the team that earns internal respect.

👉 If you were building a CS org today, what would you prioritize first?