Over the past 22 years, while Customer Success as a function has become increasingly common in business, turnover in Customer Success executives has been a key concern that is often not openly acknowledged or discussed. Something is broken in the executive hiring process, and the cost to both companies and executives is very substantial.Ending Customer Success Executive Turnover
As a beginning to addressing the problem, The Customer Success Association is developing a methodology to enable CS executives to effectively evaluate open Customer Success leadership positions before making a commitment, and for companies to use in preparing accurate job descriptions. The first step was the 2021 Customer Success Executive Priorities Survey, where participants were invited to imagine themselves as an applicant for a Vice President: Customer Success position with a SaaS/software firm.
The survey included 91 key aspects of a Customer Success group/operation in a software company, covering Strategy, Process, People, and Technology. For each point, participants were asked to rate the importance of either having the resource in place -OR- that the prospective hiring company will commit to empowering (and funding!) the new CS executive to build it. In essence, the participants were asked to rank their requirements for accepting such a position.
