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Customer success performance checklist
Transform your customer success operations from reactive firefighting to proactive excellence with our comprehensive performance framework
Why customer success operations matter now
In today's competitive landscape, customer success has evolved from a support function to a strategic growth engine. Companies with optimised CS operations see 25% higher retention rates and 15% faster expansion revenue growth compared to their peers.
Yet many organisations struggle with fragmented processes, inconsistent customer experiences, and limited visibility into health metrics. The cost of these inefficiencies compounds over time—lost renewals, missed expansion opportunities, and increased churn create a drag on growth that's difficult to overcome.
This checklist provides a systematic framework to audit, optimise, and scale your customer success operations. Whether you're building from scratch or refining existing processes, these proven practices will help you create a retention engine that drives predictable, sustainable growth.
Core pillars of CS excellence
Strategic Alignment
Connect CS objectives to company revenue goals with clear OKRs and success metrics
Process Excellence
Standardise playbooks and automate routine tasks to scale efficiently
Data Intelligence
Leverage health scores and predictive analytics to drive proactive interventions
Team Enablement
Invest in training, tools, and career development to build world-class talent
These interconnected pillars create a foundation for sustainable customer success. When aligned properly, they enable your team to deliver consistent value at every stage of the customer lifecycle whilst maintaining operational efficiency. The most successful organisations treat these elements as an integrated system rather than isolated initiatives.
Foundation: establishing your CS framework
Before optimising tactics, ensure your foundational elements are solid. A strong CS framework begins with clear role definitions and responsibilities across your team. Document who owns onboarding, adoption, expansion, and renewal activities to eliminate gaps and overlaps.
01
Define your customer segments
Create tiered service models based on revenue, complexity, and growth potential
02
Map the customer journey
Identify critical touchpoints from onboarding through renewal and expansion
03
Establish success criteria
Set measurable outcomes for each lifecycle stage aligned to customer goals
04
Build your tech stack
Implement CRM, CS platform, and integration tools to enable data-driven decisions
Your CS platform should integrate seamlessly with product analytics, support systems, and billing infrastructure. This connectivity provides the holistic view necessary for identifying risk signals early and triggering appropriate interventions. Invest time upfront to configure your systems properly—the operational leverage pays dividends as you scale.
Health scoring and risk management
Building predictive health scores
Effective health scoring combines product usage, engagement patterns, support ticket trends, and relationship strength into a single, actionable metric. The best models weight factors based on their correlation to renewal outcomes.
Monitor leading indicators such as login frequency, feature adoption depth, executive engagement, and support satisfaction. Lagging indicators like payment history and contract utilisation provide additional context but shouldn't dominate your scoring algorithm.
Red accounts: immediate action
Executive escalation, dedicated recovery plan, daily monitoring until stabilised
Yellow accounts: proactive prevention
CSM review, targeted enablement, increase touchpoint frequency, address concerns
Green accounts: expansion ready
Identify upsell opportunities, request referrals, nurture executive relationships
Onboarding excellence: the critical first 90 days
Research consistently shows that customers who experience strong onboarding are 2.5 times more likely to renew and expand. The first 90 days set expectations, establish habits, and create momentum that carries through the entire relationship. Yet many organisations treat onboarding as a checkbox exercise rather than a strategic investment.
1
Days 1-10: Foundation
  • Kickoff call with key stakeholders
  • Technical integration completed
  • Initial admin training delivered
  • Success plan documented
2
Days 11-30: Activation
  • First value milestone achieved
  • Core features adopted by team
  • Weekly check-ins established
  • Usage tracking configured
3
Days 31-60: Expansion
  • Advanced features introduced
  • Additional departments engaged
  • Best practices workshop held
  • ROI metrics documented
4
Days 61-90: Optimisation
  • Quarterly business review scheduled
  • Expansion opportunities identified
  • Executive relationship established
  • Customer advocacy developed
Create templated onboarding playbooks tailored to each customer segment. High-touch enterprise clients require white-glove service with dedicated resources, whilst mid-market accounts benefit from structured group training and self-service resources. Digital-led segments should access automated email nurtures, in-app guidance, and on-demand webinars.
Scaling through automation and segmentation
Smart segmentation strategy
Not all customers require—or warrant—the same level of human touch. Effective segmentation balances revenue potential, complexity, and strategic value to allocate resources optimally.
Stratified service models allow you to deliver white-glove attention to enterprise accounts whilst leveraging technology for efficient delivery to mid-market and SMB segments. This approach maintains quality experiences across tiers without unsustainable cost structures.
High-touch tier
  • Dedicated CSM with 15-25 accounts
  • Quarterly business reviews
  • Custom success planning
  • Executive relationship management
  • Typical: £100K+ ARR accounts
Tech-touch tier
  • Pooled CSM support with 100-200 accounts
  • Bi-annual health check calls
  • Automated email campaigns
  • Self-service resources
  • Typical: £10K-£100K ARR accounts
Digital-led tier
  • Fully automated engagement
  • In-app messaging and guidance
  • Community and knowledge base
  • On-demand webinar library
  • Typical: Under £10K ARR accounts
Automate repetitive tasks such as health score updates, risk alerts, renewal reminders, and usage reports. This frees CSMs to focus on strategic activities like relationship building, expansion planning, and custom solution design. The goal isn't to eliminate human touch—it's to apply it where it creates the most value.
Key metrics that drive CS performance
What gets measured gets managed. Establish a balanced scorecard that tracks both leading indicators (predictive of future outcomes) and lagging indicators (results achieved). Review metrics weekly at the team level and monthly with executive leadership to maintain alignment and accountability.
92%
Gross Retention Rate
Industry benchmark for SaaS companies
115%
Net Retention Rate
Target including expansion revenue
8.5
Health Score Average
Portfolio-wide on 10-point scale
45
Days To Value
Time to first meaningful outcome
67%
Feature Adoption
Customers using 3+ core features
42
NPS Score
Customer satisfaction benchmark
Beyond the numbers: qualitative insights
Whilst quantitative metrics provide essential performance visibility, complement them with qualitative feedback through regular customer conversations, QBRs, and win/loss analysis. Understanding the "why" behind the numbers enables you to address root causes rather than treating symptoms. Conduct monthly retrospectives with your CS team to identify patterns, share learnings, and refine your approach based on real-world outcomes.
Building your CS operations roadmap
Transformation doesn't happen overnight. Use this phased approach to systematically improve your customer success operations whilst maintaining business continuity. Each phase builds upon the previous one, creating compound improvements over time.
Phase 1: audit current state
Document existing processes, identify gaps, benchmark performance against industry standards, and gather team feedback on pain points and opportunities
Phase 2: design target state
Define ideal customer journeys, establish success metrics, select technology platforms, and create detailed implementation plans with clear ownership
Phase 3: pilot new approaches
Test improvements with a subset of customers, iterate based on feedback, train team members on new processes, and refine before full rollout
Phase 4: scale and optimise
Roll out proven practices across entire portfolio, automate repetitive tasks, monitor performance metrics, and continuously improve based on data
Allocate 3-6 months for complete transformation, with quick wins delivered in the first 30 days to build momentum and demonstrate value. Prioritise changes that address your most critical pain points first—whether that's reducing churn, improving onboarding efficiency, or increasing expansion revenue. Communicate progress regularly to stakeholders and celebrate milestones to maintain team engagement throughout the journey.
Take action: your next steps
From checklist to results
You now have a comprehensive framework for evaluating and improving your customer success operations. The difference between organisations that thrive and those that struggle isn't knowledge—it's execution. Commit to taking the first step today.
Begin with a thorough assessment of your current state using the complete checklist. Identify your top three improvement priorities based on potential impact and feasibility. Assemble a cross-functional team including CS, Product, Sales, and Operations to ensure alignment and shared ownership of outcomes.
Remember that customer success excellence is a journey, not a destination. Markets evolve, customer expectations shift, and your organisation grows. Build a culture of continuous improvement where experimentation is encouraged, failures are learning opportunities, and wins are celebrated and scaled.
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About SalesLead
SalesLead is the fractional CRO studio helping B2B founders turn chaos into clarity and build predictable revenue systems.
We partner with Seed → Series B SaaS and SMBs companies to align Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success into one unified go-to-market motion.
Through our flagship Revenue Flow™ system, we’ve helped 35+ founders transform their teams into structured, data-driven, and self-sustaining growth engines.
Because predictable revenue isn’t luck — it’s leadership, alignment, and rhythm.
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The fractional CRO studio helping founders build predictable revenue systems.