This article was sparked by a question I’ve been asked a few times recently: “What does it really take to build a successful Customer Success function?”

For me, writing is a way to distill what I’ve learned into something practical — bringing together threads from experience that may be used to drive retention, loyalty, and ultimately, growth. So I tried to describe here what I learned.

Customer Success can come in many different shapes and sizes. It can be part of sales, exist on its own or become a DNA of your business. It is perhaps one of the most challenging functions to build and scale, as it needs to evolve to keep pace with the size of the business, and balance the business need for growth in the current term with long term strategic growth. It is very common for companies to pivot between different models, as they scale. In fact, nearly every business I have been involved with has made changes in its retention approach, KPIs – for better or worse.

So who is this post for? I’ve written it with B2B scaleups in mind, including:

• Professional services businesses (finance, legal, technology, advisory, etc.)
• Product businesses (software, hardware, or a combination)
• Managed service providers (MSPs)
• Anyone running a B2B business who cares about retention

(Note: different rules apply in startups, where the operating model is still forming, people wear many hats, and the company is singularly focused on growth.)

These reflections come from the last 15 years working across Customer Success, Marketing, Sales, and Product in B2B — alongside mentoring Kiwi companies of all shapes and sizes. Along the way, I’ve learned which operating models work at each stage, where their limitations show up and how changes in one function impact the other revenue operations teams (sales-marketing-product-CS).

The core assumption is simple: to grow, companies must both acquire new customers and retain existing ones. Retention and acquisition need to carry equal weight — and the organisations that excel are the ones that design CS as a growth driver, not a BAU/support function.

So, how do you design Customer Success in your business?

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The Options for Structuring Customer Success

There’s no one-size-fits-all model. Different organisations take different approaches depending on their maturity, market, and growth ambitions. Broadly, I see five common options:

1. CS as an Account Management Function
   Customer Success is rolled into account management, often handled by head of sales/account management.
2. Dedicated CS Function
   A standalone CS team focused on onboarding, adoption, retention, and expansion in existing customers.
3. Product-Led Growth (PLG)
   The product itself drives adoption, engagement, and retention, working hand-in-hand with marketing and product delivery. There is no dedicated CS function, and sales aren’t specifically tasked with retention.
4. Everyone Owns CS
   A distributed approach where customer success and retention are embedded into KPIs across the business, with most (if not all) teams accountable in some way.
5. Hybrid Approach
   A blend of models. For example, one team may own retention while others focus on growth, or CS may co-exist alongside PLG and account management.

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Over the last 15 years, I’ve seen all of these models in action — often within the same company as the approach evolved. Each shift had a noticeable impact, not only on topline and recurring revenue, but also on team culture, collaboration, and innovation. Many times, this has been really positive, but there have also been lots of learnings along the way and times when things didn’t go to plan.

Pros and Cons of Each Approach

Approach	Pros	Cons	Common KPIs
CS as part of Account Management	Simple to set up; customers have a single point of contact; sales ‘pays for itself’ via upsell.	Blurs lines between sales and retention; often overemphasis on upsell; risk of becoming siloed from product.	Net Revenue Retention (NRR); Expansion Revenue;
Dedicated CS Function	Clear accountability for retention; customer-focused metrics typically drive NPS/CSAT uplift and if effective feedback loops exist it can accelerate innovation.	Additional opex cost may make it unsustainable or drive product price up; hard to hire and manage cross-functional CS teams; risk of becoming siloed from sales and product.	NRR; Churn Rate; NPS/CSAT
Product-Led Growth (PLG)	Scales efficiently; low-touch model; retention built into the product; ideal for SaaS.	Not feasible for complex solutions or services; requires strong product/business maturity; limited ability to build deep relationships.	Daily/Monthly Active Users; Feature Adoption; Expansion Revenue; Logo Retention
Everyone Owns CS	Creates a customer-first culture in the whole company; aligns all functions to retention; reduces silos, accelerates innovation in the business when done well.	Requires strong leadership and governance. Clear KPIs required for each team to measure ownership, otherwise risk of “everyone owns it, no one owns it”.	NRR; NPS/CSAT; Churn; Service/Product Line Revenue; Service Delivery Metrics
Hybrid	Flexible, adapts to company stage; balances efficiency with human touch; can evolve over time.	Can be complex to manage; risk of role confusion; requires strong clarity on responsibilities.	Mix of the above depending on design (e.g., NRR + PLG adoption + CSAT)

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Even with the best intentions, companies often fall into traps that undermine their Customer Success strategy. Some of the ones I have experienced are:

• Over-reliance on Product-Led Growth (PLG)
  Assuming the product will “sell/retain itself” can lead to under-investment in sales which impacts retention and growth. This often happens in SMB businesses who make an assumption that ‘they found a product market fit’.
• Poor KPI design for NRR
  Measuring Net Revenue Retention is complex. Without proper systems and processes, KPIs risk being inaccurate or ignored.
• Shifting CS into account management without a retention plan
  Retention gets deprioritised if growth is the only focus.
• Pursuing top-line growth at all costs
  Fast-growing companies sometimes prioritise acquisition over loyalty, eroding long-term value and brand equity.
• Token CS focus
  Example: tying 5% of sales quota to NPS while 95% is tied to revenue. In reality, nobody will prioritise NPS.
• Lack of retention incentives across functions
  If sales and product/service delivery aren’t measured on retention, it falls through the cracks and results in customer churn.
• Untrained CS teams asked to sell
  Without training, this creates frustration for customers and teams alike. Sales is a discipline that requires highly trained staff and investments in professional development.
• Retention not being actively managed by anyone
  Operating model not clear/KPIs not assigned or owned
• Sales, CS, and Product misalignment
  Disconnects between teams slow down innovation and increase churn.
• Unrealistic churn expectations
  Expecting CS to deliver zero churn can inflate costs and hurt EBITDA as the business over-corrects.

So, What Works Best?

There is no universal “right” answer. The most effective companies intentionally choose a model that fits their growth stage, market, and product maturity — and then adapt as those evolve.

If I had to bet on one, I’d lean towards a distributed CS model (Option 4):

• Simple, measurable retention KPIs built into every business function.
• Leaders pulling those metrics together to assess progress across the org.
• Retention as part of the company’s DNA — not just a team’s job.

In scaled product businesses with hundreds or thousands of customers, a dedicated CS function (Option 2) is often necessary. But even then, the magic happens when CS-style metrics are woven throughout the org chart, fuelling both innovation and loyalty.