How to lead a customer success team with data that matters

I’m often asked how we measure impact, drive value, and stay proactive in a highly fluid leadership role. I’ll admit, these aren’t always easy questions to answer, but they’re the right ones.

In this article, I’ve pulled together some of the most common topics I get asked about, from building health scores and defining KPIs to linking Customer Success Manager (CSM) performance with ROI.

It doesn’t matter if you're refining your strategy or building it from scratch; I hope these reflections help you think more critically about how data, relationships, and clarity can shape the success of your CS team.

Linking CSM performance to customer ROI

Value is the name of the CSM game. If it’s not created or realized, your customer isn’t sticking around for long. But the emphasis on value raises a very natural question: should we link CSM performance directly to customer ROI? It's a very compelling idea, but it's a complex one.

To be totally transparent, in previous roles, I haven’t linked client ROI directly to my CS team’s performance. That said, it’s definitely an area I’d like to explore in the future because it’s something that really resonates with clients.

Before going down that road, the first thing you need to consider is whether your product or service has a direct impact on the client’s ROI. If the answer is yes, then you should be able to measure your team's influence and align KPIs accordingly.

Take consulting firms, for example. They often tie their fees to the percentage of cost savings they deliver. In that context, it makes perfect sense for performance and ROI to be tightly linked.

But in industries like advertising, within which I’ve spent a lot of time working, it gets tricky. There are just too many external factors influencing results: product quality, competitive activity, media spend… all of these make it really hard to isolate the impact of any one team.

So, before you tie CSM performance to ROI, take a step back and ask: can your product or service directly influence your client’s business outcomes? If the answer is yes, linking performance to ROI can be incredibly powerful.

The metrics to track as a CS leader

There’s no universal answer to which metrics a CS leader should monitor, but I can tell you what I look at.

I’ve always worked in commercial organizations, so for me, revenue is the number one metric. I check it weekly. But I also focus on the metrics that influence revenue.

Take proactive conversations, for example. They’re a huge indicator of how likely clients are to renew or expand. So, I ensure I monitor that regularly too.

On the diagnostic side, I pay close attention to ticket volume. If we see a spike, it could signal bigger issues. We might need to shift how we prioritize support or work more closely with other teams.

Transactional CSAT is another key metric. When tracked consistently, it gives a great early warning signal that something’s going wrong, whether that’s with what we’re doing or how we’re delivering it.

But personally speaking, data is only as useful as the action it drives. Sure, metrics help identify what needs attention (and when), but it’s up to leadership to turn that insight into action.

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What goes into our customer health score

Your customer health score should help you predict the future, not just analyze the past.

In previous roles, health scores have been kept fairly simple. That’s partly down to the complexity of team structures.

Here’s what we include:

NPS, as a pulse check on sentiment
Number of services used, because more services usually equals higher retention and more cross-sell potential
QBR outcomes, including how we score the relationship – and how the client scores us
Customer business performance, especially if they’re publicly listed. If they’re growing, their budgets grow – and that affects our relationship

Of course, health metrics will vary from business to business. The key is to make sure they actually predict the strength and direction of your customer relationship. If something isn’t contributing to that predictive value, it might not belong in the score.

I always say your health score should include both behavior and attitude – what your customer does, and how they feel about working with you.

My go-to KPIs for customer success teams

Choosing KPIs for your CS team isn’t always easy. You’ve got to reflect your company’s strategic goals, while also making sure your team has clear, meaningful targets they can actually influence.

There’s no one-size-fits-all here. It depends on your company’s focus and what kind of roles you’re managing.

If your company’s top-line growth is the priority, your KPIs should reflect that – think cross-sell, upsell, and retention. If the focus is on improving efficiency, then you might look more closely at things like account management productivity or operational cost-effectiveness.

Either way, I always recommend having a KPI that captures relationship quality – CSAT, NPS, retention rate… something that gives insight into how your customers are experiencing the partnership.

And consistency is key. There’s nothing more demotivating than one team being measured one way and another team another way. Everyone should be pulling in the same direction, and consistent KPIs help make that happen.

Ideally, all of this ladders up to a North Star metric that aligns teams across CS, sales, and beyond.

Building a proactive CS function using data

A big shift in CS over the past few years has been moving from reactive to proactive. And data is absolutely essential to making that shift work.

Too often, we use data to look backwards. But to build a truly proactive CS function, you need to start by asking: what data do we already have, and what are we missing?

If your org is early in its data journey, start small – figure out what gaps you need to close. More mature teams, on the other hand, might have too much data, and need to zero in on the metrics that actually matter.

The power comes when you find relationships within that data that drive action. For example, in a previous role, we found that when open support tickets hit a certain volume, CSAT drops. That means we can either staff up preemptively or get ready to take remedial action when we cross that threshold.

State of Customer Success Leadership Report

Creating and applying a North Star metric

A North Star metric brings clarity to an organization. It creates alignment, sharpens focus, and gives every team a shared goal. But getting it right takes more than just picking a number.

A true North Star metric should be singular, organization-wide, and clearly tied to the health of the business. That means it has to start at the top – with leadership alignment – and be validated through data.

Once it’s defined, it needs to cascade down. Every team should know how their work supports it – and that includes customer success.

Our job in CS is to identify the tactical KPIs that feed into that North Star. When our team can clearly see how their daily actions influence the bigger picture, they feel more empowered and connected to the company’s mission.

Measuring relationship strength

Not everything that matters can be measured, but when it comes to relationships, we can get pretty close.

A good customer health score should reflect relationship strength. In fact, that’s a big reason we build them in the first place. If it’s set up well – with the right data and predictive logic – your health score will give you a solid read on where the relationship is heading.

That said, I always include a caveat: relationships are personal. Especially at the C-suite level, decisions are often driven by trust, familiarity, and shared history, not just metrics.

So yes, do use your health score. But also remember to stay close to your key stakeholders and know where the personal connections sit. That’s how you avoid being blindsided by decisions that data alone can’t predict.

This article is based on an "Ask Me Anything" session that Alena participated in as part of a promotional series for the Customer Success Certified: Leadership program. The AMA took place in 2024 when Alena was Chief Client Officer (EMEA) at Media.Monks.

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