Let's be honest, customer success (CS) can sometimes feel like a high-stakes performance. I often feel like a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing (Dancing with the Stars, for my peers across the pond), doing that first nervous dance as the warm-up act. 

But behind the glitz of the "superhero" function we perform, there are very real and very gritty lessons to be learned. 

Whether you work at a startup or a global giant like Sage, we all deal with the same spectrum of experiences: the wins that make us feel like rockstars, the mistakes that teach us, and those "headplant" moments that are just plain ugly.

In this article, I’m going to share my journey – from the checkout aisles at Tesco to heading up global customer success at Sage People – to help you navigate the pitfalls of our profession. You'll learn how to identify the positive drivers of success, how to avoid the "do-it-all-for-me" syndrome, and why technology is the secret sauce for scaling without losing your soul.

The superhero DNA of customer success

Before we dive into the dirt, let’s acknowledge something important: we’re all bloody superheroes. CS is a unique function where we don't just wait for an SOS; we anticipate it. 

Think of it like a mother struggling with a screaming baby and a mountain of groceries at a checkout. You don't wait for her to ask for help; you start packing those bags and maybe even slip in a Clubcard upsell while you're at it. That’s CS at its core – helping the customer before they even know they need it.

The win-win tango

I like to call our ideal state the "win-win tango." If our customers are successful and achieving their goals – with engaged CPOs and CFOs – then we’re successful. It’s a rhythmic partnership where both parties move in sync toward a common objective. 

When that rhythm breaks, that’s when we start seeing the bad and the ugly.

The good: Positive drivers of success

What does "the good" look like? It’s when you’ve got engaged customers who aren’t just "couch potatoes." These are the collaborators who call you up because they want to understand talent planning or organizational growth, not just because a button is broken.