Consider it a buzzword or not, ROI is still important. 

Executives care about it. They want to know that company investments are worth it. 

When it comes to building or growing a new department such as Customer Success, especially if you don't have experience in it, ROI is equally important. 

It's normal to ask if it's worth it and to wonder how to measure the success of the investment. 

I've always advised channel partners to ensure that they have a way to measure Customer Success and how their CSMs are doing from the very start. You don't want to start a new division or a new initiative and have your boss drop it a few months down the line because you forgot to measure its success. 

With Customer Success still being a relatively new and sexy job, how to measure it is not as clear cut as it is in Sales for example.

Customer Success is also a lot more about relationships than it is about numbers. but even though it can be subjective, there are still certain activities and outcomes you can track. 

I recently spotted two infographics about metrics to measure Customer Success ROI that I want to go over today. 

8 Ways to Measure Customer Success ROI

Customer Success is a relatively new field, both from an organisational perspective as in a department and also from a career perspective for individuals. 

I've been working in Customer Success for quite a few years. Even my early days working in PR agencies and taking care of PR clients should be considered working in Customer Success although I held a different title. 

I've also never held a Customer Success Manager (CSM) title but I've done a similar enough role at scale working through partners to drive success for joint customers. 

CSM is an exciting role, one that's gaining more and more popularity. As some would say, it's a sexy role. 

If you find yourself just starting with such a role or are interested in pursuing a career as a CSM, this post is for you.

I've primarily learned everything I know about Customer Success on the job itself but I want to give you some useful tips on how to be really at it.

When you are building a Customer Success practise at your company, there are quite a few things to consider. 

Few businesses have completely figured it out and are running CSM teams efficiently and super effectively.

In fact, only 30% of CS professionals think that their company has provided them with enough resources to do their jobs properly. The most requested resources are better tools at 39% and more training at 31%. 

I've seen and experienced this myself having worked in Customer Success for the last six or so years. I've also needed better tools, I've been part of building them and I've also built a ton of trainings for new hires including building, launching and managing a global new hire program. 

And that's how it is often when you start out or are in the first few years - it's actually the people who do the job who act as entrepreneurs in this start-up initiative and help out. 

But what are some key things you need to consider? Here are five key Customer Success best practices to get you started. 

5 Customer Success Best Practices

When you're trying to introduce Customer Success (or Customer Experience) in your organisation, you're obviously going to need a team. 

That team doesn't just consist of leadership people who will set up the vision and plan for the Customer Success organisation but you also need those who will take care of your customers, most often called Customer Success Managers (CSMs) - also called Client Success Managers or Customer Success Executives (CSEs). 

I've never held any of these titles exactly but I've spent a good few years working in similar roles albeit through partners (that's another topic we'll cover later) or directly taking care of customers when I was working in PR and digital agencies which is the same as if you're working in Customer Success in SaaS. But I've learned a lot about Customer Success over the years both by doing the job and by operationally executing on programs to enable Customer Success teams to do their jobs better. 

So from everything that I've experienced, I want to cover the key things CSMs need to be effective in their day-to-day. If you manage a CSM organisation, consider these especially if you're just setting it up. 

3 Things Customer Success Managers Need to Be Effective

A couple of months ago, I covered customer experience and the Cisco racetrack - or lifecycle across the customer journey that's extremely important for companies to be able to drive customer success.

Today, I want to show you one more model that's become more and more popular if you work in SaaS or Customer Success.

This model is called L.A.E.R. and stands for Land, Adopt, Expand and Renew. 

Each of these phases has a different focus and they are not just about customer success as in post-sales but also the intersect with sales pre-purchase and for the renewal stage.

At the end of the day, the model aims to ensure that when a customer buys a product or a service, they truly realise the value of the purchase and achieve the business outcomes or goals they were expecting to get to by buying this product or solution.

As a business, it's on you to deliver on that promise after the sale which will lead to customer happiness and loyalty. 

Let's take a look at the L.A.E.R. model.

What is the L.A.E.R. Model for Customer Success