Customer health is still treated as an operational metric in most SaaS companies. It sits inside Customer Success dashboards. It’s reviewed in QBRs. It informs renewal discussions. But rarely does it influence financial forecasting, capital allocation, or board-level revenue planning.

I believe that's a mistake.

In an AI-enabled environment, customer health is no longer a sentiment score. It's a forward-looking revenue signal.

And once you treat it as such, it changes how you think about retention, growth, and capital efficiency.

Customer Health Has Been Under-Leveraged

Many organisations say Customer Success is a growth engine. Very few are actually designed for it.

In practice, Customer Success is still treated as a defensive function: protect renewals, manage risk, keep customers “happy enough” to stay. Expansion is encouraged, but rarely owned. Growth is expected, but inconsistently enabled. And when targets are missed, the root cause is often unclear.

AI has not changed this reality on its own. What it has done is make the gap between intention and execution impossible to ignore.

AI gives Customer Success unprecedented visibility into customer behaviour, risk, and opportunity. But visibility alone does not create growth. Leadership decisions do.

This post builds on the earlier parts of this series — from the evolution of the CSM role, to AI-ready operations, to trust, governance, and board relevance — to answer a harder question: what actually has to change for Customer Success to become a true growth engine?

Why “Customer Success as a growth engine” is mostly a myth today

Starting an online business feels a little like standing at the top of a hill with a skateboard—full of possibility, momentum, and the exhilarating “this could actually work” energy. The creative spark is real. The ideas come fast. And the freedom you’ve been chasing suddenly feels within reach.

But today’s digital environment is also louder, more competitive, and more demanding than ever. Customers expect seamless experiences. Technology evolves monthly. And the strategies that worked last year may already feel outdated. In conversations I have with founders and business leaders across EMEA, one theme is always consistent: growth in the digital age requires clarity, adaptability, and systems that support your momentum—not ones that drain it.

Yet it’s exactly these foundational pieces that new entrepreneurs tend to overlook. Not intentionally—just because the early stage pulls you toward the shiny parts: branding, design, content. Those matter, but they’re not what stabilises a business long-term.

Here are the essential elements modern entrepreneurs need to get right from day one.

Starting an online business feels a little like standing at the top of a hill with a skateboard—full of possibility, momentum, and the exhilarating “this could actually work” energy. The creative spark is real. The ideas come fast. And the freedom you’ve been chasing suddenly feels within reach.

But in that rush, many new entrepreneurs skip the fundamentals. Not intentionally—just because the early stage focuses your attention on the shiny parts: the branding, the photography, the website aesthetics, the Instagram feed. Those matter, but they’re not the foundation of a business built for scale.

In my work with founders and digital operators (and in my own experience launching small businesses), I’ve seen the same pattern repeatedly: excitement creates momentum, but momentum without structure eventually turns into chaos. And the pieces entrepreneurs tend to overlook are the ones that end up determining whether the business stabilises or collapses when things get busy.

Here are the most common blind spots—and why addressing them early sets the stage for long-term success.

5 Must-Focus-On Areas as a New Business

In today's fast-paced and interconnected business environment, technical skills alone are no longer sufficient for achieving success. The ability to navigate complex interpersonal dynamics and effectively manage emotions has become more crucial than ever and I feel it every day in my work. This is where emotional and social intelligence come into play.

Understanding and leveraging these forms of intelligence can significantly enhance your ability to lead, collaborate, and drive business success.

Emotional intelligence (EI) and social intelligence (SI) are related concepts that both involve understanding and managing emotions but they focus on different aspects of interpersonal skills.

We delved into the power of social intelligence a few months back but today I want to go into the differences between emotional and social intelligence, and more importantly, provide actionable tips on how to leverage each in a business context.

By cultivating these skills, you can improve your interactions with colleagues and clients, foster a positive work environment, and ultimately, boost your career success. These skills can also help you in your personal life.