One of the least-discussed aspects of customer success seems to be the role of the CSM in driving mutual accountability between vendor and customer. When you look at the conversations about customer success, the focus is generally on activities like onboarding, vendor outcomes like retention, or how to build relationships.
All of these conversations are well and good, but lost in the detail is a simple fact: a customer needs to see value from a vendor relationship to keep buying. That looks different at every level of the organisation. A CXO is looking at the impact of their investment on EBITDA, the VP is focused on the additional capabilities unlocked alongside the ROI, and at the hands-on level, an IT manager just wants the bug their analysts have been complaining about fixed already (… please! and thank you). But here’s the challenge, achieving that value requires effort from both sides, and that’s where accountability enters the picture.
The other quiet truth is that organisations often get in their own way. I could point to half a dozen customers I’ve worked with in the past who had critical capabilities missing in their team, for example. Equally, it’s often the case that driving progress with a platform isn’t the most urgent item on the agenda. Deep listening (an oft-discussed skill) is critical to identifying the challenge, but then how to create action, a sense of urgency? I like to focus on three steps:
(1) Ask: Understand the underlying challenge by asking questions
(2) Align: Agree what action(s) to take
(3) Measure: Follow up, and measure the results
Ask
There are a few questions I like to ask, with a few specifics here to bring each question to life. I’ve noted follow up questions underneath with an arrow →
* It seems like resourcing or skills might be a blocker here. If this weren’t an issue, what would you be able to achieve?
→ Would it be helpful to look at the ROI of an investment in a new resource for this challenge?
→ What could I (or we) do that could help your team to upskill to address this challenge?
* You clearly have a very knowledgeable team who have been hard at work for this next release. Can we offer a new perspective on the solution you’re designing?
* I can see there’s a lot of focus on this specific bug. If the bug were resolved tomorrow, what would it allow you to do?
→ What would the impact on your business be of resolving the bug?
→ If this issue weren’t occuring, what would “good” look like?
Get Sara Devi Earnshaw’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
* It’s great you’ve been pursuing a novel solution, but as the workaround isn’t working, can you help me understand what you were hoping to achieve with the solution?
The questions above aim to get to the heart of what a team is aiming to achieve, to strip away the layers of detail to ensure the focus is on a clear outcome (and if there isn’t a clear outcome, to address this new avenue of conversation). With agreement around the outcomes, the whole team (customer, vendor, often partner) can work together towards a plan, such as a success plan.
Align
Ideally, the questions you ask have helped you reach the heart of the matter. With understanding, it should be clearer not just what the obstacles are but also the impact of those obstacles. I know from experience that the conversation with my engineering team is different when I can articulate that one bug is creating an increase of +15% of time for analysts to complete specific tasks, versus simply saying it’s a “hot issue for our customer.” In one past situation with a customer, a single bug was blocking 86% of the expected benefit of the platform they had purchased from my company (a significant erosion of the 30:1 ROI they were expecting!).
A good plan should look at what’s needed on both sides, which may mean some tough conversations. This is why understanding first is crucial — not only can it change the conversation internally, it can uncover the unspoken truths externally. In another example, one of my past customers felt that their team was under-resourced, but was worried that asking for additional support would not be a request happily received by their VP. I asked her if she wanted me to share data about typical team size and composition in an upcoming meeting. We agreed that I could share my observations (carefully cultivated and aligned between us) and make the recommendation that hiring for two specific skills and 5 new headcount would improve the team’s capabilities, while bringing capacity in line with similar organisations.
So make the plan, and make sure that the plan includes accountabilities on all sides. Make it specific, and make sure the focus is on how to get to agreed outcomes. It’s very easy to get busy doing “stuff,” but by making sure the outcomes stay top of mind, and the actions are focused on achieving the outcomes, you’ll have a good chance of getting where you want to go.
We know things don’t always go smoothly… What happens when one or another person doesn’t deliver on their commitments? If there’s a strong culture of mutual commitment, then a solution can be found together to remove obstacles. Another technique is to link commitments — if some vendor commitments are predicated on customer commitments being met, then that adds pressure to the person with the vendor commitments to follow through. Good communication needs to underpin the work, as without clarity, there are too many opportunities to dodge accountability (i.e. “Oh the deadline was last week? I didn’t know…”). And yes, this works both ways. If my team misses a commitment, I own it.
Measure
Now what does “good” actually look like? I’m sure I drive my team crazy with this question, as it’s probably the one I most commonly ask in one-to-ones. But it’s important to have this focus. “Good” might look like reducing effort to deliver regular tasks. “Good” might look like allowing a customer to take a specific area that had been outsourced in-house.
While both of these examples have been shared in a qualitative way, it’s very possible to put numbers behind both. When I hear a measure like, “Go live with our new tool,” I ask questions like, “What benefit are you expecting from the new tool?” Ultimately, I want to link the benefit(s) to one of two outcomes: (1) reduce costs, or (2) increase revenue. Why? Because whoever found the money for the project is looking to do at least one of these two things. And because I don’t know about anyone else, but when I talk about my achievements on my CV, I want to be able to highlight those numbers, the scale of impact I’ve had.
In my experience, the ability to articulate these specific measures is strongly linked to trust. If I’m a customer and I don’t trust my vendor, I won’t share this info. But if I do trust my vendor, I not only want them engaged in helping me articulate what “good” looks like, I want to know how I am measuring up to my peers.
If the process of aligning has gone well, that trust will build over time, which brings me to my last point on measurement: it is an ongoing process. Most tools don’t just deliver once and then run. Most tools are designed to generate benefits over time. So measurement should be ongoing, and should account for the fact that progress isn’t always one-way.
Why is it so hard?
Mutual accountability isn’t always comfortable. I fell into working with customers because I like people, and it was hard to learn that I wasn’t going to get the best results by saying “yes” all the time. I was afraid that pushing back would make me seem difficult or unsupportive. I’ve learned that the opposite is true, customers who achieve real outcomes become advocates while customers who spin their wheels (even with a vendor who they like) eventually churn.
The difference between a transactional vendor relationship and a true partnership is accountability on both sides. When you help a customer see what they need to own (whether that’s resourcing, prioritization, or simply following through on commitments), you’re showing them you care about their success more than you care about being liked. That’s not always easy, but it’s always worth it.
So the next time you’re in a conversation where you sense a customer is stuck, ask yourself: am I letting them off the hook, or am I helping them see what they need to own to succeed? The best CSMs I know aren’t the ones who never rock the boat. They’re the ones who care enough to have the hard conversations, who measure what matters, and who hold themselves and their customers accountable for driving real value. That’s where mutual accountability lives, and that’s where success happens.
