This article is based on a presentation given by Matt at our Customer Success Festival in London, 2023.

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Building a world-class customer success team is crucial for driving measurable customer results and fostering long-term business growth. 

I've seen firsthand how the right team dynamics, a clear vision, and strong cross-functional partnerships can transform customer success efforts. 

In this article, I'll share strategies and practical steps for creating and nurturing a high-performance customer success team, including:

  • Building a world-class team,
  • Team dynamics,
  • Focusing on critical metrics, and
  • Cross-functional partnerships.

The importance of a focused team

The first thing is the importance of focusing on the team. As we navigate CS, a key question arises: how can our software application do more to accelerate and become the vehicle for driving measurable customer results? 

There has been significant discussion about the potential capabilities of generative AI to aid in this endeavor.

However, I’m a firm believer that people – the humans – when part of thriving high-performance teams, can still make a tangible difference to customer value and, consequently, to the revenue outcomes that we, as customer leaders, care about. 

We must always remember the importance of high-performing teams in driving outsized impact. But this leads us to an essential question: how do you create a world-class team? 

I’m going to discuss four key areas that are crucial in this process:

  1. Recruitment: This involves how you hire and ensure you're bringing in the right folks, and once you have the right people, how do you nurture their talent?
  2. Team dynamics: As leaders, we need to constantly think about team dynamics to ensure the team can drive outsized impact.
  3. Focusing on critical metrics: It's vital to keep the team hyper-focused on the right critical metrics.
  4. Cross-functional partnerships: We cannot operate in isolation; we need to break down silos to enhance customer value generation.