Customer Success Continues to Grow in Size, Influence and Impact, ChurnZero and ESG study shows

2022 Customer Success Leadership Study surveyed more than 1,000 Customer Success leaders to create the definitive picture of trends, gains and opportunities in the CS industry

ChurnZero, a leading Customer Success platform, together with ESG, provider of Customer Success as a Service, has released the 2022 Customer Success Leadership Study: the most in-depth study of the evolving Customer Success (CS) field to date, covering team sizes, budgets, reporting structure, organizational influence, metrics of success and current and future priorities.

Now in its third year, the study finds that CS teams are gaining more influence within organizations, with budget increases and growing recognition of Customer Success as a revenue center. However, despite demand for CS, there remains an underinvestment in the purpose-built technology that helps CS teams increase efficiency, enhance the customer experience and drive revenue.

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Presented in partnership with ESG and sponsored by Higher Logic Vanilla and involve.ai, the study is based on an in-depth survey of more than 1,000 Customer Success leaders. The majority of respondents are directors or senior directors in Customer Success, working at companies with 51 to 200 total employees. The study was conducted between August 15 and September 2, 2022.

This year, an expanded set of questions addressed the actions that businesses are taking to address today’s challenging economic climate. Despite economic headwinds, 63.3% of respondents reported that their Customer Success team is growing, while 51.9% report that their budgets are growing.

Key findings include:

Customer Success is now a revenue team: Half of CS teams have responsibility for renewals, directly impacting their company’s revenue. More than 78% of respondents report to the C-Suite, indicating a growing recognition of the impact of CS on companies’ bottom line.

Customer Success teams are growing—but not fast enough: While more than 60% of CS teams are growing and more than half state their budgets are growing, most (64%) CS team non-headcount budgets are below industry benchmarks.

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Customer Success is behind the curve in purpose-built technology: Less than half of CS teams have access to a Customer Success platform to operationalize customer onboarding, adoption, retention and expansion. However, this is likely to change: top priorities for CS teams in the next 12-24 months include implementing tools and processes to enable a more efficient and data-driven approach.

Economic uncertainty is showing its impact: 57.9% of respondents are delaying purchasing decisions by three to six months.

“This year’s Customer Success Leadership Study reveals growth and opportunity as CS consolidates its seat at the executive table,” concludes You Mon Tsang, CEO and founder, ChurnZero. “Best practices and benchmarks continue to evolve, providing CS teams with data to advocate for headcount, budgets and technology. Customer Success is still a newer department but is now recognized as mission-critical for its potential to drive recurring revenue—which becomes ever more crucial in times of economic uncertainty.”