Customer success matures as a revenue engine for SaaS businesses, 2024 Customer Success Leadership Study reveals
ChurnZero partners with leading SaaS brands to launch fifth annual report, based on detailed research with more than 1,000 CS leaders, at NYC Customer Success Week.
ChurnZero, the platform and partner for customer success, together with 6sense, Customer Success Meetup, Gong, SaaStr, and Success Venture Partners, has released the 2024 Customer Success Leadership Study at NYC Customer Success Week. Based on a detailed survey of more than 1,000 CS leaders worldwide, the study is in its fifth year and is recognized as the definitive report on the customer success field, with insights into trends, challenges, team structures, roles and priorities, revenue outcomes, and future goals.
2024’s study reveals that customer success is maturing as a revenue-driving function in SaaS companies, despite significant bumps in the road. CS leaders report to the highest levels and command sophisticated technology stacks, reflecting the essential role of CS in sustaining and increasing revenue through retention and customer-led growth. However, CS teams continue to struggle with best practice implementation, stagnant budgets and headcounts, and misaligned charters.
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Key findings from the 2024 Customer Success Leadership Study:
- The economic downturn’s headcount and budget cuts appear to have bottomed out.
- Reporting structures for CS teams are shifting, but CS leaders still report to the highest levels.
- The CS tech stack is robust and catching up with its sales and marketing equivalents.
- In-person meetings with customers are still happening and have a positive impact on the bottom line.
- Internal collaboration between CS and other teams is starting to trend back up.
- Delays in purchasing and decision-making continue as the downturn persists.
- CS teams still “own” the renewal process and a good portion of the expansion process.
- Customer success charters appear overdue for a change to reflect revenue priorities.
- Companies with higher NRR tend to invest more in customer success.
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“Customer success teams are still navigating their first major economic headwinds as a function, but the long-term outlook is upbeat,” says You Mon Tsang, CEO and co-founder, ChurnZero. “CS leaders face scrutiny, pressure to deliver, and deep questions about what they own and where they belong—yet they continue to prove themselves as drivers of the sustainable revenue their companies need. While the picture is still evolving, the fundamentals are clear: there is no world in which customer success doesn’t thrive.”
