As a gateway between Eastern and Western Europe, Munich’s multicultural and diverse business environment fosters cross-industry collaboration, encouraging ideas and best practices to flow seamlessly across borders. 

With global companies and startups alike focusing on sustainable growth and customer satisfaction, Munich plays a pivotal role in shaping the future of customer success. Whether it’s through nurturing talent, integrating technology into customer journeys, or scaling personalized services, the city is leading the charge in transforming customer success into a strategic business driver that goes beyond transactional service to foster meaningful, long-term relationships.

During our CS Snack Event in Munich, we dived into cutting-edge strategies focusing on the intersection of technology, customer experience, and global collaboration, all while framing our discussions in a Start-Stop-Continue approach.

We brought together a dynamic group of Customer Success professionals from diverse industries, each offering unique perspectives on how to scale success across borders. Our panelists included industry leaders such as Giorgia Pedenzini, Alev Oezulus, Sally Stoewe, Pia Voss, Mick Weijers, David Sterz, and Harry Bandell, who shared their expertise on optimizing customer journeys, embracing automation, and driving meaningful engagement in a fast-evolving landscape.

Here are the topics we covered:

1. Efficiency & Prompt Engineering (AI)
2. Customer Success Enablement
3. GTM Alignment with Sales & Marketing
4. Value-Based Communication & Stakeholder Management
5. Client Change Management & Tooling
6. Communities, Playbooks, & Automation
7. Customer Marketing (Cases/Multi-Threading)
8. Team Structure & Compensation

Efficiency & Prompt Engineering (AI) 

AI is revolutionizing customer success by unlocking new possibilities for efficiency and personalization. Imagine seamless meeting recordings that capture every detail, with advancements promising greater accuracy for languages beyond English. Direct integrations with platforms like Salesforce (SFDC) eliminate manual data entry, empowering teams to focus on building stronger customer relationships. 

Tools like ChatGPT enhance communication by refining content for clarity and impact, while AI-driven learning recommendations enable teams to upskill in real time, staying ahead of evolving customer needs. 

AI also elevates quality assurance, from scanning documents to refining presentations, ensuring every interaction is polished and professional. The future is even more exciting with voice cloning, which holds the potential to deliver consistent, personalized communication at scale, setting a new standard for customer engagement.

How can AI boost CS

AI has the power to make Customer Success (CS) teams more efficient, personalized, and impactful. Here’s how:

1. Better Support: AI can quickly answer technical questions, providing customers with faster help and freeing up your team to focus on bigger challenges.
2. Faster Onboarding: New hires can get up to speed quicker, thanks to AI tools that highlight important customer info, internal processes, and team structures.
3. Smoother Handoffs: When customer accounts change hands, AI creates clear summaries and ensures nothing important gets missed.
4. Streamlined Workflows: AI helps organize tasks, such as sorting out low-priority requests, so your team can focus on the most important work.

AI also personalizes the customer experience:

• It can suggest helpful resources or products based on customer behavior.
• It provides updates on key stakeholders, like LinkedIn profiles or company news, so you stay informed.

The results are impressive: happier employees, more loyal customers, and faster results. By using AI, your team can create stronger relationships and deliver success stories that matter.

AI can transform Customer Success (CS) by making tasks faster, smarter, and more personalized. Here’s a clear breakdown of how to make the most of AI in CS:

1. Crafting Better Prompts for AI

To get useful results from AI, you need to ask the right questions—this is called prompt engineering.

• Why It Matters: A vague request like “Summarize this email” might give you unhelpful output. A more specific prompt like “Summarize this email to list key action items for the next meeting” ensures the response is focused and relevant.
• How to Improve:
  • Be clear and specific in your instructions.
  • Adjust the tone to fit the situation (e.g., formal for business reports, conversational for customer updates).

2. Enhancing Customer Communication

AI can improve how teams interact with customers:

• Handling Miscommunication: AI helps craft responses that are clear, professional, and empathetic, avoiding the risk of sounding rude.
• Organizing Ideas: Whether it’s brainstorming or turning messy notes into action plans, AI saves time and makes communication more efficient.

3. Using AI for Quick Information Retrieval

AI can quickly find and organize data, such as customer details or email content.

• The Challenge: Teams may hesitate to trust AI for sensitive tasks, like ensuring compliance.
• Solution: Use AI for speed and convenience but double-check important outputs for accuracy and reliability.

4. Chatbots: Powerful but Imperfect

Chatbots are great for providing quick support, but they aren’t flawless:

• Benefits: Chatbots can handle B2B sales questions, regulatory advice, or simple customer inquiries 24/7.
• Challenges:
  • They struggle with complicated topics like legal language, which can lead to mistakes (e.g., Air Canada’s chatbot error).
  • Chatbots need ongoing updates to stay accurate and helpful.

5. Improving Tone in Messages

AI tools help adjust the tone of communication to fit the situation:

• Use AI to make formal updates sound polished or create friendly, casual messages when appropriate.
• For example, AI can summarize a meeting (e.g., via MS Teams Co-Pilot) and suggest next steps, saving time and boosting productivity.

6. Addressing Common AI Concerns

AI’s growth raises some valid worries:

• Trust Issues: People worry about mistakes, misuse, or manipulation of AI-generated responses.
• Data Challenges: As AI processes more data, companies need better servers and systems to handle it.
• Examples of Misuse: Amazon’s refund chatbot showed how errors can cause problems for both customers and companies.

7. Strategic AI Integration for CS

To use AI effectively in Customer Success:

• Automate meeting summaries and customer success plans, reducing churn and boosting efficiency.
• Use AI to analyze customer interactions and provide actionable insights, ensuring it is trained to interpret nuanced human behavior.

By applying these practices, CS teams can work smarter, build stronger customer relationships, and deliver better results with the help of AI. Meanwhile, Enabling customer success is also relevant in the entire process, thus the next topic.

Customer Success Enablement

Customer Success (CS) enablement is still evolving, and only a few organizations have dedicated enablement functions. For those that do, efforts often focus on onboarding new CS Managers (CSMs), training on tools, and developing skills. However, a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work. CS enablement must be adapted to fit different regions and markets’ unique needs.

For example, strategies that work for global customers might not suit specific markets like DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), where localized approaches are essential.

What to Start in CS

1. Build Strong Customer Relationships
   • Start connecting with customers during the sales phase to build trust early.
   • Host personal events like workshops, networking dinners, or meetups to strengthen relationships.
2. Create Effective Documentation
   • Develop centralized, data-compliant systems (e.g., Notion) to store best practices and team knowledge, ensuring nothing is lost over time.
3. Enhance High-Touch and Digital CSM Approaches
   • High-touch CSMs: Schedule regular check-ins or even walking meetings to stay connected with customers.
   • Digital CSMs: Use tools like automation and health scores to manage operations efficiently and at scale.
4. Adopt Sales Enablement Practices
   • Borrow ideas from sales enablement, such as structured onboarding, clear workflows, and targeted skills training.
5. Use A/B Testing for Improvement
   • Regularly test and tweak enablement programs to find what works best.
6. Prioritize CSM Requests
   • Group similar requests from CSMs and evaluate their importance to focus on the most impactful needs.
7. Map the Customer Journey
   • Collaborate with internal teams and use external research to outline the entire customer journey. Highlight key areas for improvement.

What to Stop in CS

1. Treating CS as a Reactive Role
   • Move from a reactive, problem-solving mindset to a proactive, strategic role in the customer journey.
2. Relying on Undocumented Knowledge
   • Stop depending on individual team members’ knowledge. Instead, centralize and document all critical insights.
3. Using Solutions That Don’t Scale
   • Avoid quick fixes that only solve immediate problems. Invest in scalable processes that prepare for long-term growth.
4. Providing Uniform Service to All Customers
   • Tailor service levels based on customer needs and value, rather than treating all customers the same.
5. Incentivizing Quantity Over Quality
   • Shift focus from the number of customer interactions to the value and outcomes of those interactions.
6. Overemphasizing New Tools
   • Maximize the use of current tools instead of constantly seeking new ones.

What to Continue in CS

1. Encouraging Peer Learning and Networking
   • Keep learning through online resources, events, and industry connections to stay updated on best practices.
2. Refining Health Scores
   • Improve customer health scoring systems to help CSMs proactively manage their portfolios.
3. Cross-Functional Collaboration
   • Maintain alignment with teams like Sales to share insights and create seamless workflows.
4. Balancing Standardization with Personalization
   • Ensure consistent service quality while allowing for some flexibility in individual approaches.
5. Focusing on Stakeholder Management
   • Work closely with Sales and other teams, using project management tools to streamline efforts.
6. Developing Data-Compliant Solutions
   • Stick to secure, ISO-compliant systems to meet data standards while addressing customer needs.
7. Combining High-Touch with Automation
   • Use a mix of personalized customer engagement and automated processes to cater to different customer preferences.

Learning and Adapting in CS

Learning by doing is vital in CS. Trial and error, shadowing colleagues, and connecting with peers help build confidence and adaptability. Staying inspired through LinkedIn thought leaders (like Dan Allis and Nick Mehta), podcasts (This is Growth!, Women in CS), and industry events supports continuous growth.

As CS evolves, clarifying roles and responsibilities—such as the debate on commercial ownership—will further strengthen the field.

GTM Alignment with Sales & Marketing

Customer Success (CS) teams are increasingly tasked with fostering deep, meaningful engagement with customers. Yet, despite their efforts, CS often operates in silos, carrying the weight of customer engagement alone. To truly maximize customer value and strengthen organizational cohesion, it’s essential to address systemic barriers and align motivations across teams. Here’s how companies can foster collaboration, improve transparency, and drive sustainable revenue retention.

Pivoting Toward Shared Goals

One of the most significant challenges is the division between departments focused on new business and those managing existing clients. This separation often creates conflicting priorities and misaligned incentives, particularly at the “end of the quarter,” when quick wins overshadow long-term customer value. To counteract this, leadership must champion a mindset shift where revenue retention is prioritized over immediate target attainment.

Shared definitions of accountability can help teams own successes and failures collaboratively. For example, framing goals around “revenue through customer satisfaction” or “reduced churn through proactive engagement” fosters alignment and encourages a long-term perspective.

Incentivizing Collaboration Across Departments

To break down silos, organizations need to create “carrot vs. stick” incentives that promote shared success. This involves rewarding cross-departmental contributions to customer value while addressing systemic issues that hinder inclusive dialogue.

One approach is to implement an internal “upvote” system where employees can propose and endorse business improvement ideas. By tying incentives to these suggestions—especially those that gain widespread support or are implemented—organizations can encourage collaboration and innovation.

Promoting Transparency and Learning

Transparent communication across departments can bridge knowledge gaps and build mutual understanding. Initiatives like town hall meetings, where employees present their roles and responsibilities, or intern-style rotational programs can foster empathy and cross-functional insights. Similarly, hackathons involving Product and Customer Experience teams can spotlight areas for rapid improvement, turning collaboration into tangible outcomes.

Leadership also plays a critical role in promoting a culture of learning. Regular “retro sessions” provide opportunities for employees to share feedback without fear of retribution, ensuring that input from all levels is valued and acted upon.

Redefining Feedback Mechanisms

Traditional methods of presenting churn analysis often lead to negative perceptions of CS, framing their role in terms of failure rather than opportunity. To shift this narrative, organizations should use collaborative language that highlights successes and actionable insights. For instance, rather than framing discussions around “bad numbers,” emphasize metrics like “revenue retention through proactive account management.”

Additionally, reconsidering QA processes to include Sales and Marketing in early-stage product testing can improve cross-departmental alignment. Tools like “hallway testing,” where new features are casually vetted by various stakeholders, ensure that feedback is inclusive and unbiased.

Balancing Accountability with Root Cause Analysis

When addressing underperformance, it’s critical to focus on systemic causes rather than singling out individuals or teams. This involves creating a culture where employees feel protected when providing upward feedback. Leaders must take ownership of organizational shortcomings and empower their teams to co-create solutions.

What to Start, Stop, and Continue

What to Start in CS

• Shifting conversations toward long-term goals like revenue retention.
• Defining shared accountability to ensure everyone takes ownership of challenges and solutions.
• Encouraging collaborative feedback mechanisms, such as upvoting business ideas.

What to Stop in CS

• Isolating blame to specific roles or teams; instead, tackle root causes together.
• Relying solely on “ticket” systems for feedback; foster open environments for idea sharing.

What to Continue in CS

• Involving CS earlier in the sales cycle to establish clear, actionable value statements.
• Providing training on effective internal communication to improve cross-departmental dialogue.

Value-Based Communication & Stakeholder Management 

Nowadays, effective customer engagement requires moving beyond operational tasks to focus on strategic goals. By identifying and tracking Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), even when stakeholders are uncertain about them, companies can transform routine interactions into meaningful partnerships. Helping customers achieve their desired outcomes not only adds value to the relationship but also positions your organization as a trusted strategic partner.

From Routine Check-ins to Strategic Value

Traditional check-ins often lack direction, but shifting to value-based meetings can make each interaction meaningful. These discussions should have clear agendas, align with the customer’s strategic goals, and end with actionable next steps. Early-stage customers benefit from high-touch engagement as it allows teams to learn and adapt together. Over time, the focus should remain on showcasing how solutions directly impact the customer’s objectives, making every meeting a step toward measurable success.

Tailoring Communication to Stakeholder Roles

Different stakeholders require different engagement approaches. For product users and implementers, conversations should focus on operational details and immediate benefits. For decision-makers and executives, the focus should shift to long-term strategic value. Storytelling supported by benchmarks, roadmaps, and success stories can help capture the interest of C-suite leaders, demonstrating how your solution aligns with their broader business objectives. Tailored communication ensures that each stakeholder feels their priorities are understood and addressed.

Setting the Stage for Success

Kick-off meetings are crucial for establishing a foundation of trust and alignment. By defining clear goals, involving key decision-makers, and setting expectations for how teams will collaborate, you set the stage for success. Highlighting quick wins, such as improved response times enabled by new tools, helps to showcase immediate value and build momentum. This strong start paves the way for a productive and goal-oriented relationship.

Celebrating Wins and Maintaining Alignment

Ongoing engagement is essential for keeping customers aligned and engaged. Proactive communication through channels like Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) can demonstrate progress and value. Sharing success stories, benchmarks, and case studies not only highlights achievements but also fosters a sense of partnership. Comparing a customer’s performance to industry peers can reveal strengths and uncover growth opportunities, ensuring the relationship remains dynamic and forward-looking.

Clarity in the Customer Journey

A seamless customer journey relies on clear role definitions and ownership at every stage. Mapping responsibilities ensures smooth transitions, reduces confusion, and keeps everyone focused on the customer’s objectives. This clarity empowers both your team and the customer to stay aligned, fostering a sense of shared purpose throughout the partnership.

Balancing Customer Engagement Types

Different stages of the customer journey require different engagement approaches. Early-stage customers often need personalized attention through 1:1 interactions to build trust and establish a strong foundation. As customers mature, group engagements or scalable initiatives, like webinars, may be more effective. Balancing 1:1, 1:few, and 1:many interactions ensures resources are used efficiently while meeting the specific needs of each customer.

Integrating Engagement into Customer Health Scores

While engagement is a valuable metric, it should not dominate a customer’s Health Score. Instead, success plans should focus on driving meaningful outcomes, like achieving strategic KPIs, rather than simply tracking the number of interactions. Every engagement should be purposeful, fostering a sense of urgency and ensuring efforts are aligned with the customer’s long-term value.

Ensuring Accountability and Alignment

Alignment within the organization is just as important as alignment with the customer. Misalignment between Customer Success Managers (CSMs) and customer objectives can derail progress. Senior leaders, such as CEOs or COOs, must actively advocate for customer-centric strategies, demonstrating their commitment to delivering value. This leadership sets the tone for the entire organization and ensures a unified approach to achieving customer success.

Client Change Management & Tooling 

Engaging customers effectively is critical, especially when trials or proofs of concept (POCs) lower urgency and lead to inaction. To address this, a strategic, personalized approach is essential. Here are the things to do:

Create Urgency and Clear Objectives

Start by focusing on outcomes and the problems your product solves. Establish urgency with defined first actions, timeframes, and recap communications that keep key stakeholders informed and aligned. Use tools like short, personalized videos to guide customers and track engagement. This ensures clear prioritization and accountability while creating momentum toward the target outcome.

Demystify Roles with a Joint Impact Plan

A “joint impact plan” helps define responsibilities across the customer lifecycle. By mapping stakeholders and using multi-threading, you can bridge silos, uncover motivations, and ensure alignment across teams. Understanding personal goals—such as increasing visibility or addressing challenges—deepens engagement and builds stronger connections.

Overcome Inaction with Cost Awareness

Highlight the “cost of inaction” to combat complacency. Reinforce the pain points that prompted the investment, emphasizing how delays affect progress and impact the customer’s objectives. Pivot conversations back to the reasons for onboarding and the value your product delivers.

Expand Beyond Problem Solving

Customer Success Managers (CSMs) often face the perception of being problem solvers rather than strategic partners. Proactively engage senior leaders by connecting outcomes to business goals and demonstrating value beyond issue resolution. Avoid assuming customers have engaged with your communication—tailor outreach based on their responsiveness.

Empower Learning and Ownership

Stop expecting customers to independently manage their success. Provide centralized resources like a help center and learn from Sales and Marketing to personalize communication effectively. This ensures knowledge is accessible while driving motivation and ownership of individual tasks early.

By addressing these gaps and fostering urgency, companies can transform inaction into impactful progress.

Communities, Playbooks, & Automation 

In today’s customer-centric landscape, businesses must ensure that every customer, regardless of size or engagement level, receives timely and impactful support. A digital-first Customer Success (CS) strategy powered by data, segmentation, and automation is the key to achieving this.

Driving Scalable Success with Digital Customer Enablement

A shift to a digital-first Customer Success (CS) model empowers organizations to scale efficiently while maintaining high-quality customer engagement. By leveraging automation, community-driven initiatives, and tailored strategies, businesses can meet diverse customer needs and drive meaningful outcomes.

Start: Building Proactive Digital Journeys

Prioritize the creation of robust digital touchpoints that enable customers to achieve success independently. Initiatives like interactive webinars, virtual office hours, and community roundtables led by product experts foster scalable engagement and knowledge sharing. Develop engaging content and proactive resources tailored to customer needs, ensuring accessibility at their convenience.

Refine customer segmentation by using data on maturity, product adoption, and usage rather than relying solely on company size. This approach ensures targeted support for high-potential customers, blending digital and human interactions for maximum impact.

Additionally, test new strategies, such as playbooks or health score adjustments, within controlled groups to minimize risks and refine processes before broader implementation.

Stop: Overlooking Scalability

Avoid treating smaller or less engaged customers as less valuable. Instead, leverage automation and self-service tools to unlock their potential without straining resources. Similarly, refrain from using high-stakes accounts as testing grounds for unproven strategies, focusing instead on controlled pilots to refine digital initiatives.

High-touch, manual processes are resource-intensive and impractical for scaling smaller accounts. Shifting away from these methods ensures consistent quality and accessibility across the customer base.

Continue: Scaling Through Automation and Communities

Invest in automation tools, such as Gainsight and Customer.io, to streamline the customer journey and enable precise segmentation. Use these platforms to create targeted campaigns, manage health scores, and implement playbooks that guide customer actions. For example, automated follow-ups after webinars or reminders to use onboarding tools can bridge engagement gaps effectively.

Communities are essential for fostering trust and peer-to-peer learning. Whether virtual or in-person, these spaces offer customers the opportunity to connect, share experiences, and gain value collectively. Highlighting the expertise of your team and the resources available further enhances customer independence and satisfaction.

By balancing automation with community-driven initiatives, businesses can create a scalable, efficient, and personalized approach to customer success that aligns with diverse customer needs. This model not only optimizes resources but also ensures consistent value delivery, building trust and fostering long-term customer relationships.

Customer Marketing (Cases/Multi-Threading)

Customer Success (CS) thrives on meaningful storytelling, well-curated events, and proactive stakeholder engagement. Building a systematic approach ensures not only the smooth execution of success initiatives but also strengthens relationships and creates opportunities for deeper customer advocacy. Here’s how to optimize efforts by focusing on what to start, stop, and continue in your Customer Success Marketing strategy.

START: Build Strategic Customer Engagement Frameworks

1. Establish a Dedicated Customer Marketing Role:
   Introducing a Customer Marketing role eliminates the need to rely on external PR or general content teams. This specialized role ensures faster, more streamlined processes for developing customer success stories, avoiding unnecessary complexity, and keeping the momentum alive.
2. Leverage Events and Expos:
   Use trade shows and expos to connect customers for mutual learning and the creation of reference stories. These events provide a platform to highlight customer success while enabling customers to network with peers.
3. Foster Cross-Industry Community Events:
   Host events that bring together customers from diverse industries, ensuring a safe environment for open knowledge exchange. While same-industry connections may present competitive barriers, cross-industry interactions foster collaboration without these limitations.
4. Engage Stakeholders Strategically:
   Ask key stakeholders targeted questions that require collaboration with other stakeholders. Clearly outline the importance of their input for mutual success. This method not only secures valuable insights but also facilitates introductions to additional decision-makers.

STOP: Avoiding Common Pitfalls

1. Overcomplicating Success Stories:
   Simplify the process of creating success stories. Delays and excessive red tape can diminish customer excitement, causing them to disengage. Act swiftly to capture their enthusiasm and secure compelling narratives.
2. Ignoring Compliance Rules:
   Be proactive in addressing compliance regulations for customer events and invitations. As corporate oversight on compliance tightens, a professional approach demonstrates respect for customers while maintaining engagement.
3. Applying a One-Size-Fits-All Approach:
   Avoid lumping all stakeholders into the same communication strategy. Tailor messaging and meeting agendas to their specific roles and interests. This ensures more productive interactions and preserves the value of their time.

CONTINUE: Building on Effective Practices

1. Seek Out Unique Customer Stories:
   Identify and pursue standout stories that reflect customer innovation and success. Highlighting their achievements not only strengthens the relationship but also showcases your commitment to their progress.
2. Prepare Value Propositions for Success Stories:
   When approaching customers for a case study, frame it as an exclusive opportunity. Emphasize the unique aspects of their journey and how it can inspire others, making participation mutually beneficial.
3. Connect Customers with Similar Pain Points:
   Facilitate connections among customers facing shared challenges. Many stakeholders lack the resources or networks to engage with peers directly. Your insights and contacts can create valuable bridges.
4. Add Creative Value to Events:
   Make customer events memorable with unique venues, engaging activities like games or contests, and innovative formats. These touches encourage higher attendance and foster stronger connections.
5. Develop Stakeholder Maps:
   Continuously refine your understanding of stakeholders by creating detailed maps that outline their needs, roles, and interests. This allows for tailored communication and maximizes the success of each interaction.

Team Structure & Compensation

As Customer Success (CS) evolves, organizations must refine team structures, role definitions, and performance metrics to meet dynamic business needs and foster long-term customer relationships. Here’s a strategic guide on what to start, continue, and stop doing to optimize CS operations effectively.

START: Specialization and Agile Metrics

1. Specialized Roles:
   Clearly define roles across teams—CSMs, Support, Account Managers (AMs), and Consulting. Each role should have distinct expectations, goals, and skillsets to avoid overlap and confusion. Specialized roles within CS ensure streamlined workflows and sharper focus on responsibilities.
2. Collaborative Team KPIs:
   Establish shared KPIs to strengthen alignment between Sales and CS teams. For instance, pairing Sales’ quota goals with CS’s retention metrics can drive joint accountability and collaboration.
3. Annual Review of Pay Structures:
   Regularly reassess pay structures and KPIs to remain agile in response to economic shifts and company developments. While stability is critical, adjusting pay and performance metrics annually ensures alignment with evolving business goals and employee expectations.

CONTINUE: Long-term Relationships and Balanced Metrics

1. Long-term Account Growth:
   As CSMs, focus on fostering strong, long-term customer relationships instead of chasing quick wins that may jeopardize trust. Growing accounts steadily often yields sustainable success.
2. Clear Role Ownership:
   Clearly define ownership of tasks among CSMs, AMs, and Support teams. For example, CSMs should focus on strategy and relationship-building, while AMs handle commercial discussions.
3. Prioritize NRR and NPS:
   Net Revenue Retention (NRR) and Net Promoter Score (NPS) are key CSM metrics, capturing retention and customer sentiment. Add individual development goals—like content creation, training, or event participation—to motivate team members and diversify skills.
4. Align AM Incentives:
   Incentivize AMs with ARR targets to complement CSM KPIs, creating a balanced approach that ensures both new revenue and customer retention.
5. Variable Pay Models:
   Adopt flexible pay structures like 70-80% fixed and 20-30% variable compensation. While variable pay motivates performance, consider fixed models in scenarios requiring stability, like early-stage companies or roles needing intense focus on long-term outcomes.

STOP: Misaligned Role Expectations and Complex Structures

1. Mixing CSM and Support Roles:
   Combining CSM and Support responsibilities dilutes both functions. Support focuses on transactional, case-driven tasks, while CSMs are strategic partners driving long-term value.
2. CSMs Owning Commercial Negotiations:
   Avoid assigning CSMs to handle pricing discussions or contract negotiations. This can create conflicts of interest and erode trust in their role as customer advocates.
3. Excessive Organizational Layers:
   Flatten team structures to avoid slow decision-making and siloed communication. Customers value seamless experiences, and overly complex hierarchies can hinder responsiveness.

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