The Evolution of Customer Success: Lessons from Salesforce and Beyond

A good friend from my early Salesforce days shared an insightful report from Bain & Company this morning on why many Customer Success strategies in the software industry are struggling to deliver. It prompted me to reflect on my journey in Customer Success and how far the function has come. Yet some challenges remain constant. To learn more about some of the challenges, I highly recommend reading Bain’s report on Why Software Companies’ Customer Success is Failing.

In 2004, I transitioned from a sales role to one of the first Customer Success Managers (CSM) at Salesforce. Coming from a role with clear sales targets and KPIs, the unstructured nature of Customer Success initially left me feeling uneasy. At that time, there was little clarity around what success meant for a CSM, and it was difficult to define our role alongside the well-established sales and support teams.

However, it didn’t take long for me to realize just how critical Customer Success was for our customers. Helping them adopt Salesforce wasn’t just about solving problems; it was about enabling them to fully leverage the platform, unlocking value, and driving actual business outcomes. I quickly saw the impact that building strong, ongoing relationships with customers had on growth—not only for their businesses but also for our own growth.

One of the most valuable aspects of my role as a CSM was our close collaboration with Product, Engineering, and Support. Salesforce provided a unified system for customer engagement—everyone used the same platform, which helped us capture and share feedback, track issues, and flag potential churn (what we called “Red Accounts”). It was simple and effective.

Tools like IdeaExchange made this even more powerful, creating a feedback loop where customers could voice their ideas and directly influence the product roadmap. The ideas with the most votes were prioritized, and we saw how customer engagement in this process drove innovation and deepened their investment in the platform.

Fast forward to today, many of the same challenges persist for customer success, especially in tech startups. Leaders often need help to define where Customer Success fits alongside Sales and Support and how to measure success effectively. With increasing pressure to drive Net Revenue Retention (NRR), organizations question their Customer Success investments and how to structure these teams. And as Bain’s report highlights, many companies are falling short in their Customer Success efforts.

In recent years, I’ve been digging deeper into these organizational challenges, particularly in SaaS. One pattern stands out: many companies spend less time understanding what prospects and customers need to succeed.? User research on UX, UI, and overall customer experience (CX) is often sidelined; these teams are being questioned. Customer Success teams spend more time putting out fires than focusing on strategic growth. Without a deep understanding of ongoing customer needs, it’s hard for SaaS products to deliver the value customers expect.

This is why I started? CX Growth Advisors. We help companies create a seamless customer experience with clear product and journey blueprints, ensuring customers achieve business outcomes and satisfaction quickly. When this foundation is solid, your Customer Success teams can shift their focus to growth—working with satisfied customers to expand accounts—rather than constantly chasing product issues or dissatisfaction.

A well-structured customer experience boosts brand loyalty and customer satisfaction, setting your company up for scalable, long-term success. Leading firms are developing a clear product and customer journey blueprint, defining proper coordination pre-post sales roles, and investing in AI-enabled self-service tools.? If you’re facing challenges in Customer Success or unsure how to structure your CS team for growth, let’s talk.