how to prove your CS team isn’t a cost center

What should the top KPI for a success team be?

It's not health scores, CSAT, or NPS. My answer?

Number of customer stories captured per month.

But no... I’m not talking about long-winded case studies ghost-written by marketing that take six months to approve.

I’m talking about bite-sized, authentic stories that highlight a specific use case and the business outcome it generated. Think of a simple, three-sentence format:

• Problem: "The customer was spending 40 hours/month manually reconciling invoices."

• Solution: "The CSM showed them how to implement our automated invoicing workflow."

• Outcome: "They've eliminated 95% of that manual work, freeing up a full-time employee for higher-value analysis."

Why does this simple KPI work so well? It forces your team to focus on what actually matters.

1. It Forces Value Creation

If you have no success stories, the success team’s first job is to go work with the customer to create them. This KPI shifts the team's entire focus from a reactive "check-in" model to a proactive, "outcome-hunting" model. You can't just ask if a customer is happy; you have to ask if they are successful — and have the story to prove it.

2. It Engages Executive Buyers

If a customer is going to support a story, you usually need buy-in from people with authority. You can use the approval process as a high-value, non-salesy reason to engage with the Executive Buyers who write the checks. These leaders don't care about your feature releases; they care about business results. This KPI gives your CSMs a tangible reason to build those critical, high-level relationships.

3. It Directly Fuels Growth

Everyone should contribute to growth, and this is a tangible way for CS to play a critical role. Prospects need proof that your product does what you claim. They have too many choices to just trust you. These bite-sized stories are the single most powerful asset you can hand to your sales and marketing teams. It proves, without a doubt, that your CS team is not a cost center; it's an engine for new revenue.

Stories are everything.

This KPI requires business acumen, customer engagement savvy, and a consultant’s eye. It holds the CS team to a higher, more strategic standard.

Are you incentivizing your success team to just manage relationships, or are you incentivizing them to create and capture proof of success?

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