The traditional Customer Success Manager role isn't broken. It's obsolete.
Look at what we are asking the average CSM to do:
Onboarding & Implementation
Adoption Coaching
Renewal Negotiations
Technical Troubleshooting
Executive Business Reviews
Risk Management
We have created a Frankenstein role, stitched together from tasks that should never have lived in one body.
We crammed highly specialized disciplines — Sales, Solutions Architecture, Project Management, and Support — into a single generalist role and called it "Success."
The Math Doesn't Work Anymore
The traditional "Coverage Model" (giving a CSM a set book of business and demanding a weekly cadence call) is a relic.
It forces us to optimize for our org chart, not the customer’s experience.
We are burning millions on a role designed to make us feel proactive. But weekly "check-ins" are mostly theater. Customers don't want "proactive" on your schedule (which is usually intrusive). They want "responsive" when they actually need help.
The Future Isn't Coverage. It's Precision.
The most efficient CS organizations are unbundling the Generalist CSM and replacing them with a new model: AI + Specialists.
1. AI Handles the Baseline
AI doesn't need a cadence call to know your customer isn't using the features they paid for. It knows in real-time.
Success Plans & Health Scoring: Automated based on telemetry.
Risk Detection: Triggered by usage drops, not "gut feel."
Nudges: In-app guidance and email nurture based on behavior.
2. Specialists Handle the Complexity
When human intervention is triggered, you don't send a generalist. You deploy an expert:
Implementation Specialists: Deep technical setup (which should be a paid service).
Product Adoption Managers: For feature enablement and training.
Technical Success Architects: For complex migrations and integrations.
Renewal Specialists: For commercial negotiations and contracts.
The Economics are Obvious
Instead of paying a $140k salary for a generalist to manage 10 accounts with mediocre expertise in five different areas, you shift the model.
You rely on fixed-cost AI for monitoring and high-value Specialists for intervention. The cost per dollar of ARR drops. The level of expertise delivered to the customer rises.
"But what about the relationship?"
This is the number one pushback. Customers want a relationship!
Some do. Most don't.
Most customers want their product to work. They want answers when they have questions. They want to achieve their outcomes without sitting in unnecessary meetings.
For the minority of strategic accounts that demand a high-touch partnership? Give them a Strategic Account Director. But don't confuse that role with a generalist CSM trying to troubleshoot an API integration while negotiating a 5% uplift.
The Bottom Line
The Generalist CSM role made sense when software was simpler and digital engagement was immature. Those conditions no longer exist.
The question isn't whether to eliminate the traditional CSM role.
The question is why we are still clinging to it.
Unbundle the role.
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