Why value is the metric that matters most

Early in my career as a customer success manager (CSM), I was obsessed with net revenue retention (NRR), customer satisfaction score (CSAT) and churn rate, assuming they were the ultimate indicators of success. After all, customer success teams have traditionally always been measured on these three. 

But I quickly realized that by the time those numbers moved, it was already too late to make an impact. 

The big problem with traditional CS metrics is that they make CS teams reactive rather than proactive. Because while these core metrics are important guidelines, they’re lagging indicators that only tell you what has already happened, and not what’s coming next. 

That’s when I shifted my approach to focusing on customer value first.

If you want to establish your customer success team as a truly forward-thinking department, you need to look beyond these standard metrics and focus on value creation. Instead of just tracking how many customers leave or stay, start to measure the value your customers gain from your product or service. 

When you start to take notice of this, you’ll see a direct correlation between value realization and the lifetime of your customers. But let’s dig in.

Higher engagement creates stickiness

One of the strongest predictors of customer retention is engagement – how frequently and meaningfully customers interact with the product. The more embedded a product becomes in a customer’s daily workflows, the harder it is to replace, increasing stickiness. This may be measured by evaluating:

• Time in product: How often users interact with the product for meaningful tasks
• Feature adoption rate: Whether customers are using the product’s basic or advanced offerings
• User growth: How many users within the customer base use the product

Most CS teams recognize this – adoption rate, engagement, and feature usage are the most commonly tracked metrics during onboarding. However, only 30% of teams measure time-to-value (TTV), meaning few track whether that engagement truly translates into business impact.

CSMs can directly influence engagement and drive to stickiness:

• Onboarding experience: Ensure new customers and new users of active customers understand how to leverage the product
• Continuous training: Offer tailored guidance based on the customer’s goals
• Regular check-ins: Call out barriers to engagement and offer solutions. Recommend underutilized features that will help the customer meet their goals.

Stickiness leads to expansion opportunities

A great product should be woven into the fabric of a customer's daily operations and decision-making processes; without it, they will have their original pain points. 

Once a product becomes deeply integrated into a customer’s workflows and relied upon daily, it naturally leads to expanded use of services. A sticky product creates a foundation for growth because customers see its value and seek additional features or services to enhance their experience. 

There are several ways product stickiness can be measured, such as workflow integration, goal attainment and upgrades.

A truly sticky product seamlessly blends into existing processes. For example, our company built an app that customers use from start to finish when managing their real estate transactions. Many of their own workflows are centered around using the app, so that if they ever decide to change platforms, the way their entire company collaborates would be jeopardized.

And this touches on the real hallmark of a sticky product: whether your customers have reached their original goal with it. 

At first, our customers wanted an app that saved them time creating and managing contracts with their customers. We delivered this so well, that it quickly became the norm in their workflows. It saved them valuable time and allowed them to reinvest energy elsewhere in their business. 

But goals shift and evolve, often expanding to redefine your overall objectives.

Once you’ve established that your customers’ goals have changed and have determined there’s an appetite to reach bigger goals, you can offer additional products to ensure your company remains at the forefront of your customers’ minds. To do this, you can offer additional products or services via upselling or cross-selling. 

At our organization, we experienced this firsthand once more efficient contract management became the expectation of our customers. We then expanded our product to give customers more control in managing commissions and visibility to monitor payments. This expansion of services added more value to customers and increased their stickiness to our platform. 

How CSMs can drive expansion

Whether you call it upselling, cross-selling, or account growth, this revenue-generating magic wouldn’t be possible without the canny and strategic mind of customer success managers.

These agents dedicated to customer relationships are far more than account managers; they're organizational translators who bridge the gap between a customer's current capabilities and their future potential – a long-term strategic partnership. They can do this in a number of ways:

• Identify usage trends: Monitor which features are used and introduce complementary services
• Success reviews: Regularly highlight how the product has helped the customer reach their goal and recommend next steps to achieve even bigger goals
• Peer influence: Showcase success stories of other relevant customers and influence adoption

Expansion creates advocates

As customers expand their use of a product, they become more invested in its success.

CSMs can evaluate a customer’s likelihood of advocacy based on a few things:

• Customer referrals: Directing potential new customers to your organization
• Public endorsements: Getting your customers to provide a winning testimonial, case study, or an endorsement on social media, or even highlighting your product at industry events
• Beta testing and pilots: Customers who willingly participate in the testing of new products and provide constructive feedback are more invested in the success of the product

The role of the CSM is to strategically guide customers and proactively evaluate customer engagement, stickiness, expansion potential, and advocacy readiness to drive long-term success. As customers progress through these key milestones, they experience greater value, leading to higher satisfaction, retention, and loyalty.

CSMs can create advocates by publicly recognizing their customer achievements with the product. Celebrating wins is always a good initiative. From this, CSMs can create advocacy programs that incentivize participation in case studies, testimonials, or offer incentives for referrals.

And although I initially bemoaned a heavily metric-focused approach to customer success, ensuring your customers have a high NPS is a clear way to ensure highly-engaged customers are identified as willing advocates!

What have we learned?

CS teams that focus on value creation are better equipped to ensure customers stay, grow, and become advocates for your product. 

Transitioning from a metrics-driven approach to a value-based strategy may require a shift in mindset and processes, but the effort will pay off as it fosters stronger customer relationships and drives sustained growth for both your business and your customers.

If your CS team still relies primarily on lagging indicators like churn and CSAT, start by making small but meaningful changes:

1. Redefine success: Work with customers to identify their unique success metrics.
2. Track early indicators: Measure engagement, feature adoption, and business outcomes before retention issues arise.
3. Customer success enablement: Train your CSMs to shift their conversations from "checking in" to actively co-creating success strategies with customers