resonance-success-customer-success

Build the score from leading indicators across four dimensions: outcome reached, adoption breadth, relationship depth, and sentiment, weighted toward the customer's desired outcome. Cap any single presence metric like logins so it cannot turn an account green alone, then validate the score by checking whether red accounts actually churned more than green ones.

Measure NRR over a fixed cohort of existing customers with no new logos mixed in, and pair it with GRR to see the leak. If NRR is below 100%, stop churn and contraction first through health scoring and early renewals, then add expansion triggered by real usage signals after value is proven.

Start 120 to 90 days out for large or at-risk accounts, 90 to 60 days for healthy mid-tier accounts, and 60 to 30 days for small auto-renewing accounts. A renewal first examined 30 days out on an unmanaged account is already high-risk because the outcome was decided earlier.

Diagnose the root cause first, because too expensive often means the customer did not reach enough value to justify the price. Sequence saves from least to most costly: pause, then downgrade, then a time-boxed discount only when value is real and fit is right.

Support is reactive and ticket-shaped, measured on resolution time and CSAT, while success is proactive and outcome-shaped, measured on NRR, renewal, and health. Collapsing success into a support queue leaves no one driving outcomes, so triage and deflect repeatable tickets to protect proactive work.

Logins measure presence, not value, so a customer can log in daily and still churn because they never reached the outcome they bought. The test for any health signal is whether its movement predicts renewal; logins usually fail that test and should be capped as a minor input.