SaaStr · 2013-03-04
· 4839d
Building an Effective Customer Success Team: Hiring Strategy and Performance Metrics
This article outlines best practices for building a Customer Success team in SaaS companies, emphasizing early hiring and measurement-driven goals. The author argues that Customer Success managers are critical to revenue growth, managing approximately 75% of company revenue through retention and upsells, and should be evaluated on renewal rates and net revenue growth rather than soft metrics like NPS.
Metrics in this report
Average SaaS Renewal Rate
80-90%
median range
most SaaS companies on base revenue
Customer Success Manager to ARR Ratio
1 CSM per $2MARR
rough metric
typical SaaS company staffing
Customer Success and Support Budget
10%%
of existing revenue
post-initial traction SaaS companies
Enterprise Customer Renewal Rate
95+%
target minimum
largest enterprise customers
Net Annual Revenue Growth Rate from Existing Customers
110-120%
typical target
including churn and upsells
Small Business Customer Renewal Rate
60-70%
typical range
very small business segment