Customer Success tech stack: research and outlook

Any business function that wants to scale its capabilities needs two things: process and technology. Indeed, these are the top two priorities for Customer Success teams, according to a recent survey of Customer Success leaders. 

Good leaders can often implement best practices on their own initiative – but tools require budget. The survey found less than half of Customer Success teams have access to purpose-built technology to help them do their job. 

When the survey asked, “What does your tech stack look like?” nearly 1,000 respondents answered as follows: 

• 82.5% said customer relationship management (CRM);
• 65.9% said support (i.e. ticketing);
• 48.9% said task/project management;
• 46.3% said customer success platform (CSP);
• 40.8% said CX/survey;
• 37.0% said chat; 
• 34.4% said product (i.e. analytics);
• 32.9% said marketing automation;
• 27.5% said learning management system (LMS);
• 26.6% said customer engagement/community management; and
• 4.8% said other.

The full report sums up these findings this way:

“Customer Success teams are inheriting their tech stack from other departments. The decentralization of customer data caused by these second-hand, siloed tools poses a threat to CS teams’ ability to automate, and therefore provide proactive support and scale.”

Comparing this to other business functions helps illustrate why this is a problem:

“In an age where no sales team would function without a CRM, or a marketing team without marketing automation, it is striking that CS teams responsible for a company’s customer base are lacking purpose-built technology and data.”

The kicker is that proactive support and scale—of the variety enabled by technology specifically designed for the job—is proven to have an impact on growth: 

Teams with a purpose-built customer success platform are more likely to report net revenue retention (NRR) of greater than 100%.

As Jason Lemkin wrote in response to the study on the SaaStr blog, “No need to throw money away on tools you don’t need, but folks, please support your CS teams!”

The full report is available for download. Inside, you’ll find tech stack survey results broken out by company revenue bands, as well as a year-over-year analysis. The report provides you with an insider’s look at the evolving Customer Success landscape based on the firsthand experience of those leading the way with details around their priorities, teams, and charters. 

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