CS Org Reporting Structure

If your CS team or CS Org ultimately reports into the CRO, do you find that there are inherent challenges to getting them to understand CS? Do you find that they are so Sales-minded, that they try to manage CS teams the same way they manage Sales, and therefore CS teams face unnecessary challenges? If so, how do you work through those?

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Devon Lee

I’ve seen two sides in reporting to CRO; both positive and negative where clients who were more invested in our product because of how we had repositioned our value, and others who became retention risk because they felt we pushed too hard for new terms or pricing adjustments.

It did present challenges for the CS team to do true CS work during that time. I think that the more you can do to identify how the CS motions tie to long-term revenue and access to new new revenue - either with the client or referrals - that will allow the revenue leader to give CS the space for more health and adoption work.

Another idea in to creating that visibility as Jared and Alex mentioned is to demonstrate the LTV risk if the client were to leave (thinking about current arr and untapped revenue)

Shari Srebnick

Thanks! Appreciate it.

Alex Turkovic

Yes - time zone separation and under-engaged executives can definitely hinder your efforts, but will make your role so much more vital and the over-communication piece a huge factor. Best of luck and let me know if you need to spitball some strategies. Happy to lend an ear.

Shari Srebnick

Hi Alex,

These are all great points and suggestions, but based on the way we're structured, unfortunately not all of this is easy or 100% applicable. I might have to get creative around a few things.

Also worth noting is that our CRO doesn't get involved when your further down the food chain; he solely speaks to the VP's that report to him. And all of our C-Suite, save for our CMO, are located in EMEA. Time difference is another added obstacle.

What I can take action on right away is over-communicating strategy and KPI's, etc.. to create more transparency.

Last, we're solid on the sales part - that's something we have nailed down pretty well.

Thank you both for your input!

Alex Turkovic

I agree @Jared Spencer Orr - pulling your C-level leader into various meetings and interactions with the team is vital for them to understand, at least on a high level, the goings on and challenges the team face every day. It also helps to solidify the strategy you are laying out as the leader of CS in how you are communicating that with your team.

It probably goes without saying that it is the role of middle management in CS to navigate this 'barrier' between C-level and front line management. In this particular case (reporting up through the CRO instead of CCO or COO), I feel it is typically the most challenging form of this relationship.

With that said, a few practical suggestions:

Build a solid playbook & strategy deck with input from your leader, as well as others around the company.
Over-communicate the above to all levels of the org - this will help ensure that everyone is aligned on the KPIs you are driving
Build a solid 'sales battlecard' - so that sales teams know how to properly communicate the role of CS post-sale.

Jared Orr

Hi @Shari Srebnick The last company I worked for, the CRO was definitely more sales leaning. One thing our Director of CS did was start involving him more in our daily/weekly CS team meetups. This helped the team build a better relationship with him and also allowed him to be more in the loop with all the recurring revenue. This was a huge help to get him more on board.

Cheers!