Article · 8 min read

Pooled Customer Success Management: The Water's Fine

Abigail Spear · Gainsight Free Advanced

How to cover a long tail without a named CSM per account, with two working models (strategic plus pooled, and centres of excellence) and named companies running each.

  • RD Station keeps a dedicated CSM only for its most complex 30 percent of customers and pools the other 70 percent.
  • Pooling is not just for the low end: Imprivata halved strategic account ratios and reserved part of every CSM's time for the pool.
  • Pooled coverage is a break from the one-to-one CSM-to-customer model customer success was built on.
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It answers 2 questions

  1. How do I structure a customer success team once one person is not enough?
  2. How do the best teams cover a long tail of customers without a CSM per account?

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