The Metrics These Customer Success Managers Track to Keep a Pulse on Customer Relationships

For the customer success team at Regal.ai, key metrics aren’t just a window into a customer’s health score. 

“They tell a story of growth, engagement and long-term partnership,” Strategic Account Manager Sarah Vail told Built In.

Like many account managers, Vail relies on data to understand when a customer is satisfied — or about to churn. She explained that metrics like expansion revenue and key performance indicators play a leading role in her approach to maintaining strong customer relationships. 

When it comes to either reengaging or nurturing these relationships, CSMs take various approaches while ensuring a customer’s goals are fully met. Kevin Haddock, a senior technical CSM at EliseAI, recalled an instance when he scheduled a check-in call with a client to help them see the value of the product they were using, leaning on examples pulled directly from the customer’s support requests. After effectively planning a new training strategy to ensure everyone was aligned, he was able to prevent the customer from churning — and even earned kudos for his hard work. 

For Vail, Haddock, Templafy CSM Carla Cornejo and Yieldmo Vice President of Client Services Jackie Sunderland, succeeding in customer success is all about prioritizing the right metrics — and continuously improving their approach. Read on to see what else each one had to say about how they use data to maintain strong customer relationships. 

 

EliseAI’s AI automation platform is designed to enable multifamily housing and healthcare organizations to streamline their communications and improve operational efficiency.

 

What are the key metrics you track when it comes to your customers? Are there any “outside-the-box” metrics you track?

Anything related to product adoption is essential to anticipating potential expansions or churn, but working in an industry driven by automation tools, such as AI, means basic metrics like user activity might not paint the full picture. Instead, I like to focus on adoption as a measure of new business related to the account as well as which points of contact we are most frequently engaging with on calls and emails. More contacts with senior leaders and continuous expansion gives a good view that a customer relationship is healthy. When it’s easy to schedule a performance review, it’s usually a good sign that the account is healthy and engaged. 

I also love to dive into pain points, like long-standing support tickets. These are usually reflective of a customer’s feature requests, and if there is a high number of long-standing tickets, it typically means the client may be misunderstanding a product use case. If that’s true, retraining and resetting expectations can help move them away from larger issues.

 

Which metrics do you prioritize when identifying accounts that might be in danger of churning?

Support tickets are always a great metric to prioritize whenever there is concern of churn. These not only indicate limitations with the product but tell the story of how users are currently using the product, which CSMs can relate back to the value the product is providing. 

I also compare product performance metrics with industry benchmarks to address concerns quickly. If we are able to determine a customer is underperforming compared to our benchmarks, we can often provide additional value by guiding them through best practices.

Lastly, when addressing an upset or frustrated client, I like to refer back to metrics from the implementation period. Implementation is the first impression for each client, and oftentimes, misalignment and poor expectation setting can bubble up in the future. Understanding launch timelines and the initial service they received can provide insight into where their current concerns are stemming from.

 

“Understanding launch timelines and the initial service they received can provide insight into where their current concerns are stemming from.”

 

Give an example of how you used this data to tailor your reengagement strategy or otherwise improve/nurture customer relationships.

One example would be when a customer had feedback on our new suite of products that they added to their existing contract. The original product continued to work well, but once we launched our new product suite, this customer quickly saw a spike in support tickets and was not as open to scheduling a call to review performance together. They were adamant the product was not working, but by reviewing tickets together, we were able to determine that the feedback was largely stemming from a lack of understanding in how to use the new product suite. 

By coming to our check-in call with examples pulled directly from their team’s support requests, I was able to re-engage the team enough to schedule a formal review. During the review, we were able to discuss what was working to confirm it was worth continuing, then we effectively planned a new training strategy to ensure that everyone was on board. The customer did not churn and even complimented our attention to customer needs during a recent on-site visit.

 

 

Regal.ai’s AI agent platform is designed to help support, sales and operations teams deliver more effective customer communications. 

 

What are the key metrics you track when it comes to your customers? Are there any “outside-the-box” metrics you track?

At Regal.ai, we take a data-driven, customer-first approach to drive measurable success. Our core metrics go beyond traditional customer health scores — they tell a story of growth, engagement and long-term partnership. Key performance indicators are central to Regal.ai’s strategy. We collaborate with customers to define objectives, assess baseline performance and implement tailored strategies for long-term success. Customer success managers then build robust reporting frameworks to track progress and impact.

Expansion revenue is another key metric, reflecting deeper engagement with our platform through increased usage or adoption of new product lines. This signals the tangible value Regal.ai delivers. We also track executive responsiveness to ensure continued strategic alignment. Frequent, meaningful interactions with decision-makers signal that Regal.ai remains a strategic priority and reinforces our platform’s value to their business. 

Finally, customer advocacy is a strong indicator of success. When customers share success stories, provide testimonials or act as references, it demonstrates high return on investment and the strength of our partnership.

 

“When customers share success stories, provide testimonials or act as references, it demonstrates high return on investment and the strength of our partnership.”

 

Which metrics do you prioritize when identifying accounts that might be in danger of churning?

We proactively identify at-risk accounts by evaluating multiple customer health metrics instead of depending on just one indicator. Utilization trends are a strong predictor of customer health. We can spot early signs of contraction or unexpected overages that may impact retention by tracking month-over-month revenue trends. Payment history is another key factor — consistent payments signal strong value alignment, while unpaid or disputed invoices may indicate misalignment or budget shifts, prompting early intervention. By closely monitoring payment behaviors, we can intervene early to realign expectations and maintain a strong partnership.

Support interactions also reveal customer sentiment. A spike in ticket volume often signals broader experience challenges, not just technical issues. Beyond volume, we monitor response and resolution times to ensure customers feel supported and engaged at every stage.

 

Give an example of how you used this data to tailor your reengagement strategy or otherwise improve/nurture customer relationships.

I worked closely with a long-standing customer who relied on Regal.ai for critical operations. Despite implementing our platform three years ago, their setup remained unchanged, and they hadn’t adopted advanced features. As their renewal approached, admins raised frequent concerns about system functionality. While our support team resolved tickets, I noticed a pattern and escalated the issue.

To address this, I engaged a technical account manager to assess their setup. The TAM found it outdated and misaligned with Regal.ai’s best practices. We took responsibility for their business goals, ensuring they had everything needed to succeed.

After reconfiguring their setup, the customer expressed gratitude for our proactive approach. We resolved immediate issues and future-proofed their system, strengthening the partnership and securing an enthusiastic renewal. This experience highlighted the importance of anticipating customer needs to keep Regal.ai a trusted growth partner.

 

 

Templafy’s platform helps organizations reduce manual work by enabling them to automate business document creation. 

 

What are the key metrics you track when it comes to your customers? Are there any “outside-the-box” metrics you track?

At Templafy, we track traditional metrics such as adoption rates, departmental usage, active users and admin engagement. However, these numbers only become truly meaningful when we translate them into a compelling narrative that highlights Templafy’s impact on the customer’s business. Some of the most valuable insights come from collaborating with the customer and combining our data with theirs. For instance, we might highlight which departments show strong engagement with Templafy, while the customer can connect those same teams to higher win rates or increased output of revenue-generating materials. When layered with their internal performance metrics, this collaborative approach helps us anchor Templafy usage directly to tangible business outcomes, like increasing revenue or reducing operational costs.

 

“Some of the most valuable insights come from collaborating with the customer and combining our data with theirs.”

 

Which metrics do you prioritize when identifying accounts that might be in danger of churning?

At Templafy, data plays a crucial role not only in identifying potential risk but also in providing valuable insights to senior stakeholders on what’s working well and where there are opportunities to improve. For my customer base, decision-makers are typically focused on understanding how Templafy contributes to two things: cost savings and revenue growth. In instances where adoption is low, I don’t just highlight the gaps in usage; I focus on metrics that align with their priorities to emphasize areas of unrealized value like time/productivity savings, full-time equivalent savings, cost savings from risk mitigation or opportunity costs. 

Once we understand the customer’s strategic direction, we can tailor our approach by implementing a content governance framework, sharing relevant industry best practices or identifying high-impact documents that can be optimized for greater return. This helps shift the conversation from trying to identify areas of underutilization to highlighting the value they are leaving on the table. It also proactively illustrates how we can support their broader goals, whether its scaling operations, improving efficiencies or minimizing risk.

 

Give an example of how you used this data to tailor your reengagement strategy or otherwise improve/nurture customer relationships.

One of the best ways to elevate customer relationships is by aligning data with their strategic initiatives and goals. In a recent example, we leveraged usage data to show the estimated time users were saving by generating documents and leveraging our AI capabilities with Templafy. We then collaborated with the customer to turn those time savings into a clear return on investment calculation. When scaling these efficiencies over time, we were able to anchor ourselves to the growth initiatives outlined in their five-year plan. By positioning Templafy as a driver of growth, we re-engaged internal champions and leaders and opened the door to expansion opportunities.

 

 

Brands can use Yieldmo’s advertising platform to develop creative experiences using AI, custom ad formats, proprietary attention signals and more.

Are there any “outside-the-box” metrics you track?

We also track a few “outside-the-box” or predictive indicators that help us identify retention risks or surface growth opportunities. This includes initial involvement in planning-stage strategy. When clients include us in early planning cycles — such as a large consumer packaged goods brand inviting us into their 2024 and 2025 fiscal year planning or brief review — it indicates a higher level of trust and strategic partnership.

Platform demonstration sentiment enables us to document market feedback from demos as leading indicators of future product stickiness. And creative engagement metrics help us pay attention to how brands are using our creative tech and how often they experiment with format variants, signaling investment in performance rather than pure scale. 

 

“Platform demonstration sentiment enables us to document market feedback from demos as leading indicators of future product stickiness.”

 

Which metrics do you prioritize when identifying accounts that might be in danger of churning?

To proactively identify churn risk, we focus on a combination of quantitative and behavioral signals. This includes a drop in spend volume, or any sustained week-over-week or month-over-month decrease in spend, especially across multiple campaigns or products.

Under-deliver, which refers to if we see under-delivery and lack of proactive optimization requests from the client.

Decreased engagement in planning conversations, meaning we take notice if a brand who previously included us in strategic planning goes silent or stops requesting mocks and briefs.

Lastly, we look at drops in bid rate or win rate.

 

Give an example of how you used this data to tailor your reengagement strategy or otherwise improve/nurture customer relationships.

One recent example involved a large, multi-brand CPG client. We noticed that, although spend remained consistent quarter over quarter, the level of strategic engagement across teams was nearly non-existent. We pulled performance data and mapped it against engagement trends to identify the gaps. Based on this, we initiated a targeted re-engagement strategy. As a result, we re-established strategic momentum, secured additional budget discussions and deepened engagement across multiple brands.