As Customer Success gains momentum in both tech and non-tech firms, this report compiles research on critical attributes of Customer Success in India. I believe this report will serve as a helpful resource for Customer Success professionals & Leadership in understanding: - The Customer Success function, Maturity, Team Size, Compensation & Org structure - Priorities, Challenges and Business Value - Technology Stack for Enablement - Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure effectiveness - The Future of Customer Success

1.
State of Customer Success - India
August 2018
About
This report is based on independent research conducted by Vipin Thomas. Vipin is passionate about
Customer Success, Product Management & Startups. With 13+ years in Product Management and various
GTM roles, ​MindTouch​ ​recognizes him as one of the Top 100 Customer Success Strategists of 2018.
Vipin currently works with Freshworks Inc. and leads Customer Success for their flagship service
management product. He comes with hands-on experience of customer’s pulse in the Global SaaS
software industry.
Methodology
The data source of this research project is an invite only Community of 140+ Customer Success
professionals across India, making this the largest Customer Success community in India yet. These
professionals cater to various levels of the function within industry, Information Technology & SaaS in India.
This report is a compilation of inputs from 110 respondents from 74 unique companies across 10 cities in
India.
For further questions about the report, please reach out to Vipin on ​LinkedIn​ or ​email​.
1 State of Customer Success India - Aug 2018

2. Contributors
Editor​: ​Neetha Edwin
Critic​: ​Deepak Balakrishnan
Quotes​: ​Nikunj Verma​, ​Sunil George​, ​Nimesh Mathur
Introduction
Of all the Customer Success(CS) professionals on LinkedIn, approximately 2400 are​ ​in India - with
Bengaluru having the highest, followed by Delhi & Mumbai. These professionals are commonly found to
hail from Marketing or Computer Science educational backgrounds.
As Customer Success gains momentum in both tech and non-tech firms, this report compiles research on
critical attributes of Customer Success in India. I believe this report will serve as a helpful resource for
Customer Success professionals & Leadership in understanding:
● The Customer Success function, Maturity, Team Size, Compensation & Org structure
● Priorities, Challenges and Business Value
● Technology Stack for Enablement
● Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure effectiveness
● The Future of Customer Success
Customer Success Search Trends on Google - Worldwide, 1/1/14 - 8/26/18
Source: ​https://trends.google.com
As search trends on Google increase, so does the worldwide demand for Customer Success Professionals.
The Customer Success Manager profile was ranked 4th in LinkedIn’s survey of emerging jobs in the United
States and ranked 6th in India. While technology-focused jobs still top the leaderboard in India, ‘Customer
Success Manager’ was the only non-tech role amongst the Top 10 emerging jobs.
Source: ​https://goo.gl/z4e8wA
2 State of Customer Success India - Aug 2018

3. Respondent Profile
Industry ​Employee Size
21%
Marketing Technology
14%
Information Technology
& Services
32%
11 to 100 Employees
23%
101 to 250 Employees
11%
Financial Technology
8%
CRM Software
19%
1001 to 5000 Employees
12%
251 to 500 Employees
7%
Computer & Network
Security
6%
Cloud Computing
7%
5000+ Employees
4%
501 to 1000 Employees
6%
E-Learning
5%
Big Data Analytics
3%
Less than 10 employees
5%
Recruitment Softwares
4%
Productivity Softwares
4%
Survey Software
3%
Professional networking
platform
Funding Status
2%
HR Software
2%
Logistics Software
68%
Funded
21%
Bootstrapped
1%
Computer Networking
1%
Content & media
Publishing
12%
Public Funded
1%
Hotel Technology
1%
Risk Management
1%
Telecommunications
3 State of Customer Success India - Aug 2018

4. Location ​Total Experience
45%
Bengaluru
15%
Chennai
30%
5 to 7 Years
24%
7 to 10 Years
12%
Pune
9%
Mumbai
23%
2 to 4 Years
18%
10 to 15 Years
7%
New Delhi
4%
Hyderabad
5%
15+ Years
3%
Chandigarh
3%
Cochin
Years in Customer
Success
2%
Ahmedabad
2%
Noida
63% ​ ​32%​ ​5%
1 to 3 Years​ ​4 to 7 Years 8+ Years
Key findings
● Niche industries like Logistics Software, Network Hardware & Software, Content & Media
Publishing, etc. exhibit limited hiring of CS professionals. The main reasons are limited knowledge
and investment in CS, or that they are ‘Late Adopters’.
● 45% of respondents’ talent base is from Bengaluru and 15% from Chennai.
● Chandigarh, Cochin, Ahmedabad & Noida show promise as upcoming SaaS hubs.
● CS function is still in its nascent stage in India. Most businesses consider investing in the function
only if they have 10 employees or more.
● An aggregate 70% businesses with less than 500 employees invest heavily in CS.
● 95% of CS professionals have less than 7 years experience in core CS skills. There are likely to be
large opportunities for CS leadership in the near future, from this pool.
● 77% of professionals are millenials and have less than 10 years of total experience.
● Freshers, or individuals with less than 2 years experience, do not seem to be very popular in the
current scenario.
4 State of Customer Success India - Aug 2018

5. Team Maturity
Team Size Team Age/Maturity
25%
11 to 20 Members
24%
1 to 5 Members
49%
1 to 3 Years
42%
4 to 7 Years
21%
6 to 10 Members
13%
21 to 50 Members
9%
8+ Years
9%
51 to 100 Members
8%
100+ Members
Salary Variable Pay
32%
10 to 15 Lakhs
23%
5 - 10 Lakhs
66%
YES
34%
NO
20%
20 to 30 Lakhs
14%
30+ Lakhs
11%
15 to 20 Lakhs
Variable Pay Split Variable Pay based on
32%
90% Fixed : 10% Variable
29%
85% Fixed : 15% Variable
23%
Growth
22%
Retention/Churn
22%
80% Fixed : 20% Variable
10%
70% Fixed : 30% Variable
18%
Renewals
12%
Advocacy
4%
75% Fixed : 25% Variable
4%
Other
11%
Net Promoter Score
8% 5%
Net Retention Others
5 State of Customer Success India - Aug 2018

6.
Reporting Manager
Titles
28%
Director - Customer
Success
25%
CEO
23%
Manager - Customer
Success
15%
VP - Customer
Success
5%
COO
1%
CFO
1%
CRO
1%
CTO
1%
Lead - Customer
Success
“​73% of respondents felt they have a well defined Customer Success strategy, while
27% felt they do not.​”
Team KPI
15%
Retention/Churn
12%
Product Adoption
10%
Renewals
10%
Advocacy (Case Studies, Reviews,
Testimonials)
10%
Revenue Generated
8%
Implementation
6 State of Customer Success India - Aug 2018

7. 8%
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
7%
Onboarding
6%
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
5%
Engagement Metrics
5%
Customer Health Score
4%
Customer Referral
It was surprising to see companies do not use Quick Ratio as a KPI or business metric. Quick Ratio is a fast
and effective way to measure the health of your revenue growth. Quick Ratio can be measured using the
following formula:
aas Quick RatioS =
New MRR + Expansion MRR
Churned MRR + Contraction MRR
Interpretation:
QUICK RATIO < 1​ : Losing revenue from churn faster than new MRR
QUICK RATIO 1 - 4​ : Revenue is growing faster than churn rate, but inefficiently. High churn is eating away
growth.
QUICK RATIO > 4​ : On the path to scale. To hit a Quick Ratio of 4 means $4 in revenue for every $1 lost
(churn + downgrade)
“​Just as Indian product companies discovered the importance of the "Product Manager" role in
2011, Indian SaaS companies seem to have realized the importance of "Customer Success" in
2018. This is evident in the demand curve - as there are already 3X more Customer Success job
posting in 2018 over 2017.
With more SaaS companies and eventually other companies waking up to the benefits of
having Customer Success focus, this demand is only going to increase. That said, it's not a role
for everyone - one needs a healthy balance of analytical, product and business skills as well as
soft skills such as customer empathy and stakeholder management.​”
Nikunj Verma
Co-founder & CEO at CutShort
7 State of Customer Success India - Aug 2018

8. Where do Customer Success Managers (CSMs)
spend the most time?
14%
Support queries
14%
Onboarding customers
13%
Managing customer expectations
12%
Retaining customers
12%
Internal collaboration
11%
Consulting for customers
8%
Up-selling / cross-selling of
products/services
7%
Data Analysis
5%
Renewing subscriptions
3%
Getting referrals
1%
Travel
What’s in it for Customers?
31%
Product adoption
28%
Help Customers ROI
20%
Easier onboarding
17%
Customers save time
4%
Customer Visibility, help
customer be a hero
1%
Other
Key Findings
● 70% of businesses have less than 20 members in their CS team
● 91% of respondents have team members who have been with the business for less than 7
years, a large portion of this (49%) being less than 3 years
● Like all Sales functions, 66% of respondents have variable pay included as part of their
remuneration
8 State of Customer Success India - Aug 2018

9. ● CS is a well paying function - 43% of CS professionals have an annual salary ranging from 10
to 20 Lakhs INR.
● Different businesses have different variable pay targets. However, 71% of these businesses
compensate based on growth, retention or both. There seems to be a strong indication to
balance both by targeting Net Retention as part of their success goals.
● 61% of companies have variable pay at or less than 15% - they could be at an exploration stage
● While CS managers have a clear nomenclature for designations, the same for other levels
vary drastically. Over 40 designations clearly show the need for standardization of CS titles.
● Key Performance Indicators(KPIs) across different businesses are clearly different. However,
the most popular KPI was around Retention, followed by 25% around Renewals + Churn, and
Adoption + Advocacy.
● Even with defined KPIs and dedicated support teams, CSMs still spend 65% of their time with
support queries, customer onboarding, managing customer expectations, firefighting
customer issues and collaborating internally to solve these issues.
9 State of Customer Success India - Aug 2018

10. Technology Stack
15%
Natero
8%
Gainsight
8%
Others
2%
Totango
2%
ChurnZero
40%
None
26%
In-House tools
Other tools used by Customer Success professionals
Sales CRM
Salesforce, Freshsales, ZohoCRM, Pipedrive, Hubspot, Siebel
Support CRM
Freshdesk, Zendesk, Jira, Kayako, Desk.com
Chat
Intercom, Freshchat, LiveChat
Collaboration
Slack, Trello, Google Drive, Basecamp, Asana, Celoxis, Confluence
Customer Feedback
AskNicely, GrowthScore
Finances
Chargebee, Profitwell, Zuora, Bluesnap
Meetings
Zoom, GoToMeeting, Calendly
Survey
Google Surveys, SurveyMonkey, SurveySparrow
Analytics
Tableau, Mixpanel, Looker, Moengage, Clevertap
10 State of Customer Success India - Aug 2018

11.
Others
Builtwith​, LinkedIn, Mailchimp​,
Key Findings
● 66% i.e. 49 businesses that participated in this survey have not adopted any CS specific tools.
● Of those businesses that use a CS specific tool, Natero seems to be the most popular, in India.
Preferred customer engagement channels
24%
Email
22%
Phone
15%
Video Conferencing
12%
In-person
9%
Webinars
8%
Chat
5%
Events
3%
In-Product
2%
Social Media
Key Findings
● Undoubtedly, email, phone & video conferencing are the most popular engagement channels.
However, in-person meetings is at just 12%.
● In-product engagement is at a mere 3%, in spite of this being where users live day-in and day-out.
It would be great to see in-product engagement shift from nice-to-have to must-have, in the next
few years.
“​Scaling any Customer Success organization requires a mix of people, processes, and
technology. The goal of technology inclusion must be to drive a deeper human
connection, scale manual tasks, operationalize or automate both internal and
customer-facing activities​”
Sunil George
Director - Growth at Doctor Alliance
11 State of Customer Success India - Aug 2018

12. The Future of Customer Success
42%
Predictive analytics
32%
AI & Machine Learning
23%
Chatbots, self-serve
methodologies
3%
Automations
Key Findings
● Predictive Analytics will help anticipate long-term changes, enabling us to adapt and adjust
strategies to minimize churn and maximize opportunities.
● AI-powered CS tools will learn usage patterns and provide early downgrade and churn warnings.
They will help keep stakeholders notified of changes and indicate expansion opportunities by
anticipating increased needs. They will also perform front-line enagement and provide a
personalized experience before seamlessly involving a CSM.
● Machine learning will automate repetitive tasks to an astonishing degree, allowing CSMs to focus
on building better, stronger relationships.
“​Customer Success in India is slowly, but surely, gaining momentum as a growth
function. Companies have started realizing that making the customer successful, and
not just happy, is the only way to grow a profitable and scalable business. Over the next
3 years, I expect the Indian market to grow by at least 9-10 times, in terms of career
opportunities for Customer Success professionals​”
Nimesh Mathur
Director of Customer Success (India) at Pluralsight
12 State of Customer Success India - Aug 2018

13. Concluding thoughts
It’s encouraging to see the rise of Customer Success in India, which can be attributed to the rapid growth
of SaaS over the last five years. CS is seen as a critical function to help onboard, influence, and retain
customers. As the function expands, a long-term career in Customer Success looks promising with
increased opportunities for CS Leadership roles emerging in the near future.
While salaries continue to look lucrative, overall compensation will increasingly be tied to business
outcomes. New business opportunities around CS-specific tools, training, certifications will emerge as the
function continuous on its growth trajectory. Businesses should seriously give this some thought -- Start
early, build a solid strategy and define KPIs. Create Growth Hacks by demonstrating practices of continuous
monitoring, iterations and adaptability.
13 State of Customer Success India - Aug 2018