6 Common Mistakes Startups Make with Customer Success (and How to Fix Them)

Customer Success is often an afterthought in early-stage startups, but skipping CS can be (very!) costly 💰

Here are six pitfalls I see all the time:

Mistake #1: Treating CS as Customer Support

Your CS team isn’t just there to answer tickets—they drive retention, expansion, and advocacy.

✅ How to Fix It:

✔ Define clear roles: Support solves problems, CS drives long-term success (for early-stage companies with no CS headcount - yet 🙃 - this can be managed by another team!).

✔ Shift CS from reactive to proactive. Schedule customer check-ins, not just problem-solving calls.

Mistake #2: No Proactive Engagement

Waiting until customers have a problem to reach out? That’s a sure recipe for churn.

✅ How to Fix It:

✔ Personalize outreach: Use usage data to recommend next steps before customers ask.

✔ Train CS to look ahead: Teach teams to spot early warning signs of disengagement.

Mistake #3: No Defined Onboarding Strategy

A bad onboarding experience = early churn.

✅ How to Fix It:

✔ Define a “first value” milestone: What’s the one thing that makes new users realize the product’s value? Guide them there fast.

✔ Break onboarding into small, achievable steps. Don’t overwhelm new users.

✔ Set up an onboarding sequence: Use automated emails, tooltips, or CS-led sessions.

Mistake #4: Lack of Customer Health Metrics

If you’re not measuring engagement, feature adoption, or NPS, you’re flying blind. Even smaller teams, with limited resources, can put together a basic health metric system to improve proactive outreach and engagement.

✅ How to Fix It:

✔ Track leading indicators of churn (e.g., drop in logins, low feature adoption).

✔ Use a simple customer health score (green = thriving, yellow = at risk, red = critical).

✔ Make it actionable: If a score drops, CS should have a playbook for immediate intervention.

Mistake #5: No Clear Customer Journey Mapping

Without a structured journey, customers don’t know what success looks like.

✅ How to Fix It:

✔ Define key customer milestones (Onboarding → Adoption → Expansion → Renewal).

✔ Build touchpoints around these milestones (e.g., check-ins at 30, 60, 90 days).

Mistake #6: CS & Sales Misalignment

When Sales sell a dream but CS delivers reality, churn skyrockets.

✅ How to Fix It:

✔ Align Sales & CS on what makes a good-fit customer—not just who can pay.

✔ Set realistic expectations before the deal closes—document promised outcomes.

✔ Introduce CS before onboarding starts so customers know who will guide them.

🚀 Fixing these doesn’t have to be complicated! If you’re building a CS function, start with a simple playbook for onboarding, proactive check-ins, and goal setting.

Which of these do you see most often?