Are You Managing Accounts or Preventing Churn?

Customer Success has a branding issue.

We claim to be here to "drive outcomes," "unlock value," and "make customers successful." But when you look closely, what are most Customer Success Managers really doing?

They're running around after updates. Logging tickets. Fielding red alerts. Apologizing for misses they didn't make. And way too often, they're getting called about churn when it's already too late.

Let's call it what it is: reactive account management in customer success drag.

Do Your CSMs Spend More Time Reacting Than Anticipating?

Consider the last week your team had.

How much of their time was spent putting out fires versus finding smoke?

Most CSMs find themselves playing support with a new name—only intervening when usage falls off, a renewal is pending, or an exec receives a negative NPS feedback. They're not equipped to look ahead; they're equipped to react.

And here's the uncomfortable reality: You can't win at retention playing defense.

Can You Identify Churn Risk Before It Reaches NPS or Usage?

By the time NPS declines or usage crashes, it's too late.

The actual warning signs are more modest, less obvious—and they appear weeks or even months sooner:

• A champion goes silent.
• A success plan hasn't been edited since kickoff.
• Strategic objectives change but nobody adjusts the onboarding priorities.
• Product feedback is entered… and then forgotten.

But if you lack visibility into these signals, you're not preventing churn—you're quantifying failure.

What's the Cost of Waiting for a Fire to Start?

Here's what a reactive CS model actually costs you:

• Silent churn from disengaged accounts who "seemed fine."
• Burnout from CSMs who feel like punching bags for issues they can't address.
• Missed expansion because nobody recognized the customer was ready.
• Shaky QBRs with generic value statements rather than evidence of impact.

It's a losing cycle—and it's embedded in the DNA of most CS orgs.

What Would It Take to Shift from Fighting Fires to Predicting Them?

Before you discuss tools or dashboards, ask yourself:

• Do we think it's our responsibility to stop churn, or simply react to it?
• Most businesses say the right thing—but have a lagging mentality. Predicting churn requires a mindset shift, not just a reporting shift.
• It's not about doing more. It's about seeing sooner, acting sooner, and learning before churn occurs.

Final Thought

If your team is always responding, you're not running customer success—you're running failure.

So here's the question: Are you managing accounts. or preventing churn?