In today’s SaaS landscape, customer retention often eclipses acquisition in importance. Therefore, the organizational placement of Customer Success Management (CSM) is more than a mere reporting line on an org chart. It signifies a strategic declaration of how a company truly values its customers. The decision to have CSMs report to the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) versus the Chief Operating Officer (COO) fundamentally reshapes the team’s mission. It changes its composition and, most critically, affects how customers perceive your company’s commitment to their success.

When Customer Success Reports to the CRO: The Revenue Engine

When a CSM organization reports into the CRO, a profound shift occurs in both mission and mindset. This isn’t merely a reporting change—it represents a strategic realignment that reshapes the very DNA of customer success.

Mission Transformation Under CRO Leadership

Under CRO leadership, customer success inevitably becomes more revenue-focused. As Sarah Kiley, chief sales officer at ChurnZero, notes, “Most CROs come up through sales. In sales, success is measured by speed and outcomes. But owning the full customer lifecycle demands a new operating model—one built on trust, value, and long-term growth.”

This revenue orientation isn’t inherently problematic—customer retention and expansion are legitimate business objectives. However, the concern emerges when revenue becomes the primary lens through which all customer relationships are viewed. As Kiley warns, “The most important mindset shift I made as a CRO is recognizing that CS isn’t a revenue center. It’s a value engine. Revenue is the outcome, not the input.”

Under CRO leadership, the CSM team’s mission shifts toward:

• Accelerating expansion revenue opportunities
• Shortening time-to-value to improve retention metrics
• Converting customer relationship capital into revenue growth
• Prioritizing accounts based on revenue potential rather than need

Team Composition Changes

With this mission shift comes inevitable changes in team composition. CRO-led CSM teams typically evolve to include:

• CSMs with stronger sales backgrounds and commercial instincts
• Team structures with tiered account coverage based on revenue potential
• Compensation models tied more directly to retention and expansion metrics
• Performance evaluation centered on customer lifetime value and growth
• Integrated sales and CS processes designed to identify expansion opportunities

This shift isn’t simply theoretical. As one Reddit user noted, “I’m a director of CS, CSMs reporting into me and I’m reporting into the CRO.” This increasingly common structure signals the strategic view that customer success serves as an extension of the revenue generation apparatus.

This focus and outcome of CSMs has a distinct disadvantage. The client may expect technical expertise or architectural mindsets. These are needed to bridge the business-to-technical gap. Sometimes the CSM can lose gravitas in the eyes of the customer. (I will write more on this later)

When Customer Success Reports to the COO: The Operational Excellence Model

When customer success reports to the COO, the philosophical approach fundamentally shifts toward operational efficiency, process optimization, and consistent service delivery.

Mission Recalibration Under COO Leadership

The COO’s domain centers on “managing the daily operations that keep the company running smoothly.” This operational mindset profoundly influences how customer success defines its purpose and measures achievements.

Under COO leadership, the CSM team’s mission reorients toward:

• Creating scalable, repeatable customer success processes
• Standardizing the customer journey through operational excellence
• Improving efficiency metrics in onboarding and support functions
• Developing systematic approaches to customer health monitoring
• Building consistent, measurable customer experiences across segments

The focus shifts from revenue outcomes to operational inputs—believing that well-designed processes will naturally produce favorable customer outcomes, including retention and growth.

Team Structure and Specialization

COO-led CSM organizations typically adopt more specialized, process-oriented team structures. As outlined on skalin.io, “As your company grows, you’ll need to rethink your organizational structure. Each team will gradually need to be subdivided into specialized sub-teams.”

This operational approach leads to:

• Greater specialization with dedicated onboarding, support, and success teams
• Process-oriented CSMs with project management backgrounds
• Team structures organized around customer journey stages rather than accounts
• Metrics focused on operational excellence and efficiency
• Deeper integration with product and technical teams to ensure smooth execution

These structural differences reflect a fundamental belief that operational excellence, not revenue focus, creates sustainable customer relationships.

The Third Alternative: CEO-Direct Reporting

It’s worth noting a third structure gaining traction: having customer success report directly to the CEO. As Nick Mehta, a leading voice in customer success, argues: “I think the default approach should be to have CS reporting directly to the CEO.”

This arrangement signals company-wide commitment to customer centricity while potentially avoiding the drawbacks of both CRO and COO reporting structures. However, as companies scale, this direct-to-CEO reporting often becomes impractical, forcing a choice between revenue or operations alignment.

How Clients Perceive These Differences

Clients are remarkably perceptive about these organizational distinctions, even when not explicitly communicated. The reporting structure of your CSM team fundamentally shapes how customers experience your company.

Client Perception Under CRO-Led Customer Success

When customer success reports to revenue leadership, clients often perceive:

• Relationship commercialization: Customers can sense when conversations shift from support to sales. As ChurnZero notes, “It erodes credibility and changes the dynamic from ‘we’re here to help’ to ‘we’re here to close.’”
• Trust erosion: When CSMs push too aggressively on expansion, it damages the trusted advisor relationship. “That can lead to lower product adoption, reduced customer satisfaction, and increased churn.”
• Transactional interactions: Clients view every interaction through a skeptical lens, wondering if help is being offered genuinely or as a pretext for selling.
• Diminished advocacy: Customers question whether their CSM truly represents their interests internally when revenue objectives clearly drive priorities.

As one CSM points out, being positioned as a “man-in-the-middle” between the customer and supplier organization becomes particularly challenging when revenue objectives dominate.

Client Perception Under COO-Led Customer Success

When customer success reports through operations, clients typically perceive:

• Process rigidity: Customers may feel they’re being forced into standardized processes that don’t accommodate their unique needs.
• Reduced flexibility: The focus on operational efficiency can create friction when clients request exceptions or customizations.
• Consistent but impersonal experiences: While service delivery may be consistent, it might lack the personal touch that builds deeper relationships.
• Technical over strategic guidance: CSMs may excel at implementation details but provide less business strategy guidance. (Again I will write more about this later)

These perceptions create a different set of challenges for CSM leaders aiming to build strategic, value-focused client relationships.

Balancing Internal and External Missions: A Strategy for CSM Leaders

For heads of Customer Success, the challenge becomes clear: How do you honor the internal organizational mission (whether revenue or operations-focused) while protecting the external customer-centric mission? Here are concrete steps CSM leaders can take:

1. Explicitly Define Dual Accountability

Create a formal charter that acknowledges both internal organizational metrics and external customer success metrics. As noted by SaaS Partners, “The customer success team mission is to ensure that customers are successful in using a company’s products or services.” This mission must be protected regardless of reporting structure.

Document this dual accountability and gain explicit agreement from leadership on balancing these sometimes-competing priorities.

2. Implement Strategic Team Design

Structure your team to accommodate both internal priorities and customer needs:

• Create specialized roles: Consider having different team members focus on retention/growth versus day-to-day success activities.
• Develop tiered service models: Design different engagement models for different customer segments that balance efficiency with personalization.
• Establish operations functions: As your team grows, develop a dedicated CS Operations role to handle administrative tasks, allowing CSMs to focus on customers.

3. Adopt Program Management Mindset

Position your CSMs as program managers who bridge strategy and execution. As LinkedIn contributor Abhinav R notes, “The CSM-as-PM is responsible for coordinating efforts across product, engineering, support, and other functions to guarantee that all customer milestones are met effectively.”

This program management approach enables CSMs to:

• Create and maintain strategic roadmaps aligned with customer goals
• Lead cross-functional initiatives to deliver customer outcomes
• Balance competing priorities while keeping customer needs central

4. Build Cross-Functional Alliances

Regardless of reporting structure, cultivate strong relationships with other departments:

• Establish formal collaboration protocols with product teams
• Create shared success metrics with sales organizations
• Develop executive sponsorship programs that engage leadership
• Institute customer advisory boards that elevate voice-of-customer

5. Develop a Value-Centered Framework

Create a formal methodology for demonstrating customer value that aligns with both internal priorities and customer needs:

• Document value realization at each stage of the customer journey
• Connect product usage to business outcomes
• Establish clear ROI measurements relevant to customers
• Develop success plans that balance customer and company objectives

As LampStellar notes, “The timing of responses not only reflects your company’s efficiency but also shapes the customer’s trust and confidence in your service.” The same principle applies to all customer interactions—they must reflect genuine value orientation.

Conclusion: Making the Impossible Choice

There is no perfect reporting structure for customer success. Each option—CRO, COO, or CEO—creates different challenges and opportunities. The critical insight is recognizing how these structures shape team behavior and client perception, then actively managing these dynamics.

The most successful CSM leaders acknowledge these organizational realities. They create systems that protect the core mission. This ensures customers achieve their desired outcomes using your products and services. By doing so, they transform what could be an organizational liability into a strategic advantage. This proves that where customer success reports matters far less than how customer success performs.

For companies genuinely committed to customer success, the reporting structure becomes less critical. What matters more is the executive support, resources, and authority granted to the function. As Nick Mehta wisely observes, “Bottom line is whoever CS reports into should care about it deeply. If not, you are setting yourself up for disaster.”

In the end, the most successful CSM organizations don’t merely adapt to their reporting structure. They transcend it by creating a customer-centric culture. This culture permeates the entire organization, regardless of where they appear on the org chart.

What are your thoughts and experiences? Set up a 30 minute call with me to discuss! No commitment, would love to talk CSM strategy with you!

Sources

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