Customer Success Operating Model

This guide introduces Winning by Design’s Customer Success Operating Model, a standardized methodology designed specifically for recurring revenue businesses. Built around the Bowtie framework, it defines how teams should operate across onboarding, adoption, and expansion to consistently deliver customer impact—the true driver of retention and growth. The model establishes a common language, shared metrics, and interoperable workflows across Sales, Customer Success, and the broader go-to-market organization, enabling companies to move beyond ad hoc CS practices toward a scalable, data-driven operating system.

Best For

• Customer success leaders building or rebuilding a CS function in a recurring revenue business

• CROs, COOs, and revenue leaders seeking alignment across Sales, CS, and Expansion

• Founders and executives navigating churn, retention risk, or inefficient post-sale motions

• CS operations and RevOps teams standardizing metrics, handoffs, and workflows

• SaaS companies scaling beyond early growth and needing repeatable onboarding, adoption, and expansion motions

• Organizations struggling with silos between Sales promises and post-sale delivery

Key Takeaways

• Recurring revenue is the result of recurring impact, not one-time adoption or renewals.

• Customer Success requires a formal operating model, not just best practices or playbooks.

• The Bowtie replaces the funnel by modeling the entire customer lifecycle, including expansion.

• Onboarding, adoption, and expansion are distinct phases with different goals and metrics.

• SPICED creates a shared diagnostic language that connects all customer-facing teams.

• First Impact is the true end of onboarding and a leading indicator of retention.

• Health scoring, trigger plays, and business reviews allow teams to proactively manage risk and opportunity.

• Expansion only works when customers consistently achieve measurable and emotional impact.