The Rise of CS Ops: Why You Can’t Scale Without It
By Kristen Hayer
A few years ago, I served as a fractional customer success executive for a growing SaaS company. While I was there, the company hired a new sales executive. On his very first day, he made two decisions: hire a revenue operations leader and invest in tools to support operations. I was impressed. There was no hesitation from leadership. No internal debate. He simply asked, and it was done.
What struck me most was the confidence behind the move. It was clear to him—and to everyone around him—that if sales was going to scale, they needed operational support. I’ve rarely seen a customer success leader take that same matter-of-fact approach, and I think it’s time we change that.
Customer success has become a critical growth driver for SaaS businesses, but many teams still operate without dedicated operations support. This isn’t just a resourcing issue—it’s a leadership challenge. If you’re still doing all of the operational work yourself, relying on others to patch together systems and processes, or struggling to hit your goals despite a capable team, it’s worth asking: is the lack of CS Ops holding you back?
What Is Customer Success Operations?
Customer success operations is the function that supports the processes, tools, data, and enablement that help a CS team run smoothly. It’s the behind-the-scenes engine that allows your team to focus on what they do best—building relationships and driving value for customers.
Some of the key responsibilities often handled by CS Ops include:
Managing systems like customer success platforms, CRM tools, and support platforms
Building and maintaining reporting and dashboards for team performance and customer health
Designing and optimizing customer success processes and playbooks
Supporting training, onboarding, and enablement for CSMs and CS leaders
In some companies, these tasks are handled by a broader revenue operations team. But the more nuanced and strategic CS becomes, the more value there is in having a dedicated role that truly understands the customer lifecycle.
The Leadership Trap: Doing It All Yourself
Early in your career as a CS leader, it’s normal to wear a lot of hats. You may have built the first processes, implemented your team’s tools, and created the initial reports. But at some point, continuing to handle all the operational work yourself becomes a real barrier to growth.
When your time is tied up in system admin tasks, reporting clean-up, or one-off enablement efforts, you’re not leading—you’re reacting. And that has consequences:
You lose time to focus on strategic initiatives
You miss opportunities to advocate for your team cross-functionally
You stall your own growth as a leader
It may feel efficient to “just get it done,” but over time, the cost of staying in the weeds is higher than you think.
The Hidden Cost of “Covering” CS Ops with the Wrong People
Many teams try to patch the CS Ops gap by assigning pieces of the work to other roles. A team lead pulls together reports. A CSM manages the platform. A manager creates onboarding content on the side. While this can work for a while, it comes with real opportunity costs.
These team members usually don’t have formal training in operations, which can lead to:
Inaccurate or misleading data that drives poor decisions
Manual processes that waste time and create frustration
Inconsistent experiences for customers and internal teams
And perhaps most importantly, every minute your CSMs or team leads spend doing operational work is a minute they’re not spending with customers or on strategic planning. Just because someone can figure it out doesn’t mean they should. Without proper support, even your top performers will struggle to be effective.
Operations Is a Growth Engine
Customer success operations isn’t just about making things easier—it’s about moving faster and smarter. When CS Ops is done well, it becomes a growth engine for your team.
Here’s how:
Speed to insight: With the right data structure and dashboards in place, leaders and CSMs can make faster, more informed decisions.
Process efficiency: Well-designed workflows reduce friction and ensure consistency, which is especially critical as your team grows.
Team effectiveness: Centralized enablement and training ensure your team is prepared and aligned, no matter how fast things are changing.
If your team is moving slowly, missing goals, or constantly reinventing the wheel, it’s a strong signal that you need operational support. These issues aren’t just “growing pains”—they’re solvable with the right investment in CS Ops.
When Should You Hire Your First CS Ops Person?
There’s no single formula for when to bring in CS Ops, but there are some clear indicators that your team has outgrown its current operating model. Watch for:
Consistent quarter-over-quarter growth in your customer success team
Increasing complexity in your customer segments, product lines, or delivery models
A rising demand for data-driven reporting and visibility across the business
Team members spending significant time managing tools or creating ad hoc resources
If a full-time CS Ops hire isn’t in the budget yet, consider alternatives. Some teams start by assigning a portion of CS Ops to someone with strong analytical or process skills, with the intention of developing that person into a full-time role. Others partner with their revenue operations or business intelligence teams to cover the gap temporarily—though this works best when CS has a strong advocate who can guide priorities.
There are also more and more options for fractional CS Ops support—consultants or contractors who can help get your systems, reporting, and processes in shape without the need for a full-time hire right away.
Invest in Ops, Invest in Impact
Customer success leaders are under more pressure than ever to show results. You’re expected to drive retention, deliver value, and support growth—all while staying lean and efficient. But here’s the truth: you can’t do any of that sustainably without operational support.
CS Ops isn’t just a support function—it’s a strategic enabler. It helps your team move faster, work smarter, and focus on the activities that matter most. It gives you, as a leader, the space to lead instead of react. And it sets your team up to scale successfully as your company grows.
If you haven’t yet made the case for CS Ops on your team, now is the time.
The Success League is a boutique customer success consulting firm that also offers a Leading as a Director training program. Included in the series is a class titled Leading CS Operations that digs deeper into this topic. For more on these and our other offerings, visit TheSuccessLeague.io
Kristen Hayer - Kristen founded The Success League in 2015 and currently serves as the company's CEO. Over the past 25 years Kristen has been a success, sales, and marketing executive, primarily working with scaling tech companies, and leading several award-winning customer success teams. She has written over 100 articles on customer success, and is the host of 3 podcasts about the field. Kristen has served as a judge for the Customer Success Excellence awards, and is on the board of several early-stage tech companies. She received her MBA from the University of Washington in Seattle, and now lives in San Francisco.