Customer Success OKR Examples: Metrics and Sample OKR Sets to Start From
OKR examples by department
Customer Success OKR Examples: Metrics and Sample OKR Sets to Start From
These customer success OKR examples give you two things to work from: a full list of the metrics customer success teams track, and nine complete OKR sets built from them. Every Key Result follows the same formula, with an action verb, the metric, a starting value, a target and a deadline. The values are written as X and Y, because a churn target that suits a team looking after forty accounts would mislead a team looking after four thousand. Fill them in from your own data.
The short answer
What makes a good customer success OKR?
A good customer success OKR names a change in how customers do with your product, such as fewer accounts leaving in their first year, and measures it with outcomes. “Hold a business review with every account” counts the work. “Reduce logo churn from X% to Y% by the end of Q4” measures what those reviews were meant to protect.
Every Key Result is written the same way:
- Open with an action verb, such as reduce, increase, raise, grow or hold.
- Name the metric you’re moving.
- Give the starting value and the target, written as from X to Y.
- Set the deadline, such as the end of the quarter.
Step 1: pick your numbers
Customer success metrics to build your Key Results from
These are the numbers customer success teams track, and the raw material for every one of the customer success OKR examples further down. They’re grouped by the stage of the customer relationship they measure. None of them is a Key Result yet. Choose the few that show the change your Objective is about, then write each one with the formula above.
Onboarding and time to value
- Time to first value
- Time to go live
- Onboarding completion rate
- Accounts onboarded on schedule
- Onboarding satisfaction score
- Setup tasks finished in the first 30 days
Adoption and usage
- Weekly active users per account
- Licence utilization
- Feature adoption rate
- Use of core workflows
- Users per account
- Executive sponsors who log in
Retention and churn
- Gross revenue retention
- Logo churn rate
- Renewal rate
- Revenue churn
- Cancellations in the first 90 days
- Downgrade rate
Expansion
- Net revenue retention
- Expansion revenue
- Upsell rate
- Cross-sell rate
- Seats added per account
- Expansion pipeline from customer success
Customer health
- Health score by account
- Accounts rated at risk
- Time from risk signal to outreach
- Save rate on at-risk accounts
- Accounts with a documented success plan
- Business reviews held with decision makers
Support quality and responsiveness
- First response time
- Time to resolution
- First contact resolution rate
- Customer satisfaction on tickets
- Ticket backlog
- Reopened tickets
- Escalation rate
Advocacy
- Net Promoter Score
- Promoters as a share of respondents
- Customers willing to act as references
- Referral sign-ups from customers
- Reviews on third-party sites
Team efficiency
- Accounts per customer success manager
- Revenue managed per customer success manager
- Tickets solved per agent
- Share of tickets solved through self-service
- Cost to serve per account
Some of these are health metrics you protect and hold steady, such as first response time, gross revenue retention, ticket backlog and customer satisfaction on tickets. Keep them inside a set range while the OKRs push elsewhere. If one starts slipping, it becomes a candidate for its own OKR.
Step 2: write the Key Result
How to turn a customer success metric into a Key Result
The standard form covers almost every Key Result. There are two more for the moments when a number isn’t available yet. Here’s one of each, in the same form as the customer success OKR examples further down:
- Standard Key Result. Reduce logo churn from X% to Y% by the end of Q4.
- Baseline Key Result, for a metric you’ve never measured. Determine the current time from contract signed to first value by the end of Q1. Next cycle, it becomes “Reduce the time from contract signed to first value from X to Y days by the end of Q2.”
- Milestone Key Result, used sparingly when there’s no metric to track yet. Complete health scoring for every account on [plan] by the end of week six.
Then run the outcome test: if the team could finish all the work and the number might still not move, the Key Result measures activity. Rewrite it around what the work was meant to cause. The OKR examples hub walks through the full method, from brainstorming Objectives to prioritizing them, and Harvard Business Review’s article on the value of keeping the right customers explains why retention numbers carry so much weight with a finance team.
Step 3: start from a sample
Nine customer success OKR examples to adapt
Each of these customer success OKR examples has a qualitative Objective and three Key Results written in full. Several pair numbers so one can’t be hit by breaking another. Treat them as patterns, and swap in your own product, plans and starting values.
ObjectiveGet new customers to their first result with [product] sooner
- Reduce the median time from contract signed to first value from X to Y days by the end of the quarter
- Increase the share of new accounts that finish onboarding within 30 days from X% to Y% by the end of the quarter
- Raise the onboarding satisfaction score from X to Y by the end of the quarter
ObjectiveMake [product] part of how our customers work every week
- Increase weekly active users per account from X to Y by the end of Q4
- Raise licence utilization from X% to Y% by the end of Q4
- Grow the share of accounts using [core workflow] from X% to Y% by the end of Q4
ObjectiveKeep the customers who get the most value from us
- Reduce logo churn from X% to Y% by the end of the quarter
- Increase gross revenue retention from X% to Y% by the end of the quarter
- Lower cancellations in the first 90 days from X% to Y% by the end of the quarter
ObjectiveGrow with the accounts that are already winning with [product]
- Increase net revenue retention from X% to Y% by the end of Q4
- Grow expansion revenue from existing accounts from X to Y by the end of Q4
- Hold the downgrade rate at or below X% through the end of Q4
ObjectiveSpot accounts at risk while there is still time to turn them around
- Cut the median time from a risk signal to first outreach from X to Y days by the end of the quarter
- Increase the save rate on accounts flagged at risk from X% to Y% by the end of the quarter
- Lower the share of accounts rated at risk from X% to Y% by the end of the quarter
ObjectiveMake getting help fast and painless for every customer
- Reduce median first response time from X hours to Y hours by the end of the quarter
- Raise the first contact resolution rate from X% to Y% by the end of the quarter
- Lift customer satisfaction on support tickets from X% to Y% by the end of the quarter
ObjectiveTurn our happiest customers into public voices for [product]
- Raise Net Promoter Score from X to Y by the end of Q4
- Grow the number of customers willing to act as references from X to Y by the end of Q4
- Increase referral sign-ups from existing customers from X to Y per month by the end of Q4
ObjectiveServe a growing customer base well without stretching the team thin
- Increase the share of tickets solved through self-service from X% to Y% by the end of the quarter
- Grow accounts per customer success manager from X to Y by the end of the quarter
- Hold gross revenue retention at or above X% through the end of the quarter
ObjectiveKnow which signals predict renewal for our customers
- Determine the current renewal rate for each health score band by the end of Q1
- Complete usage tracking for every account on [plan] by the end of week six
- Increase the share of accounts with a current health score from X% to Y% by the end of the quarter
The last example mixes a baseline Key Result, a milestone Key Result and a standard one. That combination suits a team measuring something for the first time. Next cycle, the baseline turns into a standard “from X to Y” Key Result.
See it in context
Where these OKRs come from
The customer success OKR examples above leave out which part of the strategy each one serves, because that depends on your company. Our sample business profile shows the full picture for one made-up company: its strategic priorities, its SWOT, and the linked OKRs for every department.
More idea banks
OKR examples for other departments
Customer success OKR examples are more useful next to the goals of the teams that hand accounts to you and build what customers use. Sales and product share the most goals with customer success, and Bain’s overview of the Net Promoter System explains the advocacy measures in the list above.
- Sales OKR examplesPipeline, win rate, deal size and sales cycle metrics and OKRs.
- Product OKR examplesAdoption, activation, discovery and value metrics and OKRs.
- Marketing OKR examplesDemand, conversion, brand and content metrics and OKRs.
- Operations OKR examplesThroughput, cost, quality and process metrics and OKRs.
Frequently asked questions
How many OKRs should a customer success team set?
One to four Objectives per cycle, each with two to five Key Results. A customer success team focused on one Objective, such as cutting churn in the first year, has room to finish it well.
How do you write a customer success Key Result?
Start with an action verb, name the metric, give the starting value and the target, and set a deadline. For example: “Reduce logo churn from X% to Y% by the end of Q4.” Every one of the customer success OKR examples on this page uses that form.
Is first response time a good Key Result?
On its own it’s easy to hit with fast replies that don’t solve anything. Pair it with a quality measure, such as the first contact resolution rate or customer satisfaction on tickets, so the team only wins when customers get their problem solved.
What is the difference between customer success KPIs and customer success OKRs?
Customer success KPIs are the numbers you watch every month to know things are healthy, such as gross revenue retention or ticket backlog. Your customer success OKRs name the few things you’re trying to change this cycle. Our guide on KPIs vs OKRs goes deeper.
Can I use these customer success OKR examples as they are?
Use them as a starting point. Keep the structure, then swap in your own product, plans and segments, and set every X from your own data before the team agrees on Y.
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