Can Customer Success Solve Tech’s Diversity Problem?

It’s no secret that the tech industry faces some serious challenges when it comes to diversity, equality, and inclusion.

There’s no shortage of strategies and tactics. Whether you believe that there’s a pipeline problem or if you’re more focused on removing bias from the hiring process, we can all agree making tech more approachable as a career option is an important goal for us to work towards together!

What if increasing diversity in Customer Success, one of technology’s growing functions, made it easier for more people to finally see themselves in this industry?

I’ve been asking myself this question. One of the best things about being a black woman in this industry and in a senior leadership role in customer success, is that it is highly visible and provides confidence in other black women. Since the summer of “Black Lives Matter” I’ve had several black women reach out to me and say “It’s amazing to see someone that looks like me in this role. I can now see myself in CS leadership one day.”

This used to make me feel uncomfortable. I’m just little old me. I’m not any more special than anyone else. But the difference is that in my high visibility, I have power in my position and have an opportunity to speak up for what’s right.

Now I feel like it is my responsibility and privilege to make the tech industry more inclusive for everyone, including those who don’t look like me. Beyond black talent and across all different dimensions of diversity, we can do better!

So, I’ve been hypothesizing, can Customer Success solve tech’s diversity problem?

I believe we can, but not alone and not all problems. However, the Customer Success function is uniquely positioned to lead a broad scale transformation.

Here are 3 reasons why…

1. Customer Success is one of the fastest-growing functions in tech

Customer Success is growing fast. As software — in particular Saas companies, continue to be one of tech’s fastest growing industries, a renewed focus on customers along with the revenue they generate means the natural rise of Customer Success; the function focused on growing customer relationships, customer and revenue retention and expansion. In short, customer-led growth, catalyzed by Customer Success, is top of mind for every company and their investors.

It’s no wonder LinkedIn continues to list Customer Success as one of the hottest emerging and “most promising” jobs. In 2020, they ranked Customer Success Manager #6 on their list. That ranking placed Customer Success as the first non-Engineering or Data Science job.

The function is projected to continue growing rapidly — a 34% annual growth rate. All of that growth will primarily benefit tech since 73% of all Customer Success Managers are in Tech.

The growth of Customer Success means that there will be a large number of new customer success managers. My bet is, many are new to the industry.

Why?

In today’s digital economy, you don’t need a hard-science background or deep understanding of computer programming. Customer success positions give entry into the tech world with their diverse set of skills that blend heart and head — and can help bridge gaps between non-traditional “techies.”

Increasing diversity in customer success makes it even more possible for people who never envisioned themselves in the tech world to have improved access to the industry.

I was one of those people. As an MBA grad, I’ve worked in management consulting for several years and have highly reputable name brands on my resume, but I never saw myself in tech.

To be honest, the image of tech culture that’s been portrayed in the media soured me to envisioning myself, especially at an early stage tech company. And maybe these were just my personal biases, but at that time I also didn’t personally know many mid to senior level black people in tech. This meant I couldn’t hear and understand real life perspectives and experiences from people I could trust. I thought tech may not be a good option for me.

Fast forward to 4 years later in tech, and I’m glad I was able to get over the concerns and ignorance. Tech culture is not homogenous and I’ve been fortunate to have not experienced much of the negative stereotypes.

There’s no doubt there will be more people like me in the future of tech. As tech employs more and more talent, and as Customer Success continues to grow, we can shift the balance of who we welcome, to people who are capable but may not have always fit the profile.

2. Customer Success is a pathway to leadership

The age old story that there’s just not enough good diverse talent, is often primarily focused on the flow of candidates into tech. But we also have a pipeline opportunity within the advancement of diverse talent to hold more senior roles and to have more senior management in tech.

Career progression data within Customer Success shows that 52% of Customer Success Managers directly advance to leadership roles. LinkedIn also scored the Customer Success Manager role a 10 out of 10 on its Career Advancement Score.

As CS grows in diversity, so will the pool of diverse talent that will reach higher senior heights in tech.

This matters because a pathway to diverse leadership also has impacts on the equity, inclusion and belonging side of DEI. Diverse leaders will get paid more (in both cash and company equity), which, over time, can mean a material difference in the racial and gender pay gaps along with the massive wealth inequality we see across racial lines in the US.

It’s important to have a diverse set of leaders in order to make better decisions related to the product and the company you’re building. With more perspectives informing new features, driven by CS leadership, that may be more attuned with organizational blindspots, coming from different dimensions of diversity will yield better results

As it relates to the inclusion and belonging side, having more diverse CS leadership will also help you attract and retain more diverse talent. People look at your Leadership page. Can they see themselves in your leaders? If not, are there other signals that can show they belong? Things like inclusive policies?

I’ve been told several times how refreshing it is to see me across the screen during an interview of a potential candidate. Will my presence be the sole reason why an exceptional candidate accepts our offer? Probably not, but does this mean there are different types of leaders at work and they too can have paths forward in senior leadership roles? Yes

3. Customer Success is not saddled with the tech bro stigma

This brings me to the last reason why I believe Customer Success is well-suited to address tech’s DEI challenges.

Customer Success is the new kid on the block. We’re not engineers, product managers, or B2B marketers. And we’re not saddled with the bad history of those functions in tech.

We lead with people first: our external, and internal customers. And we’re outcomes focused. We are a new breed in tech that can set a new standard. We have an opportunity to change the tech bro culture to one where head and heart, equity and inclusion are our guides.

As Customer Success Leaders, we have the responsibility to make our teams and companies better. Our customers are often on the front lines with us — while exposed in this way, we also represent the product or service so it’s important that we set the standard.

And now more of our customers are starting to take notice of how diverse their suppliers are and how committed they are to DEI within their own organizations. The “supplier diversity” surveys from our customers are not going away and our customers will continue to have standards of who they want to spend their money with. This ultimately effects our companies’ bottom line. 

I know my thesis is big and bold.

But it’s clear that we need transformative thinking to attract diverse talent and create more equitable teams through outcome-focused policies — all while making tech a safer and more inclusive work culture for everyone!

Customer Success is one of the fastest-growing career paths in tech. With more growth comes new job opportunities and an opportunity to make technology more inclusive and accessible for everyone!

More diverse talent in, more diverse talent up. That’s our opportunity in Customer Success. Are you up for it?