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Hi, Markus here. Welcome to a new episode of the Customer-Value-Led-Growth Newsletter.
I share strategies and guides to help you become a proactive CSM, deliver more value for your customers, and turn it into revenue for your company every week.
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You’ve become a CSM because you wanted to help people. You are naturally wired to it.
You are the one who
jumps in when something breaks
replies fast (even at odd hours)
creates extra documents or templates
In many roles, being helpful is the highest virtue.
But in CSM, it creates a problem (almost) no one talks about:
Helping customers too much does not empower them - it builds dependency.
And dependency is one of the most expensive things a CS team can build.
When Help turns into Dependency
On the surface, it looks like you are delivering exceptional customer service. You are going above and beyond for their success.
You
join every meeting so you don't miss a thing
fix things manually when workflows are broken
translate the product for the customer
and consequently, all customer sentiment metrics (CSAT, CES, NPS) are up.
But over time, your customers’ behavior changes.
They stop
Exploring the product on their own
Building internal expertise
Taking ownership of outcomes
Instead, they start waiting.
Waiting for:
Your inputs
Your workarounds
Your approval of everything they do
Their success now depends on you and not on their own skills and knowledge.
That’s not the goal of CSM; it’s to enable customers to achieve success on their own.
Warning Signs
Here are some concrete red flags to watch for:
Customers can’t explain what they do without you
They contact you before making internal decisions
You are doing the work for your customers because it’s faster
Meetings end with action steps only for you
Customers reach out asking, “Can you quickly take care of this for us?” all the time.
And most importantly, your customers’ results are declining when you are not available.
This is a broken system.
Over-Helpfulness leads to Burn-Out
CSM burnout rarely comes from customers alone. It comes from emotional over-responsibility.
When being helpful means:
Feeling accountable for product gaps,
Carrying customer frustration internally,
Saying yes, even when it’s not scalable,
And never setting clear boundaries,
your work becomes emotionally exhausting because you’ve grown too attached.
You are absorbing stress that does not belong to you.
Successful CSM teams help with intention, not guilt.
What “Better Help” looks like in Practice
So what’s the alternative?
Here are practical ways to stay helpful without creating dependency:
1. Teach Before You Fix
Instead of doing the work for your customers, show them how to do it.
Document, record, and repeat.
Your goal is to make yourself less necessary over time.
2. Shift Ownership Explicitly
Set clear boundaries and make customer responsibilities visible.
For example:
“This part is owned by your team.”
“We support you, but you need to make the decisions.”
“We’ll guide you, but execution stays with you.”
3. Replace Custom Solutions With Principles
Instead of inventing one-off workflows, explain why something works.
Principles scale while custom solutions don’t.
Ask yourself if you could explain it to other customers without changing it?
If not, you’re building fragility.
Giving Directions
Sometimes your customers are not incapable of doing the job.
They are overwhelmed.
They struggle because:
There are too many features
Too many possible use cases
Too many so-called best practices
Too many voices giving advice
Being helpful doesn’t mean adding more.
It means to help customers gain clarity within all that noise.
Ignoring things for now
Defining one clear success path
Saying no to nice-to-have requests
Setting and keeping priorities
Instead of asking how you can help, ask your customers what matters right now.
The real Goal of CSM
The goal of a Customer Success Manager isn’t to be indispensable.
It’s to make success possible without you being in the middle.
If customers can’t succeed unless you are constantly involved, something is wrong, no matter how helpful it looks.
So before stepping in, ask yourself:
Does this help the customer learn, or is it just a temporary relief?
Would this still work if I wasn’t involved next time?
Am I fixing a symptom instead of addressing the cause?
Is this scalable or just kind?
The most successful CSMs don’t help more.
They are empowering their customers.
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