Top 25 Customer Success Voices of 2026

Ran Gainsight as CEO for 13 years, essentially creating the Customer Success category when fewer than 1,000 CSMs existed worldwide. Co-authored Customer Success: How Innovative Companies Reduce Churn and Grow Recurring Revenue. Under his leadership, Gainsight was acquired by Vista Equity Partners for $1.1B. Now serves on multiple public company boards.

The most prolific evangelist for Customer Success on the planet, with 800+ published articles on retention, expansion, and lifetime value. Co-authored the first book ever written on Customer Success alongside Nick Mehta. Focuses exclusively on SaaS since 2004 and has consulted with hundreds of companies on reducing churn through proactive customer engagement.

Co-founded the Customer Success community at Gain Grow Retain, one of the largest peer groups for CS leaders. Previously served as CCO at Higher Logic and EVP at PlanHat. His frameworks for operationalizing CS at scale have been adopted by hundreds of SaaS companies navigating the shift from reactive support to proactive customer management.

13+ years scaling CS operations, boosting retention, and driving expansion at SaaS startups and scaleups. Hosts the She's So Suite podcast to empower women in CS leadership. One of the most active CS voices on LinkedIn, sharing tactical playbooks on health scoring, QBR design, and CS team structures that teams can implement immediately.

Named a Global Top 25 Customer Success Influencer. Author of Customer-Led Growth: A CEO's Guide to Building a B2B SaaS Company. Coined the concept of 'the next best value' and advocates for replacing the traditional sales funnel with a customer-led growth model where retention revenue drives the entire business.

Known for introducing the concept of 'the continuous sale' in Customer Success, arguing that every CS interaction is a buying decision. Former VP of Customer Success at Zendesk. His LinkedIn content challenges conventional CS thinking and pushes the industry to move beyond NPS scores toward actual value delivery measurement.

Selected as Top Customer Growth Advisor of the Year by IAOTP. Founder of Growth Molecules, helping companies build scalable CS programs from the ground up. Published author and keynote speaker who's consulted with hundreds of companies on CS org design, team scaling, and customer journey mapping.

Runs Glide Consulting, which helps companies build their CS function from scratch and create repeatable processes for the entire customer lifecycle. Known for actionable frameworks on onboarding, expansion, and renewal playbooks. His content focuses on the operational side of CS, helping leaders move from firefighting to systematic customer management.

Co-built Gain Grow Retain alongside Jay Nathan into one of the most active CS communities, with thousands of practitioners sharing playbooks and career advice. His podcast and weekly content drops cover the practical side of CS: how to run QBRs that customers actually value, how to structure CS teams, and how to prove ROI to the C-suite.

Serial CCO who's built CS orgs from zero at multiple startups. Known for being one of the most transparent leaders in the CS space, sharing real data on team structures, comp plans, and retention metrics. Her posts on what CCOs actually do (and what they shouldn't) are widely shared among CS leaders evaluating their career path.

Author of Onboarding Matters, the definitive guide to customer onboarding that's become required reading for CS teams. Her frameworks for measuring onboarding success and reducing time-to-value are used by companies at every growth stage. Speaks at major CS conferences on how the first 90 days predict the entire customer relationship.

Co-author of Customer Success alongside Nick Mehta and Lincoln Murphy. Helped build Gainsight's European business from the ground up. One of the original thinkers in the CS space, his work on defining what Customer Success actually means (versus customer support) helped establish it as a distinct discipline.

Named a Top 25 CS Influencer multiple years running. Has served as CCO at SAP, Glint, and Involve.ai. Known for building CS programs at both enterprise-scale and startup-stage companies. Her experience bridging traditional enterprise support with modern CS practices makes her a unique voice for companies in digital transformation.

Former SVP Product at Gainsight who left to build Cast.app, which uses AI to automate digital customer success at scale. His thinking on how AI will change the CSM role, specifically shifting CSMs from data entry to strategic advising, is some of the most forward-looking content in the CS space.

Author of The Chief Customer Officer Playbook. Former VP of CS at Gainsight and Marketo. Built HelloCCO to help CS leaders and aspiring CCOs navigate the path to the executive suite. His content bridges the gap between CS operations and boardroom-level strategy, making him a go-to advisor for CS leaders moving up.

Leads CS at one of the world's largest SaaS platforms and shares what she's learning in real time on LinkedIn. Her content on scaling CS at HubSpot's size, including segmentation strategies, digital-first engagement, and CSM coaching, gives practitioners a rare window into enterprise-grade CS operations.

Runs the Prove Your Worth podcast for CS leaders and coaches CS managers on the business skills that get them promoted. Her focus on financial literacy for CS professionals, showing teams how to calculate and present their revenue impact, addresses one of the biggest gaps in CS career development.

Known for his sharp takes on the intersection of product, growth, and customer success. His content argues that CS teams should own product adoption metrics, not just renewal rates. Pushes the industry to stop treating CS as a cost center and start treating it as the primary growth engine for recurring revenue businesses.

Founded CSM Practice, a consulting firm focused on CS program design and optimization. Hosts one of the longest-running CS webinar series. Known for deep-dive frameworks on health scoring, risk management, and CS ROI measurement. Her annual State of CS report provides benchmarks that hundreds of CS teams use for planning.

Former COO of Gainsight who helped scale the company during its hypergrowth phase. Now runs a widely-read newsletter on SaaS strategy and invests in early-stage companies. Her perspectives on how CS organizations need to evolve, particularly around AI automation and digital-first engagement, influence how leaders think about the function's future.

Author of The Seven Pillars of Customer Success, which maps a maturity model for CS organizations at every stage. Former CCO at WalkMe and Looker (pre-Google acquisition). His seven pillars framework gives CS leaders a structured assessment of where their org stands and what to build next.

Practitioner voice at one of the fastest-growing CS platforms. Shares detailed breakdowns of real CS workflows, playbook design, and team metrics on LinkedIn. Her content stands out because it's rooted in daily operations, not theory. Particularly strong on automation strategies that free CSMs to focus on high-touch accounts.

20+ years in CS and customer experience, known for pushing the industry to think bigger about the strategic role of CS in the enterprise. His writing on moving CS from a reactive function to a proactive revenue driver is widely shared. Frequent speaker at Pulse, SuccessCON, and other major CS events.

Co-founded SuccessHACKER, one of the first dedicated CS education platforms, offering training programs and certifications for CS professionals. His CS certification courses have trained thousands of CSMs and CS leaders. Also co-founded SuccessCOACHING and hosts the CS Mastermind community for senior CS leaders.

Focused exclusively on churn analysis and prevention for B2B SaaS companies. Her work on identifying churn signals early and building intervention playbooks has helped dozens of companies reduce involuntary and voluntary churn. Hosts a podcast dedicated to churn reduction and publishes regular teardowns of retention strategies that worked.