Customer success teams have access to a wide range of technology, including customer relationship management systems (CRMs), customer success platforms (CSP), and customer experience (CX) tools. However, even with all these systems in place, many organizations struggle to achieve actual efficiency and impact in customer success. Why? The way these technologies are used has not kept up with what customer success leaders actually need today.

This Research Journey, Optimizing Customer Success with Technology Platforms, explores a critical and timely question: How can you optimize customer success by leveraging the right mix of technology platforms, particularly now that AI is an integrated offering? 

The stakes are increasing as AI becomes a built-in capability in many of these tools. These technologies are evolving fast, and your customer success organization could fall behind quickly if you don't adapt your strategy.

This isn’t just a tech conversation. It’s a business-critical one. For customer success executives and operations leaders, the question isn’t just what platforms to use—it’s how to get the best results from them, from both your customer and your internal teams.

So jump in with us as we:

• Define the Problem: By clearly identifying the business challenge, we can start tackling it.
• Launch Discovery: This is where we investigate the facts and contributing factors through polls, surveys, and interviews.
• Develop the Theory: With data in hand, our researchers and analysts can start developing and/or enhancing frameworks.
• Guide the Industry: Correlating financial results with conclusions that will help your organization achieve technology and AI-powered customer success.

This Research Journey illuminates which technologies are effective for customer success, which ones are not, where gaps persist, and what actions create the greatest value. The TSIA Portal offers the full story, including detailed data and actionable recommendations.

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Define the Problem: Why Technology Isn't Solving Customer Success Challenges—Yet

The core issue we’re tackling in this Research Journey is deceptively simple: Are the platforms you’ve invested in improving customer success performances and creating greater value for your team and the customer, or are they just adding unnecessary cost and complexity?

Customer success teams are under increasing pressure to drive more value with fewer resources. As private equity and venture capital firms slash budgets, your customer success organization is likely being asked to increase retention, boost expansion, and improve customer satisfaction—all while reducing costs. That’s a tall order.

Naturally, many leaders are turning to technology for the answer. CRM, CS, and CX platforms promise improved efficiency and greater customer insights; however, not all of them are delivering.

Some organizations have invested heavily in one, two, or even all three types of platforms, and now they’re asking the hard questions:

• Are these tools helping us improve adoption and reduce churn?
• Can we prove ROI in measurable ways, such as expansion rates or customer satisfaction metrics?
• Are these platforms just becoming expensive tools with little business impact?

The stakes are high. If these platforms are not delivering meaningful results, your organization may waste time, money, and valuable opportunities to deepen customer relationships. Worse, you could be left behind as your competitors use technology more strategically and cost-effectively.

That’s why solving this problem matters now more than ever. In this Research Journey, we uncover whether the technology you’re already using—or considering investing in—is worth it.

Related: Beyond High-Touch in Customer Success

Unveiling the Research Methodology: How We’re Exploring the Technology Puzzle in Customer Success

We are using a multi-step research approach to determine whether these technologies are helping or hindering customer success outcomes, and you are invited to participate.

We start by grounding the conversation with a Quick Poll. This helps us understand what motivates customer success leaders like you to evaluate CRM, CSP, and CX platforms. What challenges are you trying to solve? What’s working—and what isn’t?

The research deepens from there. We’ll conduct a large-scale study to capture data from across the industry that will help us identify trends, evaluate platform performance, and determine whether these tools enhance efficiency or introduce noise.

Then comes the practical part. In this Research Journey, we will:

• Present our findings in a webinar, where we’ll walk you through a new framework for strategically evaluating and using these platforms.
• Share real-world case studies from companies that are already getting it right so you can learn from their success.
• Deliver clear, actionable insights from our data analytics team to help you assess your tech stack and identify opportunities for improvement.
• We invite you to attend live conferences, where we will continue the conversation and present our findings in person.

By participating in this research journey, you’re not just observing—you’re helping shape the future of technology's support for customer success. You’ll leave with a clearer understanding of how to align your tech investments with tangible business outcomes, such as efficiency, adoption, retention, and growth.

Related: The State of Customer Success 2025

The Research Journey Continues—And You’re Invited

At the heart of this Research Journey is a critical question that customer success executives frequently ask: Are these technologies worth it?

You don’t have time—or budget—to waste. As the pressure mounts to deliver more value with fewer resources, you need clarity on which platforms will drive real impact. That’s why this research isn’t just theoretical. It’s about giving you clear, data-backed answers to help guide smarter investments in CRM, CSP, and CX platforms.

Most companies focus on customer success platforms but overlook the role of CRM and CX platforms. In this Research Journey, we’re taking a holistic look at all three. Could using them together create greater efficiencies—or is one platform enough? We’re here to discover and give you the insights you need to make informed, confident decisions.

This is just the beginning: We invite you to participate in this Research Journey in the TSIA Portal. You'll gain early access to findings, hear from leading companies, and receive practical guidance to help your organization succeed.

Let’s tackle this challenge together and ensure your technology investments work as hard as you do.

Related: The Value of Customer Success

Your Key Takeaways

• Technology alone doesn’t solve customer success challenges: Many customer success organizations have invested in CRM, CSP, and CX platforms, yet they still struggle with efficiency and impact. This Research Journey explores whether these tools deliver a return on investment (ROI) or add cost and complexity.
• You need a smarter strategy to drive results with less: With tighter budgets and higher expectations, customer success leaders are under pressure to do more with less. This Research Journey provides actionable insights to help you evaluate your tech stack and identify opportunities for improved adoption, retention, and customer satisfaction.‍
• You don’t have to figure it out alone: Through industry data, case studies, webinars, and a new evaluation framework, this Research Journey will help you make confident, informed decisions about your technology investments.