How to Easily Get Started with Digital Customer Success in 2025

Traditionally, Digital Customer Success has been seen as a way to serve the “less important” customer segments—those not deemed “worthy” of high-touch, personalized interactions.

But that mindset is outdated.

In 2025, we shift the narrative.

Digital Customer Success is no longer about doing the bare minimum for your lower-revenue accounts. It’s a scalable, cost-effective, and strategic approach that creates better customer experiences across your entire customer base.

When done right, Digital CS:

• Frees up time for your CSMs so they can focus where it matters most

• Reduces costs by automating low-effort, high-impact activities

• Scales effortlessly as your company grows and matures

• Improves customer experience by offering flexibility—some customers prefer a digital-only relationship

  
  

Rather than overwhelming your CSMs with unrealistic “high-touch” vs. “low-touch” plans, a strong Digital CS strategy helps balance the load, supports the team, and ensures that every customer gets the experience they need—without burning out your staff or overextending your resources.

Let’s face it: your CSMs can’t be everywhere at once.But your Digital Customer Success strategy can be.

Yet many companies and CS teams fall behind because they’re unsure how to start. They place unrealistic expectations on their CSMs to be everything to everyone, setting unattainable activity goals that ultimately hurt both team performance and customer satisfaction.

So—how do you break the cycle and implement a smarter, more scalable CS strategy?

Let me show you the step-by-step approach.

Step 1: Gather and Organize Your Customer Data

Don’t let a lack of perfect or clean data stop you from getting started. Use what you have. You’ll always be able to improve the quality over time, but the key is to start somewhere.

The first and most important step is to collect and organize the most relevant customer data. This provides the foundation for data-driven decisions and segmentation that power your Digital CS initiatives.

Here’s a list of the types of customer data to start collecting:

• Contract size

• Organizational details (industry, size, location)

• User activity

• Purchase history

• Product usage data

• Customer support tickets

• Marketing engagement and preferences

• Demographic data

• Integrations in use

• Security compliance needs

• Customer health score

  
  

Once you’ve collected this data (even if it’s incomplete), structure it in your CRM or CS tool of choice. The better you organize it, the easier it is to automate, analyze, and act on it later.

Step 2: Group Customers with Similar Needs

Once your data is in place, it’s time to group customers based on similar traits, behaviors, or needs. This is the foundation for targeted, relevant Digital CS programs.

This process is often referred to as segmentation, but the goal is simple:Put customers with similar profiles into groups so you can deliver the right message, content, or engagement—at the right time.

Examples of segmentation criteria:

• Contract size + demographics→ E.g., Group of smaller customers in the same region and industry

• Feature adoption→ E.g., Customers not using a key module or add-on

• Product usage→ E.g., Low usage users that are at risk of churn

• Lifecycle stage→ E.g., New customers still in onboarding

  
  

Let’s say you have a group of customers who haven’t activated a certain module. That group becomes the target for a dedicated Digital CS campaign—such as a feature adoption webinar, an email series, or a how-to video tutorial.

It’s that simple. You don’t need complex logic or fancy AI tools to get started—just a clear idea of which customers would benefit from the same digital experience.

Step 3: Set Triggers and Choose Your Digital CS Strategy

Now that you’ve grouped your customers, it’s time to create rules (or “triggers”) that activate specific Digital CS programs when certain conditions are met.

Think of it like this: every time a customer matches a set of criteria, you automatically assign them to a predefined strategy.

Example trigger:

If a customer has a low contract value, few support tickets, and a declining health score → Enroll them in Campaign X (a retention-focused email series)

These programs can be automated or manually managed—depending on your tooling and maturity. In the early stages, I recommend starting manually or semi-automatically to test and iterate. Once you’ve validated what works, you can scale and automate the process.

Set up a few simple playbooks like:

• “New user onboarding” campaign

• “Re-engagement” for inactive users

• “Feature adoption” for underused modules

• “Upsell readiness” campaign based on usage thresholds

Each playbook should outline:

1. The trigger

2. The customer segment

3. The communication channel (email, webinar, video, in-app message, etc.)

4. The message and CTA

5. Follow-up actions

   
   

Step 4: Select Digital Tactics and Channels

Your strategy needs tools to work. These tactics and channels are the digital touchpoints that deliver value and engagement—without requiring 1:1 time from a CSM.

Here are some powerful Digital CS initiatives to consider:

🧠 Educational

• Webinars (product training, success stories, best practices)

• Workshops (interactive sessions for power users)

• How-to video series

  
  

🌐 Community-based

• Online communities (forums, Slack/Discord groups)

• Advisory boards (for engaged customers with insights)

  
  

📩 Automated Content

• Email nurture sequences

• Product newsletters and updates

• Trigger-based campaigns (e.g. inactivity, renewal window)

  
  

🎙️ Engaging Formats

• Podcasts tailored to specific industries or user groups

• Focus groups with peers from similar segments

  
  

When combined and executed with good timing and clear intent, these digital programs can replicate many of the outcomes of high-touch CSM relationships—at scale.

Final Thoughts

Digital Customer Success is not a “cheap alternative.”It’s a smart, strategic investment in scalable, proactive customer engagement.

It empowers your CSMs to focus on high-value relationships while giving the rest of your customer base the support, education, and experience they deserve—through digital channels they already prefer.

The best part? You can start small.

• Use the data you already have

• Create a few customer groups

• Launch simple, impactful campaigns

• Learn and iterate

• Then automate and scale

  
  

Your Digital CS strategy won’t be perfect from day one—but the longer you wait to get started, the more difficult it becomes to scale.

Start now. Your customers—and your CSM team—will thank you for it.