In deciding whether to hire more Field Development Engineers (FDEs) or Customer Success Managers (CSMs) for your AI agent product, assess your current bottlenecks. In AI B2B, deployment is often the critical constraint rather than retention. If customers are signing but not going live or are underperforming, focus on hiring FDEs. They address challenges like long time-to-value, silent churn, and performance issues. Conversely, if your agents are live and performing but churn rates rise at renewal, prioritize CSMs to maintain relationships. For optimal growth, adopt a sequenced approach: embed a skilled FDE with key customers to document and systematize processes before scaling your CSM team. Avoid the pitfall of expanding customer success resources prematurely, as this can lead to increased dissatisfaction without resolving deployment issues. Efficiently addressing both deployment and retention is vital for sustainable success in your AI product’s market.
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