Building a Winning Customer Success Tech Stack: A Guide for CS Teams

Does your Customer Success team struggle with efficiency? Maybe their processes aren’t streamlined or they can’t keep up with their tasks. 

Whatever the issue, there might be a tech solution. In fact, there might be multiple.

Figuring out exactly what tools you need for an effective tech stack can be daunting. But you’re not alone – many Customer Success Managers (CSMs) struggle with the same thing.

You’ve got lots of options in terms of tools, but you want to make sure you’re being as efficient as possible.

Without a robust tech stack, staying ahead of customer issues and engaging proactively is nearly impossible. Early warning systems and real-time data are crucial, yet often inaccessible due to outdated or siloed tools. This can leave you reacting to problems rather than preventing them.

As your customer base grows, so does the complexity of managing their success. Scaling Customer Success efficiently requires tools that not only keep up with this growth but also streamline workflows through automation, freeing up your time for strategic initiatives.

In this article, we will explore how building the right Customer Success tech stack can alleviate these pain points, enhance your team's efficiency, and ultimately drive higher customer satisfaction and retention.

‍

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System

CRMs store and manage customer data, track interactions, and streamline the sales process. This can help your CS team keep track of customer interactions, manage customer information, and ensure follow-ups are timely and relevant. 

Using a CRM essentially gives you a centralised platform for monitoring the customer journey and identifying opportunities for upselling or resolving issues.

Popular tools include Salesforce, HubSpot, or even your regular spreadsheets. Of course, automated alternatives are much more convenient than manually updating spreadsheets, but it’s a good place to start.

Customer Success platforms

These platforms are designed for Customer Success, providing tools for customer health scoring, lifecycle management, and engagement tracking. 

CS platforms help you monitor the health of customer accounts, predict churn risks, and take proactive measures to improve customer satisfaction and retention. 

A platform like Velaris can provide data-driven insights by analyzing key metrics, and offers capabilities ranging from automation builders to 360-views of customer profiles to streamline your workflows.

Some CS teams can opt for platforms like Gainsight, Totango, or ChurnZero as alternatives.

Communication tools

Just like any department, your CS team is going to need to communicate. Communication tools facilitate real-time messaging, video calls, and collaborative workspaces. 

This includes both internal and external communication, so you should be able to connect with customers as well.

Your workplace may already use platforms like Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Zoom for communication – so you could integrate one of those into your workflows.

Project management tools

Project management tools help in organising tasks, tracking progress, and managing deadlines. They allow CS teams to manage the customer onboarding processes, track customer projects, and ensure that tasks are completed on time. 

Velaris has task to-do lists that allows for scheduling and collaboration, time tracking for projects to monitor and allocate time efficiently, and AI generated tasks based on analysis of customer communications.

Some other common tools include Asana, Trello, and even Monday.com, but if you’re using Velaris, you can handle projects directly on your CS platform.

Customer feedback and survey tools

A big part of Customer Success is understanding how your customers feel about your product. That’s why you need to integrate tools that collect and analyse customer feedback through surveys and questionnaires. 

This can help your CS team gather insights into customer satisfaction, product usage, and areas for improvement – enabling data-driven decisions.

There are lots of widely available tools for this, like SurveyMonkey, Qualtrics, or Typeform.

Data analytics and Business Intelligence (BI) tools

BI tools analyse and visualise data to provide actionable insights. CS teams can use these tools to analyse customer data, track key performance indicators (KPIs), and generate reports that inform strategic decisions. 

Some CS platforms like Velaris have an inbuilt customer 360º profile, so you can have an overview of important data like profile summary, lifecycle stage, MRR, renewal dates, and anything else in one organized space.

You can also check out tools like Tableau, Looker, or Power BI that have data analytics and BI tool capabilities.

Additionally, emerging SaaS trends for 2025, such as predictive analytics and AI-driven insights, are reshaping how BI tools are used. These advancements enable CS teams to anticipate customer needs more effectively and make data-driven decisions that drive proactive strategies.

Knowledge base and helpdesk software

These tools provide a platform for managing customer support tickets and creating self-service knowledge bases. 

They enable CS teams to resolve customer issues efficiently, provide self-help resources, and track common problems to improve overall customer service.

Common knowledge base tools include Zendesk, Freshdesk, and Confluence.

Email marketing and automation tools

These tools facilitate automated email campaigns and customer segmentation, allowing CS teams to engage with customers through targeted email campaigns, nurture relationships, and keep customers informed about new features or updates.

Tools like Mailchimp, Marketo, and ActiveCampaign are very popular, and may already be used by your workplace.

Customer onboarding tools

Onboarding is a crucial part of Customer Success. These tools help guide new customers through the initial setup and usage of a product.

They provide in-app guidance, tutorials, and checklists that help new customers get started quickly and successfully, reducing the learning curve and enhancing customer satisfaction.

For this, you could try tools like WalkMe, Appcues, and Pendo.

Collaboration and document sharing tools

These tools facilitate document sharing, real-time collaboration, and cloud storage. It’s one of the most basic things you’ll need to enable your CS teams to collaborate with customers and internal teams on documents, share important resources, and maintain organised records. 

Velaris’s Customer Portal offers a dedicated workspace for internal teams and customers to collaborate, making sure no important files or tasks get overlooked.

Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, or Dropbox work just fine, but being able to manage all your communication on one platform with Velaris could prove to be more efficient. 

Building a Customer Success tech stack with these tools can help your team streamline their workflows, enhance customer interactions, and drive overall customer satisfaction and retention.

That being said, CS teams do face a few challenges when it comes to finding exactly which tools to work with.

Conclusion

A comprehensive Customer Success tech stack is crucial for delivering exceptional customer experiences and driving business growth. By leveraging the right tools and systems, you can streamline your processes, improve data visibility, and enhance customer engagement.

A Customer Success plan integrates seamlessly within the tech stack, aligning strategies and workflows for better efficiency. If you’d like to explore a sample plan, check out our blog where we share a basic success plan template every CS team can use.

To complement your tech stack strategy, explore actionable insights in this blog on Essential Customer Success Best Practices.

For an all-in-one solution, consider adopting a unified platform like Velaris into your daily workflows. With its robust features and user-friendly interface, Velaris simplifies Customer Success and makes it easier to achieve your goals. 

To test it out yourself, request a demo today.