Customer success (CS) is an important profit center for any SaaS business because it is a function that's at the epicenter of customer relationships. In fact, CS is at the intersection of people, processes, and data-three core pillars of any organization. When done well, customer success builds loyalty, improves retention, and ensures recurring revenue.

According to Jason Lemkin-one of the most renowned voices in the SaaS industry-customer success is where 90% of the revenue is. The CS leader is someone who comes in, sets up the customer success process, necessary technology to support the process, builds momentum and unlocks growth opportunities.

For such a critical role, as you would expect, finding and hiring the right CS leader for an organization is a huge responsibility. You need a lot of clarity in terms of-the expectations from the Head of Customer Success, in terms of specific experience and expertise.
Going by some of the lessons we have learnt over the years, here are nine key questions you might want to ask potential candidates applying to your organization to be your first Head of Customer Success.