CSWClient Success WorksCustomer Success Leadership
Editorial portrait of Michael Barnett, founder of Client Success Works

Michael Barnett

Founder, Client Success Works

About Michael Barnett

Experienced Leadership. A Practical Approach. A Focus on Your Customers.

With more than 25 years of experience in technology, digital business and customer-facing leadership, I understand that successful businesses are built on strong customer relationships.

Throughout my career, I have led customer-facing teams, worked with enterprise customers and senior executives, and managed complex, high-value relationships alongside cross-functional teams, helping businesses protect and grow the revenue they already have.

Most recently, I served as Director of Client Engagement & Success, working directly with executive leadership and strategic customer accounts.

Before that, I held senior leadership positions including VP of Client Success & Operations and COO & Director of Marketing Strategy, owning customer retention, customer operations and the commercial outcomes that follow.

My expertise combines Customer Success leadership, commercial operations, strategic relationship management and technology, with a consistent focus on retention, engagement and customer satisfaction.

Today, I bring that experience to growing businesses that need senior-level Customer Success expertise, delivered hands-on by someone who has owned the outcomes.

My approach is hands-on, commercially focused and built around listening, understanding customer needs, identifying opportunities and delivering practical improvements.

Working with businesses in UK · US · Europe · Israel.

Career

Experience at a Glance

More than two decades of customer-facing and commercial leadership, with Customer Success at the centre of it, from strategic account ownership to building and leading customer success functions.

  1. Director, Client Engagement & Success

    Customer Success & strategic accounts

    Executive relationships, strategic customer accounts and customer engagement leadership.

  2. VP, Client Success & Operations

    Client Success & operations

    Client success leadership, customer operations and team development.

  3. COO & Director of Marketing Strategy

    Commercial operations & marketing

    Commercial operations, customer strategy and marketing leadership.

  4. Senior Strategy Consultant

    Strategic advisory

    Strategic advisory for client organisations.

  5. VP Marketing

    Marketing leadership

    Marketing leadership and demand strategy.

  6. Earlier career

    Technology & customer-facing roles

    Technology and customer-facing roles.

Selected experience supporting enterprise and Fortune 500 customers, where permission and accurate attribution allow.

How I work

My Approach

  1. 01

    Listen before recommending

    Understand the context, the history and the people before proposing change.

  2. 02

    Understand the customer and the business

    Customer needs and commercial reality have to be considered together.

  3. 03

    Identify what is working and what isn't

    Keep what earns its place. Replace what gets in the way.

  4. 04

    Take ownership of practical improvements

    Hands-on delivery, not a slide deck left with the team.

  5. 05

    Measure progress and demonstrate value

    Clear measures, reviewed regularly, so improvement is visible.

“Good Customer Success is not simply about keeping customers happy. It's about building relationships that create lasting value for both the customer and the business.”
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