The Customer Success AI Playbook: 25+ Prompts for Proactive Account Growth
Stop Fighting Fires: The Customer Success AI Playbook (25+ Prompts)
Customer Success teams are the bridge between a product's promise and its real-world value. You're responsible for adoption, retention, and expansion—juggling QBRs, support tickets, and onboarding, all while trying to be a proactive, strategic partner. It's a role where you're constantly fighting fires.
This is where generative AI becomes your force multiplier. ChatGPT can help you accelerate research, draft proactive communications, summarize customer feedback, and identify churn risks before they escalate—freeing you to spend more time driving meaningful outcomes *with* your customers, not just *for* them.
This post curates a powerful set of prompts, originally shared by OpenAI, designed to integrate AI directly into your Customer Success workflow.
Phase 1: Onboarding & Lifecycle Strategy
First impressions matter, and a rocky onboarding is the fastest path to churn. Use AI to create reusable onboarding templates, summarize feedback from new customers, or brainstorm proactive playbooks for at-risk accounts. Start every customer relationship on the right foot.
Prompts for Onboarding & Lifecycle:
# Create onboarding plan template
Create a reusable onboarding plan template for [type of customer]. Reference typical timelines, milestones, and stakeholder alignment needs. Format as a week-by-week table.
# Summarize onboarding feedback
Summarize onboarding feedback from our last 10 customers in [segment]. Use these shared notes and survey answers. Output a short paragraph per theme: wins, blockers, suggestions.
# Suggest proactive playbooks
Recommend 3 proactive outreach playbooks for at-risk customers in [industry/segment]. Use trends from recent churn, feature inactivity, and low engagement. Output should include: goal, trigger, CTA, and timing.
# Brainstorm retention incentives
Suggest creative retention strategies for accounts likely to downgrade in [industry]. Use trends in usage and renewal hesitations we’ve seen. Output 5 tested and 5 novel ideas with pros/cons.
Phase 2: Competitive & Benchmark Research
Are your success metrics world-class? How does your tech stack compare? Use AI as your instant analyst to benchmark your org structure, research the top metrics for customer health scoring (like NRR), or evaluate the CS tooling stacks of your competitors.
Prompts for Research:
# Benchmark CS org structure
Benchmark the CS org structure for companies like ours in [industry, size]. Focus on roles per customer segment and ratio to revenue. Output as a comparison table.
# Benchmark success metrics by industry
Research top 3 success metrics used for customer health scoring in the [industry] sector. Include CSAT, NRR, usage frequency, or other emerging benchmarks. Output as a table with citations.
# Evaluate CS tooling stacks
Research typical Customer Success tech stacks for companies in early-stage, growth-stage, and enterprise. Include categories (e.g., CRM, Success Platform, Analytics). Output a comparison chart.
# Compare competitive CS programs
Research what customer success programs look like at our top 3 competitors. Focus on onboarding, health tracking, and expansion strategies. Output a comparison matrix.
Phase 3: Account Planning & Renewal Prep
Stop scrambling before a QBR. Use AI to prepare structured, data-driven prep docs. Have it draft executive email updates, summarize wins and risks for a QBR, or create a renewal call prep checklist. Walk into every meeting prepared to be strategic.
Prompts for Account Planning:
# Draft executive email update
Write a weekly update email for [executive stakeholder at customer]. Use these internal notes from this week’s call and usage metrics: [paste here]. Output should be a short, polished email with 3 bullets.
# Draft QBR talking points
Summarize the top wins, risks, and product usage highlights for [Customer Name] ahead of our QBR. Use their latest health score, usage trends, and support ticket history.
# Prep for renewal call
Create a renewal call prep checklist for [Customer Name]. Include contract terms, current usage, known risks, and upsell potential. Output as a bulleted checklist.
# Create account plan summary
Draft a 1-pager account plan for [Customer Name]. Use notes from our last 2 calls + contract info + goals: [paste here]. Output as goals, blockers, actions, and renewals.
Phase 4: Data & Customer Health Analysis
This is how you become truly proactive. Feed AI your raw customer data—support tickets, usage logs, CSAT surveys—and ask it to find the patterns. Identify early signs of churn, analyze support ticket trends, or build a draft health scoring rubric for a new segment.
Prompts for Health Analysis:
# Evaluate CSAT score distribution
Review this CSAT survey data from Q2. Calculate overall average, identify outlier scores, and summarize feedback themes if available. Output as a short summary.
# Analyze support ticket trends
Examine this export of support tickets from the last quarter. Identify the top 5 recurring issues and provide a short summary of root causes.
# Spot early signs of churn
Review this customer usage data from the past 90 days. Identify any customers who may be at risk of churning based on usage drop, login frequency, or support interactions. Summarize in a table.
# Standardize customer health scoring
Build a draft health scoring rubric for [segment or region]. Use inputs like usage %, NPS, renewal status, and ticket volume. Output as a table with scoring ranges and weights.
Phase 5: Visual & Diagram Design
Stop trying to explain a complex process over email. Use AI to generate clear, presentation-ready visuals. Ask it to design a customer health score gauge, visualize a customer journey map, or illustrate a technical escalation process for your internal wiki.
Prompts for Visuals:
# Design customer health score mock-up
Design a visual mock-up of a color-coded health score gauge for customers. Include Low, Medium, High ranges with suggested numerical ranges and icons. Style: dashboard-style.
# Visualize customer journey map
Turn this outline of customer lifecycle stages into a visual journey map. Use the stages and pain points listed here: [paste text]. Output as a labeled diagram with 5 stages.
# Illustrate escalation process flow
Create a diagram that illustrates the internal escalation process from CSM to Support to Engineering. Include 3 levels of severity and labeled handoff points. Style: flowchart format.
# Build a visual customer maturity model
Create an image that visualizes a 4-stage customer maturity model for a SaaS platform. Each stage should have a title, key behavior, and suggested CS touchpoint. Style: slide-ready.
Your Turn: From Reactive to Proactive
These prompts help you automate the manual work of CS so you can dedicate your time to the human-centric skills that truly drive value: building relationships, understanding strategic goals, and ensuring your customers win. This is how you secure renewals and drive expansion in the age of AI.
What's your biggest time-sink in customer success? Share your favorite AI prompt for managing accounts in the comments!
References & Further Reading
This collection is curated from OpenAI's official resources. To explore prompts for more than 20 other professions, visit the link below:
