All B2B companies tout their focus on customers. But not all reflect customer obsession in their priorities, actions, and metrics.

Call it “lip service” or “all hat, no cattle.” Data from Forrester’s new State of Customer Retention, Growth, and Advocacy Survey, 2026, show customer marketers see the gap.  

Customer value: Many say it, not all show it 

At first glance, the 2026 survey responses show positive signs of customer focus among B2B postsale marketers. Nearly half of customer advocacy and customer marketing professionals (47% and 45%, respectively) strongly agree that their organization acts on customer insights. Forty-nine percent of customer marketing professionals and 43% of customer advocacy professionals claim a well-rounded Voice of Customer program. 

But underneath the hood (hat?) where financial incentives and recognition drive employee behavior, the action doesn’t always match. In too many companies: 

    • Recognition rotates to first-time wins. Only 27% of customer advocacy professionals strongly agree their company celebrates customer retention and expansion ‘wins’ with as much enthusiasm as net-new wins. Their peers in customer success take an equally dim view: 28% strongly agree. Customer marketers are more positive: 48% strongly agree their organization celebrates retention and expansion wins. That’s still less than half. Considering B2B firms derive an average of 60% of revenue from existing customers, keeping and growing them should warrant more attention. 
    • Compensation connects loosely, if at all, to customer value. Only 35% of customer advocacy professionals and 38% of customer marketers strongly agree that their organization compensates employees based on how well they help customers achieve value. The disconnect between caring about customer value and incenting employees to enable it is hard to ignore.  

How to champion the marketers who champion your customers 

Forrester routinely points to consistency and “promise-keeping” (license required) to build and maintain trust. To become customer obsessed, companies must align strategy, leadership, operations, and culture to the goal of centering on the customer. The customer-obsessed leader (license required) models the right behavior – the very opposite of “lip service.”   

Transforming customer culture isn’t a quick task. Even so, managers at every level should consider a few ways to improve recognition of customer focus: 

    • Make a ritual, not a one-off, of celebrating renewals. Forrester highlights the value of rituals and shared common experiences (license required). Team meetings, town halls, annual company meetings, and internal forums are all opportunities to codify recognition for a big save, renewal, or hard-fought cross-sell. Make it a requirement to recognize keeping and expanding existing customers. Did a well-timed reference call tip the scale toward renewal? Did an adoption campaign surface new upsell opportunities? Let it be known.  
    • Review KPIs for conflict and connection. The postsale engagement ecosystem (license required) of customer marketing, customer success, and customer advocacy, and their partners in customer education and customer support and services need complementary goals and metrics. Imagine three separate teams tasked with “sending a monthly newsletter” and accountable only for engagement with “their” newsletter – number of newsletters sent, opens, calls to action. Then pause to consider how that feels to the customer barraged with mismatched newsletters.  
    • Shine a light on inter-team effort. Find opportunities to expand the scope of recognition across team borders. If an informal collaboration between a customer advocacy team member and their favorite customer success manager finds a new set of customer testimonials, that dream team deserves to model their partnership for others. Celebrate successful structured initiatives, too, such as cross-functional teams focused on improving a process that saves time for everyone. In these cases, the journey of cooperation is as important as the outcome.  
Share