Our operations lead and marketing lead are constantly clashing over who owns the customer lifetime value metric. Marketing claims they drive the retention campaigns, while Operations claims they handle the actual delivery and support. How do we cleanly assign this metric on the Accountability Chart to end the turf war?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Overlapping accountability is a recipe for finger-pointing and operational friction. In a healthy EOS structure, there can only be one name accountable for any single seat or metric. You cannot have two leaders sharing ownership of customer lifetime value.

To resolve this, run this issue through IDS during your weekly leadership Level 10 Meeting. Break down the components of the metric. While Marketing creates the automated campaigns, Operations is ultimately responsible for the actual delivery, quality, and service that keeps customers paying.

The clean solution is to assign the primary accountability for customer lifetime value to the Operations or Account Management seat, as they have direct control over the customer experience and churn. Marketing's seat is accountable for generating qualified leads and initial acquisition.

Marketing can support this metric by hitting their own metrics, such as campaign engagement or referral rates, but the ultimate owner of the retention number must be the delivery leader. Update your Accountability Chart roles to reflect this clear boundary.

Once the seat is assigned, update your weekly Scorecard so the metric is owned by a single person. This ensures that when the number drops, the team knows exactly who is responsible for bringing a solution to the table.