Building an Industry-agreed Definition of Customer Success
In the book Customer Success by @Nick Mehta, Murphy, and Steinman, they say "customer success is the umbrella phrase used to describe the entire post-sales world." Some sales professionals have disagreed, indicating that we're never completely in a post-sales world given renewals, up-sells, and cross-sells are sales processes. CS people often complain that they're the "dumping ground" for any tasks a company has to do that don't fit into other departments. Those may be post-sales tasks but not relevant for CS folks to handle.
While there's a great debate over whether commercial activities (renewals, up-sells, cross-sells) should be led by CS, there is little debate that Customer Success IS NOT Customer Support. Customer Success is strategic/pro-active while support is tactical/reactive.
What better place to develop an industry-agreed definition than with this community?
Below, I've taken a stab at a definition and look to the community to develop/revise/hone/perfect it. Maybe we can build enough agreement to have that industry-agreed definition. WHO'S WITH ME?
Customer Success is a strategic business discipline with its main focus on ensuring a company's customers receive appropriate value from the company's products, achieve their desired outcomes, renew agreements, and expand revenue with the company during the lifetime of their customer journey.
The methodologies used in Customer Success include, but are not limited to Playbooks, Ideal Customer profiles, Customer Segmentation, Customer Journey Maps, Onboarding, Adoption, Strategic Account Plans, Success Plans, Customer Engagement Strategies (1:1s, QBR/EBR, Executive Sponsor programs, Customer Advisory Boards, tech-touch), Voice of the Customer (VoC) programs (NPS, Pulse and Transactional surveys, Customer Interviews, Focus Groups, etc.), and closed- feedback loops, most of which drive cross-functional collaboration (with Sales, Marketing, Finance, Product Development, Operations, etc.) that contributes to the value and outcomes mentioned above.
David
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David Ellin
2020 Top 100 Customer Success Strategist
Founder & Senior Customer Success Consultant
Centric Leadership Strategies
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For me, the challenge isn't defining customer success. I haven't seen a definition yet in this thread that I disagree with. But I think the HOW of how to practice it is wildly variable and really poorly understood.
I think of customer success as being like chemistry: It has always existed, but our collective understanding of it has grown tremendously. I often recite the fact that the phrase "customer success" returned zero LinkedIn search results prior to around 2010 (all dates approximate). But when I bought a bicycle in 2005, the shop gave me a free tune-up in the next year and a pack of coupons for future service.
They were practicing customer success! Looking not just to make an initial sale, but to retain my business. And with a simple strategy that provided the opportunity to pay dividends on multiple fronts: they boost revenue through future service by incentivizing me to return with coupons, which is way cheaper than advertising and trying to find net new customers. But they also sought to establish a cycle that would keep me satisfied with my purchase and experience for years to come. If my bike stays well serviced, and I keep riding, then the dividends compound for them as I buy more gear and sing their praises to more and more riders.
The bike shop doesn't have a customer success division, or CSMs. But like almost all businesses, they have strategies established to retain and expand revenue from existing customers.
In that light, customer success is more than just a department, or a role. It's a wholesale organizational strategy, and it doesn't end with the customer success team. Defining it conceptually is relatively easy, but building a strategy and structuring the teams that support it is highly complex. And that part really does look different in almost every organization. And the complexity compounds when an organization doesn't understand the definition of customer success.
The bottom line for me is that almost all business operations should revolve around two central goals: expand your customer base (sales), and expand the value of the customer base (customer success). Marketing and Sales are two different divisions in most orgs, but both focus heavily on goal 1 and must work in tight alignment. Marketing is part of the sales process, even if they're structured as two separate functions. In fact, almost every part of the organization supports Sales in some way, in almost every organization. Product development isn't "sales," exactly, but it absolutely accounts for sales as a crucial priority driving decisions throughout the dev process.
Unfortunately, the realization of the importance of goal 2 is not nearly as well understood. For me, the challenge isn't so much to define customer success, but rather, to align the organization around holistic set of processes and strategies that deliver outcomes to the existing customer base that in turn create more satisfaction and revenue. That alignment is inherently complex and multi-functional, and yet I see so many organizations that just say "well, we'll hire a CSM or two" and stop the strategy there.
Hello David
Happy New Year, well done on attempting to define what CS is. Overall you need a definition thats easy to communicate and one that translates easily into another persons understanding. Customer Success is a company wide methodology and a set of departments that are focused on making sure that customer accomplishes on going value from their investment. This ongoing value provides the basis for the company to grow and invest in optimising the product, user and customer experience.
Thanks
Steve
If we go by "Likes", comments by Anna, James, Anita, and Ja'Rod lead the pack. Focusing on terms that should or should not be included in a final definition may be the best way to start bringing about closure. Below are the key terms floated in the comments.
Perhaps everyone can vote for the ones they think are "must-haves" and "good to have" and we can wordsmith something with those terms. They're listed in alphabetical order. @Steve Bernstein @Anita Toth @Jay Nathan @Rav Dhaliwal @Jeff Breunsbach @Ja'Rod Morris @James Conant @Anna Alley @Mikael Blaisdell @Nicholas Ciambrello
Advocacy
[Reduced] Churn
Desired Outcomes
[Best] Experience
[Systematic] Feedback Loops
[Helping the customer and company achieve] Goals
Post-sales
Profitability [Customer and Company?]
[Drive] Retention
[Expand] Revenue [Growth] / Combined terms: Profitable Revenue Growth
Scientifically engineered
Strategic (Pro-active)
Value
Hope everyone has a safe, happy, and healthy New Year!
David
![User: "[Deleted User]"](https://w4.vanillicon.com/v2/41cf4fb25f48ff4c56561180c40e15d5.svg "[Deleted User]")
Fantastic discussion shaping up here @David Ellin.
For our CSM team specifically (as opposed to a broader practices of CS), we have been focused on the following core definition:
Customer Success Managers at Higher Logic help our customers maximize the value they get out of the products and services they've purchased.
Along the way there are many day to day responsibilities related to both customer and our company. But in terms of a defining objective for our team, this is it.
Fortunately with our products we can measure this clearly through usage and adoption data (are communities meeting minimum thresholds of activity, are marketing platforms being used, are the more robust capabilities of our products being used?).
Love that snap answer @Mikael Blaisdell. ?
We've talked about having 2 definitions -- one more formal and one to get the discussion rolling (aka elevator pitch). I agree that we need both to keep things clear.
@Steve Bernstein wrote above "...CS must be the company-wide silo-buster in order to provide great experiences that drive ADVOCACY... "
VERY IMPORTANT!! Yes!!!
I agree with @Anita Toth My view of Customer Success is value + experience. We can help a customer maximize value but how successful are we if our customer experiences friction in doing so? And eliminating friction requires cradle to grave journey mapping, process/product improvement/creation, etc. Its bigger than a department, which is what I think we are basing our def on.
Oooohhhhh @Ja'Rod Morris I like it!! Any way you can add a small bit about CX?
Yeah honestly I think what Anita has hits on everything that a CS org should strive to do
- Post sales team
- Helps customers achieve desired outcomes and have a great experience with you while doing so
- that should then turn into the company reaching its business objective (retention, expansion and advocacy)
Really not sure theres anything to add to it. You can rephrase it any way you want but as long as those core things are happening you have a CS org. Now where I think the real difference between sales, account management and CSMs is the core values that a CSM does those things with.
Often times with a SaaS by upgrading or expanding your subscription/account it is because the product is delivering more value, where we differ from sales is in the way we present that value added. From a CS persepective we would do so by giving recommendations to users on how to achieve their desired outcomes and part of those recommendations you might have to pursuade the user to upgrade, however if that is not possible you still continue with your consultative relationship with the customer regardless of if they expand or not. Whereas Sales would most likely stop working with them shortly there after/ not care about their continued success.
Just my 2 cents on how we get to the industry definition. (focus on the how not the what)
I'll jump on this train :-). Adding to @Anita Toth's definition, with some modifications.
"Customer Success is a business discipline that focuses on helping customers achieve their desired business outcomes through the execution of a strategically collaborative and long-term journey with a specific product. Customer Success begins from the initial point of contact through the entire life of the business relationship. Customer Success involves effective relationship management, as well as ongoing interpersonal and systematic feedback loops that drive continuous product improvements, which in turn help the supporting organization achieves its retention, profitable revenue growth, and advocacy goals."
@Steve Bernstein @James Conant @Rav Dhaliwal @Anna Alley @Jay Nathan @Jeff Breunsbach @David Ellin
Here are some suggestions:
"Customer Success is a collaborative, strategic, post-sales business discipline that helps empowers/supports/encourages customers to achieve their desired outcomes with through/via the best possible experience while simultaneously helping contributing/assisting the business to achieve its retention, profitable revenue growth, and advocacy goals."
I like the word 'profitable'. But I feel that 'retention' and 'advocacy' will also need pronouns too to balance it out. Suggestion -- remove 'profitable' or add pronouns to 'retention' and 'advocacy'.
I find the flow is interrupted with 'the best possible experience'. While I think this is important, I'm wondering if it's necessary right now in this shorter definition.
I think there's a need for 2 definitions:
1) an all encompassing definition that spans several sentences
2) a quick almost-encompasses-all sentence
Both are needed depending on the context in which they're used.
I spoke with a marketer today who that that 'customer success' was a concept!
She had NO IDEA that CS is a department that serves critical business functions.
Apparently this discussion thread here is timely given the frightening nature of that conversation. ?
@Steve Bernstein @David Ellin @Ja'Rod Morris @James Conant @Rav Dhaliwal @Anna Alley
Short-form:
"Customer Success is a collaborative, strategic, post-sales business discipline that helps customers achieve their desired outcomes with the best possible experience while helping the business achieve its retention, profitable revenue growth, and advocacy goals."
@Steve Bernstein @Anita Toth @James Conant @Rav Dhaliwal @Ja'Rod Morris @Anna Alley @Jay Nathan @Jeff Breunsbach
Interesting concept of the two definitions. Kind of like a 30-second elevator pitch and the more expanded version. The first is the hook, the second is the answer to, "Tell me more"
I think there's a need for 2 definitions:
1) an all encompassing definition that spans several sentences
2) a quick almost-encompasses-all sentence
Both are needed depending on the context in which they're used.
I spoke with a marketer today who that that 'customer success' was a concept!
She had NO IDEA that CS is a department that serves critical business functions.
Apparently this discussion thread here is timely given the frightening nature of that conversation. ?
@Steve Bernstein @David Ellin @Ja'Rod Morris @James Conant @Rav Dhaliwal @Anna Alley
The thing I've been so unhappy about in the CS world is the lack of emphasis on the second part -- helping the company meet its goals -- and to this end I'd think that those goals are FAR more than retention and expansion. Reduced Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and Accelerated Profitable Growth MUST both be key to company goals in order to demonstrate hockey-stick ROI to investors (straight-line growth is NOT enough! Nor is merely adding sales and marketing spend to acquire more revenue -- it needs to scale!).
So back to what @David Ellin and I have been stating, which is that CS must be the company-wide silo-buster in order to provide great experiences that drive ADVOCACY.... do you think the definition that Anita pas provided ("CS -- Helping customers achieve their goals while helping the business achieve its goals") is sufficient to make that critical point?
/Steve
"CS -- Helping customers achieve their goals while helping the business achieve its goals"
Does that work? ?
Customer Success is robust and constantly evolving, it has its own distinct place in the ecosystem of business, particularly in SaaS organizations. It has taken on a beautiful life of its own, where now it is starting to become a desired career path for matriculating college students and mature professionals alike. Engaging communities, such as Gain, Grow, Retain, have been built around Customer Success. The act of coming up with a unanimously agreed-upon single line, or even a single paragraph may be fleeting, when there are entire books, such as Customer Success (which is a powerful introduction to Customer Success and highly recommended if you haven't read it), as mentioned by @David Ellin, have been written on the subject.
I could throw my version in the mix, but at the risk of repeating what has already been said articulately enough by the rest of you, so I just want to acknowledge the fact that such discussions taking place say a lot about power and influence this movement has on the future of organizations on the solution side and the client-side, and I'm proud to be a part of the Customer Success community.
I'd suggest that the audience you most want to influence / gain understanding of CS are CFO's, CRO's, Founder/CEOs, VP Sales and Investors.
These are people who want to know for every dollar they spend what do they get back (they are also people who are incredibly time poor).
"Customer Success is a long-term, scientifically engineered, and professionally directed business strategy for maximizing customer and company sustainable proven profitability."
I wanted to make sure I threw this into the mix for comments.
Jay's thoughts:
Well, here are my thoughts...
We need a definition that our parents and grandparents would understand.
Not jargon.
Customer success is a *result*
It's what happens when a buyer of a product gets the most value out of it.
The evidence?
The customer renews their contract.
Buys more from us.
Tells their friends about us.
How do we ensure those results?
Make customers feel welcome after they buy.
Train them.
Talk to them regularly (both the people who use the product and those who stroke the check for it).
Get their feedback.
Improve the product.
Then, tell them you did it.
Support them well.
Train them some more.
Talk to them some more.
This really isn't rocket science.
We just have more fancy words to describe what we are doing.
We have more specialized teams to make it happen.
But we shouldn't let all that get in the way of the basics.
Composed in a definition [my stab at it]:
Customer Success is the result of what happens when customers gain the most value from the products they purchase as evidenced by customers renewing their contract and buying more from vendors. Customer Success teams are responsible for training customers, talking with them, getting feedback, driving product improvement, and communicating action. Rinse and repeat.