Building an Industry-agreed Definition of Customer Success

@Jay Nathan posted some additional thoughts on this on LinkedIn recently. I love the simplicity of what he wrote. I'll start by including his thoughts verbatim and then try to put it into a written definition. What are your thoughts on this approach???

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.

Jason Thurman

I want to echo and agree with virtually every post in this discussion. A big thanks to David for starting it.

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.

Nicholas Ciambrello

Desired Outcomes 1, Profitable Revenue Growth 2

Steve Mcdougal

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

Thanks for all the great ideas and discussion. There have been a lot of terrific terms presented with thoughts of what should and should not be included.

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

[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.

Mikael Blaisdell

Many years ago, at Salesforce's DreamForce conference, Jim Eberlin, then CEO of JBara Sytems/later Gainsight, asked me for a definition of Customer Success. "That's easy," I replied. "We make more money better/faster for our customers and our companies, and we can prove it."

I've refined that snap answer somewhat over the years since. Customer Success is a long-term, scientifically designed and professionally directed business strategy for maximizing customer and company sustainable proven profitability.

CS professionals do many things in the course of their work. But the above definition is what they are about, and everything that they do should be directly connected to the goal of sustainable proven profitability in both directions.

Now, do people talk like that definition in daily life? No, of course not. But attempting to make it more accessible to people runs the risk of distortion. As a profession, I don't think we can afford confusion - that leads to failed or obliterated CS teams.

--mikael

James Conant

@Steve Bernstein wrote above "...CS must be the company-wide silo-buster in order to provide great experiences that drive ADVOCACY... "

VERY IMPORTANT!! Yes!!!

James Conant

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?

Nicholas Ciambrello

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)

@Steve Bernstein @James Conant @Rav Dhaliwal @Anna Alley @Jay Nathan @Jeff Breunsbach @David Ellin

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."

@David Ellin I like it! ? Sounds like we're getting close.

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

Here's a stab at a revised short-form definition based on all of the above comments. Once we nail this, we can work on the expanded definition based on @Anita Toth's concept of two definitions. Where are we missing the mark?

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

So true, @Anita Toth. Unfortunately, I have that conversation several times a month....not necessarily with marketers but with business leaders as well. And, if they know that it's a department, they have no idea what the primary functions are.

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!

Yes, @Steve Bernstein. I think @Anita Toth has gotten us much closer. I think it needs at least one more sentence to tie in some critical aspects to CS though. By itself, it may be a bit ambiguous as you've pointed out. Perhaps we can build on it.

Hey @Anita Toth, yeah it's a catch 22 lol - too complex and they won't understand, too simple and you still may walk away from the conversation with blank stares.

@David Ellin, it is a conversation worth having, especially once you see the differing perspectives across the board. It also allows us all to reflectively challenge what we believe Customer Success to be,.

Steve Bernstein

Ooh, @Anita Toth, I really like that. It may be a bit ambiguous but that MAY be ok, because the natural response from an elevator pitch is to get a question back, "What do you mean by "goals?" (or similar).

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

@Ja'Rod Morris The best definitions are those ones that a family member or child could easily understand. Just like the elevator pitch you mentioned -- they take a long to time discover. But when you do -- woohoo! -- they bring all elements together perfectly.

"CS -- Helping customers achieve their goals while helping the business achieve its goals"

Does that work? ?

Great points, @Anna Alley. Once in a while, I hear that CX folks report up through CS but my experience is that they're typically in the marketing department. It's certainly a collaborative effort between departments.

Thanks, @Ja'Rod Morris. I thought long and hard about starting this conversation for fear it might be a challenging effort. We're getting some great input and will then need a great wordsmither!

I completely agree. My purpose for starting this discussion is to get the community to weigh in, glean the most important aspects people feel should be included in the definition, and then hone it so it does just what you indicate. I do think there needs to be a balance of length and substance to truly inform people. We can't have them walking away thinking that it's Customer Support.

Anna Alley

I definitely think that Customer Experience is a component of Customer Success. On my team the teammates who "own" responsibility more related to VOC, Customer Experience, etc. actually have separate responsibilities from Customer Success Managers (they're essentially a sub-group within my team). It's a great call out, though, related to the definition of Customer Success as a whole - I think there's a lot of risk if Marketing is the sole owner of Customer Experience as they're not typically your subject matter experts (at least from my experience).

This is a highly interesting discussion. The concept of coming up with an agreed upon industry standard definition sounds good until you turn around and think about when you try to explain Customer Success to a colleague or family member unfamiliar with the discipline. I know exactly what it is in my mind, and I agree with the variations described here. Still, I constantly look for the right words, analogies, and descriptions to represent Customer Success succinctly without misrepresenting it as something else. After several years of being in the space, I'm still trying to perfect the "Customer Success Elevator Pitch." I'm curious as to how some of you try to explain it to others? That's a great litmus test for if your definition can hold its own independent of those already familiar with the practice.

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.

Rav Dhaliwal

I think its very important to focus the length and wording of any definition for the intended audience.

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).

James Conant

Thanks for sharing this David. Very interesting. At its core, it's correct. I suspect, though, that those outside our industry may find it begging for more detail.