Building an Industry-agreed Definition of Customer Success
Expert 
During yesterday's Customer Success panel discussion hosted by Customer Success Leaders Institute, @Rav Dhaliwal was asked about his biggest gripe about Customer Success. As part of his answer, he commented that "there is no one standard industry-agreed definition of Customer Success." Half-heartedly, I put in the chat, "then let's develop one." Ever since that moment, I've been thinking about all the ways I've heard CS and non-CS folks define 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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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
------------------------------
David Ellin
2020 Top 100 Customer Success Strategist
Founder & Senior Customer Success Consultant
Centric Leadership Strategies
------------------------------