“Customer Success” is growing.  And not only in buzz.  I see companies investing and building these teams at a fast clip.  When done right, this trend represents a fantastic opportunity for companies to accelerate profitable growth.  But doing it right requires joining two different disciplines that many companies often overlook. First, we need to be

There are a number of ways that software vendors are approaching the space commonly known as Customer Success Management.  Each approach will potentially mesh differently with a Voice of Customer solution. 1. Focusing exclusively on product usage data One of the approaches to Customer Success Management is to focus almost exclusively on product usage data. This

I get asked a lot of questions every day about Customer Success, most of which don’t have a really definitive answer, simply different choices with different pros and cons.  But to this particular question, I have a strong opinion, and it’s “NO.” Let’s define Customer Success before we go any further.  When I use the

You’ve decided to fund a Customer Success Team for your company, and have determined what the model should look like.  Now what? Aside from developing a strawman for the organizational structure of your customer success team, one of the most important things you can do is to develop a candidate profile.  The customer success team will

Asking the question “what should I look for in a CSM?” is like asking “what kind of person do I need to fill my Sales role?”  Any answer other than “it depends” is either naïve or based on a set of assumptions.  So, let’s start by talking about the different ways a Customer Success organization

Customer Success is More Than a Team of People: When looking at an investment in Customer Success, it’s first worth clarifying what that investment really entails.  It’s much more than getting budget dollars for additional headcount. Customer Success Management isn’t just a person (or group of people), it’s a function consisting of people, process, and

Customer Success is not an option in a recurring revenue business. It is not a nice-to-have. And it’s not something you do because you want your customers to like you. It’s something you do because it generates growth. That’s right, growth. In the recurring revenue world, growth comes from three sources: 1. Increasing new business bookings