What Is Customer Success and How To Reach It

Who is this article for?

• SaaS companies looking to reduce churn and improve customer retention
• B2B businesses who want to build stronger, long-term customer relationships
• Any company that wants to align their entire organization around delivering customer success
• Customer Success Managers and Leaders
• Chief Customer Officers
• VP or Director of Customer Success
• Customer Success Operations Managers

These roles are critical for implementing a customer success strategy and driving a customer-centric culture across the organization.

What is the real meaning of customer success?

At its core, customer success is about helping your customers achieve their desired outcome through interactions with your company (Hilton et al., 2020). It’s a proactive, holistic approach that spans the entire customer journey and touches every part of your organization.

Customer success is different from traditional customer support or account management. Rather than just reacting to customer issues or focusing on contract renewals, customer success is about:

• Deeply understanding your customers’ goals and challenges
• Proactively guiding them to get more value out of your product
• Building strong, consultative relationships
• Monitoring customer health and stepping in at the right moments
• Advocating internally to improve the overall customer experience

When done right, investing in customer success leads to lower churn, higher lifetime value, and more customer advocates. As Fawcett & Cooper (1998) found, “world-class firms recognize the central role measurement plays in their success and are therefore compulsive about their performance measurement efforts.”

How do you build a world-class customer success program?

Delivering customer success is a company-wide effort that requires executive buy-in, cross-functional alignment, and the right technology and processes. Here are some key elements:

1. Make customer success a top-down priority

Customer success can’t just live in one department. It needs to be a core company value that comes from the top. The CEO and executive team need to evangelize customer success and empower employees to always put the customer first.

2. Align your whole organization around the customer

Every team, from sales to product to finance, plays a role in the customer experience. Align incentives, KPIs, and processes to drive customer-centric behaviors. For example:

• Marketing can target content to customers’ success milestones
• Product can gather customer feedback to inform the roadmap
• Sales can set the right expectations during the buying process

3. Hire the right customer success managers

CSMs are on the front lines of building customer relationships. Look for people who are empathetic, proactive problem-solvers with strong communication skills. Consider their industry background as well, since domain expertise helps establish credibility and trust (Prohl-Schwenke & Kleinaltenkamp, 2021).

4. Implement scalable processes and technology

You need the right infrastructure to efficiently monitor customer health, streamline workflows, and personalize engagement at scale. That’s where purpose-built customer success software comes in.

With Tallyfy’s real-time tracking, you can monitor the status of every customer without manual effort. Set up alerts to identify at-risk accounts and automate actions to get ahead of issues before they escalate.

Tallyfy’s flexible workflows let you digitize your customer playbooks and best practices. This ensures a consistent customer experience and frees up CSMs to focus on higher-value activities.

What are the risks of not investing in customer success?

• Higher customer churn as customers fail to get ongoing value
• Increased support costs from constant firefighting
• Lack of product feedback to guide your roadmap
• Fewer referrals and brand advocates
• Difficulty upselling and cross-selling to grow accounts

In today’s subscription economy, you can’t afford to take customers for granted. If you’re not constantly proving your value and building strong relationships, you risk high churn.

That’s why leading companies are making customer success a top priority. They recognize it’s the key to sustainable, profitable growth in the long run.

How Tallyfy powers customer success at scale

Tallyfy gives you the visibility and automation to deliver a world-class customer experience. Here’s how our key features map to customer success:

Real-time tracking – Monitor customer health and product usage without manual effort. Set up smart alerts to identify and proactively address red flags.

Flexible workflows – Digitize your customer playbooks and best practices. Automate tasks, reminders, and if-this-then-that logic for a consistent experience.

Effortless onboarding – Get customers to value faster with guided, self-service onboarding. Scale personalized training without extra headcount.

Streamlined communication – Collaborate across teams and securely share information with customers in one place. No more silos or crossed wires.

Ready to uplevel your customer success?

Customer success is your ultimate growth lever. By helping customers achieve their goals, you’ll increase retention, expansion, and advocacy.

But you need the right strategy, people, and technology to make it happen. Tallyfy gives you the foundation to build a scalable, proactive customer success program.

See how Tallyfy can help you deliver customer success – without the manual effort or guesswork. Your customers and your bottom line will thank you.

What is Customer Success?

Customer success is a business methodology that focuses on ensuring customers achieve their desired outcomes while using your product or service. It’s about more than just providing customer support or service – it’s a proactive approach that aims to help customers get the most value out of what they’ve purchased, leading to increased customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy.

The concept of customer success has gained significant traction in recent years, particularly in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) industry where ongoing subscription revenue is dependent on customers continually seeing value from the product. As Hilton et al. (2020) note, “Customer Success Management (CSM) has transcended from a buzzword into the latest permutation in customer management practice.”

At its core, customer success is about putting the customer’s needs first and aligning the entire organization around delivering on those needs. It requires a shift from a reactive, transactional mindset to a proactive, relationship-oriented one. Rather than simply responding to customer complaints or issues as they arise, a customer success approach means working closely with customers to understand their goals, anticipate potential roadblocks, and provide guidance and support to keep them on track.

How Can Companies Implement Customer Success?

Implementing a customer success strategy requires buy-in and alignment across the organization, from executive leadership to front-line employees. Some key components include:

• Defining what success looks like for your customers and developing a clear plan to help them achieve it
• Assigning dedicated customer success managers to work closely with accounts
• Establishing regular check-ins and reviews to monitor progress and address any issues proactively
• Leveraging data and insights to identify at-risk customers and opportunities for greater value delivery
• Continually gathering and acting on customer feedback to improve the product and the customer experience

Critically, customer success can’t just live within one team or department – it needs to be embedded into a company’s DNA. As Prohl-Schwenke & Kleinaltenkamp (2021) found in their research, customers judge the quality of a supplier’s customer success management based on factors like the supplier’s commitment, proactivity, and ability to deliver value-in-use. This requires tight alignment between sales, marketing, product, support, and all customer-facing functions.

What Does the Future Hold for Customer Success?

As more and more companies recognize the bottom-line impact of retaining and growing existing customers, the field of customer success is poised for even greater growth and evolution. Advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning will enable increasingly personalized and predictive customer engagement. The rise of the Internet of Things and usage-based business models will make real-time monitoring of customer health and proactive interventions even more critical.

At the same time, as customer success becomes table stakes, companies will need to continually up-level their efforts to differentiate on the customer experience. This may lead to an even greater focus on creating true partnerships with customers and involving them more collaboratively in product roadmap decisions.

What is clear is that customer success is here to stay. As Fawcett & Cooper (1998) presciently noted over two decades ago, “World-class firms recognize the central role measurement plays in their success and are therefore compulsive about their performance measurement efforts.” In today’s customer-centric world, there is perhaps no more important measure than the success of your customers.

Tallyfy Tango – A cheerful and alternative take

Meet Cathy and Sam, two customer success representatives having a lively discussion at the watercooler:

Cathy: Hey Sam, what’s the secret to your amazing customer success record?

Sam: (grins) Well, Cathy, it’s simple. I treat every customer like they’re my favorite grandparent – with patience, respect, and a sprinkle of good-natured humor.

Cathy: (laughs) Grandparent, huh? So you’re basically spoiling them with attention and care?

Sam: Exactly! But instead of hard candies and knitted sweaters, I’m showering them with personalized solutions and a listening ear. It’s all about making them feel valued and understood.

Cathy: I love it! And let me guess, you also have a secret stash of dad jokes to keep them entertained?

Sam: (chuckles) You know it! A well-timed pun can work wonders in diffusing a tense situation. Plus, it’s a great way to build rapport and show them that we’re all human.

Cathy: Sam, you’re a customer success genius! Mind if I steal a few pages from your playbook?

Sam: Be my guest, Cathy! Remember, the key to customer success is treating them like family – with a healthy dose of humor and a genuine desire to help. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a pun-filled email to write to a client who’s been having a “ruff” time with their software. Get it? Ruff? Like a dog?

Cathy: (groans playfully) Oh, Sam. Never change!

Related Questions

What is meant by customer success?

Customer success is a business approach that focuses on helping customers achieve their desired outcomes and goals with a product or service. It’s about building strong, lasting relationships with customers by ensuring they get the most value out of what they’ve purchased. The aim is to turn customers into loyal advocates who stick around for the long haul.

What is the customer success role?

The customer success role is all about being a customer’s trusted advisor and go-to person. It involves onboarding new customers, providing ongoing support and guidance, and constantly looking for ways to help them succeed. Customer success professionals wear many hats – they’re part coach, part problem-solver, and part cheerleader, working closely with customers to understand their unique needs and challenges.

What does a customer success specialist do?

A customer success specialist is like a personal trainer for your product or service. They work one-on-one with customers to help them get “fit” and reach their goals. This involves everything from teaching them how to use the product effectively to providing strategic advice and best practices. The specialist’s ultimate mission is to make sure each customer is getting the most possible value and achieving awesome results.

Is customer success a sales job?

While customer success and sales are certainly related, they’re distinct roles with different goals. Sales is about acquiring new customers, while customer success is about keeping the customers you already have happy and successful. That said, customer success can definitely impact sales in a big way. By helping current customers thrive, you’re more likely to get glowing reviews, enthusiastic referrals, and even upsell opportunities down the line.

References and Editorial Perspectives

Fawcett, S., E., & Cooper, M., B. (1998). Logistics Performance Measurement and Customer Success. Industrial marketing management, 27, 341 – 357. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0019-8501(97)00078-3

Summary of this study

This study highlights the critical role that performance measurement plays in driving customer success. By conducting a longitudinal empirical study of logistics performance measurement practices and interviewing over 100 leading companies worldwide, the researchers found that world-class firms recognize the central importance of measurement in molding behavior, creating understanding, and achieving competitive results. Superior process measurement both within the firm and across organizational boundaries is essential for delivering world-class performance and customer success.

Editor perspectives

At Tallyfy, we firmly believe that you can’t improve what you don’t measure. This research reinforces how critical it is to have robust performance measurement practices in place, not just internally but across your entire supply chain, in order to consistently deliver customer success. Workflow and process automation tools like Tallyfy can provide the real-time visibility and analytics needed to drive continuous improvement.

Hilton, B., Hajihashemi, B., Henderson, C., M., & Palmatier, R., W. (2020). Customer Success Management: The Next Evolution in Customer Management Practice?. Industrial marketing management, 90, 360 – 369. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2020.08.001

Summary of this study

This article positions Customer Success Management (CSM) as the latest evolution in customer management practice, building upon earlier concepts like Customer Relationship Management, Customer Experience, and Customer Engagement. The authors argue that CSM represents a fundamental shift by placing the customer as the primary actor that is supported by the seller, rather than the seller acting upon a passive customer. They draw upon goal management, stakeholder management, and learning management theories to provoke new research questions and inspire management experimentation around this emerging practice.

Editor perspectives

At Tallyfy, we’re excited by the potential of Customer Success Management to transform how companies engage with and deliver value to their customers. By making the customer the hero of the story and orienting the entire organization around supporting the customer’s goals, CSM aligns perfectly with our mission to help customers achieve successful outcomes through workflow management. We look forward to seeing more research and best practices emerge in this space.

Prohl-Schwenke, K., & Kleinaltenkamp, M. (2021). How Business Customers Judge Customer Success Management. Industrial marketing management, 96, 197 – 212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2021.05.004

Summary of this study

This study takes a customer-centric view to explore how business customers perceive and judge the quality of their suppliers’ Customer Success Management activities. The findings reveal that customers assess CSM quality across multiple dimensions, and that high-quality CSM activities can actively shape customers’ value-in-use experiences over time, ultimately influencing re-purchase decisions. The research provides guidance for suppliers on how to effectively structure their customer-oriented CSM activities as well as the supporting organizational structures and processes.

Editor perspectives

At Tallyfy, we always strive to view things from the customer’s perspective. This research provides valuable insights into how customers actually perceive and evaluate Customer Success Management in practice. It’s not enough to simply implement CSM activities – those activities need to be thoughtfully designed and consistently executed to a high standard in order to positively impact the customer’s experience of value over time. We think workflow management software like Tallyfy has an important role to play in operationalizing CSM and ensuring that key activities and touchpoints don’t fall through the cracks.

Glossary of terms

Customer Success Management (CSM)

Customer Success Management is a business methodology that focuses on proactively helping customers achieve their desired outcomes and realize value from a company’s products or services. CSM involves monitoring customer health, identifying at-risk accounts, driving adoption and engagement, and working closely with customers to ensure they are successful.

Customer Lifecycle

The customer lifecycle refers to the various stages a customer goes through when interacting with a company, from initial awareness and acquisition through onboarding, adoption, retention, expansion, and ultimately advocacy. Customer Success teams are typically involved in managing the post-sale stages of the customer lifecycle to maximize customer lifetime value.

Churn

In a business context, churn refers to the rate at which customers stop doing business with an entity. It is a critical metric for companies with recurring revenue models, as high churn rates can significantly impact growth and profitability. Reducing churn is one of the primary objectives of Customer Success Management.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Net Promoter Score is a widely used metric for gauging customer loyalty and satisfaction. It is based on asking customers a single question: “How likely are you to recommend this company/product/service to a friend or colleague?” Responses are given on a scale of 0 to 10, and the final NPS score can range from -100 to +100. Many companies use NPS as a key performance indicator for Customer Success.

Value Realization

Value realization refers to the customer’s actual experience of receiving value from a product or service over time. It goes beyond initial sale or deployment to encompass the ongoing benefits and ROI that customers achieve. Helping customers realize intended value is the ultimate goal of Customer Success Management, as it leads to higher satisfaction, retention and growth.