Customer success teams are being created in companies to quarterback the customer lifecycle and drive adoption, renewals, up-sell and advocacy. The Customer Success philosophy is invading the boardroom and impacting the way CEOs think about their business. Today, Customer Success is the hottest B2B movement since the advent of the subscription business model, and this book is the one-of-a-kind guide that shows you how to make it work in your company.
From the initial planning stages through execution, you'll have expert guidance to help you:
- Understand the context that led to the start of the Customer Success movement
- Build a Customer Success strategy proven by the most competitive companies in the world
- Implement an action plan for structuring the Customer Success organization, tiering your customers, and developing the right cross-functional playbooks
Table of Contents
Gainsight Book Foreword xi
PART I Customer Success: The History, Organization, and Imperative 1
Chapter 1 The Recurring Revenue Tsunami: Why Customer Success Is Suddenly Crucial 3
Chapter 2 The Customer Success Strategy: The New Organization versus the Traditional Business Model 25
Chapter 3 Customer Success for Traditional Nonrecurring Revenue Businesses 45
PART II The Ten Laws of Customer Success 63
Chapter 4 The Practice of Customer Success 65
Chapter 5 Law 1: Sell to the Right Customer 69
Chapter 6 Law 2: The Natural Tendency for Customers and Vendors Is to Drift Apart 79
Chapter 7 Law 3: Customers Expect You to Make ThemWildly Successful 91
Chapter 8 Law 4: Relentlessly Monitor and Manage Customer Health 103
Chapter 9 Law 5: You Can No Longer Build Loyalty through Personal Relationships 113
Chapter 10 Law 6: Product Is Your Only Scalable Differentiator 125
Chapter 11 Law 7: Obsessively Improve Time-to-Value 137
Chapter 12 Law 8: Deeply Understand Your Customer Metrics 147
Chapter 13 Law 9: Drive Customer Success through Hard Metrics 159
Chapter 14 Law 10: It’s a Top-Down, Company-Wide Commitment 171
PART III Chief Customer Officer, Technology, and Future 181
Chapter 15 The Rise of the Chief Customer Officer 183
Chapter 16 Customer Success Technology 199
Chapter 17 Where Do We Go from Here? 215
Index 229
