Say it like this
- We should invest more in customer success to improve retention.
- The customer success team is handling the onboarding process.
- Customer success is key to our business model.
Use it at work
Working together
- Customer success flagged that this bug affects three big accounts.
- Let's loop in customer success before we change the UI.
Describing roles
- Customer success helps clients get value after they buy.
- Our customer success team runs onboarding calls.
Planning
- Customer success wants a usage dashboard per account.
- Can customer success share churn reasons?
Don't say this
Customer success is not about sales volume; it is about ensuring customers achieve their goals and remain satisfied.
Don't mix it up
| Term | What it is | Who writes or uses it | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| customer success | Helps customers get value over time | CS managers | After the sale |
| customer support | Fixes problems customers report | Support team | When something breaks |
| account management | Grows the relationship and sales | Account managers | Renewals, upsells |
Practice
Try it
4 quick exercises
1. Which sentence uses customer success correctly?
2. The _______ _______ is responsible for helping enterprise clients maximize their return on investment. Use two words.
3. Which sentence misuses customer success?
4. Rewrite this using customer success: We want to make sure our customers are happy and use all the features we built for them.
Say it out loud
Phrase 1 of 3
"We should invest more in customer success to improve retention."
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More about customer success
Real examples(3)
- in a standup
"The customer success team reported that three enterprise clients are at risk of churning if we don't address their feature requests."
- in a team meeting
"We need to hire a dedicated customer success manager to support our growing user base."
- in a product strategy discussion
"Our customer success metrics show that users who complete onboarding have a 40 percent higher lifetime value."
More mistakes(2)
Handle with care. Do not confuse with general business success. Customer success is specifically about ensuring customers achieve their desired outcomes with your product, not just making sales.
- ✕The customer success team handles all customer complaints and support tickets.✓The customer success team proactively helps customers get value from our product, while the support team responds to technical issues.
Customer success is strategic and proactive, while support is usually reactive to problems.
- ✕We do not need a customer success strategy if our product is good enough.✓Even with an excellent product, a dedicated customer success function helps customers discover value, improves retention, and reduces churn.
A great product alone is not enough; customers need guidance and support to achieve their intended outcomes.
Other forms(3)
- customer success noun
"Customer success is our top priority this year."
- customer success (attributive) adjective
"We hired three new customer success managers for our enterprise team."
- customer success team noun
"The customer success team coordinates with product to implement user feedback."
Often used with(5)
- customer success team · The dedicated group responsible for ensuring customers achieve their goals.
- customer success manager · A professional role focused on managing customer relationships and outcomes.
- customer success metrics · Measurable data points such as retention rate, feature adoption, and customer health score.
- invest in customer success · Allocate resources, budget, and personnel to customer success initiatives.
- customer success strategy · A comprehensive plan to ensure customers achieve their desired outcomes.
Similar words(3)
- customer retention · Focuses on keeping customers; customer success is broader and includes satisfaction and value realization.
- customer satisfaction · Measures happiness; customer success is more outcome-oriented and strategic.
- account management · Manages business relationships; customer success is more proactive about product adoption and value.
Opposites(3)
- customer churn
- customer failure
- customer dissatisfaction
Questions(4)
- What is the difference between customer success and customer support?
- Customer support is reactive and addresses technical issues or problems that customers report. Customer success is proactive and strategic, focused on helping customers achieve their business goals and maximize the value they get from your product. Support solves problems; customer success prevents them and drives adoption.
- Why do tech companies focus on customer success?
- In SaaS and subscription-based models, customer success directly impacts retention and lifetime value. When customers achieve their goals with your product, they renew their subscriptions, expand usage, and refer others. Customer success reduces churn and increases profitability.
- What does a customer success manager do?
- A customer success manager builds relationships with assigned customers, ensures they complete onboarding, monitors their usage and health, identifies at-risk accounts, facilitates feature adoption, and works to expand revenue through upsells and cross-sells. They are strategic partners to customers, not just support providers.
- How do companies measure customer success?
- Common metrics include retention rate (percentage of customers who renew), net revenue retention (revenue from existing customers including expansion), feature adoption rates, time-to-value (how quickly customers achieve their first success), customer health scores, and customer lifetime value.
