The Customer Success Economy

Foreword ix
Maria Martinez, Executive vice president & chief customer experience officer at Cisco

Part I Why Customer Success Became Standard 1
Chapter 1 Customer Success: What It is and Why It Affects Everything 3
Chapter 2 Customer Success: It’s Not Just for Silicon Valley 21
Chapter 3 The Customer Success Job Market is Taking Off 35
Chapter 4 Reason #1: Customer Success Stops Churn—The Silent Business Killer 45
Chapter 5 Reason #2: Customer Success is a Growth Engine—If You Move from Defense to Offense 53
Chapter 6 Reason #3: Your Customers Want It 65
Chapter 7 Reason #4: Even the Money People Are in Love with Customer Success 79

Part II Baking Customer Success Into Every Aspect of Your Business Model 89
Chapter 8 It Can’t Be Delegated 91
Chapter 9 Product: Design from the Start for Customer Success 103
Chapter 10 Marketing: Your Job Doesn’t End with the Lead 121
Chapter 11 Sales: Customer Success is Your Differentiator 129
Chapter 12 Services: Go from Hours to Outcomes 141
Chapter 13 Support: Go from Reactive to Proactive 151
Chapter 14 Finance: The New Scoreboard 161
Chapter 15 IT: The New Mission for the CIO 171
Chapter 16 HR: Happy Employees Take Better Care of Customers 179
Chapter 17 Avoiding Customer Success Silos 191

Part III Implementation Issues 195
Chapter 18 The First Step: Launching CS in an Established Business 197
Chapter 19 Leadership: What Kind of Leader Do I Need for Customer Success? 215
Chapter 20 Organizational Structure: Should Customer Success Be Part of Sales or Its Own Org? 227
Chapter 21 Roles and Responsibilities: Who Owns Renewals and Revenue? 239
Chapter 22 Budget: How Much Should I Spend on Customer Success? 251
Chapter 23 Monetization: Should I Charge for Customer Success to Boost Profitability? 263
Chapter 24 Metrics: How Do I Measure Customer Success? 273
Chapter 25 Scaling: How Do I Grow Customer Success without Throwing People at It? 295
Chapter 26 Technology: What System Do I Use? 301
Chapter 27 Professional Development: How Can I Develop My Leaders and My Team? 317
Chapter 28 Inclusion: How Can I Create a Diverse Team? 333
Chapter 29 Next Steps to Take 339

Notes 345
Acknowledgments 347
About the Authors 351

Index 353