Over the past 10 years, we have seen the emergence of Customer Success teams primarily in B2B software-as-a service (SaaS) companies. This shift is the focus of a recent Forbes article where a good friend and colleague of mine, Ellen Grace Henson of Marketing Mechanics, was interviewed about some recent research she did.
I often work with Customer Success on win/loss research projects as part of their ongoing efforts to be sure they are keeping a finger on the pulse of not only new customers, but also understanding how their company is perceived by their entire target market which includes lost prospects. Their efforts are aligned with the fundamental difference between Customer Success and Customer Service, according to Ellen: a proactive vs. reactive focus.
One of my favorite quotes from the article:
“While customer service handles complaints, customer success is about preventing customer heartburn.”
One of the other major points of the article is the fact that all types of organizations can benefit from what SaaS companies have learned about the importance of having a proactive focus and gathering input from all different sources about how customers are using their products, the pain points they need help addressing, etc.
I’ll be interested in seeing whether the Customer Success function does expand into all types of organizations, based on its success in the SaaS world.