Customer success is not customer support. Support fixes problems after they occur. Customer success prevents problems before they occur and proactively drives customers toward the outcomes they bought the product to achieve.
The distinction matters because the economics are completely different. A reactive CS team manages churn after it has already become likely. A proactive CS program catches churn signals early, drives adoption before customers get frustrated, and identifies expansion opportunities that the customer themselves may not have surfaced.
Step 1: Define the CS program's scope and metrics
Customer success programs fail when CS is measured on the wrong things. NPS is a lagging indicator. Support tickets are a reactive measure. The right CS metrics are predictive and operational.
The metrics that define a CS program:
Step 2: Segment customers for differentiated coverage
Not every customer deserves the same level of CS investment. A customer generating $5K ARR should not receive the same coverage model as a customer generating $500K ARR. Segment customers and build differentiated coverage models.
The three CS coverage models:
Step 3: Build the proactive health monitoring system
A CSM who discovers churn risk at renewal is 6 months late. Build a health monitoring system that surfaces risk early enough to act.
The health score components:
Score 0-100 for each component. Green: 70+. Yellow: 40-69. Red: below 40. Any customer scoring Red triggers an escalation protocol within 48 hours.
Step 4: Build the expansion motion
CS is the best-positioned function to identify expansion opportunities -- because they are already in the account, they know the customer's business, and they have earned trust that a new sales rep has not.
The expansion signals to monitor:
Customer success program completion checklist
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