Customer Success Economy

NICK MEHTA is CEO of Gainsight, The Customer Success Company, leading a team of nearly 700 people who have created the Customer Success category that’s currently taking over the SaaS business model worldwide. Nick has been named one of the Top SaaS CEOs by the Software Report three years in a row, and is the coauthor of Customer Success: How Innovative Companies Are Reducing Churn and Growing Recurring Revenue. ALLISON PICKENS has served as COO at Gainsight, an investor at Bain Capital, and a strategy consultant at BCG. One of the world’s leading experts on the business transformation that accompanies shifting to the cloud, she has coached thousands of executives at public companies and startups alike. Allison has a degree in ethics, politics, and economics from Yale and an MBA from Stanford.

• Foreword ixMaria Martinez, Executive vice president & chief customer experience officer at CiscoPart I Why Customer Success Became Standard 1Chapter 1 Customer Success: What It is and Why It Affects Everything 3Chapter 2 Customer Success: It’s Not Just for Silicon Valley 21Chapter 3 The Customer Success Job Market is Taking Off 35Chapter 4 Reason #1: Customer Success Stops Churn—The Silent Business Killer 45Chapter 5 Reason #2: Customer Success is a Growth Engine—If You Move from Defense to Offense 53Chapter 6 Reason #3: Your Customers Want It 65Chapter 7 Reason #4: Even the Money People Are in Love with Customer Success 79Part II Baking Customer Success Into Every Aspect of Your Business Model 89Chapter 8 It Can’t Be Delegated 91Chapter 9 Product: Design from the Start for Customer Success 103Chapter 10 Marketing: Your Job Doesn’t End with the Lead 121Chapter 11 Sales: Customer Success is Your Differentiator 129Chapter 12 Services: Go from Hours to Outcomes 141Chapter 13 Support: Go from Reactive to Proactive 151Chapter 14 Finance: The New Scoreboard 161Chapter 15 IT: The New Mission for the CIO 171Chapter 16 HR: Happy Employees Take Better Care of Customers 179Chapter 17 Avoiding Customer Success Silos 191Part III Implementation Issues 195Chapter 18 The First Step: Launching CS in an Established Business 197Chapter 19 Leadership: What Kind of Leader Do I Need for Customer Success? 215Chapter 20 Organizational Structure: Should Customer Success Be Part of Sales or Its Own Org? 227Chapter 21 Roles and Responsibilities: Who Owns Renewals and Revenue? 239Chapter 22 Budget: How Much Should I Spend on Customer Success? 251Chapter 23 Monetization: Should I Charge for Customer Success to Boost Profitability? 263Chapter 24 Metrics: How Do I Measure Customer Success? 273Chapter 25 Scaling: How Do I Grow Customer Success without Throwing People at It? 295Chapter 26 Technology: What System Do I Use? 301Chapter 27 Professional Development: How Can I Develop My Leaders and My Team? 317Chapter 28 Inclusion: How Can I Create a Diverse Team? 333Chapter 29 Next Steps to Take 339Notes 345Acknowledgments 347About the Authors 351Index 353