The Customer Success Blueprint

From the moment that a company first acknowledges that long term retention and expansion of their customer relationships is the core strategic issue in their quest for sustainable company viability, the creation of an effective organizational response to that requirement becomes a necessity.  Unfortunately, all too many companies begin their Customer Success journey by assuming that the first step is to simply hire someone as the new Vice President, and to tell that person to “just build it.”  The results of relying on such voodoo hiring are significant losses in money and time from a succession of false starts.  The appropriate beginning of the initiative is to create a comprehensive Customer Success Blueprint for the organization’s specific strategic requirements, followed by testing until all facets are thoroughly understood, and only then beginning to build.
To assist companies in this vital process, the Customer Success Association has built a collection of actionable resources in The Customer Success Library, covering every aspect of designing an effective Customer Success group. Some are the work of a group of very senior Customer Success professionals; drafted, reviewed and validated. Others were contributed by veteran consultants who also use them in their own practices. All have been thoroughly tested around the world. Almost all of the resources are free; some require Associate/free membership for access, and a few will require Executive membership (only $95 USD yearly).

Customer Success Design Resources

The CSM Competency Standard

The First Level CSM Standard may be used by any company (with attribution) for the purposes of describing an open CSM position, and by individuals to build or develop their professional knowledge and capabilities as a CSM.

The 2021 Customer Success Executive Job Requirements Survey

Prepared as a worksheet for a survey of senior Customer Success executives as to their specific job requirements, the worksheet covers 94 key points of a Vice President of Customer Success position.

The Questions of Customer Success

First drafted in a consulting engagement as a guide for the Senior Management team of a software company for use in designing their new Customer Success group, the Questions are the starting point in the initiative.

The Customer Success Budget – a Tactical Template

The Customer Tiers Analysis Worksheet

An Effective Customer Onboarding Checklist

Customer Success Metrics That Matter

Customer Success Consultants, Trainers, Recruiters, and Outsourcers

These pages are an up-to-date comprehensive list of all known/established firms that offer such services to the worldwide Customer Success Community. Each has a secondary detail page that identifies specific services.

Customer Success Technology Vendors List

Customer Success TechMap

There is no better source anywhere for identifying available options for your Customer Success Technology Suite. The CSA is strictly vendor-neutral in all aspects; we never participate in commission-based or revenue-sharing schemes with anyone.

General Customer Success Resources

The Customer Success FAQ and Wiki

Customer Success Books

Office Hours

To meet the needs of Customer Success Executives, the C-Suite, and the Board, we offer direct responses to specific requests for data and analysis. We call this resource Office Hours, and it’s based on over 12 years of in-depth research and analysis into all facets of the CS profession.

The Customer Success Forum

With over 58 thousand members worldwide, The Customer Success Forum is where the worldwide Customer Success Community begins. Founded in 2009, it is the largest, most active, and fastest growing gathering of Customer Success executive professionals anywhere.
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