Customer service responds to problems. Customer Success anticipates them. That nuance changes everything.
In a world where retaining customers costs less than acquiring new ones, customer success has become a strategic pillar for businesses, particularly in SaaS. In this guide, discover what customer success is, how it differs from support, and how to implement it.
Customer Success is a proactive approach that aims to ensure that customers achieve their goals through your product or service.
The central idea: if your customers succeed, you succeed.
The Customer Success Manager (CSM) does more than just respond when the customer calls. They anticipate, support, and actively work toward the customer's success.
The two are complementary. Support deals with emergencies, while Customer Success builds longevity.
With monthly subscriptions, customers can leave at any time. The initial sale is just the beginning: true value is built over time.
Losing a customer means losing all the future revenue they would have generated. Customer Success is ananti-churn investment.
The best customers don't just stay: they buy more. Customer Success identifies and cultivates these opportunities.
A successful customer spreads the word. They become ambassadors, references, and sources of qualified leads.
Support new customers in their first steps so that they quickly achieve their first success ("time to value").
Ensure that the customer actually uses the product, discovers the relevant features, and gets the most value out of it.
Identify signs of disengagement and intervene before the customer leaves.
Identify opportunities for upselling and cross-selling when the customer is ready and it makes sense for them.
Turning satisfied customers into ambassadors: testimonials, references, case studies.
The Health Score is a composite indicator that assesses the "health" of a customer account. It aggregates several signals:
A declining Health Score = a warning sign for proactive intervention.
Both teams must work hand in hand:
Support sees issues in real time. Customer Success must be alerted to critical or recurring tickets.
Some tickets reveal underlying issues that require Customer Success support, not just a one-off resolution.
Support insights (frequently asked questions, recurring frustrations) fuel the Customer Success strategy.
The CSM and support agents must have access to the same customer history for a consistent experience.
Reduce churn? Increase expansion? Improve onboarding? Start with the problem to be solved.
Not all customers require the same level of support:
The CSM is neither a salesperson nor a support person. It combines:
Customer Success tools (Gainsight, ChurnZero, Vitally), CRM, product analytics... Data is the fuel that drives CS.
Define your KPIs, track them, and adjust your approach based on the results.
Customer Success cannot do everything manually, especially with a large customer base:
Email sequences, in-app guides, activation checklists...
Notification when a Health Score drops, when usage falls, when a renewal is approaching...
Emails customized according to segment, life cycle stage, behavior, etc.
Klark fits into this approach by automating part of the customer support process: instant answers to questions, detection of signs of dissatisfaction, and high-quality support that boosts retention.
The CSM is not a salesperson. Their primary goal is customer success, not sales. Trust comes before revenue.
If the CSM only intervenes when the customer calls, it's no longer Customer Success, it's support.
Even without a dedicated CSM, small accounts deserve a Customer Success experience through automation.
The support team has valuable insights. Not taking advantage of them is a missed opportunity.
Customer Success is also about expansion and advocacy. Don't limit yourself to preventing departures.
As soon as churn becomes a significant issue or you have enough customers to justify the investment. In SaaS, this is often from 50-100 customers.
In a small team, yes, but the tasks are different. As the team grows, specialization becomes necessary.
Compare churn and NRR before and after, the cost of the CS team vs. the value of retained customers.
Yes, the concept applies wherever retention matters: services, subscription-based e-commerce, B2B, etc.
Customer Success is not a luxury, it is a strategic investment. In a world where acquisition is expensive and customers can easily leave, proactively supporting them toward success is the key to sustainable growth.
The keys to Customer Success:
Your customer service directly contributes to your customers' success. Discover how Klark can help you achieve this.
