留住客户的最有效方法是，让他们在使用你的产品时尽可能地成功。

从整个高科技产业领域，再到之外的其他领域，一种全新的、重要的工作职能正在诞生，并不断发展。

这项工作有许多名字：客户成功经理，客户倡导者……

不管标签是什么，这份工作的所有一切，都是关于客户关系的维护和优化。

其背后的认知基础是：留住客户的最有效方法是，让他们在使用你的产品时尽可能地成功。

一、客户成功管理的定义是什么？

对于任何依赖从客户那里持续获取收入流水的业务来说，你的选择都已经变得越来越清晰：你可以把客户关系作为战略资源进行积极地管理，或者有效地将对客户关系和公司未来的控制权让给机会和/或竞争。

对于客户和公司的合作来说，获得客户只是漫长旅程中的第一步。

什么是客户成功？

客户成功是一种长期的、科学的、专业化的战略，旨在将客户和公司的可持续收益最大化。

客户成功这种新职业就是来解决客户资源建设中的拉新、留存、新拓展等核心问题的。具体实践中，客户成功是将营销、销售、专业服务、培训和支持等功能和活动整合到一个新的职业中。

对这一新兴职业而言，有三个必要的组成部分：对客户的深入了解、对所售产品的专业知识、广泛的行业知识。

传统上那种把产品当做独立的、拥有历史悠久的包装和分发策略的手工制品的日子已经过去了。

客户成功角色的最终战略目标是可持续的企业盈利能力和增长，其方法就是让你的客户尽可能的盈利和生产。

二、客户成功团队的使命

简而言之，客户成功经理（CSM）团队承诺要实现的目标就是：“增加客户和公司的可持续收益”。能够在客户和公司两个方面都能证明自己的价值，是最关键的。

实际上，所有的客户成功管理团队都是从“churnfighters”（churn的原意是奶桶、搅乳器，被用来描述客户流失相关的含义，例如，churn-rate表示客户流失率，这里churnfighters可以描述为“与客户流失进行战斗的人”）开始的，它是一个被动的策略团队，负责挽救一个处于风险中的客户关系。

但是，你不能单纯停在那里。你所面临的挑战是收集各个方面的数据并加以应用，以使你的团队走出这种被动的模式，进入更有效的主动状态。

三、客户成功经理做什么？

客户成功团队中的成员之间的日常工作可能会因为工作职责的不同而有非常大的差异。

例如，一个专门解决“churn threats”（客户流失风险）的CSM团队可能会花费所有的时间去劝说“Code Red”（红色代码，代指风险流失客户）的客户不要离开。

他们不应该在那些“Code Red”上消耗太多，然而，即使成功，能够越早认识到解决维持可持续客户关系的方法，他们就将越高效，花费越少。

当他们的使命从简单的、反应性的“churnfighting”（与客户流失作战）转变为包含价值管理的更大目标时，团队的参与点需要被提升，工作内容也将会全面拓展。

一个发展完善的客户成功团队，他们会参与到技术产品的设计中，创建客户所需要的工具。

他们会与市场部合作寻找合适的销售线索，销售人员可以将这些线索带入公司，成为第一级别的高价值资产。

通过让客户参与交流和培训，CSM团队可以确保所有客户都能充分参与并获得他们所期望的价值。

在流程中的每个节点上，CSM团队都会收集、分析并使用数据，让客户对公司产品的体验成为一个无缝、一致的整体。

四、从客户成功定义到设计

上述定义对客户成功这一新职业而言具有重要的影响和意义。

一个成效显著的、能力全面的CSM团队并不是一天就能建立起来的。至少要花一年时间，可能还要两年时间才能奠定好基础。

那时候，真正的工作就开始了，CSM团队将会扩展并充分发展成为一个公司的核心战略单元。

附英文原文

The Definition of Customer Success

All across the high technology industry and now well beyond it, a new and vital role is being established and developed. The job goes by many names: Customer Success Manager, Client Advocate, etc., but regardless of the label, it’s all about customer relationship retention and optimization. The foundation is the acknowledgement that the most effective way to keep your customers is to make them as successful as possible in using your product.

What is the definition of Customer Success Management?

For any business that depends upon continuing income streams from its customers, the choice is becoming clear.  You either actively manage your customer relationships as strategic portfolio assets, or you effectively cede control over them and your company’s future to chance and/or the competition.  Customer acquisition is only the very first step in an extended journey for both customer and company.

What is Customer Success?  Customer Success is a long-term, scientifically engineered, and professionally directed strategy for maximizing customer and company sustainable proven value.

The emerging role is about a solution to the core issues of  customer portfolio development, retention and expansion.  In practice, Customer Success is an integration of functions and activities of Marketing, Sales, Professional Services, Training and Support into a new profession.  There are three necessary building blocks for this emerging profession: an in-depth knowledge of the customers, effective expertise in the product being sold, and extensive domain expertise.

The day of the traditional perception of a product as a stand-alone artifact, with its historically hodgepodge tactical methods of packaging and distribution, has passed.  The ultimate strategic goal of the Customer Success role is sustainable corporate profitability and growth.  The method is to make your customers as profitable and productive as possible.

The Mission of a Customer Success Team

“To increase sustainable proven value for both the Customers and your Company.”  In a nutshell, this is what CSM teams promise to accomplish.  Being able to prove your worth in both directions is the most crucial aspect.  While virtually all Customer Success Management initiatives start out as “churnfighters,” reactive tactical teams charged with saving an at-risk customer relationship, you can’t stop there.  The challenge is to gather and use the data from every interaction to move your team out of reactive mode and into far more effective proactive stances.

What do Customer Success Managers do?

The daily activities of the members of a customer success team can vary widely, depending on the breadth of their charter.  For example, a CSM group that is dedicated only to reacting to churn threats may spend all of their time in trying to persuade “Code Red” customers not to leave.  It shouldn’t take too many of those code red exercises, however, even if successful, to realize that the earlier the team can address the issue of maintaining sustainable customer relations, the more effective they can be and the less it will cost.  As their mission changes from simple, reactive “churnfighting” to encompass the greater goal of value management, the Point of Engagement for the team needs to be moved up and their activities expanded.

The operational role of a fully realized Customer Success team includes participation in technology product design to create the tools that your customers need.  It’s about working with Marketing to find the right kinds of leads, the ones that Sales can bring into the company to become first-tier high-value assets.  Through on-boarding and training, the CSM group ensures that all customers are fully engaged and getting the value that they expect.  At every point, the team collects, analyzes and then uses data to make the customers’ experience of the company a seamless, consistent whole.

From Customer Success Definition to Design

The above definition has substantial implications and effects for the new profession.  Effective, fully capable CSM groups are not built in a day. It’s going to take at least a year, and probably two just to establish the foundation for the team.  Then the real work begins, to extend and fully develop into a core strategic unit of the company.

原文链接：https://www.customersuccessassociation.com/library/the-definition-of-customer-success/

作者：赞德，腾讯产品经理，ToB方向；公众号：赞德说（xander_talk）；个人微信号xanderfriend

本文由 @赞德 翻译发布于人人都是产品经理。未经许可，禁止转载

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