The evolution of business from a proprietorial wealth-maximising entity to the stakeholder-view that is in currency today, is reflected in the change that organisational departments have undergone. What is today called the HR (Human Resource) Department was, once upon a time, called the Personnel Department. Much earlier, the same went by the name of the IR (Industrial Relations) Department. Similarly, today’s IT (Information Technology) was yesterday’s MIS (Management Information System) and the day before’s EDP (Electronic Data Processing). The Accounts Department has morphed into the Finance Department. And CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) did not even exist.

The latest to have been swept by the winds of change seem to be the good old Service Department. Its latest act is as Customer Success. So what’s really happened, you might wonder? Has Service put on a new shirt, or has it become something different totally?

Going by what leading companies are doing, it looks as if they really have taken a major leap in the way they see customers and interact with them. Till now, once a sale has gone through, it was all about delivery/installation and training. A service personnel would come in, do his bit, hand you a manual and leave. Thereafter the sold product/service is your baby. Sure, the company would return occasionally to do the servicing, but does your headache still remain that of the company’s?

There is a fundamental shift in orientation when companies begin to say that unless customers begin to enjoy the fruits of our products/services– ‘unlock value’ in business-speak–our job is not done. “Your success is my success.”

The story of ‘customer success’ go back to 1996 when Vantive, a CRM company, realised that it had a high failure rate. ‘Failed implementations not only endangered future sales, but they also resulted in strategically significant losses in expected support and maintenance fees.  For this company, whose goal was to have 100% of their customers be willing to serve as references at any time, and whose sales teams regularly tossed the entire customer list on the table in front of qualified prospects, inviting them to call anyone they wished — there could be no such thing as a failed implementation or a dissatisfied customer.  The real driver, however, was to grow the relationship and revenues post-sale.  The traditional organizational structure wasn’t enough, a new approach was needed.’

John Luongo, Vantive’s CEO, hired Marie Alexander, to run Vantive’s services group.

‘In 1996-1997, Marie created a new department, called Customer Success, and began introducing the team to prospects prior to the signing of the contract.  “This is the Customer Success team that’s going to ensure that you’re successful in using Vantive.  And their compensation is based on your success.” While not every Vantive customer was assigned a Customer Success Manager, the process began with the question:  “How are you going to define your success?  What do you expect from us?”  The next step was to document those expectations in the Vantive system and to introduce the Customer Success Manager who would work with the customer towards realizing them.  At the six-month point, that list of expectations would be sent back to the customer, and a review meeting was scheduled.  The CS team asked if the customer felt that they had been successful.  If there were any concerns, the matter would be explored and the expectations appropriately re-set for the next six-month period.’

Bonphul wishes to walk these steps. Starting the mid of this month, we would be starting our own Customer Success Department.