The Seven Pillars of Customer Success

About the Author

Wayne McCulloch is one of the world’s leading customer success experts and a Top 100 Customer Success Strategist. As the Customer Success Leader at Google Cloud, he works with the entire SaaS portfolio. Wayne is a renowned keynote speaker and recipient of multiple industry awards. With over twenty-five years of experience in customer-focused roles, he brings deep insights and proven strategies to the field. His book, The Seven Pillars of Customer Success, offers a comprehensive framework for building and executing a customer success organization. Published in 2021 by Lioncrest Publishing, this book is a vital resource for business leaders aiming to enhance their customer success efforts.

Main Idea

The Seven Pillars of Customer Success presents a robust framework to create and maintain an impactful customer success organization. Wayne McCulloch emphasizes that customer success should permeate the entire company, not just a single department. By operationalizing customer success, businesses can improve customer experiences and achieve higher financial returns. The book outlines seven pillars that serve as the foundation for a successful customer success strategy: Operationalizing Customer Success, Onboarding, Adoption, Retention, Expansion, Advocacy, and Strategic Advisor.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Pillar #1: Operationalizing Customer Success
• Pillar #2: Onboarding
• Pillar #3: Adoption
• Pillar #4: Retention
• Pillar #5: Expansion
• Pillar #6: Advocacy
• Pillar #7: Strategic Advisor
• Conclusion

Pillar #1: Operationalizing Customer Success

Operationalizing customer success is the cornerstone of McCulloch's framework. It involves integrating customer success into the core operations of the company. This pillar is about establishing standardized processes that can be scaled and repeated to ensure consistent customer outcomes.

Key Points:

• Customer success should be a company-wide philosophy, not confined to a single department.
• Operationalizing involves creating best practices that can be applied consistently.
• Customer success teams should act as coordinators to spread this philosophy throughout the company.

"We don’t want one team to care about customer success; we want the whole company to care." - Wayne McCulloch

McCulloch suggests practical steps to embed customer success across the organization. For example, finance teams can add personalized notes to invoices to show customers they are valued. This approach fosters a culture where every department contributes to customer success.

Pillar #2: Onboarding

Onboarding is critical to setting the stage for a successful customer relationship. A poor onboarding experience can be compared to an athlete tripping over the first hurdle in a race.

Key Points:

• Onboarding is the phase where a Customer Success Plan is defined and initial goals are set.
• It’s essential to align on goals and milestones and ensure there are no misunderstandings.
• Early wins are crucial to build momentum and confidence.

"A poor onboarding experience is like tripping over the first hurdle." - Wayne McCulloch

For instance, in one case, a company identified a risk to achieving the first milestone and adjusted the plan to ensure early success. By focusing on smaller, achievable goals initially, they were able to set a positive tone for the rest of the engagement.

Pillar #3: Adoption

Adoption extends beyond onboarding and is an ongoing process. It’s about ensuring customers continually find value in your product.

Key Points:

• Adoption is a continuous process, unlike the finite activity of onboarding.
• It involves customers integrating the product into their daily operations and finding ongoing value.
• Successful adoption makes the product indispensable to the customer.

"When customers adopt your product, you want it to become something they can’t live without." - Wayne McCulloch