Glossary
Customer success, defined.
The terms I use with clients, in plain language. Each one links to where it comes up on the site.
- Customer success
- The work of making sure customers get the result they bought the product for, so they renew and grow. In SaaS it runs from onboarding to renewal.
- Consultancy
- Customer success manager (CSM)
- The person responsible for a set of accounts after the sale: onboarding, adoption, renewal and spotting room to expand.
- Practising CS
- Net revenue retention (NRR)
- The share of recurring revenue you keep from existing customers over a period, counting expansion and subtracting churn and contraction. NRR = (starting revenue + expansion − contraction − churn) ÷ starting revenue. Above 100%, the existing base grows on its own.
- Scaling CS
- Gross revenue retention (GRR)
- NRR without the expansion. GRR = (starting revenue − contraction − churn) ÷ starting revenue. It can't go above 100%, so it shows how much revenue is leaking.
- Scaling CS
- Revenue churn
- Recurring revenue lost to cancellations and downgrades in a period, as a share of starting revenue.
- Scaling CS
- Expansion revenue
- New recurring revenue from existing customers: upgrades, extra seats and add-ons.
- Scaling CS
- Contraction
- Revenue lost when a customer stays but pays less: fewer seats, a lower plan or a discount at renewal.
- Scaling CS
- Customer health score
- A score built from a few signals, such as usage trend, support sentiment and time since last executive contact, that flags accounts at risk before renewal.
- The one move from Defined to Outcome-led
- Time to value (TTV)
- How long a new customer takes to get the first result they bought the product for.
- Building CS
- Onboarding
- The first stage after the sale, from kickoff to the customer using the product for real work.
- Building CS
- Success plan
- A written agreement with the customer on their objective, the milestones to reach it and how you'll both know it worked.
- Building CS
- Coverage model
- How CS time is split across accounts: high-touch for a few large customers, pooled or digital-led for the rest.
- Scaling CS
- Quarterly business review (QBR)
- A scheduled meeting where you and the customer check progress against their objectives and agree what comes next.
- Practising CS
- Customer Value Chain
- The Kent & Co framework that links what customers do to what it's worth: Actions, Milestones, Customer objective, Measurable outcome, Business impact.
- Practising CS