In the Age of the Internet that ushered in this century, product was still king, and the Product Manager was the role around which everything else revolved. Today we are in the Age of the Customer, where the customer is king, and the role around which everything else must revolve is the Customer Success Manager. This is a new role, and that makes The Customer Success Professional's Handbook a timely and welcome contribution across the globe. It is comprehensive, accurate, and incredibly well informed, making it a “must-read” for anyone performing, managing, or entering the profession.

—Geoffrey A. Moore, Author, Crossing the Chasm and Zone to Win

Business Success = Customer Success. When companies realize this truth, they'll want this handbook!

—Therese Tucker, CEO and Founder, BlackLine

Gainsight is the clear thought leader in Customer Success. This Professional's Handbook teaches you how to scale Customer Success, drive up NPS and revenue retention, and get out ahead of the competition. Customer Success should be a science and not just an art. The Handbook helps you realize that.

—Jason M. Lemkin, SaaStr CEO and Founder

Everyone agrees that Customer Success is a worthy and profitable goal for every company. It's the damn execution thing that gets in the way. And at the heart of execution lies the CSM. The Customer Success Professional's Handbook is the most comprehensive book that's ever been written on the critical steps for successfully implementing CS at scale. For CSMs in particular, the Handbook not only communicates what needs to be done but how and why. Ashvin and Ruben have brought together key insights from Gainsight's vast experience along with some of the industry's top CS executives to create a book that should be in the minds and on the desk of every CS professional.

—J.B. Wood, President and CEO, TSIA

Imagine Ramsay, Keller, Ducasse, Bourdain, Blumenthal all collaborating on the ultimate guide to becoming a chef. That's what the vanguard of the modern Customer Success movement has done here to help budding Customer Success professionals earn their chef's hat. This is a straight-up cookbook for one of the most important recipes in business growth today – the Customer Success organization.

—Jay Simons, President, Atlassian

The Customer Success Professional's Handbook is a must-read for CSM practitioners at all levels. Putting the customer at the center should be a key component of a company's overall strategy. Businesses are recognizing this and the CSM role is growing in influence across industries as a result. This one-of-a-kind guide from leading experts in the field provides practitioners with actionable insights and advice to help them drive growth for their companies and succeed in their careers. A must-read for customer-facing professionals!

—Yamini Rangan, Chief Customer Officer, Dropbox

Customer Success is a critical component of any subscription business. It's not just about the technology but how to ensure users and companies gain continuous business value from your product. Many organizations are struggling to define how best to do this. Ashvin and Ruben do an incredible job of taking you step-by-step to define and build a successful Customer Success organization. It is a must-read for any founder, CEO, executive, and Customer Success professional looking to understand the critical value Customer Success plays in the subscription economy.

—Christina Kosmowski, VP, Global Head of Customer Success, Slack

Ashvin and Ruben have designed required reading for anyone in a Customer Success role – or really, anyone who works with customers. Companies cemented in the past are still searching for ways to automate the humanity out of customer relationships. The companies that will win the next era of business know that the technology-empowered human will always be at the center of their relationships. That human is a CSM, and this is the only guide with everything they need to create customers for life.

—Nick Mehta, CEO, Gainsight, Co-Author, Customer Success

The Customer Success Professional's Handbook is a critical resource for those in the Customer Success space or trying to better understand it. Ashvin and Ruben have lived this world in the trenches and understand the necessity and the challenges of the Customer Success role. Because the CS org and the CSM function will be critical to your long-term success as a business, this book is a must-read for those on the ground as well as those in leadership.

—Dan Steinman, GM of EMEA, Gainsight, Co-Author, Customer Success

With the explosion of Customer Success as a function and one of the most exciting and rewarding careers for the upcoming decade, there has been a need for the definitive how-to guide for Customer Success professionals. The Customer Success Professional's Handbook fills this need with expert insights from industry professionals and the amazing thought leadership from Ruben and Ashvin, two known experts in the space. This is a must-read for not only CS professionals but anyone looking to build a customer-centric organization, the key to thriving in a world where customers have a plethora of choices and are in the driver's seat of deciding who to build longstanding partnerships with.

—Wendi C. Sturgis, CEO, Yext Europe

In the Digital Age where the customer is at the center of everything, The Customer Success Professional's Handbook isn't just for customer-facing teams. Everyone – from Product teams and Developers to Marketing organizations and Sales – will gain insights into the mind of the customer and will come away being able to make decisions that drive better outcomes for their customers.

—Aaron Levie, CEO and Co-Founder, Box

For many years, people have tried to capture the essence of Customer Success and the role of the CS professional. Ruben and Ashvin's The Customer Success Professional's Handbook was designed to inform, educate, and give the CS professional guidance on the day-to-day procedures of the CSM, CS professional, and executive. In my many years in the Customer Success industry, this is the first book that encompasses all of the valuable information you will need to succeed in one place.

—Rachel Orston, Chief Customer Officer, BetterCloud

The Customer Success Professional's Handbook is a must-read for every customer-facing professional in a SaaS business. Irrespective of your role or the stage of your business, this book needs to be within arm's reach as you formulate and operationalize your Customer Success disciplines. As the authors passionately point out, Customer Success is both a critical mindset and a team sport, and they have packed this guide with great examples and models that you can implement across your organization. As a leader who has focused my entire career on Customer Success, I am re-inspired to spring into action with new ideas.

—Chris Comparato, CEO of Toast, Inc.

As the global economy fundamentally shifts toward becoming a subscription economy, the role of the Customer Success leader is critical to protect and grow your customer base and, in turn, establish category and market leadership. Whether you are a CEO looking to transform your business to be more customer-centric, a Chief Customer Officer, or an aspiring Customer Service Leader, this is a must-read!

—Ajay Agarwal, Partner at Bain Capital Ventures

Alan Armstrong, CEO, Eigenworks

Carine Roman, Global Head of Customer Success at LinkedIn Talent Solutions

Chad Horenfeldt, VP of Client Success, Updater

Chrisy Woll, VP of Customer Success, CampusLogic

David Kocher, VP of Customer Success, GE Digital

Easton Taylor, Director of Customer Success, Gainsight

Eduarda Camacho, Executive VP, Customer Operations at PTC

Elaine Cleary, Principal CSM, Director of Education Services, Gainsight

Erin Siemens, SVP Client Success, ADP

John Sabino, Chief Customer Officer, Splunk

Jon Herstein, Chief Customer Officer, Box

Mary Poppen, Chief Customer Officer, Glint

Nadav Shem-Tov, Director of Teammate Success-CS, Gainsight

Patrick Eichen, VP Client Success, Cornerstone OnDemand

Stephanie Berner, Global Head of Customer Success at LinkedIn Sales Solutions

Travis Kaufman, VP of Product Growth, Gainsight

In 1999, I joined a start-up in San Francisco that had the bizarre idea that it could sell business software in the same way Amazon sold books: via the cloud. Needless to say, my friends thought I was crazy. Crazy as it seemed, I jumped into the new venture. I was employee number 13 at Salesforce, and the second sales hire for the company.

I quickly learned that doing business in the cloud required an entirely different mindset. The nature of the subscription model that Salesforce created made it easy for customers to leave if they felt they weren't getting value from their investment in our Customer Relationship Management technology. There were no more long-term, lock-in contracts that defined the on-premise solutions dominating the software industry at the time. We knew if our renewal rates trended in the wrong direction, Salesforce would not be able to survive for long.

In those early days, we began to see renewal rates going in the wrong direction, and we knew that we needed to make a fundamental change in how we engaged with customers. We quickly understood that our success was tightly coupled with the success of our customers. We had to find a better way to keep them happy.

That crisis actually helped us to focus on solving for the customer, and in turn, we innovated a new kind of job. Salesforce created a role singularly focused on making sure customers were getting the most value out of using our product.

That role was the Customer Success Manager (CSM).

From there, we created a team of CSMs. Their entire job was to address customer concerns, help them better use our technology, and collect key feedback that we could use to improve our products. These people had domain expertise, problem-solving, and communication skills. They became trusted advisors for our customers.

Today, our cadre of CSMs is an integral part of the Customer Success Group, which has more than 7000 people dedicated to driving success for the company's 150 000-plus customers. So, when Ashvin and Ruben first told me they were writing a new book on customer success, I was hoping they would focus on the essential role CSMs play in driving growth, increasing retention, and reducing churn. Both of them are consummate professionals who know first-hand what it takes to achieve customer success in this era of digital transformation.

I was thrilled to see that they went beyond my expectations. They have delivered the definitive working handbook for Customer Success Managers everywhere. The Customer Success Professional's Handbook explains how to break into this fast-growing profession and describes the core skills needed to become a truly great CSM. It also explores how CSMs can operationalize success, and how companies can attract and retain top CSM talent.

It's a comprehensive overview, and I believe it will appeal to every CSM at every stage in their career; from entry-level to Chief Customer Officer.