3 Must-Read Customer Success Books
Our #1 reference for Customer Success
Nick Mehta, CEO of Gainsight and his team have been pioneering the CS movement since around 2010 when the “Customer Success” concept was yet a buzzy word.
A must read for anyone in Customer Success.
A great starting point to get to know the “new” art of creating customer success teams in a business.
It is mostly focused on SaaS-companies, but stresses that customer success as a concept is not confined to the realm of subscription based companies looking for the wow effect, but the principles can be applied cross industries.
The book is built around the 10 Laws of Customer Success, and even if these are all important and great concepts, the fact that they are written by 10 different customer success professionals is somewhat distracting.
The reason being that the 10 different people, have 10 different ways of writing.
This is not a major flaw in the book, but it clearly makes for a more “difficult read”.
The content of the book is valuable to all that have any stake in the customer success department of any company, and is well worth the read.
As a summary, you learn that Customer Success is NOT Customer Support. It is pro-active, analytics-focused, and productive.
One of the focuses of the role is the use of data to actively determine which customers should be acted on either because they appear to be at risk or because they see an upsell opportunity.
Overall, “Customers don’t buy your solution to use its features, they buy your solution because they want to achieve a business objective.”
The CS Professional Handbook – by Ruben Rabago and Ashvin Vaidyanathan
This one is a top reference book for CSMs : individual contributors up to senior leadership.
Full of practical examples, you’ll learn all the best practices to succeed as a CSM and also to build, implement, and manage a Customer Success team.
It is rich with simple and specific suggestions, templates, and guidance. Reading this book will give you a lot of ideas to experiment with.
So if you are a CS leader or a CSM you must have this book in your bag all the time.
It also includes graphs and other data to help you determine the metrics you want to rely upon.
In summary, this book covers the CS topic comprehensively from history and career options to operational best practices, supporting systems, and scaling business.
A must read !
Farm Don’t Hunt – By Guy Nirpaz, Founder and CEO of Totango
Guy Nirpaz is a pioneer in Customer Success.
If you are looking for a book about “customer success fundamentals”, this one is perfect !
First, Guy details the theory around customer success to then propose actionable items to implement as a customer success strategy.
Short, quick scientific approach but no implementation details, just a framework for thinking.
This book can be considered as a hand-book, a practical guide for CSM and others who are interested in a glimpse into the world of CS to make sure they get the basics right.
It provides a solid foundation on the reasons for the emergence of the new discipline and a thoughtful framework for practitioners to be successful working in it.
The analogy of CS to managing a grove is very thoughtful. A book very worth reading by any and all in the field !
Hakan Ozturk
Founder, theCScafe.com, #1 Weekly Customer Success Newsletter
Hakan Ozturk is a Paris-based Customer Success leader with over 15 years of experience in the computer software industry. Passionate about driving growth and delivering value to strategic customers, Hakan has established himself as a trusted industry expert. As the Founder of The Customer Success Café Newsletter and TopCSjobs.com, Hakan provides valuable industry insights and daily-updated job opportunities worldwide in the field of Customer Success. Connect with Hakan to boost your career in CS and your company’s potential for massive growth.
Leave a Reply