The difference between customer success and customer support

This informal CPD article ‘The difference between customer success and customer support’ was provided by Product Marketing Alliance, a company founded in 2019 with a mission of uniting product marketers across the globe.

If you don’t work in tech or for a recurring-revenue company, you’re forgiven if you don’t know what “customer success” is. It’s certainly the new kid on the block when it comes to other areas of the industry.

Even in companies that market software-as-a-service (SaaS), many employees incorrectly conflate customer success with customer support. You can’t really blame them either, they both sound pretty similar, right?

But while these two concepts sound similar and are both customer-facing functions, they represent different approaches to customer relationship management, each with its own set of goals, methodologies, and impacts on business growth.

This article will clarify what customer success and customer support are, how they are different, and why this distinction matters.

What is customer support?

At some point in your life, you've likely reached out to a company for assistance – whether by dialing a support hotline, sending an inquiry via email, or engaging with an AI-powered chatbot. These interactions, all rather common staples in our modern world, are the hallmarks of customer support.

Customer support, also known as customer service or technical support, has been a staple in business operations for decades. Its primary function? To answer queries swiftly and helpfully, and to address and resolve customer issues as and when they arise to prevent further dissatisfaction and maintain a positive brand image.

Now, the ethos of customer support is fundamentally built on its reactivity:

• A customer runs into a problem or has a question;
• They contact the company’s customer support,
• This interaction raises a support ticket;
• The company strives to solve that issue quickly.

Reactivity

Customer support doesn’t pre-empt the issue, it’s there to solve and troubleshoot any problems immediately. Support representatives are trained to handle a wide array of inquiries, from technical glitches to billing questions. Their goal is to provide quick, efficient solutions to customer problems, often working within the framework of support tickets or call center operations.

The metrics used to measure customer support effectiveness often include response times, resolution rates, and customer satisfaction scores (CSAT). These metrics reflect the transactional nature of customer support interactions, which begin when a customer reports an issue and end when that issue is resolved.

An organization cannot function without a customer support function. Without a dedicated team to help customers, your organization would fail to prevent customer issues from escalating, and ensure the overall health and viability of the business.

However, while customer support plays a crucial role in maintaining customer satisfaction, its scope is generally limited to addressing immediate concerns. It doesn't typically extend to long-term strategic planning or proactive customer engagement.

What is customer success?

According to the Harvard Business Review (1), “when a business buyer makes an initial purchase from a seller, it’s only the start of the value exchange between the two. Most of the mutual value accrues over time as the customer benefits and both continues and expands purchasing.”

Customer success is a relatively new concept that has gained prominence with the rise of subscription-based business models, particularly in the SaaS industry, which requires constant ongoing care of customers. With a recurring revenue model and products that require constant ongoing maintenance, leaving your customers high-and-dry post-sale isn’t an option.

Customer success aims to solve this problem by taking a proactive, long-term approach to customer relationships, focusing on helping customers achieve their desired outcomes and maximize the value they receive from a product or service.

Customer success managers (CSMs) often work closely with support managers so they’re kept abreast of customer interactions and developments. Unlike traditional support roles, CSMs are tasked with understanding customer goals, anticipating potential challenges, and guiding customers towards optimal use of the product or service. Unlike customer support, where interactions are typically initiated by the customer, customer success involves regular, proactive outreach from the company to the customer.

The goals of customer success extend beyond problem resolution to include increasing customer lifetime value, reducing churn, identifying upsell and cross-sell opportunities, and fostering customer advocacy. CSMs often rely heavily on data analytics (2) to track customer health scores, product usage patterns, and other indicators that might signal the need for intervention or present opportunities for growth.

Metrics used to evaluate customer success tend to be more long-term and strategic in nature. These might include customer retention rates, net promoter scores (NPS), and expansion revenue. The success of a CSM is often measured not just by how well they solve problems, but by how effectively they help customers achieve their business objectives using the company's product or service.

Bridging the gap through collaboration

While customer support and customer success have distinct focuses, there is often overlap between the two functions. Both roles ultimately aim to ensure customer satisfaction and drive business growth.

In many organizations, customer support and customer success teams work closely together, but in different teams, sharing information and insights to provide a seamless customer experience.

The State of Customer Success 2023 (3) revealed how inbound customer support is handled in global organizations, with half of the customer success professionals surveyed (51.1%) having completely separate functions for customer support.

For instance, customer support interactions can provide valuable insights into common customer pain points, which can then inform the proactive strategies employed by customer success teams.

Conversely, the deep understanding of customer needs and goals that CSMs develop can help support teams provide more contextualized and effective assistance when issues arise.

The challenge of differentiation

Despite the clear theoretical distinctions between customer support and customer success, many companies struggle to effectively separate these functions in practice.

As found in the State of Customer Success 2023, nearly one-third of all customer success teams handle all inbound support (29.3%), and, in some cases (19.6%), customer success teams handle some parts of the support queries. This was particularly true of smaller businesses or startups, where resources may be limited and roles often overlap.

One common pitfall is treating customer success as an extension of customer support, assigning CSMs to handle support tickets, or expecting them to be constantly "putting out fires." This approach can prevent CSMs from focusing on their core function of driving long-term customer value and instead trap them in a reactive cycle similar to traditional support roles.

Another challenge lies in the pricing and positioning of these services. While premium support services are often offered as a paid add-on, customer success is typically presented as a value-added service included with the product. Companies that fail to distinguish between these roles may find themselves providing high-touch, proactive services without appropriate compensation, potentially impacting their bottom line.

Predictions on the future of customer relations

As the subscription-based economy continues to evolve, the roles of customer support and customer success are likely to become increasingly distinct and specialized.

However, in order to do this, there’s a greater demand for seamless integration between these functions, driven by customer expectations for consistent, high-quality experiences across all touchpoints.

Successful companies will be the ones to effectively balance reactive problem-solving with proactive value creation, harnessing both customer support and customer success to drive satisfaction, loyalty, and business growth. This will involve not only clear role differentiation but also a robust system for information sharing and collaboration between teams.

What have we learned?

While customer support and customer success share a common goal of enhancing customer experiences, they represent fundamentally different approaches to achieving this goal. Understanding and effectively implementing both strategies can provide businesses with a powerful toolkit for building strong, lasting customer relationships in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

We hope this article was helpful. For more information from Product Marketing Alliance, please visit their CPD Member Directory page. Alternatively, you can go to the CPD Industry Hubs for more articles, courses and events relevant to your Continuing Professional Development requirements.

REFERENCES

(1)   https://hbr.org/2019/11/what-is-a-customer-success-manager

(2)   https://blog.hubspot.com/service/customer-success-metrics

(3)   https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/state-of-customer-success-2023/