（本文翻译自customersuccessassociation.com官网，比较全面地阐述了客户成功理念的历史，文末附原文链接）
开篇
在企业软件服务行业，所有的公司在一开始就都已经有了类似的组织结构来维护售后客户关系。
每个人都扮演着某种形式的实施团队、培训团队、支持团队或者客户管理角色。
尽管每个部门都拥有指定的任务和可交付的成果，但这些团队的KPI中都没有考虑到客户对所收到价值的看法。
谁是第一家公司？
那么，是哪个软件公司建立了第一个客户成功小组？（提示：不是Salesforce。）
预先说明：不是SaaS服务提供商。但这一开始确实与所有追随它的客户成功团队以及那些尚未形成的团队有一些共同点。
高级管理层认识到，留住客户对公司的未来至关重要，留住客户并不能被视为是理所当然的。成功使用产品的任务，必须由供应商和客户共同承担（而非让客户自己成功使用产品，供应商一点儿都不管）。
1996年，一家CRM公司意识到，企业CRM系统的故障率，在整个行业内都非常高。
虽然供应商在签订合同时就已经通过出售永久许可证（license）获得了大部分利润，但是，签约后的实施过程中的失败，不仅会危及未来的销售，而且在可预期的后期支持维护上的费用方面也有重要损失。
对于这家公司来说，他们的目标是让100%的客户愿意在任何时候作为推荐人（向其它公司推荐产品），而且他们的销售团队经常在合格的潜在客户面前把整个客户名单摆在桌面上，邀请他们打电话给任何他们想要的人（验证list上的其它公司也都是购买并支持该产品的）——（这就要求list客户里面）不可能有失败的实施案例或不满意的客户。
然而，其背后真正的驱动力是，拓展商务关系和增加售后收入。（为了达到这一目的）传统的组织结构还不够，需要一种新的方式。
1996-1997：一家名为Vantive的CRM公司
Vantive的首席执行官John Luongo遇到了客户对其公司应用程序的一种非常创新的使用，他希望将这种创新带回Vantive。
他雇佣了创造新方法的玛丽·亚历山大（Marie Alexander）来管理Vantive的服务团队。
1996-1997年，Marie创建了一个新的部门，称为Customer Success，并在与潜在客户签订合同之前就向他们开始介绍这个团队。
“这是客户成功团队，它将确保您成功地使用了Vantive。他们的报酬是基于你的成功。”
虽然并不是每个潜在客户都被指派了一名客户成功经理，但这个与客户对接的过程都是从一个问题开始的：“（问客户）你将如何定义你的成功？你对我们有什么期望？”
然后在Vantive的系统中记录这些期望，并把负责与客户合作以实现这些期望的客户成功经理介绍给客户。
在六个月的时间点，该期望列表将被发送回客户，并安排一次review会议。
客户服务团队询问客户是否觉得他们成功了。如果有任何顾虑，将对此事进行探讨，并适当重新确定下一个六个月的预期。
随着时间的推移，被作为成功团队向客户介绍起的人包括：执行发起人、客户成功经理、支持代表、专业服务顾问、销售代表，有时还包括工程联系人。
作为负责全球业务支持和服务的高级副总裁，Marie打造的组织涵盖了客户成功、客户支持、文档、培训和其它职能。
2004年：Siebel
2004年，Bruce Cleveland成为另一家CRM公司Siebel的总经理。
Bruce在彻底检查了他的新组织后，他意识到虽然他对销售团队带来新业务的能力充满信心，但没有人专门负责保留和扩大售后客户关系。
Bruce认识到，那些从公司应用程序的使用中获得最大价值的客户是最不容易流失的。
因此，他创建了一个新的组织，负责增加客户对应用程序功能集的使用，从而增加为客户带来的价值。
他还将这个新角色命名为客户成功管理团队（Customer Success Management team）。
甲骨文于2006年收购了Siebel。
2005年：Salesforce和 “Customers For Life”
2005年，对Salesforce来说，有好消息也有坏消息。
好消息是，该公司正在以惊人的速度获取新客户。坏消息是：顾客流失的数量也同样惊人。
和之前的Bruce Cleveland一样，Salesforce的执行团队很快意识到，引入新客户不可能是故事的结局，如果新客户大量离开，就没有办法通过增加足够多的新客户来让公司继续生存下去。
虽然Salesforce并没有将客户成功作为一种新的职业来打造，但公司很快就建立了当时业界最大的CS部门。
该部门过去（现在仍然）被称为 “Customers For Life”，虽然它不负责续约、追加销售或交叉销售，但他们被特许可以通过增加用户采用率来解决客户留存问题。
（本文为原文第一部分，第二部分尚未查阅到）
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附英文原文
The History of Customer Success
From the very beginning of the industry, all enterprise software companies had a similar organizational structure for post-sale customer relationship maintenance. Everyone did some form of implementation teams, training teams, support groups and account management roles. Each department had its assigned mission and deliverables, but none of the performance metrics for those teams took into consideration the customers’ perceptions of value-received.
Which software company established the very first named Customer Success group? (Hint: It wasn’t Salesforce.) Teaser: No, it wasn’t a SaaS/Cloud vendor. But that beginning did share some common ground with all of the Customer Success teams that have followed it, and those yet to come into being. Senior Management recognized that retaining customers was vital to the future of the company, and that retention could not be taken for granted. The burden of being successful in using the product had to be shared between vendor and customer.
In 1996, a CRM company realized that, industry-wide, enterprise CRM systems had an unfortunately high failure rate. While the bulk of the vendor’s profits from the sale of the perpetual licenses was taken at the signing of the contract, failed implementations not only endangered future sales, they also resulted in strategically significant losses in expected support and maintenance fees. For this company, whose goal was to have 100% of their customers be willing to serve as references at any time, and whose sales teams regularly tossed the entire customer list on the table in front of qualified prospects, inviting them to call anyone they wished — there could be no such thing as a failed implementation or a dissatisfied customer. The real driver, however, was to grow the relationship and revenues post-sale. The traditional organizational structure wasn’t enough, a new approach was needed.
1996-1997: A CRM Company called Vantive
John Luongo, Vantive’s CEO, had encountered a very innovative usage of his company’s application by a customer, and wanted to bring that innovation back to Vantive. He hired Marie Alexander, who had created the new approach, to come and run Vantive’s services group. In 1996-1997, Marie created a new department, called Customer Success, and began introducing the team to prospects prior to the signing of the contract. “This is the Customer Success team that’s going to ensure that you’re successful in using Vantive. And their compensation is based on your success.”
While not every Vantive customer was assigned a Customer Success Manager, the process began with the question: “How are you going to define your success? What do you expect from us?” The next step was to document those expectations in the Vantive system, and to introduce the Customer Success Manager who would work with the customer towards realizing them. At the six-month point, that list of expectations would be sent back to the customer, and a review meeting was scheduled. The CS team asked if the customer felt that they had been successful. If there were any concerns, the matter would be explored and the expectations appropriately re-set for the next six-month period.
Over time, the Success Team that was introduced to many customers included an Executive sponsor, the Customer Success Manager, a Support representative, the Professional Services consultant, the Sales rep and sometimes an Engineering contact as well. And as SVP: Worldwide Support and Services, Marie’s organization included Customer Success, Customer Support, Documentation, Training and other functions.
2004: Siebel On-Demand
In 2004, Bruce Cleveland became the General Manager of the on-demand subsidiary of another CRM company – Siebel. After taking a thorough look through his new organization, he realized that while he felt confident of the Sales team’s ability to bring in new business, there was no one specifically responsible for retaining and expanding the customer relationships post-sale.
Bruce recognized that the customers who were realizing the most value from their usage of the company’s application were the least likely to churn. So he created a new organization that would be responsible for increasing the customers usage of the applications feature set and thereby the value to the customer. He also named this new role the Customer Success Management team. (Oracle acquired Siebel in 2006)
2005: Salesforce and “Customers For Life”
In 2005, there was Good News and Bad News at Salesforce. The good news was that the company was acquiring new customers at a stunning rate. The Bad News: customers were churning in horrific numbers. Like Bruce Cleveland before them, Salesforce’s executive team quickly realized that bringing in new customers couldn’t be end of the story, that there was no way to add enough new customers to survive if they were leaving in greater numbers.
Salesforce didn’t invent Customer Success as a new profession, but the company quickly built what was then the largest CS department in the industry. The group was (and still is) called Customers For Life, and while it was not responsible for renewals, up-sells or cross-sells, it was specifically chartered to address customer retention by increasing user adoption.
题图来自pixabay.
原文链接：https://www.customersuccessassociation.com/library/the-history-of-customer-success-part-1/
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