An Academic Perspective on Customer Success Management

"Customer success management is a proactive, relational, and value-oriented approach to engaging customers in order to help them realize value from using a firm’s products or services."

This paper provides one of the first rigorous academic definitions of customer success management, distinguishing it from related concepts like customer experience management and customer relationship management. The authors identify CSM as a unique organizational capability that combines proactive outreach, data-driven insights, and cross-functional coordination.

They propose a framework connecting CSM activities to customer outcomes — including adoption, retention, and expansion — and highlight the role of the Customer Success Manager as a strategic advisor who bridges the gap between product capability and customer value realization.