Trim Size: 6in x 9in  Mehta572763 c01.tex V1-04/03/2020 11:45pm Page 13 Customer Success: What It Is and Why It Affects Everything 13 1. Churn Risk: Leaders of modern businesses are realizing their clients’ fundamentalexpectations are changing. No longer do customers want a “product” or “service”—they want their problem to be solved. So your job has changed as a company. Moreover, in new business models like SaaS and cloud, customers have all the power. If they aren’t achieving value or “success,” they will move on. 2. Capital Risk: Investors expect you to invest in your clients, because they know that drives returns. Whether you’re planning to raise money, gopublic,orrunasuccessfulboardmeeting,CustomerSuccessbecomes a corporate imperative. 3. Competition Risk: Whether you adopt the Customer Success model ornot,yourcompetitionwill.Andthatdifferentiationwillstartshowing in terms of the leaders and laggards in categories. 4. Employee Risk: Employees increasingly want to join companies that truly deliver on a premise of bettering others’ lives. The rise of purpose-driven organizations means that if you don’t truly help your clients, your employees will go elsewhere.  What You Can Expect from This Book  The nature of the economy has changed drastically since Nick was a little kid proudly grasping a tiny, toy-filled briefcase with his dad, and even since Allison left the private equity world about a decade ago. Customers have morepowerthaneverbefore.Withtheadventofcloud-basedtechnologies, most customers can—and will—change vendors whenever they want. This is becoming as true in the B2B arena as it is in the B2C arena. Where does that leave you? You now have a clear mandate to make sure your customers succeed with your product or service. This new world compels you to put Customer Success at the top of your priority list. Most of us over the course of our working lives have had a moment or two when we wondered why we’re working so hard. We’ve certainly had plenty of those moments when crammed into an airplane seat, flying off for yet another round of meetings. We knew that work was about something more than making money, but we were told not to talk about those things. Well, the business world is catching up. We’re realizing that we can win in business while being “human-first.” Customer Success is simply realizing that your company is made up of humans, and your customers are humans, and you’re all just trying to win together.