The Seven Pillars of Customer Success: A Proven Framework to Drive Impactful Client Outcomes for Your Company

by Wayne McCulloch

As a customer success leader, whose insight do you rely on for success?

Your field is still maturing, yet your profession is one of the fastest growing in the world. There are tons of books and blogs written by success professionals sharing their experiences and strategies, but how do you know what will work for your specific situation? Whose advice is the expertise you can trust?

Wayne McCulloch has more than 25 years of experience in the software industry—years spent in training, adoption, and customer experience, the building blocks for customer success. Now he's sharing what he knows as a chief customer officer leading global success functions. In The Seven Pillars of Customer Success, Wayne provides an adaptable framework for building a strong customer success organization. From customer journey actions to the development of transformation advisors, you'll read detailed examples of how companies have put these seven pillars to the test. To create a culture of customer success and stand out in the marketplace, you need a proven framework and knowledgeable perspective—this book provides both, and more.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Entrepreneurship, Professional Development, Business Strategy

349 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 27, 2021

Reviews

[Poli Evmenova · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful book. Great for those who’re building their CS teams and unsure where to start. Works well for more established teams too, with ideas on how to get ready to scale

[Nicole Croft · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Seven Pillars of Customer Success provides a solid and engaging overview of customer success practices. I appreciated the focus on relevant insights rather than getting bogged down with too much historical context. The conversational tone made it easy to follow and relatable, which kept me engaged throughout. My only critique is the illustrations: while they would have added value, they were so small that they were hard to read. Overall, a great resource for anyone looking to deepen their understanding of customer success!

[Eylul Naz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book can be divided into two parts: toolboxes and pillars for customer success. I think the toolbox part is very interesting and helpful but I can’t say the same for the pillars.

The pillars are still good but the information provided there are sort of like a common knowledge today. As someone working as a CSM for three years, I was expecting more than the introduction level details for the pillars.

Customer success is an area that is changing rapidly and considering this book was published in 2019, I can say this book is a good introduction to customer success.

[Stephen Topp · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book over the period just before and after starting a new role, in which I was leading the operationalisation of a Customer Success team, after a career break of over half a year.

From this perspective, the book was fantastic. It neatly framed the challenge I was embarking on, reminded me of key principles after some time away from the working world, and has proved a useful reference in my new role.

[Ronald J. · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a former Salesforce and present Google Customer Success leader, this book is a good look at the customer success function. “Customer success is the only function that stays with the customers through all stages of their journey with the company.” The customer success function has five main responsibilities: “Eliminate churn, drive increased contract value through value expansion, improve the customer experience, gain customer acquisition through building advocacy, and proactively lead the customer (to success).” “Shouldn’t all of your employees be trusted advisors?” Great question. Why he uses strategic advisor.

So why the low review? Nothing against the book, or the author. It just reminded me why I stopped reading business books. Most don’t age well, they are full of platitudes, not very well written (if not down-right painful to read).

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book was great. I'm currently working towards adding real customer success to my organization. this book is the guide I have been looking for. the framework, the pillars, the playbook, moments of truth, metrics.. all of it have set me up for success. I've already asked my leadership team to read it and I think I'll ask our first team of customer success managers to read it as well.

[John]

Great I won the giveaway, will start reading soon

[Amber Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

An informational read, I learned a lot of usual tips.

[Bubar C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very timely and relevant book!

[Temple Dog · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must read for anyone in the customer success field.

[Christian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must-read for anyone in B2B SaaS.

[Daniel M20 Blackburn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some great insights that I have already started to introduce to my team. Highly recommend

[Julianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

aprendendo cada vez mais 🥳

[Henry Pettigrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really good primer for starting a career in Customer Success. Account management for an SaaS company does present unique challenges, so it's interesting how this career has evolved from it.

[Lauren Chain · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to this book on audible, however I really appreciated the actionable steps that you could immediately apply to your own organization. Also, it just made me think about a lot of processes that could be streamlined.