Customer Success

Chapter 6

Law 2: The Natural Tendency for Customers and Vendors Is to Drift Apart

Author: Karen Pisha, Senior Vice President of Customer Success, Code42

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Executive Summary

Customers and vendors start off their relationship like two boats side by side in the middle of a lake. But if both boats are unoccupied, they will soon begin to drift apart. Over a longer period of time, it's highly likely that the two boats will end up very far apart. What would change that natural tendency? Simple. Put someone in one of the boats with a pair of oars. Better yet, put someone in each boat with oars.

Change is the enemy here. If nothing changed, customers and vendors might very well stay tight. But change is the constant. People change in both companies. Business models change. Products change. Leadership and direction change. And on it goes. Only willful, proactive interaction on the part of one or both companies will overcome the natural drift caused by constant change. This is why customer success organizations have come into existence. Customer success organizations and practices intervene to push the customer and the vendor back together. They get into one of the boats and start rowing.

The long-term health of your business is directly tied to your ability to retain customers and prevent churn. No other metric is responsible for more meetings or more sleepless nights. In a recurring ...