C01 · PRACTICE GUIDE
Customer Strategy
Choose where to focus and define what success means for each customer segment.
A Customer Success strategy makes deliberate choices about the customers served, the outcomes supported and the service effort required. Start with the customer's business context and the economics of delivery. A segment should change how you work, not simply label an account by revenue.
Put it into practice
Group customers by outcome complexity, lifecycle needs, adoption effort and service economics. Test whether the groups require meaningfully different treatment.
Define an explicit promise for each segment: outcomes supported, coverage, engagement cadence and boundaries of responsibility.
Review customer evidence, capacity and cost to serve together. Change the model when the promise cannot be delivered sustainably.
What good evidence looks like
A segment definition, service promise, capacity assumption and named decision owner, reviewed against actual customer needs.
WATCH FOR
A common failure mode
Equating high revenue with high service need, or promising the same high-touch experience to every customer.
What to measure
Outcome attainment by segment, accompanied by cost to serve and the number of customers with an agreed outcome.
Practice guidance · Framework v1.0 · Published September 2026. Adapt the method to your business model, customer segment and decision authority.