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  • © 2023

Customer Success Management

Helping Business Customers Achieve Their Goals

  • Introduces the concept of customer success management and its application

  • Discusses the scientific foundation based on empirical studies in the field

  • Integrates customer and supplier perspectives on customer success management

Part of the book series: Management for Professionals (MANAGPROF)

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Table of contents (10 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-x
  2. The Rise of a New Business Function: Customer Success (Management)

    • Michael Kleinaltenkamp, Katharina Prohl-Schwenke, Laura Elgeti
    Pages 1-6
  3. Customer Success and Customer Success Management

    • Michael Kleinaltenkamp, Katharina Prohl-Schwenke, Laura Elgeti
    Pages 7-24
  4. Customer Success Management Drivers

    • Michael Kleinaltenkamp, Katharina Prohl-Schwenke, Laura Elgeti
    Pages 25-32
  5. Value-Based Selling

    • Michael Kleinaltenkamp, Katharina Prohl-Schwenke, Laura Elgeti
    Pages 33-37
  6. Solution Realization

    • Michael Kleinaltenkamp, Katharina Prohl-Schwenke, Laura Elgeti
    Pages 39-43
  7. Customer-Related Customer Success Management Activities

    • Michael Kleinaltenkamp, Katharina Prohl-Schwenke, Laura Elgeti
    Pages 45-59
  8. Adapting the Customer Value Proposition

    • Michael Kleinaltenkamp, Katharina Prohl-Schwenke, Laura Elgeti
    Pages 61-67
  9. Customer Advocacy

    • Michael Kleinaltenkamp, Katharina Prohl-Schwenke, Laura Elgeti
    Pages 69-74
  10. Customer Success Management Outcomes

    • Michael Kleinaltenkamp, Katharina Prohl-Schwenke, Laura Elgeti
    Pages 75-90
  11. Customer Success Management Structures

    • Michael Kleinaltenkamp, Katharina Prohl-Schwenke, Laura Elgeti
    Pages 91-100
  12. Back Matter

    Pages 101-102

About this book

End of 2022, nearly 200,000 people indicated holding a position as a customer success manager on LinkedIn. Customer success management (CSM) is thus the fastest growing business function. It was first implemented in selected service businesses, but currently CSM applications are spreading globally across industries.

This book provides a clear understanding of CSM for practitioners based on comprehensibly prepared knowledge from practical and scientific resources. The book can be used as a practical guide to learn about CSM process and the roles, necessary capabilities, and expectations toward customer success managers. Furthermore, it also shows how CSM differs from and, at the same time, relates to existing customer-related management concepts such as value-based selling, key account management and customer relationship management. The presented insights are not only relevant for customer success managers, but also for those aiming at such a position in the future. The book is also useful for supplier and customer representatives who are connected with customer success management activities in their daily business.

Keywords

  • Customer success management
  • Customer success manager
  • Customer value
  • Customer relationships
  • Customer satisfaction
  • Customer experience
  • Value in use

Authors and Affiliations

  • Marketing Department, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Michael Kleinaltenkamp

  • Customer Success Academy, Berlin, Germany

    Katharina Prohl-Schwenke, Laura Elgeti

About the authors

Michael Kleinaltenkamp is a Professor Emeritus at the Marketing Department of Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, where he was a Professor of Business and Services Marketing and the director of the “Executive Master of Business Marketing” program from 1992 to 2020. In November 2013, Prof. Kleinaltenkamp was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Rostock, Germany. His work has been published in international Journals such as the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Service Research, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Service Management, Journal of Service Theory and Practice, and Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing. At Springer, he has published several edited textbooks on basic topics in business-to-business marketing as "Fundamentals of Business-to-Business Marketing" (2015), "Business Relationship Marketing and Management" (2015), and "Business Project Management and Marketing" (2016).

Katharina Prohl-Schwenke is co-founder of the Customer Success Academy. The goal of the Customer Success Academy is to bring relevant research findings on Customer Success Management into the world of business, thus bridging the gap between science and practice. Previously, she completed her doctorate at the Marketing Department of Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, where she worked as a Research Associate. Her prior work experience also includes being an Account Executive for a Software as a Service (SaaS) provider. In this context, the idea arose to deal scientifically with the topic of CSM in the context of her doctorate. This has resulted in several publications in Industrial Marketing Management.

In terms of content, Katharina Prohl-Schwenke systematically and sequentially investigated what drives suppliers in B2B markets to implement CSM and how they actually implement it, how customers evaluate the CSM activities of their suppliers and to what extent CSM actually positively influences the repurchase behavior of customers and thus leads to the desired result for the suppliers - a low churn rate.

Laura Elgeti is co-founder of the Customer Success Academy. She completed her doctorate at the Marketing Department of Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. She has published in Industrial Marketing Management and has won two best paper awards, national and international. Besides her research activities, she is interested in the conceptual design and teaching of courses. During her time at the university, she was able to test innovative ways of imparting knowledge. That is why she enjoys being on a mission with her Co-Founder Katharina Prohl-Schwenke to empower B2B companies to create and scale value to the customer. Namely, coaching how to put customers on the road to success and thus rely on the most sustainable growth strategy: success through customer success!






Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Customer Success Management

  • Book Subtitle: Helping Business Customers Achieve Their Goals

  • Authors: Michael Kleinaltenkamp, Katharina Prohl-Schwenke, Laura Elgeti

  • Series Title: Management for Professionals

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26178-7

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Business and Management, Business and Management (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-26177-0Published: 12 March 2023

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-26180-0Due: 26 March 2024

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-26178-7Published: 11 March 2023

  • Series ISSN: 2192-8096

  • Series E-ISSN: 2192-810X

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: X, 102

  • Number of Illustrations: 13 b/w illustrations, 3 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Customer Relationship Management, Online Marketing/Social Media, Consumer Behavior

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access