End the guesswork.

Customer retention and growth is a top priority for any business, especially in SaaS (Software as a service), where there are often very low barriers to  customers on short term subscriptions leaving for a competitor, or simply cancelling when they aren't receiving the value they need from the product.

Customer Success is the company-wide approach to ensuring a constantly evolving strategy exists for customer retention and growth. In early-stage companies, the strategy is owned by the founders, but as the company grows, they'll often establish a specialised Customer Success function to take this strategy into the future.

If your Product reliably delivers great value to customers and is surrounded by a supportive community, it's very likely that your business is growing without the need for a specialised Customer Success function.

However, if your existing customer base isn't reaching its potential, and there's only so much more you can do through product innovation and community, it may be time to bring in the specialists, either as consultants or employees.

A mature and effective approach to Customer Success - whether it's simply a company-wide mindset, or a specialist function - will mean that your existing customer base will grow independently of new sales (Net Revenue Retention) and create customer advocates and testimonials that expand you into new sales.