Table 2.

Initial articulations of customer success management.

	Hochestein et al.	Zoltners et al.	Porter et al.
Operational definition	“The proactive (versus reactive) relational engagement of customers to ensure the value potential of product offerings is realized by the customer” (p. 3)	None offered.	1) “Responsible for managing the customer experience and ensuring that customers get the most from the product” (p. 17). 2) “Takes charge of the ongoing customer relationship and ensures that customers gain maximum value from the product” (p. 15).
Theoretical discussion	1) Service-sales ambidexterity: Service and sales people are tasked with customers' success. 2) Modularity: Customer Success Manager is a specific job role.	None offered.	None offered.
Philosophical discussion	Hunter, Builder, and Farmer metaphors are used for describing job roles. CSM is tasked with “building” customers' value-in-use.	Mindset shift: “Instead of ‘win the customer’, the focus has shifted to “show the customer the path to value” (para. 10)	None offered.
Managerial discussion	1) All job roles are responsible for customers' success. 2) Customer Success Manager is a distinct job role that coordinates customers' value-in-use among stakeholder groups. 3) CSM differs from service and sales roles by advocating for the customer. 4) CSM utilizes leading key performance indicators (e.g. customer health scores) versus lagging key performance indicators (e.g. satisfaction and loyalty).	1) Some firms are rebranding customer service and account managers as Customer Success Managers while other firms creating differentiating Customer Success Managers from service/sales roles by truly focusing on customers' success. 2) Customer Success Managers are advocates for the customer instead of their firm. Firms need to create culture and incentives for Customer Success Managers to advocate for the customer. 3) Customer Success Managers are trusted advisers who coordinate resources and stakeholders toward customers' success.	1) CSM unit “assumes primary responsibility for customer relationships after the sale” (p. 17). 2) CSM is a distinct business unit that “performs roles that traditional sales and service organizations are not equipped for and don't have incentives to adopt: monitoring product use and performance data to gauge the value customers capture and identifying ways to increase it” (p. 17) 3) CSM coordinates marketing, sales, and service toward customers' value-in-use.