{"slug":"strategy/business-strategy/44-customer-success-playbook","title":"44 — Customer Success Playbook","section":"strategy","sectionLabel":"Strategy","status":"unclassified","type":"document","path":"strategy/business-strategy/44-customer-success-playbook.mdx","bytes":7419,"description":null,"updated":null,"source":"integratewise/Integratewise-docs-wiki","content":"\nStatus: CANONICAL · Commercial OS\nOwner: Founder (CS) — first CS hire inherits this document\nLast verified: 2026-07-21\n\n---\n\n## Purpose\n\nHow we run customer success: the operating model, health framework, cadences, and plays. CS at IntegrateWise has one unfair advantage — **we sell to CS teams and we run our own product** (Customer Zero). Our CS practice must be a demonstration of the product's philosophy: prepared, evidence-based, governed.\n\n**Target audience:** Whoever runs CS (founder now, CS hire #1 later).\n\n---\n\n## 1. The CS Operating Model\n\n**Charter:** every customer reaches its committed outcomes ([28](../05-value-pricing/28-customer-outcomes.md)), expands by earned trust ([46](46-expansion-strategy.md)), and renews on evidence ([47](47-renewal-strategy.md)).\n\n**Segmentation (by ARR + strategic value):**\n\n| Segment                         | Definition                        | Model                                                           |\n| ------------------------------- | --------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- |\n| Design partners / strategic     | 2026 cohort + referenceable logos | High-touch: weekly touch, founder-led, roadmap access           |\n| Core                            | $15K+ ACV                         | Standard cadence below                                          |\n| Self-serve (Starter/Growth PLG) | < $15K, unassisted                | Tech-touch: lifecycle emails, in-product guidance, office hours |\n\n**Customer Zero rule:** our own CS runs on IntegrateWise — account workbenches, Twin-prepared reviews, governed follow-ups. Every internal friction we hit is a product bug filed; every win is a proof point. We must live the 12-minute QBR prep we sell.\n\n## 2. The Health Framework\n\nHealth = three evidence-based dimensions (never a single opaque score — we sell against those):\n\n| Dimension        | Signals                                                                                | Red flag                                                |\n| ---------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------- |\n| **Adoption**     | Approved Twin Actions/seat/week (north star) · workbench opens/day · % seats activated | ATA < 3/seat/week after day 45 · activation < 60%       |\n| **Outcomes**     | Success-plan attainment · documented catches · realized-value vs. promised             | No documented catch by day 60 · baseline never measured |\n| **Relationship** | P2 sponsor engagement · champion stability · NPS/CSAT                                  | Sponsor change · QBR deferral ×2 · single-threaded      |\n\nWeekly health review (30 min): every Core+ account gets a color per dimension; any red spawns a play with an owner and date. Full metric definitions: [75 CS Metrics](../13-operations/75-customer-success-metrics.md).\n\n## 3. The Cadence System\n\n| Cadence                          | Audience                   | Agenda (fixed)                                                                                                                                                                |\n| -------------------------------- | -------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |\n| **Day-30 activation review**     | P2 + team lead             | Activation vs. 70% target · early wins reel · blockers · success-plan confirmation                                                                                            |\n| **Day-90 realized-value review** | P2 (+P5 if expansion-ripe) | Outcomes vs. baseline (their numbers) · catches documented · next-quarter plan · expansion seeds                                                                              |\n| **Quarterly business review**    | P2 + P5                    | Realized ROI ([29](../05-value-pricing/29-roi-framework.md) with actuals) · continuity accrued (what the Spine now knows) · roadmap relevant to them · expansion/renewal path |\n| **Weekly (design partners)**     | Champion                   | Product feedback → build loop; metric instrumentation check                                                                                                                   |\n\n**Rule:** every review opens with _their_ numbers, not our features. The QBR deck is the sales proposal's ROI slide, filled in with reality — one continuous story from deal to renewal.\n\n## 4. The Play Library\n\n**Play: Slow activation (trigger: < 50% seats activated by day 21)**\nDiagnose per seat (not per account): never-opened → manager 1:1 + workflow re-map; opened-but-passive → pair with power user, one live morning session; active-but-no-approvals → trust gap: run the refusal + evidence demo again with their own account data. Escalate to P2 with a named plan, never a guilt report.\n\n**Play: No documented catch by day 60**\nAudit connector coverage (usually a missing tool breaks signal composition) → verify signal thresholds vs. their account patterns → if genuinely quiet, _say so honestly_ and reset expectations — a manufactured catch destroys the trust the product sells.\n\n**Play: Champion change (trigger: P2/champion departs)**\nWithin 48h: map successor · send the continuity packet — the account's own realized-value history (the Spine has it; this play _is_ a product demo) · book intro with a win reel, not a feature tour. A champion change handled well becomes our best continuity story.\n\n**Play: Sponsor gone quiet (trigger: 2 deferred reviews)**\nRe-anchor to their boss's question (\"what did we get?\"): send the one-page realized-value summary unprompted · offer the 15-min version · if still silent, honest flag: \"We're at risk of being shelfware for you — that's bad for both of us. Fifteen minutes to decide either way?\"\n\n**Play: Renewal-at-risk (trigger: red outcomes + < 120 days to renewal)**\n[47 Renewal Strategy](47-renewal-strategy.md) owns the full play — the short form: rebuild the evidence file, close the outcome gaps that are ours, name the ones that are theirs, and price the continuity of what the Spine now holds.\n\n## 5. Voice-of-Customer Loop\n\nAll feedback lands in one triage: product bugs → repo issues, same-day; roadmap themes → monthly synthesis to product ([69](../12-corporate/69-product-roadmap-story.md)); proof points → evidence library ([64](../12-corporate/64-case-study-templates.md)); objection patterns → [41](../07-sales/41-objection-handling.md) monthly update. Design partners get explicit \"you said → we shipped\" notes — the feedback loop is a retention feature.\n\n**KPIs ([75](../13-operations/75-customer-success-metrics.md) owns definitions):** activation ≥ 70% by day 30 · ATA/seat/week at target by day 60 · documented catches ≥ 1/customer/quarter · realized-vs-promised ≥ 0.8 · GRR ≥ 92% annual-equivalent · NRR ≥ 120% at scale.\n\n---\n\n**Related:** [45 Onboarding](45-onboarding-playbook.md) · [46 Expansion](46-expansion-strategy.md) · [47 Renewal](47-renewal-strategy.md) · [28 Outcomes](../05-value-pricing/28-customer-outcomes.md) · [75 CS Metrics](../13-operations/75-customer-success-metrics.md)\n"}