44 — Customer Success Playbook
Status: CANONICAL · Commercial OS
Owner: Founder (CS) — first CS hire inherits this document
Last verified: 2026-07-21
Purpose
How 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.
Target audience: Whoever runs CS (founder now, CS hire #1 later).
1. The CS Operating Model
Charter: every customer reaches its committed outcomes (28), expands by earned trust (46), and renews on evidence (47).
Segmentation (by ARR + strategic value):
| Segment | Definition | Model |
|---|---|---|
| Design partners / strategic | 2026 cohort + referenceable logos | High-touch: weekly touch, founder-led, roadmap access |
| Core | $15K+ ACV | Standard cadence below |
| Self-serve (Starter/Growth PLG) | < $15K, unassisted | Tech-touch: lifecycle emails, in-product guidance, office hours |
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.
2. The Health Framework
Health = three evidence-based dimensions (never a single opaque score — we sell against those):
| Dimension | Signals | Red flag |
|---|---|---|
| Adoption | Approved Twin Actions/seat/week (north star) · workbench opens/day · % seats activated | ATA < 3/seat/week after day 45 · activation < 60% |
| Outcomes | Success-plan attainment · documented catches · realized-value vs. promised | No documented catch by day 60 · baseline never measured |
| Relationship | P2 sponsor engagement · champion stability · NPS/CSAT | Sponsor change · QBR deferral ×2 · single-threaded |
Weekly 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.
3. The Cadence System
| Cadence | Audience | Agenda (fixed) |
|---|---|---|
| Day-30 activation review | P2 + team lead | Activation vs. 70% target · early wins reel · blockers · success-plan confirmation |
| Day-90 realized-value review | P2 (+P5 if expansion-ripe) | Outcomes vs. baseline (their numbers) · catches documented · next-quarter plan · expansion seeds |
| Quarterly business review | P2 + P5 | Realized ROI (29 with actuals) · continuity accrued (what the Spine now knows) · roadmap relevant to them · expansion/renewal path |
| Weekly (design partners) | Champion | Product feedback → build loop; metric instrumentation check |
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.
4. The Play Library
Play: Slow activation (trigger: < 50% seats activated by day 21)
Diagnose 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.
Play: No documented catch by day 60
Audit 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.
Play: Champion change (trigger: P2/champion departs)
Within 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.
Play: Sponsor gone quiet (trigger: 2 deferred reviews)
Re-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?"
Play: Renewal-at-risk (trigger: red outcomes + < 120 days to renewal)
47 Renewal Strategy 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.
5. Voice-of-Customer Loop
All feedback lands in one triage: product bugs → repo issues, same-day; roadmap themes → monthly synthesis to product (69); proof points → evidence library (64); objection patterns → 41 monthly update. Design partners get explicit "you said → we shipped" notes — the feedback loop is a retention feature.
KPIs (75 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.
Related: 45 Onboarding · 46 Expansion · 47 Renewal · 28 Outcomes · 75 CS Metrics