I Thought Customer Service and Customer Success Were the Same Thing — I Was Wrong
I used to think Customer Service and Customer Success were just two names for the same thing — helping customers. The terms seemed interchangeable, and I didn’t think much about it. But after diving into two very different books, I realized how wrong I was.
The first was "Contact Center Management on Fast Forward" by Brad Cleveland — a technical-leaning read on how to forecast staffing, meet service levels, route calls, and measure success. It was about answering when a customer reached out.
Then I read "Customer Success" by Nick Mehta, which completely shifted my thinking. It didn’t talk about average handle time or occupancy. Instead, it focused on outcomes — making sure customers realize the value of what they bought and renew.
That’s when it hit me: these aren’t just different terms — they’re different functions.
“The best customer service is if the customer doesn’t need to call you, doesn’t need to talk to you. It just works.”
— Jeff Bezos
This quote says it all.
Customer Service is required when something breaks and someone needs to fix it. It is reactive in nature. In the spaces I operate in, this means a cell phone didn’t activate, the device is no longer working, or there’s a billing issue. Some of the metrics and KPIs associated with Customer Service are customer satisfaction (CSAT), first contact resolution, service level, and average handle time (AHT).
But what if that something didn’t break at all? What if the systems and experience worked as expected and no call was needed?
Customer Success is proactive and strategic. It's not about fixing what’s broken — it’s about ensuring the customer achieves a desired outcome. It includes onboarding customers, and monitoring usage and health. Some of the metrics and KPIs associated with Customer Success are churn (keeping a customer), health score, net revenue retention (NRR), and expansion revenue. Customer Success failed when a Customer needed Customer Service.
Nick Mehta’s book reframed success as customer outcomes. When you deliver value, the customer renews, upgrades, and buys additional services/products.
Even though they are very different they still need each other.
- When Customer Service gets repeated calls on the same issue, they need to surface those insights to Customer Success.
- Customer Success then works with system, product, or training teams to prevent those issues for future customers.
- In turn, Customer Success helps reduce call volume by setting customers up for success.
They form a feedback loop:
Friction → Support Tickets → Feedback → Product/Process Fixes → Less Friction
Both roles are necessary and complement each other. One is about solving problems. The other is about making sure those problems don’t exist in the first place.