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MARKETING | REVIEW ARTICLE
COGENT BUSINESS & MANAGEMENT
2024, VOL. 11, NO. 1, 2362811
Comparing and contrasting customer success management and
relationship marketing
Roberto P. Madrugaa , Bryson Hiltonb, Bryan Hochsteinc , Leonardo Luiz Lima Navarroa ,
Édison Renato Silvaa and Assed N. Haddada
aCOPPE/Production Engineering Program, UFRJ - Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; bUniversity of
Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, USA; cCulverhouse College of Business, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa,
Alabama, USA
ABSTRACT
Customer Success Management (CSM) is an emerging B2B strategy designed to
prioritize and maximize customers’ value-in-use. Scholars have questioned whether CSM
represents a rebranding of extant customer management practices or an evolution of
customer management practices. This research investigates key differences between
CSM and Relationship Marketing (RM) through a literature review of definitions and
statements, and by comparing and contrasting specific tasks of CSM and RM amongst
eight categories of analysis. The study found significant differences between CSM and
RM, particularly around sales orientation, goals and outcomes, integration/partnership,
company performance, and value. Overall, our findings offer a solid view of how CSM
fits with and builds upon existing RM practice.
IMPACT STATEMENT
Our study marks a pioneering foray into deeply analyzing the relationship between
Relationship Marketing (RM) and Customer Success Management (CSM), crucial areas
reshaping business engagement strategies globally. For the first time in academia, this
research sheds light on how integrating these strategies enhances customer loyalty and
promotes business growth, emphasizing a customer-first approach. Across the globe,
millions working in marketing, sales, customer service, customer success, and support
stand to benefit from the insights on deepening the application of these principles.
This paper not only navigates the theoretical intersections and practical synergies of
RM and CSM but also serves as an invaluable resource for professionals seeking to
elevate customer engagement and satisfaction. By broadening the academic dialogue
and offering strategic guidance, our findings aim to empower businesses and individuals
dedicated to fostering impactful customer relationships in today’s competitive landscape.
Introduction
Within the popular press, the topic of Customer Success Management has become increasingly common
as a target of information searches, while terms related to Relationship Marketing are accessed less fre-
quently. According to Google Trends (Figure 1a), the term “Customer Success” increased from 8/100
points in January 2015 to 83/100 points in July 2023. In contrast, the term “Relationship Marketing”
stayed relatively stagnant moving from 14/100 in January 2015 to 7/100 in July 2023. Furthermore,
Twitter activity data for “Customer Success” and “Relationship Marketing” indicates that the former was
tweeted 5 times more than the latter (Figure 1b). Despite a clear industry interest in Customer Success
(CS) Management, it remains a relatively unknown practice amongst B2B sales and marketing scholars.
For academics, Relationship Marketing (RM) is a prominent, enduring topic while CSM has only emerged
in recent years (See Figure 1c).
© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
CONTACT Roberto P. Madruga roberto.madruga@poli.ufrj.br COPPE/Production Engineering Program, Universidade Federal do Rio de
Janeiro, Athos da Silveira Ramos, 149 - Ilha do Fundão - Centro de Tecnologia - Bloco F, 101, CEP 21.941-909, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2024.2362811
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been
published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
ARTICLE HISTORY
Received 5 September
2023
Revised 19 March 2024
Accepted 21 May 2024
KEYWORDS
Customer success
management; relationship
marketing; sales; value
REVIEWING EDITOR
Ediz Akcay, Bournemouth
University Talbot Campus:
Bournemouth University,
United Kingdom
SUBJECTS
Marketing Management;
Relationship Marketing
2 R. P. MADRUGA ETAL.
We focus on these differences, as CS Management and RM are closely related, yet seem to differ
based on general interest in the topics. Currently, it is unclear in the academic literature if, and how, RM
differs from CS Management. As such, our goal is to provide clarity on how the two topics complement
and differ from each other. On the one hand, RM comprises many definitions (see Agariya & Singh, 2011)
that refer to prioritizing customer relationships in order to enhance customer retention. Relationships are
enhanced by fulfilling promises through mutual exchange, and ensuring that the objectives of all stake-
holders are met (see Das, 2009; Gronroos, 1990a; 1990b; 1994; Harker, 1999; Ivanković, 2008; Kumar,
2020). On the other hand, CS Management is not necessarily focused on the traditional customer rela-
tionship. Rather, CS Management is primarily centered on customers’ relationship with the product and
the value-in-use it provides. CSM proactively ensures customers maximize the value of product offerings
after purchase (Hilton etal., 2020; Hochstein et al., 2020). In order to maximize customers’ value of offer-
ings, CSM takes a customer fiduciary perspective by advocating for the customer along the entire cus-
tomer journey and throughout all stakeholder functions (see Customer Success Association, 2023; Mehta
et al., 2016).
While recent research on CS Management suggests it as a distinct customer management practice
evolving from a relationship marketing foundation (Hilton et al., 2020), work focused on RM has not
investigated whether CS Management represents a novel customer management practice, is a rebrand-
ing of concepts already explored within the RM literature, or extends beyond current RM knowledge.
Our analysis of the CS Management literature highlights its developing nature and the frequent invo-
cation of Relationship Marketing as a foundational framework. For instance, Hochstein etal. (2020), pio-
neers in the discourse of CSM, incorporate RM literature in nearly a third of their nine references, signaling
Figure 1. (a–c) CS and RM trends in the popular press and academic literature. (a) Google Trends data comparing the
search popularity of "Customer Success" and "Relationship Marketing" from January 2004 to July 2023, extracted on July
25, 2023. The search period selected was the widest available, the region was set to "all over the world," and the cat-
egory was set to "all." The Google Trends Index is used, with a value of 100 representing the peak popularity of a search
term on the web. (b) Comparison of CS and RM tweets worldwide. Source: Twitter. Tweets from July 18-25, 2023 were
extracted on July 25, 2023 using the MAXQDA data analysis tool. (c) Comparison of scientic publications with "Customer
Success" and "Relationship Marketing" in the title. Source/method: Data extracted on July 25, 2023, from Web of Science
and Scopus databases (from January 2010 to July 2023). Duplicates have been removed.
COGENT BUSINESS & MANAGEMENT 3
the significant impact of RM on the evolution of CSM principles. This influence is further evident in
Hochstein et al. (2021) where RM concepts are pivotal to the “Theoretical Implications” of their study.
Additional instances of this interaction appear in the works of Kleinaltenkamp et al. (2022) and
Prohl-Schwenke and Kleinaltenkamp (2021) both highlighting how CSM research enriches the RM litera-
ture. Motivated by these instances of interplay, we are prompted to undertake an in-depth investigation
into the distinct, yet interwoven, landscapes of CSM and RM. Our goal is to delineate their unique con-
tributions and complementarities, particularly emphasizing the foundational influence of RM theory on
CSM, thus addressing a scholarly gap that remains to be thoroughly examined.
To address this gap, the present research compares and contrasts CS Management and RM. Our pro-
cess is based on a literature review, definition extraction, and review of tasks. To investigate these aspects,
we used the MAXQDA tool to organize and classify the tasks into 8 categories using three steps – (1) we
utilized qualitative data analysis methods to develop definitions (Dahlberg, 1981), (2) we examined defi-
nitions and generated a set of major categories and subcategories (Sekaran & Bougie, 2016), and (3)
utilized coding techniques to ensure the veracity of our findings (Schreier, 2012). Overall, our research
compiles and reports on 34 CS Management tasks and 35 RM tasks and offers clarity on how CS
Management and RM appear to be related, yet distinct topics.
Our research contributes to our understanding of customer management practices in three steps.
First, we establish an understanding of CS Management and RM by compiling a comprehensive set of
definitions and attributes from the literature. Second, we compare and contrast CS Management from
RM by examining each from eight category perspectives – (1) sales orientation, (2) goals and outcomes,
(3) products and offers, (4) integration and partnership, (5) customer experience, (6) company perfor-
mance, (7) culture and vision, and (8) value. Our investigation contributes by systematically establishing
that CS Management represents a distinct evolution of customer management practices related, yet not
synonymous with prior conceptualizations found in the RM literature. For managers, we set the path for
how academics should view CS Management and RM to advance further study of the topic that will
ultimately offer much needed guidance to practitioners implementing CS Management.
Literature review
Customer success management
Customer Success Management represents a nascent discipline encompassing the strategic planning,
execution, and oversight of initiatives aimed at ensuring customer success within organizations, with its
practices being adopted globally. Applications of CS Management are increasing globally across indus-
tries (Kleinaltenkamp et al., 2022). CS Management is being implemented across global business markets
(Madruga et al., 2024). CS Management includes the processes, strategies, tasks, results, teams, and
responsibilities needed to achieve the clients’ success (Hochstein et al,. 2020; Mehta et al., 2016; Porter
& Heppelmann, 2015). Customer Success is a mindset, and the area manager is the ambassador of this
theme in the company (Vaidyanathan & Rabago, 2020). CS Management is also referred to in the litera-
ture as the proposal of an organizational unit or department. Due to the quickly evolving organizational
structures, even in the technology industry, three areas have emerged: Unified Data Organizations,
Development-Operations Groups (DevOps), and Customer Success Management (Porter & Heppelmann,
2015). Individuals who practice CS are often called Customer Success Managers (CSMs) and can be found
in a variety of titles across companies, such as account managers, customer relationship managers and
other experts (Mehta et al., 2016). Customer Success involves multiple functions within a company and
is centered around expanding business with customers by deeply understanding their goals (Madruga,
2021). CS Management is in charge of managing customer goals, which includes understanding them,
influencing customer strategies to achieve success, and shaping customer goals with the seller’s offering
so that it aligns with customers’ current goals (Hilton et al., 2020).
We researched the origin of the term "Customer Success" and found that it was first mentioned in
Lynch’s book "Customer Loyalty and Success" in 1995 (Lynch, 1995). Although the book used the phrase
"Customer Loyalty and Success" 16 times, the term "Customer Success" was not mentioned in the way it
is used today. The word "success" was used in relation to business success 17 times, suggesting that the
4 R. P. MADRUGA ETAL.
book focused more on business success than on the current concept of Customer Success in academia
and practice. The term "Customer Success" was first used in an article by Fawcett and Cooper (1998).
Although the term was mentioned only once in the paper, the authors aimed to demonstrate how mea-
suring logistical performance can lead to organizational success. It is clear that the authors did not try
to coin the current form of the Customer Success Management concept, nor to propose CS as a new
term to be discussed in the academic world. Lawer and Knox (2006) suggest that organizations aim to
achieve Customer Success by building authentic relationships with customers through expert support
and guidance. However, it was only in 2015 that Porter and Heppelmann predicted that CS would
become a trend in management. Porter and Heppelmann’s paper discussed the need for companies to
provide more value to customers beyond just products, including the concept of Customer Success. They
also predicted that CS Management departments would transform customer relationships in companies
and eventually become larger business units. These predictions were confirmed five years later, with a
notable increase in the corporate focus on customer churn. Hochstein etal. (2020) states that the increas-
ing availability of digital subscription services in the technology market has made it easier for customers
to switch between suppliers, leading to a greater need for companies to focus on CS Management in
order to retain their customers. In the subscription model, companies depend on recurring revenues, and
traditional customer support efforts have not been sufficient to retain customers leading the technology
industry to focus on CS Management (Hochstein et al., 2020).
Relationship marketing
Relationship Marketing made its debut in academia during the early 1980s with the publication of the
seminal article "Relationship Marketing, Emerging Perspectives on Services Marketing" by Berry (1983). A
few years later, Crosby and Stephens (1987) discussed the effects of RM on satisfaction, retention, and
prices. Dwyer et al. (1987) discussed how to develop buyer-seller relationships, and Sheth et al. (1988)
discussed the evolution and evaluation of marketing theory under the then-new paradigm of RM. RM
was presented as a more effective approach to marketing compared to the traditional mass marketing
that dominated the field at the time (Gummesson, 1998). Establishing, maintaining, and improving cus-
tomer relationships became a priority for RM, as opposed to the transactional orientation of classic mar-
keting (Grönroos, 2004; Harun etal., 2018). Gummesson (1997) suggests that Relationship Marketing is a
result of two knowledge currents that emerged in the 1970s: the extension of the Nordic School approach
to service marketing and the network approach to industrial marketing developed by the Industrial
Marketing and Purchasing Group (IMP). Total quality management and new theories of virtual organiza-
tions also contributed to the formation of RM theory (Gummesson, 1997).
Several works provide a review and overview of the RM literature. Yadav and Singh (2014) conducted
a systematic review of 558 Relationship Marketing articles and found that the term was first coined by
Berry (1983), who defined RM as the process of attracting, maintaining, and enhancing customer rela-
tionships in a multi-service organization. Kumar (2020) reviewed the evolution of RM from 1985 to 2012
and suggested that RM has many applications in both industrial and services marketing. The primary
focus of RM is on building and sustaining strong relationships with existing customers (Kumar, 2020).
RM literature advocates for the emotional connection with customers. Dwyer etal. (1987) suggest the
creation of a long-term cooperative relationship. Later, other researchers discussed the emotional bond
RM provided (Crosby et al., 1990; Crosby & Stephens, 1987). RM techniques promote the construction
and maintenance of solid links with existing customers (Kumar, 2020). Hennig-Thurau et al. (2002) inves-
tigate that the satisfaction, commitment and trust established with customers positively affect the results
of RM in service settings. Involvement has also been found to have a positive effect on consumers’ will-
ingness to engage with companies (Varki & Wong, 2003).
Overall, RM emphasizes the importance of emotional connections with customers, but it also values
rationality in the relationship. Gronroos (1990a, 1990b) suggests that the customer relationship should
be profit-oriented, with both parties achieving their goals through mutual exchange and fulfilling prom-
ises. Companies should identify, establish, maintain, improve, and (when necessary) end relationships
with stakeholders so that the objectives of all parties are met (Gronroos, 1994). Relationship Marketing
COGENT BUSINESS & MANAGEMENT 5
consists of various components, emphasizing business strategies that ensure long-term relationships, per-
sonalized two-way communication, multiple contact points, innovative market segmentation, decentral-
ized organizational structure, and real-time customer satisfaction measurement (Madruga, 2021). RM aims
to create and sustain profitable and mutually beneficial relationships, by bringing together parties and
resources to provide the best possible value proposition for the customer (Peck etal., 1999). RM is inter-
action in relationship networks (Gummesson, 2008). RM individualizes communication with customers in
a mass market (Baker & Hart, 2008). Thus, the RM literature provides a solid foundation based on the
interaction of buyers and sellers, yet does not specifically focus on how value-in-use from products relate
to retention.
Research design and methodology
As the basis of our research, an extensive literature review was conducted to examine the definitions and
statements found in the RM literature and CS Management literature. The definitions describe the attri-
butes of the themes studied and are also presuppositions for the construction of scientific systems.
Sekaran and Bougie (2016) argue that choosing the right definitions of concepts is crucial for researchers
to identify the relationship between variables in their model. Definitions are essential in argumentation
and communication, and they are necessary elements in building scientific systems (Dahlberg, 1978). The
definition of a concept delimits and fixes its content by expressing its intention, characteristics, or attri-
butes (Dahlberg, 1978). Definitions help to identify the research topic and access relevant academic lit-
erature (Sekaran & Bougie, 2016). As such, we offer a deep investigation of definitions related to CS
Management and RM as the basis of our study.
To more fully understand the various definitions, we used the MAXQDA data analysis tool to extract,
organize and classify tasks. Sekaran and Bougie (2016) argue that organizing data into categories and
subcategories during the qualitative analysis process allows perceiving patterns and relationships
between them, so new categories can be identified, category definitions can be changed, and catego-
ries may have to be subdivided (subcategories). Classifications can be developed both inductively and
deductively (Sekaran & Bougie, 2016). This technique is present in articles in the marketing literature,
such as Homburg et al. (2017), which utilize this coding of categories and subcategories (see their
Table 3).
The research process consisted of five steps (see Figure 2). First, the research team conducted a liter-
ature search and screened 48 RM and 24 CS publications. Second, we extracted 27 CS and 30 RM defi-
nitions from the literature. Third, we extracted a list of 34 CS tasks and 35 RM tasks from the definitions.
Fourth, we merged similar attributes and classified them into 8 task types (categories). Finally, we com-
pare the categories and tasks, and then report insights and findings that emerged from the process.
To comprehensively gather literature on Relationship Marketing, we initiated a search within the Web
of Science and Scopus databases. The primary inclusion criterion was the presence of the term
“Relationship Marketing” in the article’s title, with our search limited to literature reviews to identify rel-
evant publications. Additionally, we conducted searches for RM literature reviews in Google Scholar. The
exclusion criteria were the removal of duplicates found across the databases and the exclusion of articles
that did not provide direct definitions of Relationship Marketing. Through this methodology, we identi-
fied a total of 56 documents, from which we selected 48 as relevant to our analysis.
In selecting literature on Customer Success, we began with articles and editorials from the Web of
Science and Scopus databases that offered definitions of customer success, yielding 9 papers. Given the
recent emergence of this topic in academia, we augmented our selection with articles from the Harvard
Business Review and the Customer Success Association website to ensure a comprehensive understand-
ing. To further strengthen our references, we included the first 5 books titled with “Customer Success”
found on Amazon.com and selected 8 reports based on their relevance to CS. As our exclusion criterion
for reports and articles, we excluded those that mentioned Customer Success in a context different from
CS Management, such as references to “a successful customer” not related to the specific practices or
conceptualization of Customer Success. Including these sources, we identified a total of 24 CS
publications.
6 R. P. MADRUGA ETAL.
Denition extraction
We used the MAXQDA data analysis tool to extract definitions and statements for CS Management and
RM and grouped them into categories. According to Dahlberg (1978), definitions are necessary assump-
tions in building scientific systems.
Task extraction
We extracted tasks from each definition and statement to compare CS Management and RM. The quali-
tative data analysis method was used to break down the content into smaller units of analysis (Dahlberg,
1981; Schreier, 2012; Sekaran & Bougie, 2016). To handle the high volume of definitions and concepts for
CS Management and Relationship Marketing, we followed Schreier’s (2012) recommendation to subdivide
the "coding task" when dealing with a large coding frame. We used MAXQDA (Kuckartz & Rädiker, 2019),
following a process (see Table 1) to identify deductive construction of tasks.
Task categorization
To compare CS Management and RM, we grouped tasks into types based on their similarity using
MAXQDA tool. This grouping followed the category analysis technique based on Dahlberg (1981), Schreier
(2012), and Sekaran and Bougie (2016). We created eight task types (categories) in total. To ensure reli-
ability, all tasks were independently reviewed by four researchers through double coding, which is an
Figure 2. Methodological framework.
Source: Selection and Screening.
Table 1. Example of a denition categorized into a task.
Source Denition Task
(Hochstein et al., 2020)Customer Success Management, which we operationally dene as
“the proactive (versus reactive) relational engagement of
customers to ensure the value potential of product oerings is
realized by the customer,” is becoming a common industry
practice.
Create proactive relational engagement with
customers (CS23).
COGENT BUSINESS & MANAGEMENT 7
accepted way to assess reliability in qualitative content analysis (Schreier, 2012). In addition, we calcu-
lated Krippendorff’s alpha coefficients (Krippendorff, 2018) to verify the agreement between coders, as
reported in Table 5.
To elaborate on our calculation of Krippendorff’s alpha coefficients, this statistical measure was applied
to assess the degree of agreement among the independent reviews conducted by the four researchers.
Krippendorff’s alpha is particularly suited for content analysis where multiple coders are involved, as it
accommodates any number of coders and different levels of measurement. We followed the computa-
tional approach as outlined by Krippendorff (2018), utilizing the nominal level of measurement for cod-
ing the presence or absence of specific themes within each task. The obtained Krippendorff’s Alpha
coefficient was 0.803, indicating a substantial level of inter-coder reliability. This result exceeds the com-
monly accepted threshold of 0.667 for tentative conclusions and approaches the threshold of 0.800 for
definitive conclusions, as suggested by Krippendorff (2018).
Analysis and comparison between CS management and RM
The comparative analysis of CS Management and RM was performed by matching their respective tasks
and types derived from definitions and statements, which were categorized into 8 categories – (1) sales
orientation, (2) goals and outcomes, (3) products and offers, (4) integration and partnership, (5) customer
experience, (6) company performance, (7) culture and vision, and (8) value. The results, discussion, man-
agerial implications, and future research will be presented below.
Analysis
Identication of tasks in CS management literature
We broke down CS Management definitions and statements into standardized tasks consisting of short
sentences starting with an infinitive verb, maintaining the original meaning and terminology. When there
were multiple tasks to code, we subdivided them into smaller sub-tasks (Schreier, 2012). We found 27
definitions and statements in the CS Management literature, resulting in 43 tasks, with 34 being unique.
Table 2 presents these tasks.
Identication of tasks in RM literature
We reviewed the literature on Relationship Marketing and found 30 definitions and statements, which
led to 65 tasks. Table 3 shows 35 unique tasks derived from these definitions and statements.
Categories of customer success management and relationship marketing
Our task grouping yielded a clear view of CS Management and RM. We identified 8 categories for anal-
ysis: Sales orientation, Goals and Outcomes, Products and Offers, Integration and Partnership, Customer
Experience, Company Performance, Culture and Vision, and Value. These categories are described in Table
4. By comparing the approaches and emphases of CS Management and RM using these 8 analysis cate-
gories, we derived valuable insights, described in the following sections, that can benefit both research-
ers and practitioners.
CS management and RM: emphases, approaches, and proposed CSM constructs
By examining the 8 categories, we were able to identify significant differences in emphasis and approach
between CS Management and Relationship Marketing. Additionally, we formulated a series of CS
Management constructs to enhance the understanding of this emerging field. Table 5 offers an overview
of these findings. The result of Krippendorff’s alpha coefficient for the classification in the categories of
CS Management was 0.803 and for RM it was 0.813, indicating significant agreement among the
researchers.
8 R. P. MADRUGA ETAL.
Results - comparing CS management and RM
Our analysis offers results specific to CS Management and RM, based on the 8 categories of analysis. The
following sections present key findings for each category.
Sales orientation
Sales orientation refers to sales philosophies for generating firm revenues. For example, firms might
emphasize sales efforts rather than understanding and meeting customer needs in order to generate
revenues. In the sales orientation category, there is a significant difference between CS Management and
RM approaches. On the one hand, RM focuses on customer retention through strengthening relation-
ships (Abhijeet & Sujata, 2019; Berry, 1983; Grönroos, 2004; Harun et al., 2018, Kumar, 2020; Marshall,
2010; Morgan & Hunt, 1994; Yadav & Singh, 2014). On the other hand, CS management emphasizes
maximizing product use and improving sales product value maximization through cross-selling and
upselling strategies (Hochstein et al., 2020).
Goals and outcomes
The category of Goals and outcomes is related to prioritizing and encouraging the achievement of cus-
tomer and company goals and results. In terms of CS management, the literature emphasizes the need
for the CS management team to first understand customers’ financial and business goals in order to
transform the company to meet these goals. CS management emphasizes working together with clients
to co-create goals (Chiang, 2019; Customer Success Association, 2023). RM believes that results are a
consequence of close relationships with customers. RM focuses on mutual results and a win-win relation-
ship (Das, 2009; Evans & Laskin, 1994; Gronroos, 1994; Harker, 1999; Ivanković, 2008; Iwuchukwu et al.,
2019; Van Tonder & Roberts-Lombard, 2015).
Table 2. Unique tasks in CS management literature (See Appendix A for more details).
Task number Customer success management task
CS1 Maximize customer and company sustainable proven protability.
CS2 Integrate functions of marketing, sales, services and training.
CS3 Create champions of both the product and brand.
CS4 Help the customer maximize their return on investment.
CS5 Create an emotional customer experience.
CS6 Create stellar customer experience and customer service.
CS7 Establish and empower a customer-centric mindset within the company.
CS8 “Beat the drum” around customer centricity to prove value.
CS9 Provide internal continuous feedback to enable verticals to be customer focused.
CS10 Create a good relationship between the company and clients.
CS11 Dene customer’s success goals in measurable terms.
CS12 Work out with the customers the responsibilities for reaching customer’s success goals.
CS13 Proactive report product usage by the customer.
CS14 Document outcomes associated with usage.
CS15 Embed customer centric language and culture throughout an organization.
CS16 Ensure the customer fully utilizes the seller’s oerings.
CS17 Coordinate customers’ value-in-use among stakeholder groups.
CS18 Measure the customers’ current-value-in-use and predicted-value-in-use.
CS19 Rely on leading indicators that represent current-value-in-use and predicted-value-in-use.
CS20 Inuence customer strategies to achieve success.
CS21 Shape customer goals with the seller’s own oering such that oers are pertinent to customers’ current goal pursuits.
CS22 Proactively prioritize customer experience and engagement toward value-in-use.
CS23 Create proactive relational engagement with customers.
CS24 Adopt ambidextrous approaches to managing dynamic relationships.
CS25 Become a trusted single point of contact to the customers.
CS26 Bring together notions of customer centricity, journey, and post-sales into a new role.
CS27 Make marketing, sales and post-sales responsible for CS.
CS28 Have a customer success team with ecient processes and great skill set.
CS29 Help the customer achieve business impact.
CS30 Establish a business that creates monthly recurring payments.
CS31 Participate in CS groups and best practices.
CS32 Drive more revenue from customers from renewals, expansion, and advocacy.
CS33 Ensure renewals in product-as-a-service models.
CS34 Become an ambassador of a new mindset of CS.
COGENT BUSINESS & MANAGEMENT 9
Products and oers
This category relates to improving the performance and benefits of products and offerings for both the
company and customers. CS Management and RM have different approaches when it comes to products
and customer offerings. Whereas RM prioritizes high-quality products that are tailored to customer needs
(Ivanković, 2008; Jay & Ria, 1999), and uses customer information to make marketing more relevant
(Barreto et al., 2015; Gordon, 1998; Vavra, 1993), CS management emphasizes making the customer the
champion or protagonist of the product and advocating for their full utilization of products and services
(Chiang, 2019; Hilton et al., 2020). In other words, the company needs to maximize the customer’s use
of the product (Hilton et al., 2020).
Integration and partnership
Integration and partnership involve improving the internal cohesion of the company and integrating its
processes for the benefit of the customer. While both CS Management and RM literature support
Table 3. Unique tasks in the RM literature (see Appendix B for more details).
Task number Relationship marketing task
RM1 Identify, establish, develop, maintain, enhance and terminate relationships with customers, partners and other stakeholders
at a prot.
RM2 Meet the objectives of all parties.
RM3 Make a mutual exchange and fullment of promises.
RM4 Establish, maintain, and enhance a sustainable win-win outcome-focused commercial bond.
RM5 Focus on mutually benecial goals based on learning.
RM6 Ensure the relationship benets both the customers and company.
RM7 Build long-term alliances with prospective and current customers.
RM8 Provide high quality product and services.
RM9 Commit to provide timely, trustworthy information to the customer.
RM10 Retain current customers.
RM11 Narrow the relationship with customers.
RM12 Identify each customer.
RM13 Sustain a constant two-way dialogue with each customer.
RM14 Accumulate relationship information.
RM15 Adapt company oerings to the customer’s needs using the accumulated information.
RM16 Earn the customers’ favor and loyalty.
RM17 Satisfy customers’ wants and needs.
RM18 Provide continuous and stable links in the supply chain.
RM19 Full all the promises given by the company.
RM20 Develop commitment and trust.
RM21 Establish personal contacts with customers and representatives.
RM22 Emerge the feeling of mutual obligation.
RM23 Emerge the feeling of common goals.
RM24 Engage with empathy for the other side.
RM25 Emphasize exemplary customer service.
RM26 Engender customer commitment.
RM27 Ensure that quality is the concern of all.
RM28 Facilitate marketing to be performed in a pertinent manner.
RM29 Make eorts for developing a new customer base.
RM30 Capitalize optimally on existing customer base.
RM31 Attract customers for given products or services.
RM32 Engage in cooperative activities and programs with customers.
RM33 Create or enhance mutual economic value, at reduced cost.
RM34 Focus on customer-centric vision and strategy.
RM35 Deliver superior customer value, service, and satisfaction.
Table 4. Categories for comparison of CS management and RM.
#Task types (categories) Description
1Sales orientation Improving customer acquisition and retention, optimizing sales and after-sales orientations.
2Goals and outcomes Assisting, aligning, prioritizing, and encouraging the achievement of customer and company goals and
results.
3Products and oers Improving the performance and benets of products and oers for both the company and customers.
4Integration and partnership Improving the company’s internal cohesion and integrating its processes for the customer’s benet.
5Customer experience Creating and prioritizing the management of customer experience and engagement.
6Company performance Creating, guaranteeing and increasing the company’s results and performance gains.
7Culture and vision Involving people, building behaviors, and supporting the organizational vision and culture related to
the customer.
8 Value Measuring, creating, optimizing, and delivering value for the company and customers.
10 R. P. MADRUGA ETAL.
Table 5. Comparison of CS management and relationship marketing.
Task types (categories)
Tasks numbers Emphasis
CS constructsCS RM CS RM
Sales orientation 10, 23, 24, 25 1, 7, 10, 11,
12, 13, 14, 29
Being proactive throughout the customer journey is crucial
to prevent issues. The primary objective should be to
maximize the customer’s usage of the product or
service and guide them towards cross-selling and
upselling opportunities, which can also serve as a
strategy to reduce churn.
Building closer relationships with customers is key to
retaining them. RM focuses on attracting,
retaining, and enhancing the customer
relationship throughout their lifecycle. However,
there is limited discussion in the RM literature
about the sales aspect.
CS Management prioritizes having a single, reliable,
specialized, and simplied point of contact for
customer relationships and sales.
CS Management uses a dual approach by combining
marketing and sales to increase proactive oerings
and customization for cross-selling and upselling.
Goals and outcomes 1, 4, 11, 12,
19, 21, 29
2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
17, 22, 23, 24,
33
The achievement of mutual results is demonstrated by
placing high priority on maximizing the customer’s
results rst, measuring their progress along the
customer journey, and helping them achieve their
business objectives.
Mutual benets are key to customer loyalty, and this
can be achieved by ensuring that the relationship
benets both the customer and the company,
meeting customers’ wants and needs, fullling
promises, and having common goals.
CS Management collaborates with clients to dene
their measurable success goals and assists them
in achieving their objectives.
CS Management designs and tracks the KPIs that
represent customer success throughout their
product usage journey.
Products and oers 3, 13, 14, 16 8, 15, 28, 31 The company must ensure that customers derive
maximum value from the use of purchased products
and services, with a focus on maximizing the
customer’s value in use. This involves providing
subscription renewals and measuring the level of
product usage.
The products and services provided to customers
should be superior in quality and even go
beyond their expectations. The benets
generated from these oerings should exceed the
original ones to ensure that customers perceive
the value.
CS Management reports the usage rate of the
purchased product/service to the organization
proactively.
CS Management gives priority to customer
engagement by encouraging them to fully utilize
the purchased products.
Integration and
partnership
2, 27 18 CS emphasizes the integration of diverse areas such as
marketing, sales, IT, service, and training to ensure
co-responsibility for customer success. Performance is
proactive and supported by determined leadership
committed to delivering value to customers.
The company values support from various areas such
as supply chain, marketing, sales, and customer
service to benet customer relationships, even
without RM coordinating these areas. Employees
should be committed to quality and engage in
internal marketing.
CS Management integrates marketing, sales, services,
and training functions for customer success.
CS Management provides leadership to make all
customer-facing teams accountable for customer
success.
Customer experience 5, 6, 20, 22 9, 16, 20, 21,
25, 26, 32
The focus is on proactively delivering high emotional
experiences to customers, managing and measuring
them, and fostering their engagement. These
experiences are designed to enable customers to
derive maximum value from the products and services
they have purchased.
The terms Customer Experience and Customer
Engagement are not commonly mentioned in the
RM literature, perhaps because they are relatively
recent concepts. Nevertheless, building close
relationships with customers remains a key lever
for fostering their loyalty.
CS Management aims to inuence clients’ strategies
and help them achieve success.
CS Management focuses on proactive customer
engagement to help customers get the most
value out of their purchases.
Company performance 28, 30, 32, 33 30 The CS literature highlights the importance of maximizing
both customer and business prot, generating
recurring revenue through service subscriptions,
increasing customer engagement, and reducing
customer churn rates.
The RM literature emphasizes achieving business
results, including increasing marketing
performance, reducing customer attrition rates,
and minimizing non-compliance costs during
customer relationships.
CS Management collaborates with businesses to establish
monthly recurring payments from customers.
CS Management leads a skilled team focused on
achieving customer success, which in turn leads
to the company’s success.
Culture and vision 7, 9, 15, 26,
31, 34
19, 27, 34 The focus is on establishing and enabling a
customer-centric culture within the company, where
employees are transformed into ambassadors of this
mindset. Customer success is made a central part of
the business strategy and is a protagonist in the
company’s culture and vision.
The literature highlights the importance of
supporting and actively participating in the
development of a customer-centric culture within
the organization. However, there is no dedicated
Relationship Marketing team responsible for this
strategy.
CS Management acts as ambassadors within the
company, promoting and building a CS culture
throughout the organization.
CS Management provides feedback to other
departments to ensure a customer-centric
approach is integrated into all business verticals.
Value 8, 17, 18 35 In the CS approach, value is not only about what the
company delivers to customers, but also about how
customers can derive maximum value from the products
and services they have purchased. The company aims to
monitor and increase the value that customers derive from
the products and services purchased. In CSM, the focus is
on “experienced value in use”.
The literature highlights the importance of creating
and delivering services, value, and satisfaction to
attract and develop lasting relationships through
successful relational exchanges. The delivery of
value is considered a pre-condition for customer
loyalty over time. In RM, the focus is on
“relationship value”.
CS Management “beats the drum” in the company
so that the focus on customers is destined to
generate value for them.
CS Management proactively measures the current
and predicted value in use of products by
customers.
Krippendor’s alpha
coecient
0.803 0.813
COGENT BUSINESS & MANAGEMENT 11
partnering with internal areas of the company, they differ in the level of intensity. On the one hand, RM
focuses on building stable partnerships between departments to integrate organizational functions
(Ballantyne, 1997; Harker, 1999; Mattsson, 1997). On the other hand, CS Management goes beyond alli-
ances and proactively empowers diverse areas of the organization to co-responsibly ensure customer
success. This approach provokes the integration of several areas where CS Management exercises greater
leadership and influence over other areas of the company to achieve its goals (Customer Success
Association, 2023; Levin & van der Kooij, 2018).
Customer experience
This category pertains to tasks related to managing customer experience and engagement. The RM lit-
erature does not place as much emphasis on customer experience since this is more recent term.
However, it frequently mentions aspects such as commitment and trust (Abhijeet & Sujata, 2019; Bennett,
1996; Berry, 1995; Harker, 1999; Jay & Ria, 1999; Kumar, 2020; Parvatiyar & Sheth, 1999). In contrast, CS
Management literature stresses the importance of creating experiences for customers (Chiang, 2019;
Porter & Heppelmann, 2015). In this category, no significant differences were found, however, it is notice-
able that the literature on CS Management, being recent, emphasizes the building of experiences
together with customers.
In comparing Customer Success Management and Relationship Marketing, it’s evident that CSM, with
its focus on maximizing value in use for customers, is particularly tailored for the B2B sector, emphasiz-
ing ongoing engagement and value realization in business relationships (Hilton et al., 2020; Hochstein
etal., 2020). Conversely, RM prioritizes building and maintaining personal connections, preferably, in B2C
markets, often within service industries, where customer satisfaction and loyalty are paramount.
Company performance
This category aims to create, ensure, and enhance the company’s results and performance gains. On the
one hand, RM highlights the achievement of mutual goals and results, which benefit both customers and
companies, with less focus on the buyer’s performance (Gide & Riad Shams, 2011; Kumar, 2020). While
RM seeks to retain customers, its main principle is the construction of a long-term relationship with the
customer through emotional connection. On the other hand, CS Management is more focused on the
buyer’s performance, observing the buyer’s ability to co-create value long term. CS management takes a
more direct approach by setting subscription renewal goals, prioritizing recurring revenues, and seeking
new revenue opportunities (Mehta et al., 2016; Mehta & Pickens, 2020; Porter & Heppelmann, 2015).
Culture and vision
The importance of CS Management is growing worldwide, and its practices are increasingly penetrating
companies with different cultures. Applications of CS Management are gaining increasing importance glob-
ally across industries (Kleinaltenkamp et al., 2022). It includes activities that focus on monitoring, securing,
and enhancing CS, as well as implementing organizational structures (Prohl-Schwenke & Kleinaltenkamp,
2021). For these reasons, it is crucial to take into account the company culture and the employees’ vision.
The Culture and vision category pertains to involving people, developing behaviors, and supporting
the organizational vision and culture that prioritize the customer. Building a vision of superior quality in
what the company delivers to the customer (Ivanković, 2008; Jay & Ria, 1999) and keeping promises to
clients (Bennett, 1996; Harker, 1999) are prioritized in RM. CS Management emphasizes empowering
employees (Chiang, 2019) and turning them into ambassadors of a new mindset (Vaidyanathan & Rabago,
2020) to make the customer successful.
Value
This category involves creating, optimizing, and delivering value for both the company and its customers.
RM literature emphasizes that for companies to establish continuing relationships with their customers,
12 R. P. MADRUGA ETAL.
they must deliver services, value, and satisfaction (Ryals, 2006; Webster, 1992; Yadav & Singh, 2014). In
CS Management literature, value is focused and dedicated to what customers can extract or achieve
from their purchased product or service (Hilton et al., 2020; Levin & van der Kooij, 2018). The company
is responsible for planning and monitoring the implementation of procedures to ensure that the cus-
tomer is capturing the maximum possible value. Therefore, the concept of “value” is quite different
between the two literatures. Whereas RM emphasizes value from a seller’s delivery perspective, CS
Management emphasizes buyer’s value extraction perspective. Echoing this distinction, Prohl and
Kleinaltenkamp (2020) explore value-in-use management in B2B contexts, identifying activities that
directly contribute to the customer’s ability to realize value post-purchase.
The concept of value is extensively discussed by various authors, which can aid in understanding how
CS Management and Relationship Marketing offer differing perspectives on this concept. While Eggert
et al. (2019) develop an integrative framework that distinguishes between expected and experienced
value, highlighting how these perceptions impact both suppliers and customers in B2B markets,
Kleinaltenkamp et al. (2022) further this discussion by reevaluating customer-perceived value from an
organizational perspective, underscoring the significance of transactional and relationship value. On the
other hand, Zauner et al. (2015) explore customer value perception, which can influence relationship
management, marketing, and business models. These varied theoretical approaches underscore that,
while CSM is more centered on “experienced value in use”, directly connected to the tangible benefits
that customers derive from utilizing products or services, RM emphasizes “relationship value”.
Implications, limitations, and future research
Theoretical implications
Our paper offers several contributions to academic research. First, we have compiled multiple definitions
and attributes of Customer Success and Relationship Marketing in a single article, creating a comprehen-
sive resource for future researchers to study these topics. This can lead to a better understanding of the
concepts, which can inform future research and industry practices. Second, we have compared the new
field of CS Management with RM, which has not been done before, and clarified their differences and
similarities. Third, we have proposed eight categories of analysis to compare CS Management with RM,
which may be extended to other customer relationship theories in the future. Fourth, we have demon-
strated that RM has influenced CS Management and that they are complementary areas of knowledge,
which will help new CS students and researchers to better understand the seminal theory of RM, which
has influenced several other fields of knowledge, such as Customer Experience and Customer Success.
Currently, we can perceive that the emerging field of Customer Success knowledge has been influ-
enced by the esteemed and seminal discipline of Relationship Marketing, which has already established
its position in academia. Hochstein et al. (2020) provide an example of this influence by suggesting that
CS management is rooted in fundamental concepts of Service Marketing, with Berry (1995) having exten-
sively studied one of these key concepts, Relationship Marketing.
Our comparison of CS Management with the established theory of RM revealed that while they both
aim to maximize customer retention through long-term relationships, they differ in the methods they use
to achieve this goal. For instance, CS Management places a strong emphasis on proactive and direct inter-
action with customers right from the beginning of their journey with the company, involving various busi-
ness strategies to maximize the value customers derive from the products they purchased (Hochstein etal.,
2020; 2021; Levin & van der Kooij, 2018; Mehta et al., 2016; Mehta & Pickens, 2020; Porter & Heppelmann,
2015). In contrast, RM focuses on building enduring relationships with customers (Abhijeet & Sujata, 2019;
Grönroos, 2004; Harun et al., 2018; Kumar, 2020; Mora Cortez et al., 2023; Morgan & Hunt, 1994; Pfajfar
et al., 2022), however, it does so without significant intervention from the commercial department.
Both approaches prioritize customer loyalty, but for CS, it starts well before the sale, and employees
are guided to offer products and services only if they align with customers’ goals. CS emphasizes devel-
oping a sense of urgency and leadership to focus sales and after-sales orientation on customer success,
including integrating the customer relationship into a single point of contact. RM prioritizes a collabora-
tive effort among internal departments rather than leading them towards customer success.
COGENT BUSINESS & MANAGEMENT 13
Overall, the 8 categories of analysis identified that CS Management and RM present distinct and com-
plementary approaches. The differences between CS Management and RM were more pronounced in the
categories of Sales orientation, Goals and outcomes, Integration and partnership, Company performance,
and Value.
CS Management should not be considered as the rebranding of Relationship Marketing, but rather as
a complementary evolution of the concept. CS Management’s objective and prescriptive foundations
may inspire researchers to explore new paths. It has the potential to become a new business approach
that will not fade away as a temporary management fashion. We found that RM has influenced CS
Management and that they are complementary areas of knowledge. Therefore, Customer Success is new
wine in new bottles – contributing to the emergence of a new business approach.
However, this study underscores a critical contribution: the fundamental role of Relationship Marketing
in shaping and developing CS Management. Contrary to the notion that RM is becoming obsolete, we
highlight its lasting influence and its significance as a theoretical foundation for CSM. This acknowledg-
ment not only reinforces the ongoing relevance of RM but also encourages the academic community not
to hastily discard these seminal theories.
Managerial implications
Organizations can benefit from a better understanding of CS Management to improve the work of vari-
ous areas that interact with customers, such as sales teams, customer support, customer experience, and
the area that encompasses customer success managers themselves. The tasks identified in the research
can contribute to developing a maturity model and serve as a guide for CS implementation. Comparing
CS Management with RM can also improve CS management practices, leading to four managerial impli-
cations. First, companies can compare the set of 34 CS tasks resulting from the research with their inter-
nal practices to identify gaps and opportunities. Second, CS managers can use the tasks to propose a
maturity model for comparison. Third, as the 8 suggested categories of analysis and their respective
descriptions can inform CS competencies and influence employee processes, such as recruitment, selec-
tion, training, and evaluation. Fourth, the suggested CS constructs identified by the authors can help
create a general CS policy and culture within the company.
Additionally, based on the increasing popularity of CS, as evidenced in our article, we believe it is of
utmost relevance to provide leaders in this field with structured and comprehensive knowledge about
CS Management. This will enable them to enhance their strategies and practices, positively impacting
their teams as well as other departments within the companies.
The insights garnered from our study underscore the growing relevance of Customer Success
Management (CSM) across various B2B sectors, beyond its traditional stronghold within the SaaS indus-
try. This revelation compels a broader inquiry into how businesses can effectively transition to or inte-
grate CSM practices, irrespective of their industrial domain.
Our research, particularly through the “CS Constructs” identified in Table 5, offers a foundational frame-
work for businesses aiming to adopt CSM. These constructs delineate the essential elements and pro-
cesses fundamental to implementing successful customer success strategies. It becomes evident that the
proactive, value-driven ethos of CSM can significantly enhance customer engagement, thereby driving
business growth and resilience. Furthermore, the inclusion of insights from the recent study by Madruga
et al. (2024) “The Customer Success Community: An Exploration of Nonfirm Epistemic Communities and
Their Influence on a New Sales Practice”, exemplifies the global and cross-sector applicability of CSM. The
expansion of CSM practices into diverse industries, such as consulting and training, education, financial
information, healthcare, logistics, marketing services, and real estate, among others, serves as a testa-
ment to its universal relevance and adaptability. In light of these findings, we recommend that compa-
nies consider the following strategic steps to integrate CSM into their business models:
1. Integrate cross-functional teams for comprehensive customer success: Focus on creating a unied
approach by integrating marketing, sales, service, and training functions, ensuring that all
customer-facing teams work collaboratively towards achieving customer success.
14 R. P. MADRUGA ETAL.
2. Adopt a holistic approach to customer engagement: Utilize a dual approach by combining marketing
and sales eorts to increase proactive oerings and customization for cross-selling and upselling,
enhancing customer engagement and value realization.
3. Set and support measurable success goals: Collaborate with clients to dene measurable success
goals and assist them in achieving these objectives by designing and tracking KPIs that represent
customer success throughout their product usage journey.
4. Cultivate a customer-centric organizational culture: Encourage leadership to make customer success
a priority across all customer-facing teams, promoting a culture that integrates feedback into all
business verticals and emphasizes the value generation for customers.
5. Proactively engage and measure customer value: Focus on proactive customer engagement strate-
gies to help customers fully utilize their purchases, and proactively measure the current and pre-
dicted value in use of products by customers, ensuring oerings are aligned with customer needs
and expectations.
The integration of CS Management principles offers a pathway for organizations to enhance their
customer engagement and retention strategies. By leveraging the CS Constructs outlined in our study,
companies across various sectors can adopt a more customer-centric approach, fostering improved cus-
tomer satisfaction and loyalty. This shift towards CSM not only reflects the evolving landscape of cus-
tomer expectations but also underscores the importance of aligning business practices with the goal of
delivering sustained value.
Moreover, based on the CS constructs presented, we recommend companies thoughtfully develop
customer success positions and select job titles that reflect the comprehensive and proactive nature of
CSM. We also advise that these constructs serve as a foundation for enhancing and structuring the selec-
tion, training, and evaluation processes of hired CS professionals. This strategy, rooted in a deep under-
standing of CS fundamentals, not only underscores a commitment to exceptional customer service but
also signals a modern, customer-first approach to the market.
Limitations and future research
Despite the contributions made by this study, it is important to acknowledge its limitations. One limita-
tion is the reliance on qualitative analysis, which may introduce biases due to its subjective nature.
Furthermore, the study predominantly drew upon reputable sources such as Web of Science, Scopus, and
Harvard Business Review for the literature review, potentially overlooking valuable insights from alterna-
tive sources. Future research could address these limitations by incorporating quantitative methods to
complement the qualitative findings.
Future research can focus on the 34 CS tasks presented in this article to serve as a guide for company
managers in implementing CS practices, which is of increasing interest. Studying the adoption of
Customer Success across various industries can also provide insights into emerging practices and princi-
ples. Comparing CS Management with other approaches, like Customer Experience, using the 8 sug-
gested categories is another potential area for future research.
Future research can evaluate the application of CS Management constructs in different companies and
sectors. Moreover, organizational studies can explore how CSM is influencing organizational structures,
departmental cooperation, and expected results. The impact of CS Management on organizational culture
is also a promising research field. Another field of study opportunity is to create a maturity model for com-
panies based on the tasks, analysis categories, and constructs of CS Management presented in this article.
Additionally, we believe that future research on CS Management could utilize our framework to
conduct quantitative studies aiming to analyze the impacts of CS managerial practice. For instance,
investigating the outcomes achieved by customers with the best alignment between the products and
services acquired and their business needs. This could enable a more in-depth analysis of the benefits
provided by CS Management and offer valuable insights for companies to enhance their strategies and
practices.
Future research should delve into a detailed exploration of the strategic evolution from RM to CSM,
uncovering the theoretical shifts that highlight CSM’s emergence as a distinct domain. Incorporating
COGENT BUSINESS & MANAGEMENT 15
cross-disciplinary perspectives, including organizational behavior and technology management, could
further enrich our understanding of these strategies’ adoption and impact across diverse organizational
contexts. Additionally, investigating the distinctions and synergies between Customer Experience
Management and CSM offers a promising avenue for elucidating how these related yet distinct approaches
to customer management can inform and enhance one another.
Disclosure statement
No potential conict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Funding
The authors want to acknowledge the support from Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientíco e Tecnológico
(CNPq) and FAPERJ - Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro.
About the authors
Roberto P. Madruga, Ph.D. from COPPE-UFRJ, an accomplished author with 10 books from presti-
gious Brazilian publishers, some award-winning. His research focuses on global relationship market-
ing, customer experience, and success. He earned the Best Scientic Paper award at EPPGEP 2022.
Holding an FGV master’s in business management and a bachelor’s in administration, he’s also
Design-educated. Roberto pursued post-grad studies in marketing, strategic management, quality,
and HR. With expertise in project implementation and teaching customer success, customer expe-
rience, and employee experience, he founded Conquist Consultoria. He’s the architect of Latin
America’s rst CX and CS Certication and MBA program, and established The Customer Summit, a
major international event. He is one of the authors of the article “The Customer Success Community: An Exploration
of Nonrm Epistemic Communities and Their Inuence on a New Sales Practice” published by the Journal of
International Marketing. Academic Director of Conquist.
Bryson Hilton is a Ph.D. student from the University of Texas at San Antonio, USA. His primary
research interests lie in the eld of customer management practice. His highly cited work, "Customer
Success Management: The next evolution in customer management practice?" published in Industrial
Marketing Management, underscores his dedication and contribution to this domain. Bryson’s aca-
demic journey and research exemplify a profound comprehension of customer success manage-
ment and its evolution. He has also made notable contributions to the eld of open pedagogy,
with publications such as "Student perceptions of open pedagogy: An exploratory study" and
"Identifying student perceptions of dierent instantiations of open pedagogy." Bryson has published
an important scientic article in the eld of Customer Success titled “Customer Success Management: The next evo-
lution in customer management practice?”
Bryan Hochstein, Ph.D. from Florida State University, is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the
University of Alabama. Prior to academia, he served as a sales executive with Time Warner Media.
Dr. Hochstein, an academic thought leader in customer success management, frequently guides
discussions at industry conferences, thought leadership forums, and research interviews. His
research, centered on sales, sales management, and customer success management, has been pub-
lished in esteemed journals. He also leads the Master-level Sales Leadership program at the
University of Alabama and facilitates doctoral seminars, undergraduate principles of marketing, and
professional development courses. Dr. Hochstein is a co-author of the textbook “Marketing Strategy”,
8th Edition. He resides in Northport, Alabama, actively participating in community, church, and university service
endeavors. Bryan is considered the leading author of scientic articles in the eld of Customer Success Management.
Leonardo Luiz Lima Navarro, Ph.D., is an Adjunct Professor at the Industrial Engineering
Department, Escola Politécnica, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). He has also served
as an Adjunct Professor at Universidade Federal Fluminense and as a Substitute Professor at UFRJ.
His research interests encompass Industrial Engineering, Operations Management, Business
Process Management, Supply Chain and Logistics, and Facilities Planning. He has made signicant
contributions in areas such as business process management and health services planning and
coordination. His dedication to academia and research has made a substantial impact on the eld
of Industrial Engineering.
16 R. P. MADRUGA ETAL.
Edison Renato Silva is the Coordinator of the Business Incubator at COPPE-UFRJ and co-founder of
Garagem GetUp/UFRJ. He holds a Ph.D. and a master’s degree in production engineering from
COPPE-UFRJ. He serves as a professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering at the Polytechnic
School and in the Management & Innovation area of the Production Engineering Program at
COPPE-UFRJ. His research interests include Startup Entrepreneurship Process, Corporate-Startup
Engagement, and Entrepreneurship and Engineering Education. He was the winner of the Sebrae
Entrepreneurial Education Award in the Higher Education category in 2019 and has completed Lean
Startup training at the University of Berkeley. He graduated with honors in Production Engineering
from UFRJ and has experience as a mentor in the Local Innovation Agents program (ALI) of SEBRAE, as well as
teaching positions at UNIRIO and UERJ.
Assed N. Haddad is a Civil Engineer from Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and holds a bachelor’s
degree in law from Fluminense University Center. He completed his Ph.D. in Production Engineering
from COPPE-UFRJ and has pursued post-doctoral studies at the University of Florida, USA, Polytechnic
University of Catalonia, Spain, and University of New South Wales Sydney, Australia. He is a Full
Professor at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and a Visiting Professor at various international
institutions. His areas of specialization include Civil, Environmental, and Production Engineering,
focusing on Civil Construction, Risk Management, Life Cycle Assessment, and Environmental Safety.
He has been recognized as a FAPERJ Our State Scientist (2019) and FAPERJ CNE (2022) and serves
as an editor for various scientic journals. He is also a professor at UFRJ and UFF.BIO.
ORCID
Roberto P. Madruga http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5260-9262
Bryan Hochstein http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6266-5049
Leonardo Luiz Lima Navarro http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9561-8836
Édison Renato Silva http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4994-7057
Assed N. Haddad http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4793-0905
Data availability statement
The authors conrm that the data supporting the ndings of this study are available within the article and its sup-
plementary materials.
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Appendix
Appendix A. In more detail, we present the tasks derived from the denitions of customer success
Task Denition Source
CS1. Maximize customer and
company sustainable proven
protability.
Customer Success is a long-term, scientically engineered, and
professionally directed business strategy for maximizing customer
and company sustainable proven protability.
(Customer Success Association,
2023)
CS2. Integrate functions of
marketing, sales, services and
training.
Customer Success is an integration of functions and activities of
Marketing, Sales, Professional Services, Training, and Support into
a new profession.
(Customer Success Association,
2023)
CS3. Create champions of both the
product and brand.
Customer success’s focus externally is to create champions of both
the product and brand (CS3). To create a champion of a product,
customer success must help the customer maximize their return
on investment (CS4). To create a champion of a brand, customer
success must create an emotional experience (CS5) branded
through stellar customer experience and customer service (CS6).
(Chiang, 2019)
CS4. Help the customer maximize
their return on investment.
CS5. Create an emotional customer
experience.
CS6. Create stellar customer
experience and customer service. A third new organizational unit, which also has an analogue in the
software industry, is responsible for managing the customer
experience (CS6) and ensuring that customers get the most from the
product (CS16). This task is crucial with smart, connected products,
especially to ensure renewals in product-as-a-service models (CS34).
(Porter & Heppelmann, 2015)
CS7. Establish and empower a
customer-centric mindset within
the company.
Customer success focus internally is to establish and empower a
customer-centric mindset within the company (CS7). To establish
this mindset, customer success needs to beat the drum around
customer centricity to prove value (CS8). To empower this
mindset customer success needs to provide continuous feedback
(which includes creating a good relationship between the
company and clients (CS10) to get constructive, continuous
feedback) to enable other verticals to be customer focused (CS9).
(Chiang, 2019)
CS8. “Beat the drum” around customer
centricity to prove value.
CS9. Provide internal continuous
feedback to enable verticals to be
customer focused.
CS10. Create a good relationship
between the company and clients.
CS11. Dene customer’s success
goals in measurable terms.
CSM is responsible for customer goal management. Goal management
entails understanding customer goals (CS11), inuencing customer
strategies to achieve success (CS20), and shaping customer goals
with the seller’s own oering such that the oering is pertinent to
customers’ current goal pursuits (CS21).
(Hilton et al., 2020)
Customer success is where SaaS businesses live and die. There is
simply no excuse for not having a customer success team with
ecient processes and a great skill set (CS28) to help the
customer achieve business impact (CS29). The main goal of those
processes and skills is to identify that impact (CS11), monitor
progress towards that goal (CS18), and communicate closely with
the customer throughout their journey.
(Levin & van der Kooij, 2018)
CSM typically gets involved with customers when the contract is
signed, and the rst step is to dene a customer’s “success goals”
in measurable terms (CS11). Simultaneously, the CSM works out
with the customer the responsibilities of both parties for
reaching those goals (CS12). Then the CSM’s role switches to
proactive reporting of product usage by the customer (CS13)
and documenting outcomes associated with that usage (CS14).
(Gelb et al., 2020)
CS12. Work out with the customers
the responsibilities for reaching
customer’s success goals
CS13. Proactive report product usage
by the customer.
This unit 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 (CS13) and identifying ways to increase it (CS20).
(Porter & Heppelmann, 2015)
(Continued)
20 R. P. MADRUGA ETAL.
Task Denition Source
CS14. Document outcomes
associated with usage.
CSM typically gets involved with customers when the contract is
signed, and the rst step is to dene a customer’s “success goals”
in measurable terms (CS11). Simultaneously, the CSM works out
with the customer the responsibilities of both parties for
reaching those goals (CS12). Then the CSM’s role switches to
proactive reporting of product usage by the customer (CS13)
and documenting outcomes associated with that usage (CS14).
(Gelb et al., 2020)
CS15. Embed customer centric
language and culture throughout
an organization.
CSM can represent small shifts in embedding customer centric
language and culture throughout an organization (CS15) with
few changes to operations or practice. These shifts focus on a
narrow, local version of CSM in which the seller wants to make
sure the customer fully utilizes the seller’s oerings (CS16).
(Hilton et al., 2020)
CS16. Ensure the customer fully
utilizes the seller’s oerings.
Customer success management, which we operationally dene as
“the proactive (versus reactive) relational engagement of
customers (CS23) to ensure the value potential of product
oerings is realized by the customer,” is becoming a common
industry practice (CS16).
(Hochstein et al., 2020; 2021)
A third new organizational unit, which also has an analogue in the
software industry, is responsible for managing the customer
experience (CS6) and ensuring that customers get the most from
the product (CS16). This task is crucial with smart, connected
products, especially to ensure renewals in product-as-a-service
models (CS34).
(Porter & Heppelmann, 2015)
CS17. Coordinate customers’
value-in-use among stakeholder
groups.
Customer Success Manager is a distinct job role that coordinates
customers’ value-in-use among stakeholder groups.
(Hilton et al., 2020)
CS18. Measure the customers’
current-value-in-use and
predicted-value-in-use.
CSM departs from traditional customer management key
performance indicators toward a new set of key performance
indicators focused on customers’ current and predicted
value-in-use.
(Hilton et al., 2020)
Customer success is where SaaS businesses live and die. There is
simply no excuse for not having a customer success team with
ecient processes and a great skill set (CS28) to help the
customer achieve business impact (CS29). The main goal of those
processes and skills is to identify that impact (CS11), monitor
progress towards that goal (CS18), and communicate closely with
the customer throughout their journey.
(Levin & van der Kooij, 2018)
CSM as a departure from Customer Experience and Customer
Engagement by relying on leading indicators that not only
represent the customers’ current value-in-use (CS18), but also
predict customers’ future value-in-use (CS19).
(Hilton et al., 2020; Hochstein
et al., 2020)
CS19. Rely on leading indicators that
represent current-value-in-use and
predicted-value-in-use.
CS20. Inuence customer strategies
to achieve success.
This unit 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 (CS13) and identifying ways to
increase it (CS20).
(Porter & Heppelmann, 2015)
CSM is responsible for customer goal management. Goal
management entails understanding customer goals (CS11),
inuencing customer strategies to achieve success (CS20), and
shaping customer goals with the seller’s own oering such that
the oering is pertinent to customers’ current goal pursuits
(CS21).
(Hilton et al., 2020)
CS21. Shape customer goals with the
seller’s own oering such that
oers are pertinent to customers’
current goal pursuits.
CS22. Proactively prioritize customer
experience and engagement
toward value-in-use.
CSM not only builds upon traditional customer management
practices, but also represents a departure from traditional
customer management practices by proactively prioritizing
customers’ experience and engagement toward maximum.
(Hilton et al., 2020)
CS23. Create proactive relational
engagement with customers.
Customer success management, which we operationally dene as
“the proactive (versus reactive) relational engagement of
customers (CS23) to ensure the value potential of product
oerings is realized by the customer,” is becoming a common
industry practice (CS16).
(Hochstein et al., 2020; 2021)
CS24. Adopt ambidextrous
approaches to managing dynamic
relationships.
CSM is an evolution of the trend toward service-sales interfaces and
adoption of ambidextrous approaches to managing dynamic
relationships.
(Hochstein et al., 2020)
CS25. Become a trusted single point
of contact to the customers.
CSMs use information, a proactive focus, and authentic relationships
to become a trusted “single point of contact” between the rm
and its customers.
(Hochstein et al., 2020)
CS26. Bring together notions of
customer centricity, journey and
post-sales into a new role.
CSM is an evolution of concepts central to the service-sales rm,
which brings together notions such as customer centricity,
customer journey, and post–sales service into a new role.
(Hochstein et al., 2020)
CS27. Make marketing, sales and
post-sales responsible for CS.
Customer success has become a team sport as well. Everybody,
from marketing, to sales, to post-sales personnel, is responsible
for customer success.
(Levin & van der Kooij, 2018)
(Continued)
Appendix A. (Continued)
COGENT BUSINESS & MANAGEMENT 21
Task Denition Source
CS28. Have a customer success team
with ecient processes and great
skill set.
Customer success is where SaaS businesses live and die. There is
simply no excuse for not having a customer success team with
ecient processes and a great skill set (CS28) to help the
customer achieve business impact (CS29). The main goal of those
processes and skills is to identify that impact (CS11), monitor
progress towards that goal (CS18), and communicate closely with
the customer throughout their journey.
(Levin & van der Kooij, 2018)
CS29. Help the customer achieve
business impact.
Customer Success is the missing link that helps your clients achieve
their desired outcomes.
(Mehta & Pickens, 2020)
Customer Success is the business methodology of ensuring your
customers achieve their desired outcomes while using your
product or service.
(Vaidyanathan & Rabago, 2020)
CS30. Establish a business that
creates monthly recurring
payments.
Customer success is the next big organization change. As with IT,
customer success is becoming a thing because something else is
changing in this case, the business model. Subscriptions are all
the rage. From software to music to movies to diet programs.
The way to the heart of investors and the public markets is to
establish a business that creates monthly recurring payments
from lots and lots of customers.
(Mehta et al., 2016)
CS31. Participate in CS groups and
best practices.
Customer success has also become a new discipline. Like any other
discipline—sales or product management or customer support—
there are groups and forums and best practices and conferences
created to support and nurture this new craft and its
practitioners, into a place alongside the other necessary roles in
a successful company.
(Mehta et al., 2016)
CS32. Drive more revenue from
customers from renewals,
expansion, and advocacy.
Customer Success is about driving more revenue from your
customers in terms of renewals, expansion, and advocacy. But
from the client’s point of view, they don’t care about that at all.
(Mehta & Pickens, 2020)
CS33. Ensure renewals in
product-as-a-service models.
A third new organizational unit, which also has an analogue in the
software industry, is responsible for managing the customer
experience (CS6) and ensuring that customers get the most from
the product (CS16). This task is crucial with smart, connected
products, especially to ensure renewals in product-as-a-service
models (CS34).
(Porter & Heppelmann, 2015)
CS34. Become an ambassador of a
new mindset of CS.
Customer Success is a new mindset, and the role of Customer
Success Manager is its ambassador.
(Vaidyanathan & Rabago, 2020)
Appendix A. (Continued)
22 R. P. MADRUGA ETAL.
Appendix B. In more detail, we present the tasks derived from the denitions of relationship marketing.
Task Denition Source
RM1. Identify, establish, develop, maintain,
enhance and terminate relationships with
customers, partners and other stakeholders at a
prot.
Relationship Marketing is attracting, maintaining and - in multi service organizations - enhancing customer
relationships.
(Abhijeet & Sujata, 2019; Berry, 1983; Morgan &
Hunt, 1994; Yadav & Singh, 2014)
Relationship Marketing refers to all marketing activities directed at establishing, developing, and maintaining
successful relational exchange in supplier, lateral, buyer, and integral partnerships.
(Abhijeet & Sujata, 2019; Morgan & Hunt, 1994)
Relationship Marketing emphasizes the importance of establishing, maintaining and enhancing relationships
between customers and buyers, in comparison to the transactional orientation of the classical marketing
paradigm.
(Grönroos, 2004; Harun etal., 2018)
RM concerns attracting, developing, and retaining customer relations. (Harker, 1999; Hunt, 1997)
Relationship Marketing primarily includes all aspects pertaining to customers in terms of establishing,
developing and retaining the relationships.
(Kumar, 2020; Marshall, 2010)
RM is a process, which consist of identifying potential customers to establish relationship with them and
maintaining the relationship for a long time.
(Grönroos, 2004; Sheth & Parvatiyar, 1995; Yadav
& Singh, 2014).
RM as all marketing activities directed toward establishing, developing and maintaining successful
relationship.
(Morgan & Hunt, 1994; Yadav & Singh, 2014)
Relationship Marketing is about mutually benecial exchanges and fulllment of promises by both parties in
a series of interactions over the lifetime of their relationship.
(Abhijeet & Sujata, 2019; Gronroos, 1994)
Relationship Marketing is the process of identifying, developing, maintaining, and terminating relational
exchanges with the purpose of enhancing performance.
(Harun et al., 2018; Palmatier, 2008)
Relationship Marketing practices are used by businesses as a marketing strategy to create, build and
improve relationships with the clients (RM1) and to ensure that such relationship benets both the
customers and the businesses (RM6).
(Iwuchukwu et al., 2019; Van Tonder &
Roberts-Lombard, 2015)
An organization engaged in proactively creating, developing and maintaining committed, interactive and
protable exchanges with selected customers [partners] overtime is engaged in relationship marketing.
(Harker, 1999; Kumar, 2020)
RM is an emergent disciplinary framework for creating, developing and sustaining exchanges of value
between the parties involved (RM1), whereby exchange relationships evolve to provide continuous and
stable links in the supply chain (RM18).
(Ballantyne, 1997; Harker, 1999; Mattsson, 1997)
It is a process of identifying and developing a protable customer relationship (RM1) by delivering superior
customer value, service and satisfaction (RM35).
(Ryals, 2006; Webster, 1992)
Relationship Marketing is to identify and establish, maintain and enhance and when necessary also to
terminate relationships with customers and other stakeholders, at a prot (RM1), so that the objectives of
all parties are met (RM2), and that this is done by a mutual exchange and fullment of promises (RM3).
(Das, 2009; Gronroos, 1990a; 1990b; 1994; Harker,
1999; Ivanković, 2008; Kumar, 2020)
RM2. Meet the objectives of all parties.
RM3. Make a mutual exchange and fullment of
promises.
RM4. Establish, maintain and enhance a
sustainable win-win outcome-focused
commercial bond.
Establishing, maintaining and enhancing a sustainable win-win outcome-focused commercial bond among
the stakeholders (RM4) focusing on mutually benecial, diverse goals based on the learning (success or
reason of failure) of the initial RM (RM5).
(Gide & Riad Shams, 2011)
RM5. Focus on mutually benecial goals based on
learning. Relationship Marketing is the process whereby a rm builds long-term alliances with both prospective and
current customers (RM7) so that both seller and buyer work toward a common set of specied goals
(RM5).
(Abhijeet & Sujata, 2019; (Evans & Laskin, 1994)
RM6. Ensure the relationship benets both the
customers and company.
Relationship Marketing practices are used by businesses as a marketing strategy to create, build and
improve relationships with the clients (RM1) and to ensure that such relationship benets both the
customers and the businesses (RM6).
(Iwuchukwu et al., 2019; Van Tonder &
Roberts-Lombard, 2015)
Relationship with customers should be prot oriented (RM30) so that objectives of both parties must be
satisfying (RM6).
(Gronroos, 1990a; Yadav & Singh, 2014)
(Continued)
COGENT BUSINESS & MANAGEMENT 23
Task Denition Source
RM7. Build long-term alliances with prospective
and current customers.
Relationship Marketing is the process whereby a rm builds long-term alliances with both prospective and
current customers (RM7) so that both seller and buyer work toward a common set of specied goals
(RM5).
(Abhijeet & Sujata, 2019; Evans & Laskin, 1994)
Relationship Marketing highlight on customer retention (RM10) meaning that rms make action to keep
their existing customers relatively than to attract new ones thus create strong long-term relationships
(RM7).
(Harun et al., 2018; Šonková & Grabowska, 2015)
Relationship Marketing will assist the rm to: focus on customer retention (RM10), oer superior product/
service benets (RM8), pursue long term vision (RM7), emphasize exemplary customer service (RM25),
engender customer commitment, ensure that quality is the concern of all (RM26).
(Ivanković, 2008; Jay & Ria, 1999)
RM8. Provide high quality product and services.
The core function of Relationship Marketing is to providing high quality product and services (RM8), and
committed in providing timely, trustworthy information to the customer which result in mutually benets
by remaining loyal to the organization (RM9).
(Abhijeet & Sujata, 2019)
RM9. Commit to provide timely, trustworthy
information to the customer.
RM10. Retain current customers. Relationship Marketing highlight on customer retention (RM10) meaning that rms make action to keep
their existing customers relatively than to attract new ones thus create strong long-term relationships
(RM7).
(Harun et al., 2018; Šonková & Grabowska, 2015)
Relationship Marketing will assist the rm to: focus on customer retention (RM10), oer superior product/
service benets (RM8), pursue long term vision (RM7), emphasize exemplary customer service (RM25),
engender customer commitment, ensure that quality is the concern of all (RM26).
(Ivanković, 2008; Jay & Ria, 1999)
Relationship Marketing techniques are applied with a focus on building and maintaining robust bonding
particularly with existing customers (RM11). In addition to making eorts for developing a new customer
base (RM29), it is always benecial for the companies to optimally capitalise on existing customer base
also, thereby making it a cost-eective approach (RM30). Thus, relationship marketing encompasses two
stages wherein the rst stage is to attract customers for given products or services (RM31), and the
second stage is to apply several approaches and methods so as to retain them for a longer duration
(RM10).
(Kumar, 2020)
Relationship marketing is strategic, emotional, behavioral and put emphasis on maintaining relationship with
Stakeholders, while customer relationship management is tactical.
(Sin et al., 2005); (Yadav & Singh, 2014)
RM is a set of practices that aim to retain current customers (RM10) through narrowing of the
company-customer relationship (RM11). To this end, it is necessary to be able to identify each of the
individual customers (RM12), to sustain with them a constant, two-way dialogue (RM13) and, through the
accumulated information provided (RM14), to adapt supplies to the needs expressed by customers
(RM15).
(Barreto et al., 2015; Gordon, 1998); Vavra, 1993)
RM11. Narrow the relationship with customers.
Relationship Marketing techniques are applied with a focus on building and maintaining robust bonding
particularly with existing customers (RM11). In addition to making eorts for developing a new customer
base (RM29), it is always benecial for the companies to optimally capitalise on existing customer base
also, thereby making it a cost-eective approach (RM30). Thus, relationship marxketing encompasses two
stages wherein the rst stage is to attract customers for given products or services (RM31), and the
second stage is to apply several approaches and methods so as to retain them for a longer duration
(RM10).
(Kumar, 2020)
Relationship Marketing is a broad concept which has been explored over the decades by several researchers
and practitioners. They have proposed various denitions and frameworks on relationship marketing, but
it is realised that the most eective ones depend on how the organizations manage their relationships
with the customers (RM11) and take it to another level wherein both customers and rms are willing to
commit for enhanced value and benets (RM33).
(Kumar, 2020)
Relationship marketing (RM), one of the most widely researched areas in marketing, is predicated on the
expectation that relational eorts to improve a business relationship will in turn improve performance.
(Vieira et al., 2014)
(Continued)
Appendix B. (Continued)
24 R. P. MADRUGA ETAL.
Task Denition Source
RM12. Identify each customer. RM is a set of practices that aim to retain current customers (RM10) through narrowing of the
company-customer relationship (RM11). To this end, it is necessary to be able to identify each of the
individual customers (RM12), to sustain with them a constant, two-way dialogue (RM13) and, through the
accumulated information provided (RM14), to adapt supplies to the needs expressed by customers
(RM15).
(Barreto et al., 2015; Gordon, 1998; Vavra, 1993)
RM13. Sustain a constant two-way dialogue with
each customer.
RM14. Accumulate relationship information.
RM15. Adapt company oerings to the customer’s
needs using the accumulated information.
RM16. Earn the customers’ favor and loyalty Relationship Marketing is a new-old concept. The idea of a business earning the customers’ favor and loyalty
(RM16) by satisfying their wants and needs was not unknown to the earliest merchants (RM17).
(Berry, 1995)
RM17. Satisfy customers’ wants and needs.
RM18. Provide continuous and stable links in the
supply chain.
RM is an emergent disciplinary framework for creating, developing and sustaining exchanges of value
between the parties involved (RM1), whereby exchange relationships evolve to provide continuous and
stable links in the supply chain (RM18).
(Ballantyne, 1997; Harker, 1999; Mattsson, 1997)
RM19. Full all the promises given by the
company.
RM involves the total fullment of all the promises given by the supplying organization (RM19), the
development of commitment and trust (RM20) … and the establishment (where possible) of personal
contacts and bonds between the customer and the rm’s representatives (RM21); the eventual emergence
of feelings within each party of mutual obligation (RM22), of having common goals (RM23), and of
involvement with and empathy for the other side (RM24).
(Bennett, 1996; Harker, 1999)
RM20. Develop commitment and trust.
RM21. Establish personal contacts with customers
and representatives.
RM22. Emerge the feeling of mutual obligation.
RM23. Emerge the feeling of common goals.
RM24. Engage with empathy for the other side.
RM25. Emphasize exemplary customer service. Relationship Marketing will assist the rm to: focus on customer retention (RM10), oer superior product/
service benets (RM8), pursue long term vision (RM7), emphasize exemplary customer service (RM25),
engender customer commitment, ensure that quality is the concern of all (RM26).
(Ivanković, 2008; Jay & Ria, 1999)
RM26. Engender customer commitment.
RM27. Ensure that quality is the concern of all. Relationship Marketing will assist the rm to: focus on customer retention, oer superior product/service
benets, pursue long term vision, emphasize exemplary customer service, engender customer
commitment, ensure that quality is the concern of all.
(Ivanković, 2008; Jay & Ria, 1999)
RM28. Facilitate marketing to be performed in a
pertinent manner.
Relationship Marketing is a systematic approach, and it can very well be applied to managerial needs also.
The systematic approach facilitates such marketing to be performed in a pertinent manner including all
the actors, environments and processes.
(Kumar, 2020; Sheth etal. (1988)
RM29. Make eorts for developing a new
customer base.
Relationship Marketing techniques are applied with a focus on building and maintaining robust bonding
particularly with existing customers (RM11). In addition to making eorts for developing a new customer
base (RM29), it is always benecial for the companies to optimally capitalise on existing customer base
also, thereby making it a cost-eective approach (RM30). Thus, relationship marketing encompasses two
stages wherein the rst stage is to attract customers for given products or services (RM31), and the
second stage is to apply several approaches and methods so as to retain them for a longer duration
(RM10).
(Kumar, 2020)
RM30. Capitalize optimally on existing customer
base.
Relationship with customers should be prot oriented (RM30) so that objectives of both parties must be
satisfying (RM6).
(Gronroos, 1990a; Yadav & Singh, 2014)
RM31. Attract customers for given products or
services.
Relationship Marketing techniques are applied with a focus on building and maintaining robust bonding
particularly with existing customers (RM11). In addition to making eorts for developing a new customer
base (RM29), it is always benecial for the companies to optimally capitalise on existing customer base
also, thereby making it a cost-eective approach (RM30). Thus, relationship marketing encompasses two
stages wherein the rst stage is to attract customers for given products or services (RM31), and the
second stage is to apply several approaches and methods so as to retain them for a longer duration
(RM10).
(Kumar, 2020)
Appendix B. (Continued)
(Continued)
COGENT BUSINESS & MANAGEMENT 25
Task Denition Source
RM32. Engage in cooperative activities and
programs wih customers.
Relationship marketing is the ongoing process of engaging in cooperative and collaborative activities and
programs with immediate and end-user customers (RM32) to create or enhance mutual economic value,
at reduced cost (RM33).
(Kumar, 2020; Parvatiyar & Sheth, 1999)
RM33. Create or enhance mutual economic value,
at reduced cost. Relationship Marketing is a broad concept which has been explored over the decades by several researchers
and practitioners. They have proposed various denitions and frameworks on relationship marketing, but
it is realised that the most eective ones depend on how the organizations manage their relationships
with the customers (RM11) and take it to another level wherein both customers and rms are willing to
commit for enhanced value and benets (RM33).
(Kumar, 2020)
RM34. Focus on customer-centric vision and
strategy.
RM has been dened by scholars in terms of its vision, strategy, technology, process and activity. The basis
of classifying RM literature is justied as the literature focuses on organisational vision and strategy that
is customer centric and utilizing relationship marketing as a functional area to full customer centric
organisational vision.
(Yadav & Singh, 2014)
RM35. Deliver superior customer value, service and
satisfaction.
It is a process of identifying and developing a protable customer relationship (RM1) by delivering superior
customer value, service and satisfaction (RM35).
(Ryals, 2006; Webster, 1992; Yadav & Singh, 2014)
Appendix B. (Continued)
