Customer Success Playbook

What is a Customer Success Playbook?

A Customer Success Playbook is a documented set of steps, best practices, and guidelines that help Customer Success Managers navigate key customer scenarios consistently. Playbooks make customer engagement repeatable, scalable, and predictable.

Think of playbooks as the "recipes" for customer success—they outline what to do, when to do it, and how to do it for common situations your team encounters.

Types of Customer Success Playbooks

Proactive Playbooks (Growth-focused)

• Onboarding Playbook: Steps to get customers to first value quickly
• Adoption Playbook: Drive usage of key features
• Expansion Playbook: Identify and execute upsell opportunities
• Renewal Playbook: 90-60-30 day renewal process
• Advocacy Playbook: Turn happy customers into references

Reactive Playbooks (Risk-mitigation)

• At-Risk Playbook: Steps when health score drops
• Escalation Playbook: Handle critical issues
• Champion Change Playbook: When your main contact leaves
• Win-back Playbook: Re-engage churned customers

What to Include in a Playbook

• Trigger: What initiates the playbook
• Owner: Who is responsible
• Steps: Specific actions to take
• Timeline: When each step should happen
• Templates: Email templates, meeting agendas
• Success criteria: How you know it worked
• Escalation path: What to do if it doesn't work