
Customer success is more than that usual buzzword – it’s a core business strategy that helps you build true, long-lasting relationships with your customers. Companies can achieve great results when they keep their customers' success in mind, which leads then to significantly improved customer satisfaction and establish never changing customer loyalty. Customer success is usually linked to the SaaS industry, in which continuous active engagement with the users is a must to sustain the subscription model but the very principles of it are highly effective in non-SaaS companies as well.
Customer success strategies are game changers, no matter if you work in retail, manufacturing,g or healthcare. In contrast to SaaS companies, companies offering physical products or services can still grow their business by taking care of their customers, and retention first, as opposed to just one-time transactions. This doesn’t just involve people contacting you when they have a problem; the holistic customer success approach tries to solve the eventual customer experience and leads to higher levels of loyalty, repeat business, and customer advocacy.
What is Customer Success?
At its core, customer success is all about helping your customers achieve the outcomes they’re hoping for while interacting with your business. It goes beyond simply selling a product or service—it’s about building genuine relationships that turn first-time buyers into loyal, long-term advocates of your brand.
Key Principles of Customer Success:
There are a few core principles I follow when it comes to customer success, and they’ve helped me create stronger relationships with customers and drive better outcomes. These are the principles I believe every business—non-SaaS or SaaS—can benefit from:
Proactive Support
Instead of waiting for customers to come to you with issues, you should be thinking ahead. Proactive support means anticipating customer needs before they even arise. Whether it’s providing guidance on using a new feature, offering advice on best practices, or even just checking in to see if they’re happy with your product, being proactive makes the customer feel cared for and valued. This not only prevents issues from escalating but also strengthens the customer relationship.
Value Delivery
At the end of the day, it’s not just about what your product or service does; it’s about what your customer gets out of it. Value delivery is ensuring the customer is seeing real, measurable benefits from your offering. This is where I always make sure to clearly communicate with my customers, check in regularly, and show them how to get the most out of what they’ve invested. If they don’t feel the value, they’ll go elsewhere—so making sure that value is apparent and tangible is critical.
Customer-Centric Approach
Finally, I’ve found that personalization is huge in customer success. Every customer has their unique goals, needs, and challenges. Taking a customer-centric approach means tailoring the experience and offering support that aligns specifically with their situation. This could mean offering solutions that are better suited to their goals or providing customized advice based on their journey with your product. When you take the time to focus on what’s important to them, customers not only stay longer—they also become your best advocates.
Difference Between Customer Success and Customer Service

It’s easy to get confused between customer success and customer service, but there’s a big difference, and I want to break it down for you in simple terms.
Proactivity vs Reactivity
There is a huge difference between customer success and customer service — which is how you interact with your customers.
Customer Success is all about being proactive. I try to anticipate customer needs before they even arise. If a potential issue could impact a customer’s experience in the future, I want to address it now, so they never even have to ask. It’s about ensuring long-term satisfaction and making sure customers get the most out of what they’ve purchased.
Customer Service, on the other hand, is more reactive. It typically kicks in when there’s already a problem. When customers reach out with a complaint or issue, customer service teams are there to resolve it and make things right.
Focus: Growth vs Resolution
Customer Success focuses on the big picture—long-term growth, continuous satisfaction, and nurturing relationships that benefit both the customer and the business over time. The goal is to make customers feel they’re not just purchasing a product—they’re gaining a true partnership. This can also mean helping customers upsell or cross-sell by offering new solutions as their needs evolve.
Customer Service is focused on immediate resolution. Their goal is simple: to quickly fix a problem, whether it’s a product malfunction, billing error, or anything else. The priority is to help customers with their immediate issues and move them along to avoid frustration.
Metrics for Success: Loyalty vs Time-to-Resolution
The way success is measured also varies between customer success and customer service.
With customer success, I focus on retention, loyalty, and increasing customer lifetime value (LTV). How long does the customer stay? Do they return for repeat purchases? Are they referring to others? These are the kinds of things I track to make sure the customer experience is delivering lasting value.
In customer service, success metrics are more immediate, typically revolving around time-to-resolution and CSAT scores (Customer Satisfaction Scores). How quickly can issues be resolved, and how satisfied was the customer with that solution?
Why is Customer Success Important?
Customer Success is something I just can’t afford to lose out on for non-SaaS companies like mine. There is no shortage of working in the world, and each industry — from retail to manufacturing and everything in between – has unique customer concepts. When it comes to customer success, the industry doesn’t matter – no matter which business you’re in, it can have incredible benefits for your organization.
Boosted Retention
First off, happy customers are more likely to come back. It’s no secret that retaining a customer is far more cost-effective than acquiring a new one, and customer success plays a huge role in retention. By helping customers achieve their goals and solving problems proactively, I can increase the chances that they’ll stay loyal to my brand. Whether it’s offering support, sending them useful information, or simply ensuring their satisfaction with my products, these efforts go a long way in keeping customers around for the long term.
Revenue Growth
Satisfied customers don’t just stick around—they’re also more likely to make repeat purchases and refer others. Think about it: when customers are truly happy with the experience you’ve provided, they tend to come back for more. Plus, a happy customer is your best form of advertising—they’ll refer friends, family, and colleagues to your business. In the long run, focusing on customer success directly contributes to revenue growth. Happy customers turn into repeat customers, and those repeat customers drive bigger sales and stronger relationships with your brand.
Improved Reputation
Lastly, focusing on customer success can dramatically improve your company’s reputation. Building a strong base of loyal, satisfied customers is one of the best ways to enhance your brand’s credibility. Word of mouth still holds a lot of weight—positive reviews, testimonials, and recommendations come from customers who feel valued. And when your business has a reputation for truly caring about its customers, it’s not just a competitive advantage—it becomes a reputation that draws in even more customers.
Facts Supporting Customer Success

The importance of customer success goes far beyond just a nice-to-have. The data supporting it is pretty compelling, and it makes me realize how critical it is to put in the effort to truly take care of customers.
1. Small Gains in Retention Can Lead to Big Profits
Here's a stat that stood out to me: According to Forbes, if you can improve your customer retention rates by just 5%, it can increase your profits anywhere from 25% to 95%. That’s huge. It makes sense when you think about it. Keeping a customer around—not having to go through the entire cycle of finding new customers all over again—brings you consistent, long-term revenue. And a loyal customer is likely to spend more over time. It’s one of the biggest reasons why customer success isn’t just about service; it’s about long-term relationships that lead to sustainable growth.
2. Bad Experiences Lead to Lost Customers
Bain & Company found something else that stuck with me: customers are 4 times more likely to purchase from a competitor after a bad experience. This shows just how sensitive customers can be when things go wrong. One negative experience can quickly drive them away. But here’s the flip side: By focusing on customer success, you reduce the likelihood of those bad experiences happening. And when customers are happy, they not only stay but often stick with you longer because they know you’re focused on their success, not just the sale.
Common Challenges Non-SaaS Companies Face in Implementing Customer Success
While focusing on customer success is important for all types of businesses, I’ve seen that non-SaaS companies face their own set of unique challenges when trying to implement these strategies. Here are a few hurdles I’ve encountered—and I bet some might sound familiar to you:
1. Post-Sale Engagement
One of the biggest challenges non-SaaS businesses face is post-sale engagement. Unlike SaaS companies, where ongoing subscriptions naturally foster continuous communication and touchpoints with customers, non-SaaS companies often wrap up their customer interaction right after the sale. In retail, for example, the focus is primarily on the transaction itself, and after that, engagement can drop off completely.
2. Measuring Satisfaction
For non-SaaS companies, measuring satisfaction can be tricky. In SaaS businesses, churn metrics and Customer Success Platforms (CSPs) help track customer retention and happiness. However traditional businesses often lack the tools or infrastructure to monitor satisfaction effectively over time.
3. Resource Constraints
Another challenge non-SaaS companies often face is the lack of resources to dedicate to a full-blown customer success program. Since there’s no recurring revenue stream like in SaaS, it can feel hard to justify a dedicated customer success team, let alone specialized software or systems for tracking customer journeys.
How Does Customer Success Differ in Non-SaaS Companies?
Given their subscription-based models, SaaS companies easily come to mind when you mention customer success, however, this is the case with far more than just SaaS companies. But I can say from experience that customer success isn’t only for SaaS. These principles are equally applicable for companies that are or aren’t SaaS, although the method can differ.
Unique Characteristics of Non-SaaS Businesses
If you are in a non-SaaS business, I see a few characteristics that really stand out and the way that we approach customer success is largely based on those. Because they mostly consist of one-time or infrequent transactions and serve customers in multiple industries such as retail, healthcare, and manufacturing, they make up these businesses. We have challenges and opportunities that even if we don’t deal with subscriptions, regardless.
Transactional Focus
For non-SaaS companies, revenue primarily comes from single transactions. Unlike businesses with subscription models, which thrive on continuous revenue, our sales typically happen once, and we need to work harder to get customers back. Repeat business is everything—without it, it’s tough to keep that revenue stream consistent.
Product-Centric Approach
Many non-SaaS businesses sell physical products, which brings another dynamic to customer success. With goods, the focus is more on making sure customers get the quality product they expect and that it’s delivered on time. The interaction doesn't necessarily continue after the sale unless the customer needs support or has questions about the product.
Customer Experience Reliance
Businesses that are non-SaaS depend on the customer experience to build loyalty. Since you don’t have as many transactions, you only have a couple of opportunities as a customer, so every interaction holds value. It’s the feeling of the customer at every touchpoint—from the first query to months or years after they purchased something—that can shape their loyalty for or against.
Key Differences Between SaaS and Non-SaaS Customer Success Approaches

I’ve often compared how customer success works in SaaS versus non-SaaS companies, and there are some important distinctions to note. While both are working toward the same goal—creating happy, loyal customers—the way we approach it differs because of the business models.
Here’s a breakdown of how SaaS and non-SaaS businesses each handle customer success:
Revenue Model
In SaaS companies, the revenue is primarily generated through recurring subscriptions. Customers are billed monthly or annually, which keeps the business revenue flowing continuously and helps SaaS companies stay in touch with their customers over time. This subscription model naturally demands ongoing engagement and a higher level of attention to customer success to retain those customers long-term.
Customer Lifecycle
For SaaS businesses, the customer life cycle is continuous. It makes sense, then, that SaaS founders and businesses have to stay in touch with their customers over time through things like new feature rollouts, updates, or ongoing support, which naturally happens with monthly or yearly billing cycles. A continuous effort to keep customers staying, upgrade their services, and/ or renew their subscriptions; making sure they still keep feeling the value of their investment.
Success Metrics
SaaS businesses track success metrics like churn rate, Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR), and Customer Lifetime Value (LTV). These metrics are vital for understanding whether customers are continuing to use and pay for their subscriptions over time. Churn rate, for example, tells SaaS companies how many customers cancel their subscriptions, so they can focus on improving retention.
Tools and Technology
In SaaS companies, customer success platforms like Gainsight and ChurnZero are often used to monitor customer health, track engagement, and flag potential issues before they become serious problems. These platforms make it easier for customer success teams to analyze data and drive proactive strategies aimed at retaining and upselling customers.
Building a Customer Success Strategy for Non-SaaS Companies

For SaaS businesses, the customer life cycle is continuous. It makes sense, then, that SaaS founders and businesses have to stay in touch with their customers over time through things like new feature rollouts, updates, or ongoing support, which naturally happens with monthly or yearly billing cycles. A continuous effort to keep customers staying, upgrade their services on, and/ or renew their subscriptions; making sure they still keep feeling the value of their investment.
Identify Customer Touchpoints
Pre-Sale Touchpoints
Before a customer even thinks about purchasing from you, they are already engaging with your brand. These pre-sale touchpoints include everything from your advertising and marketing campaigns to their first visit to your website.
Advertising: Do they employ tailoring their ads to directly to your perfect customer’s needs? Are your messages cross-platform (online, print, etc.)? A big difference in first touch generating initial interest is creating an authentic connection at that first touchpoint.
Website Visits: Your website needs to be user-friendly, loaded with helpful information, and easy to navigate. People often browse the site multiple times before making a purchasing decision, so keeping it clear and accessible encourages customers to leap.
Consultations or inquiries: Are you making it easy for a potential customer to ask someone questions who can help? So having somebody available to answer questions from them as they work through their research phase, even if that’s on chat, email, or phone, builds confidence in the decision they make.
Purchase Phase
Once the customer is ready to commit, the purchase phase begins. This phase is vital because it directly impacts how the customer feels about the transaction and whether they will move forward in a positive direction.
Checkout: This process needs to be simple, fast, and secure. Long or complicated checkout processes can lead to abandoned carts or frustrated customers. Make the payment process as seamless as possible.
Contracts or Agreements: If your business requires contracts (whether for products or services), these should be clear, concise, and easy to understand. Clarity in the agreements establishes trust.
Delivery of Service or Product: This touch point must be timely and resoundingly better than what is expected. All of this can kill customer satisfaction.
Post-Sale Engagement
The post-sale phase is just as important as all the others. If you neglect customer success after a sale, you risk losing the customer’s loyalty or reputation.
Follow-ups: After the purchase, check in with your customers. A simple email or call thanking them and asking about their experience goes a long way in building trust.
Warranty Claims: If your business involves products with warranties, make sure the process is as hassle-free as possible. Clear guidelines and easy access to support can make or break their experience.
Support Queries: Therefore, it is critical to provide a simple, simple-obtain customer service channel. When issues are resolved timely, customers feel valued. Which increases the chances of keeping them and getting them to come back to your store the next time they buy something.
2. Gather and Analyze Customer Feedback
Customer feedback is the foundation of a robust success strategy. Collect insights from:
Surveys (e.g., NPS, CSAT).
Product reviews and social media mentions.
Customer service tickets and support logs.
3. Develop Personalized Follow-Up Systems
Effective follow-ups build loyalty and trust. Examples include:
Transactional Emails: Send your thanks to those customers and new resources.
Post-Purchase Surveys: Find out the experience of others and get recommendations.
Proactive Communication: You can notify them of product updates, discounts, or services.
Tools and Techniques for Tracking Customer Success

Tracking and analyzing customer interactions and satisfaction is key to ensuring success. Below are some powerful tools and methods for non-SaaS companies:
1. CRM Systems
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zoho allow businesses to store customer information, track interactions, and follow up strategically.
2. Surveys and Feedback Loops
A collection of regular feedback allows you to fine-tune your strategy. Tools such as:
SurveyMonkey: For collecting detailed post-purchase feedback.
Typeform: Engaging surveys, offers with higher completion rates.
Google Forms: A budget-friendly feedback solution.
Measuring the ROI of Customer Success in Non-SaaS Companies
However, getting stakeholders to understand the value of customer success efforts is not easy for non-SaaS businesses. Here’s how you can measure its ROI:
Metrics to Track
Retention Rate: Percentage of repeat customers over a defined period.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): Total revenue generated per customer.
Upsell and Cross-Sell Revenue: Developing sales by Czeching existing relationships.
Strategies to Keep Customers Engaged Post-Sale

One of the biggest opportunities in non-SaaS industries lies in post-sale engagement. These strategies are designed to keep customers loyal:
1. Offer Loyalty Programs
Encourage repeat purchases with incentives like:
Points-based rewards programs.
Discounts or cashback on future purchases.
Exclusive perks for frequent buyers.
2. Educational Content and Resources
Help customers maximize the value of your product through:
Instructional videos and FAQs.
In-depth product guides and use case examples.
Email newsletters with tips and tricks.
3. Personalization
That means your CRMs can offer more tailored customer interactions based on past purchases and preference data. For instance:
Personalized product recommendations.
Birthday or anniversary discounts.
Conclusion
In the absence of SaaS companies, customer success isn't a choice but a necessary goal to achieve optimum long-term growth and maintain high customer loyalty and connectivity with the market.
A customer-centric approach allows for businesses of all industries to derive benefits by focusing on customer satisfaction, nurturing post-sale relationships, and continuously adjusting to changing trends.
Investing in customer success is a no-brainer if you’re in retail, manufacturing, healthcare, or any other sector, and not just because you want your customers to be satisfied but also successful. Assess where you are at the moment and start with just 1 new strategy today, I promise you’ll succeed.
FAQs
What is the difference between customer success and customer service?
Customer service is a reactive emanation — dealing with customers whenever problems arise. Customer success is proactive; it’s all about helping your customers achieve their goals.
How can small businesses implement customer success strategies?
With that, you now can collect feedback, and personalized follow-ups, introduce loyalty programs, etc. The little changes can bring in good results.
What are cost-effective ways to measure customer satisfaction?
Instead, leverage tools like Google Forms or Typeform that don’t cost you anything. Refinement of a customer-facing feature allows you to measure and track repeat purchase rates and referral trends to optimize customer satisfaction.
Do non-SaaS companies need a dedicated customer success team?
Not necessarily. Small companies do not have huge sales, marketing,g, and customer service teams, but depending on company size, responsibilities may be shared between the sales, marketing, and customer service existing teams in the company, always with such a culture.
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