Customer Success Plan Template

Start about four weeks before the kickoff. Record the customer, the kickoff date that every due date counts from and the people on your side, then gather what you already know before you speak to the customer.

• Set up the success plan: the customer, the kickoff date and the people — the customer, what they bought, whether this is their first plan, the kickoff date agreed with the champion, the contract and renewal dates, whether the customer has named an executive sponsor, and the people on your side; later tasks are assigned from these fields
• Read the sales handoff and every promise made — first plan only; the goals the customer gave during the sale, the business case, the success criteria from the evaluation and anything promised, from the handoff record or the account executive
• Score the previous plan and carry forward what is open — replacement plans only; each outcome in the last plan marked met, partly met or missed, with the evidence, and the open milestones, risks and actions to carry into this one
• Check the contract and what the customer is entitled to — licences, modules, training or services hours included, the support level, the term, the renewal date and the notice period; anything the plan commits you to must sit within the contract or be agreed with the account manager first
• Research the customer’s business — their published priorities and results, recent news, changes in leadership, the pressures in their sector, and what the product is meant to change for them
• Map the stakeholders on both sides — on the customer’s side the executive sponsor, the champion, the admins and each user group with its lead; on yours the CSM, the account manager, the technical lead and the support contact; note anyone missing
• Review the account’s usage and health so far — active users against licences, set-up progress, support tickets and any health score your CS platform gives; for a new customer, what has been set up since signature

Ask before you write. The plan rests on the customer’s outcomes in their own words, the measures they already report on and the people who will do the work, so hear from the champion and the sponsor before drafting anything.

• Secure an executive sponsor — shown only when the customer has not named one; ask the champion who owns the budget and the results the product was bought for, and ask that person to sponsor the plan; if nobody will, record it as the first risk in Phase 3
• Hold a discovery call with the champion — why they bought, what has to change and by when, how they measure it today, who decides, and what got in the way of earlier attempts
• Interview the executive sponsor — the business outcomes they will be judged on, the dates that matter to them, what success would look like at renewal, and how often they want to hear from you
• Find out who will use the product and what they need — each team or user group, how many people, what they do today, what will change for them, and the training and support each will need
• Confirm the customer’s constraints and dependencies — their own projects and freeze periods, budget timing, staff time, IT and security reviews, data access, integrations and anything else the plan depends on
• Agree a baseline for each measure — today’s figure for each measure the customer already reports on, taken from their own reports with the source noted, so later results can be compared with where they started

Write the plan the sponsor will read: a few business outcomes, how each is measured, the milestones that lead to them and who owns each step on both sides. Keep it short enough to walk through in one meeting.

• Write the business outcomes the plan supports — two to four outcomes in the customer’s words, each tied to something the sponsor said, such as fewer errors, faster turnaround or an audit passed, rather than features switched on
• Set a measure, baseline and target for each outcome — one measure the customer already trusts for each outcome, its baseline from Phase 2, the target and the date it is due, and the customer’s owner for the result
• Set the milestones for the first 90 days — the steps that lead to the outcomes, such as set-up complete, the first team live, the first result the customer can see and each further team live, with a date and an owner on both sides; the 30, 60 and 90-day points give the check-ins something to check
• Set adoption targets — active users against licences, and the use of the features each outcome depends on, by user group and date; adoption is a step towards the outcomes, not an outcome in itself
• List what your side will do — set-up, integrations, training sessions, check-ins and any services hours, each within the contract and with an owner and a date; nothing on your roadmap is promised as a date
• List the risks and dependencies, with a mitigation for each — anything that could stop an outcome, such as no sponsor, too little staff time, a delayed integration, poor data or a competing project, each with its owner and what will be done about it
• Set the check-in rhythm and the review date — how often you meet the champion and update the sponsor, who attends, how progress is reported, and the date of the 90-day review that resets the plan
• Review the draft with the account manager and technical lead — the outcomes match what was sold, the commitments can be delivered, and the dates fit your team’s capacity and the customer’s constraints

The CS lead checks the plan before the customer sees it: the outcomes are the customer’s, the targets are measurable and realistic, and everything your side commits to is within the contract and your team’s capacity. Nothing after the approval can be completed until it is given.

• Send the plan to the CS lead for approval — the draft plan with the contract entitlements, your side’s commitments and the risks, anything outside the contract and the account manager’s view of it
• Rework the plan after Not approved — after Not approved only: what the CS lead objected to, what changes and whether the kickoff date on the first task has to move; the approval task below stays open, so nothing after it can be completed; when the plan is ready, the CS lead changes the decision and completes the approval task, and if it was completed with Not approved, un-complete it first
• CS lead approves the success plan — Approved, Approved with changes or Not approved, with the reasons, recorded by the CS lead alone; complete this task for Approved or Approved with changes, and for Not approved record the decision and the reasons and leave this task open: the rework task above it appears, and the tasks after it stay hidden until the CS lead changes the decision to Approved or Approved with changes and completes this task
• Make the CS lead’s changes before the plan goes to the customer — after Approved with changes only: each change made and checked with the CS lead before the pre-read goes to the sponsor

Applies only when the plan has not been turned down: a Not approved decision in Phase 4 hides Phases 5 to 8 until the decision is changed and the approval completed. The sponsor agrees the plan at the kickoff, and the agreed version is the one every check-in measures against.

• Send the plan to the sponsor and champion before the kickoff — a short pre-read two or three working days before: the outcomes, measures and targets, the milestones, what each side will do and the decisions you need from the meeting
• Hold the kickoff and walk the sponsor through the plan — the outcomes first, then the measures, milestones, owners on both sides, risks and the check-in rhythm; ask what the sponsor would change before asking them to agree it
• Record the sponsor’s agreement to the plan — Agreed, Agreed with changes or Not agreed yet, with the date and how it was given, such as in the meeting, by email or by signing the plan; Not agreed yet adds a task to settle the open points
• Settle the open points and go back to the sponsor — after Not agreed yet only: each open point, who settles it and by when, and the date you go back to the sponsor; when the sponsor agrees, change the answer on the task above to Agreed
• Share the agreed plan with everyone who has a part in it — the agreed version to the sponsor, the champion and the owners on both sides, kept where your team can find it, with earlier drafts marked as replaced; it holds the customer’s own figures and your plan, never another customer’s data or roadmap dates your product team has not approved
• Set up how progress will be tracked — where each measure will be read and how often, the usage report for the adoption targets, and every check-in and the 90-day review in both calendars

Applies only when the plan has not been turned down in Phase 4. Work towards the first milestones and the first result the customer can see. Meet the champion on the rhythm you agreed and keep the plan’s dates current.

• Start the first milestones with their owners — each owner on both sides knows their first step and its date, and anything waiting on the customer’s IT, data or people is chased early
• Train the first user group — the team that will reach the first result, trained on the steps that result depends on, with material they can go back to
• Hold the check-ins with the champion — on the rhythm agreed: progress on each milestone, what is waiting on whom, risks that have moved, and the plan’s dates updated after each one
• Confirm the first result the customer can see — the first milestone that shows value to the sponsor, such as a process running end to end or a first report used in a meeting, confirmed with the champion and recorded in the customer’s own measure
• Send the sponsor a 30-day update — a short note: milestones reached, the first result, what comes next and anything you need from them

Applies only when the plan has not been turned down in Phase 4. Halfway through, read each measure against its target and decide whether the plan is on track. A plan that is slipping is easier to recover now than at the 90-day review.

• Read each measure against its baseline and target — the latest figure for each outcome’s measure, from the source agreed in Phase 5, with the change since the baseline
• Check adoption against the targets — active users against licences and the use of the key features by user group, and which groups are falling behind and why
• Hold the mid-point review with the champion and set the plan’s status — progress on each milestone and measure, then the plan’s status: On track, At risk or Off track; At risk or Off track adds a task to agree a recovery plan with the sponsor
• Agree a recovery plan with the sponsor — shown when the plan is at risk or off track: the cause, the actions, owners and new dates, agreed with the sponsor and added to the plan
• Bring the next user groups in — set-up and training for the groups that follow, in the order the milestones set, with anything that blocks them raised at the next check-in
• Send the sponsor a 60-day update — the measures against their targets, the plan’s status, the milestones ahead and any decision you need from them

Applies only when the plan has not been turned down in Phase 4. Score the plan with the sponsor and reset it for the next period. If the review takes place inside a quarterly business review, prepare the meeting with the QBR checklist and use these tasks for the plan itself.

• Score each outcome against its target — met, partly met or missed, with the evidence in the customer’s own measure and the reason for each
• Ask the champion and users what helped and what got in the way — what made a difference, what slowed them down, and what they would change in the next period
• Hold the 90-day review with the sponsor — the results, what was learned, the risks still open and the outcomes for the next period, agreed with owners on both sides
• Reset the plan for the next period — the outcomes, measures and targets agreed at the review, carried into a new run of this checklist: start it now and answer on its first task that it replaces an earlier plan, and the new run drafts, approves and agrees the plan for the next period
• Update the CRM and the renewal outlook — the results against the plan, the health rating, risks, contacts and the renewal outlook, agreed with the account manager
• Review the plan with the CS lead — what worked, what to change in the way your team builds plans, and whether the next period’s targets are realistic