In different roles, I have often been asked what certain Customer Success terms mean. Sometimes it is someone transitioning into a CSM role. Sometimes it is someone already in the role who just needs a quick refresher. And/or sometimes it’s someone sitting in a meeting, hearing a term for the first time, and quietly wondering if they are the only one who does not know what it means.
That is exactly why I put this glossary together. These are foundational terms that come up often in Customer Success, especially in SaaS environments. They are helpful to know as you build your confidence, grow your career, and start connecting the dots between customer relationships, business outcomes, and internal strategy.
One important reminder, never feel shy about asking what a term means. We are all learning, and you may be surprised to find that the person beside you, even virtually, may have the same question. Also, some of these definitions can vary from company to company.
Will also highlight that a QBR at one organization may look different from a QBR somewhere else. A customer health score may be calculated one way at one company and very differently at another. Use this as a helpful starting point, but always feel comfortable asking, “What does this mean here?”
Customer Success Manager (CSM)
A Customer Success Manager helps customers get value from a product or service. CSMs build relationships, understand customer goals, support adoption, identify risks, and help customers move toward the outcomes they care about.
A strong CSM is both relationship focused and business minded. They care about the customer experience, but they also understand how that experience connects to retention, expansion, and long term partnership.
Account Success Plan
An Account Success Plan is a shared plan that outlines what success looks like for a customer. It usually includes the customer’s goals, priorities, challenges, milestones, key stakeholders, and action items.
Think of it as a roadmap that helps both the customer and internal team stay aligned. It gives everyone a clearer view of what needs to happen, who is involved, and how progress will be measured.
Churn
Churn happens when a customer stops using a product or service, cancels their contract, or does not renew. In Customer Success, churn is one of the biggest signals that something did not work as expected. As a CSM, our goal is to understand the risk early enough to support the customer before it becomes too late.
Expansion
Expansion is when an existing customer increases their investment with a company. This can happen through a larger plan, more seats, additional features, new products, or added services.
Expansion should ideally come from value. For example, when a customer is seeing results, growing their usage, and building trust with the company, expansion becomes a natural next step in the relationship.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
A CRM is a system used to track and manage customer information. It can include contact details, meeting notes, account history, renewal dates, customer goals, opportunities, risks, and next steps.
For CSMs, the CRM is more than a place to log activity. When used well, it becomes a fantastic source of truth that helps teams stay organized, collaborate better, and understand what is happening across the customer journey.
Quarterly Business Review (QBR)
A QBR is a recurring meeting with a customer, often held every quarter, to review progress, discuss goals, share results, and align on next steps.
A great QBR should not feel like a generic presentation and honestly a boring deck that could have been read in an email.
Strategic Account
A Strategic Account is usually a high value customer with strong long term potential. These accounts often require more planning, deeper relationship building, and closer collaboration across teams.
Strategic Accounts may have multiple stakeholders, larger business goals, more complex needs, or higher visibility internally. Because of that, they often need a more thoughtful and a high-touch tailored approach.
Stakeholder
A stakeholder is anyone who has influence, involvement, or interest in the customer relationship. This can include people on the customer side, such as executives, decision makers, champions, admins, and end users. It can also include internal teammates, such as Sales, Product, Support, Marketing, or leadership.
Use Case
A use case explains how a customer uses a product or service to solve a specific problem or reach a specific goal. For example, one customer may use a platform to save time, while another may use the same platform to improve reporting, increase team collaboration, or support customer engagement.
Strong use cases help CSMs understand why the customer bought the product, what value they are looking for, and how to guide them toward success.
Customer Health
Customer Health is a way of understanding how an account is doing. It often looks at signals like product usage, engagement, support activity, sentiment, adoption, business outcomes, and renewal risk.
Learning Customer Success terminology takes time, and nobody knows everything right away. The more you hear these terms in context, the more natural they will start to feel. Use this glossary as a quick reference, but also give yourself permission to ask questions. Asking for clarity is not a weakness. It is one of the best ways to learn, grow, and become stronger in your role.
What are other terms that would you live for me to cover?