Customer success – its origins can be traced back to some of the earliest software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies, and as the cloud computing revolution has steadily gained momentum, so too has customer success – to the extent that businesses of all kinds, not just SaaS companies, are jumping on the customer success bandwagon.

But what exactly does “customer success” consist of, and more importantly, how does it differ from similar-sounding concepts like customer service and customer experience? Is it something new and distinctive – or just a trendy buzzword to describe an old idea?