Documentation as Customer Success

Self-serve businesses that sell complicated software (like an API) can use documentation as a way of augmenting or replacing customer success. For example, early Stripe did not have sales or support but created outstanding technical documentation that was always available—you didn’t need to schedule a call to discuss implementation or answer questions, you could figure it out yourself.

Having really good documentation enables a different kind of go-to-market plan. It wouldn’t make sense for a business to build a Customer Success organization to spend a lot of time with customers spending very little. Documentation enables selling to segments of the market at scale that would previously be cost prohibitive.

See also:

  • Customer Success Overcomes Technical Hurdles

    As much as product builders want to be self-serve and low-touch, there will always be limitations and improvements to make. Sometimes a customer won’t understand how to use the product. Sometimes a customer will make a mistake. Sometimes a customer won’t be able to translate their problem into a solution.