What role can help companies double their revenue, profitability growth, and customer retention? Let me introduce you to the role of customer success manager, the secret ingredient to a more customer-centric company.
When I think of customer success managers (CSMs), I think of Kristen. Early in my career, my team onboarded a new marketing software to facilitate ad localization. It was complex, requiring technical troubleshooting with our designers and implementation support. Kristen was our guide and go-to person.
She hopped on the phone whenever we needed it, patiently talked us through best practices, and even flew out to train us in person. She felt like a member of my team. Thanks to her kindness and attention, the implementation was a success and we kept our sizable account with Kristen’s company.
Nowadays, 90% of companies have a customer success division, and Forbes named customer success the sixth fastest-growing white-collar job. Let’s dive into what a customer success manager does and the skills one needs to succeed.
Table of Contents
What Is a Customer Success Manager?
A customer success manager guides customers through the sales process into the support phase. Rather than functioning as a customer support agent, CSMs form a direct relationship with customers and provide them with timely value propositions. This helps customers grow and achieve goals while simultaneously strengthening their relationship with the business.
Customer Success Vs. Customer Service
Whereas customer service is transactional and aims to solve and close a ticket as quickly as possible, customer success is relational. A CSM builds a long-term, proactive relationship with the aim of reaching their mutual goals.
The State of Customer Service Report
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What Does a Customer Success Manager Do?
Have you ever felt ghosted by a company right after signing on as a customer? Customer success managers maintain that continuity of service and customer experience where sales’ role ends.
Simply put, a CSM is a champion for customer engagement, adoption, and long-term success. They bring the service aspect to SaaS (software-as-a-service). They guide customers through onboarding, implementation, and troubleshooting so they get the most out of a product and are likely to keep or increase their contract at renewal time.
The main responsibilities of a CSM are covered in the job description below.
Customer Success Manager Job Description
A customer success manager works with customers to ensure that they receive the tools and support needed to achieve their goals. This includes advising them on buying decisions and onboarding new users after purchase. CSMs have an in-depth understanding of the customer's needs and are responsible for communicating common customer behaviors to the sales, marketing, and product teams.
6 Responsibilities of a Customer Success Manager
1. Onboard new customers.
I know from personal experience that learning a software quickly will make or break my experience with it. SaaS companies lose 12% of revenue each year to customer churn, so engaging and retaining customers is key. A good CSM teaches customers how to use features they need to learn, based on the goals they set. This way, they can get up to speed as fast as possible and be one step closer to achieving their goals.
2. Set a vision for success.
One of the top priorities of a good CSM is understanding a customer’s goals, wants, and needs. Essentially, what value do they hope to gain through the product? This could be an increase in leads or sales calls booked or a shortened sales cycle, for example.
CSMs work with clients to learn their challenges and create a customer success plan. This plan formalizes the customer’s goals and objectives, outlines target key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure success, and highlights resource and support strategies along the way. Every conversation they have will hinge back to that plan and goals.
3. Be the voice of the customer.
Since a CSM works one-on-one with customers, they gain intimate knowledge of a product’s pain points and how it’s actually being used. While they can help customers navigate any challenges and find solutions, they can also bring feedback in-house and advocate for customer needs.
Responsive companies learn from feedback to improve the product — driving customer value. Active listening builds trust and helps customers feel that they’re being heard and valued.
4. Follow up on renewals.
The job of the CSM is to create loyal, repeat customers instead of one-time users. This is why renewals are key for this position. CSMs should keep track of customer product expiration dates — whether monthly, quarterly, or annually — and follow up with customers to renew their contracts. CSMs also need to maintain contact throughout the year so they can build on a relationship at renewal time.
5. Encourage upsells and cross-sells.
Another way to increase a customer's lifetime value is through upselling and cross-selling. CSMs are dedicated to fulfilling customer goals, which creates an opportunity to introduce premium products and services. When customers are ideal for an upgrade, CSMs can meet with them to explain why the additional purchase would be helpful. Since your CSM will have a rapport with the customer, they‘ll be more likely to trust your team’s advice.
6. Build cross-functional relationships.
There are some questions customers will have that aren't the responsibility of the CSM. Technical issues, minor product problems, and basic business questions should be geared toward your customer support team. CSMs should foster a relationship between customers and support, making it easier for users to solve small or short-term problems. They also need to build internal connections with product, support, marketing, and sales to advocate for the customer.
The State of Customer Service Report
Unlock essential strategies for exceeding customer expectations and driving business growth in a competitive market.
- Exclusive insights from worldwide CRM leaders
- Analysis of modern customer behaviors
- Closer look at the AI opportunity in CRM
- Strategies for staying agile in 2024 and beyond
Download Free
All fields are required.
What Makes a Good Customer Success Manager?
Successful CSMs can come from a variety of backgrounds, from obvious ones like customer service to less obvious ones like teaching.
While CSMs need some technical proficiency, that isn’t the most important factor for success. Product and industry knowledge can be taught on the job. Soft skills like communication, emotional intelligence, and relationship-building are the most important factors for a good customer service manager — and those are much harder to teach.
“Ultimately, you are really just a human being building a relationship with another human being or set of human beings,” shared Sean Ruane, CEO and founder of Mind Data, in an interview with CSM Practice. "The number one thing that I look for is communication — the ability to understand the audience you’re talking to, communicate very clearly, and explain something simply that might be a little bit more complex.”
Now that you know what a customer success manager does, let's review the top skills needed to be an effective CSM.
Top Customer Success Manager Skills
- Customer-First Mindset
- Communication
- Relationship Management
- Industry Knowledge
- Problem Solving
- Managing Expectations
- Empathy and Emotional Intelligence
- Active Listening
- Teaching/Mentoring
- Technical Skill
- Written Communication
- Strategic Planning
- Time Management
- Data Integration
- Persuasiveness
- Project Management
- Creative Thinking
- Cross-Selling and Upselling
I have segmented the following section into two categories: skills and traits that hiring managers look for in a CSM, and advanced skills that help you achieve mastery and progress in your customer success career.
1. Customer-First Mindset
Like any customer service job, the customer should always be at the forefront of your attention. Their success equals your success, and the more you can invest in their needs and goals, the more successful you’ll be in this position.
Building detailed buyer personas using concrete evidence from marketing analytics data definitely helps here — you can’t adopt a customer-first mindset if you don’t know anything about your customers’ needs and pain points in the first place.
In my experience, understanding how different customer segments behave and what they expect from a product or service is key to helping them achieve their goals.
2. Communication
Customer success is all about proactive communication. A CSM must be able to convey information clearly and effectively to customers. Most of this takes place through talking. If you aren’t comfortable on the phone, this may not be the job for you. CSMs spend a lot of time coaching, troubleshooting, and getting to know customers through conversation and synchronous communication.
3. Relationship Management
Relationship management refers to how you interact with customers over time. Most customer success managers have ongoing relationships with their customers, unlike frontline reps, who typically work on one issue with one customer at a time before moving on to the next. As a CSM, even if you solve one problem for a customer, you need to be prepared for the next roadblock that comes your way.
“Ultimately, a CS professional is there to foster and grow a meaningful, long-term relationship. I believe that being authentic — your version of authenticity, not anyone else’s — is going to underpin your long-term relationship,” says Ruane.
But, relationship management isn’t just helpful for customers. Cross-functional relationships are critical for customer success, according to Diana De Jesus, founder and CEO of The Customer Success Project.
“You need to be comfortable working with a lot of different teams. You’ll need to engage with everything from product teams to customer support to sales and marketing,” De Jesus recommends.
[Video: Is Customer Success Right For You?]
4. Industry Knowledge
It’s hard to earn your customers’ trust if you don’t know anything about their business or workflow. The more you understand the industry your customers are a part of, the more you’ll be able to relate to their needs and goals. I’ve found this will also help you come up with creative solutions that are unique to the customer’s situation as well as their business.
5. Problem-Solving
As a customer success manager, you’re viewed as an excellent problem solver. Customers look to you to solve their issues and clear roadblocks that challenge their success. In this role, you’ll need to think on your feet and provide solutions that satisfy both short- and long-term needs.
“Problem-solving is at the root of what we do in customer success,” explains De Jesus. “Our type of problem-solving is strategic and long-term, thinking about how this affects the customer’s bottom line and how it gets them closer to their goals.”
6. Managing Expectations
Part of being a problem solver is managing expectations. While you certainly want to meet every need the customer has, there are going to be scenarios where this isn’t possible. When this does happen, I recommend you manage the customer’s expectations so they don’t feel let down by the solution you’ve provided.
The State of Customer Service Report
Unlock essential strategies for exceeding customer expectations and driving business growth in a competitive market.
- Exclusive insights from worldwide CRM leaders
- Analysis of modern customer behaviors
- Closer look at the AI opportunity in CRM
- Strategies for staying agile in 2024 and beyond
Download Free
All fields are required.
7. Empathy and Emotional Intelligence
Empathy is a core component of any customer service role. The more you can relate to what your customers are going through, the easier it will be to identify effective solutions. Even if you don’t have any experience in their industry or role, I think it’s essential that you’re capable of understanding the emotions that customers are feeling when they reach out to you.
Ruane explains, “People are going to have off days or be frustrated. Having the ability to interpret someone’s emotions, understand your emotions, and regulate those emotions is really important to foster that honest, true relationship.”
[Video: Top 10 CSM Skills Hiring Managers Look For]
8. Active Listening
Active listening is the practice of listening to what your customers have to say and then repeating it back to them in your own words to show you understand what they meant. In my experience, active listening builds rapport with customers because it shows that you genuinely care about their success and understand the frustration or confusion they’re going through.
9. Teaching/Mentoring
Oftentimes, the customer success manager is viewed as the product expert. Since you represent the company, you should know its products inside and out and be able to teach others how to use them as well. In my experience, the best teachers can effectively communicate advice in a way that’s easy to understand, interesting to hear about, and relevant to the listener.
10. Technical Skill
Similar to my point above, it’s not just enough to understand your company’s products — you need to have a feel for all of the products your customers are using in their day-to-day work as well. This will give you a sense of their workflow and how you can help them use your company’s products to their fullest potential.
11. Written Communication
This one might seem obvious, but hear me out. Most CSMs aren’t working face-to-face with customers — unless you count Zoom. Most of the time, you’re emailing back and forth with customers and occasionally hopping on a call to talk through high-priority items. With the bulk of the communication being done via email, your reading and writing skills need to be proficient in order to be successful.
12. Strategic Planning
The best CSMs help customers understand how using their products ties to the customer’s short- or long-term goals.
Take HubSpot, for example. Our customer success managers don’t just teach you how to use HubSpot. They ask about your marketing campaigns and your sales strategies, and they think critically about how HubSpot’s products fit into those processes.
Not every product is used in the same way, and often, how a customer uses a product depends on their unique needs. As a CSM, your job is to identify the larger goals that customers are working towards and provide ideas for how they can use your products to achieve them.
13. Time Management
In a perfect world, you would only have to work with one customer at a time. But, most customer success teams deal with multiple customers simultaneously, and CSMs are typically responsible for managing several accounts all at once. This means you need to manage your time effectively and be capable of multitasking. After all, I know you don’t want a customer to feel like you’re spending all of your time with another client, and that their success doesn’t mean as much to you.
While these are the skills that you absolutely need to succeed in a customer success role, let‘s look at some advanced skills that aren’t necessary but definitely nice to have.
Advanced Customer Success Manager Skills
14. Data Integration
I get it. If you’re like me, you didn’t get into customer success because you’re a math whiz. The idea of crunching numbers and creating spreadsheets isn’t typically your cup of tea, but it could be the skill you need to convince a customer that a potential solution will benefit their business.
“Being able to use data to back up your decisions and share that data with your customer is going to be really important,” shared Ruane.
15. Persuasiveness
You would think that customers are eager to talk to their CSMs. In reality, some are skeptical and believe their customer success manager is really just a sales or marketing rep in disguise.
In this role, you may work with a customer who often pushes back against your advice. In which case, I think it helps to have some persuasion skills that can sway the customer to your side. Once you show them that your solution is the right way to go, they’ll start to trust you more.
16. Project Management
Since you’re working with multiple customers simultaneously, you’ll need to manage several projects at once. Remember, your customers likely don’t know each other, so they don’t really care that you were working with another customer when you missed a deadline. Their project is what’s most important to them, and staying on top of deadlines shows that you’re as invested in their goals as they are.
17. Creative Thinking
Not every problem is going to have an obvious answer. Sometimes, you’ll need to get creative to find a solution that works for your customer. Part of this is knowing your customer’s resources and what they want to accomplish. Once you have an idea of what you can use to solve the problem, I find it becomes easier to identify creative solutions.
18. Cross-Selling and Upselling
As a CSM, you’re certainly not a sales rep. Your job isn’t to close deals or promote products but rather guide customers to success.
Sometimes, however, a customer can’t succeed without a particular product or service. If they have to pay for that solution, the CSM is one of the best people available who can convince them that this purchase is worthwhile. After all, you know your customer’s needs inside and out, so you can explain how that product or service is the missing link for their success.
If you're considering a career as a customer success manager or thinking of hiring one for your business, take a look below to see what the average salary is for this position.
Customer Success Manager Salary and Jobs
Here is the average salary for a customer success manager in the United States.
According to Glassdoor, the national average salary for a customer success manager in the United States is $89,160. This salary can range from about $67,000 on the low end to about $126,000 on the high end.
Within customer success, there are many types of roles differing by seniority and specialization. These roles often have the same core duties but carry a different title and level of responsibility.
Let’s review some of those roles, as well as their salaries.
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Customer Success Specialist Salary
According to Glassdoor, the average salary for a customer success specialist in the United States is $68,000. This salary can range from about $56,000 on the low end to about $82,000 on the high end. This entry-level position can be a good starting point to launch your career in customer success.
Customer Onboarding Manager Salary
The average salary for the specialized role of customer onboarding manager is $66,947, according to Glassdoor. The typical salary range spans from $30,000 to about $81,000.
Senior Customer Success Manager Salary
Higher-ranked positions bring higher salaries, according to Glassdoor. The average salary for a senior customer success manager is $185,175. This can range from about $111,000 on the low end to $247,000.
Client Onboarder Salary
Here’s another title variation. According to Glassdoor, the average salary for a client onboarder in the United States is $73,451. This salary can range from about $63,000 on the low end to about $145,000 on the high end.
Customer Success Operations Specialist Salary
Interested in moving into an operations and strategy role? A customer success operations specialist commands $82,932, according to Glassdoor. This ranges from about $59,000 on the low end to about $122,000.
Customer Experience Manager Salary
According to Salary.com, the average salary for a customer experience manager is $114,903. The salary range spans from about $95,000 on the low end to about $137,000 on the high end.
How to Become a Customer Success Manager
At the end of the day, the best customer success managers simply care about their customers, in my opinion. They know what their customers are working on, what goals they have, and what they hope to achieve with the company's products.
Armed with this information, CSMs foster short- and long-term success by pitching new ideas for how customers can use their products and solving problems before the customer even knows they're there.
Editor's note: This article was originally published in July 2021 and has since been updated for comprehensiveness.
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