The customer success manager (CSM) is a relatively new but increasingly in-demand role, particularly in the SaaS industry. As more businesses adopt a customer-centric approach, the demand for skilled CSMs keeps rising. In fact, LinkedIn listed the Director of Revenue Operations, an executive-level customer success management position, as one of its Jobs on the Rise in 2024!
In this career guide, we’ll break down everything you need to know about what a customer success manager does, their key responsibilities, salary ranges, the skills and software required to excel in this role, and the impact they have on a business’s bottom line. Let's get to it!
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What is a Customer Success Manager?
A customer success manager is a professional whose main goal is to help customers achieve their desired outcomes while using a company’s product or service. The customer success manager role is key in addressing customer needs to help maintain strong relationships with them over time.
Unlike traditional customer support roles, which are often reactive, customer success managers take a proactive approach. They strategically engage with customers to ensure they are continuously deriving value from the product, reaching their goals, and ultimately becoming loyal, long-term advocates for the business.
CSMs often collaborate closely with multiple departments, including sales, marketing, product development, and customer support. They serve as the customer advocate within the organization, providing valuable insights and feedback to drive product improvements and enhance the overall customer experience.
Why Companies Need Customer Success Managers
According to Forrester’s research, acquiring a new customer costs five times more than retaining an existing one. A 5% increase in customer retention can increase profits by 25% to 95%. This is why customer success managers play such a crucial role in driving business growth.
CSMs contribute to a company’s success in these four key ways:
✅ They reduce churn and increase retention
CSMs work to make sure customers achieve their goals and get the most value from the product. When customers succeed, they are more likely to remain loyal to your business.
✅ They increase customer lifetime value
CSMs focus on driving product adoption, expanding accounts, and turning customers into advocates. Their efforts directly contribute to increasing the revenue generated from each customer over time.
✅ They improve the customer experience
As customer advocates, CSMs continuously gather valuable feedback. They use these insights to improve the product, streamline processes, and create a customer journey that sets their company apart from competitors.
✅ They drive customer-led growth
When customers are satisfied and achieving great results, they become powerful brand advocates. They fuel growth through referrals, case studies, and positive word-of-mouth.
Put simply, customer success managers are critical drivers of net revenue retention—a crucial metric for SaaS and subscription-based businesses.
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What Does a Customer Success Manager Do? Key Responsibilities
The day-to-day responsibilities of a customer success manager vary depending on the company and industry, but always include fundamental aspects of the customer success role. The following skills are essential for enhancing user experience:
- Onboard new customers: CSMs ensure new users start on the right foot by providing comprehensive training, resources, and guidance.
- Nurture customer relationships: Through regular check-ins, business reviews, and continuous communication, CSMs foster trust and build strong, lasting relationships with their customers.
- Drive product adoption: By closely monitoring usage data and proactively sharing best practices, CSMs help customers maximize the value derived from the product.
- Gather customer feedback: CSMs seek input to better understand their customers’ evolving needs, challenges, and goals. They share these insights internally to drive product enhancements and process improvements.
- Manage churn risk: CSMs monitor customer health scores to identify at-risk accounts early, and then intervene to address concerns and prevent churn.
- Identify growth opportunities: CSMs spot opportunities for account expansion and collaborate with sales teams to drive upsells and cross-sells based on customer needs and usage patterns.
- Advocate for the customer internally: As the voice of the customer within the organization, CSMs ensure their feedback and needs are heard and addressed by the relevant teams.
Must- Have Skills for a Successful CSM
To truly thrive in a customer success manager position, you must possess a diverse set of varied skills, including:
- Strong communication abilities (both written and verbal)
- Strong relationship-building and interpersonal skills
- Empathy and active listening
- Analytical thinking and problem-solving aptitude
- Adaptability and resilience in a fast-paced environment
- Business acumen and a strategic mindset
- Technical proficiency
- Project management and organizational skills
- Collaborative and cross-functional teamwork skills
Career Path and Salary for CSMs
A career as a Customer Success Manager (CSM) can offer many opportunities for growth. Typically, as a CSM you might start in entry-level positions such as customer support or sales, and then gain valuable experience in handling customer interactions and understanding product offerings. From there, you can transition into a CSM role, focusing on building relationships and driving customer success.
As you gain experience as a CSMs, and demonstrate your ability to deliver results, your company may advance you to a senior CSM role. In these positions, you will take on increased responsibilities, such as leading teams, developing customer success strategies, and driving business growth.
For those with a passion for leadership, it's fairly easy to then move into executive roles like Director of Customer Success or VP of Customer Success, where the main objective is to oversee the entire customer success organization and shape the strategic direction of the department.
According to US averages, the salary for a CSM can range from $89000–$14000 per year, depending on experience and location. Senior CSM roles and leadership positions can entail even higher salaries.
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Customer Success Team Structure
A well-structured Customer Success team is essential for driving customer satisfaction and business growth. Typically, a Customer Success team includes several key roles:
- Customer Success Managers (CSMs): These professionals work directly with customers to ensure they achieve their desired outcomes and derive maximum value from the product or service. CSMs are the primary point of contact for customers.
- Senior Customer Success Managers: Senior CSMs lead teams of CSMs, providing guidance and support. They play a crucial role in developing customer success strategies that drive retention.
- Customer Success Operations Managers: They focus on optimizing processes and leveraging technology to support the Customer Success team. They ensure that the team has the tools and resources needed to operate efficiently.
- Customer Success Analysts: Analysts provide data and insights that inform customer success strategies and decision-making. They analyze customer behavior, identify trends, and measure the effectiveness of customer success initiatives.
- Customer Success Leaders: Leaders, such as Directors or VPs of Customer Success, oversee the entire customer success organization. They set the strategic direction, align the team’s efforts with business goals, and drive overall business growth.
Customer Success Metrics and KPIs
Customer Success teams rely on a variety of metrics and KPIs to measure their effectiveness and drive business growth. Some of the most important metrics include:
- Customer Retention Rate: This metric measures the percentage of customers retained over a given period. A high retention rate indicates that customers are satisfied and continue to find value in the product or service.
- Customer Satisfaction (CSAT): CSAT scores gauge customer happiness and satisfaction with the product or service.
- Net Promoter Score (NPS): NPS measures customer loyalty and their likelihood to recommend the product or service to others. A high NPS suggests potential for organic growth through referrals.
- Customer Health Score: This composite metric assesses factors such as product usage, support interactions, and overall satisfaction. It helps CSMs take proactive measures to prevent churn.
- Revenue Growth: This metric tracks the growth in revenue from existing customers through upsells, cross-sells, and renewals.
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Best Tools for Customer Success Managers
Customer Success Managers rely on different tools. Some of these include:
- AI Tools: Conversational AI chatbots, predictive analytics platforms, sentiment analysis tools, and AI meeting assistants like Jamie help CSMs eliminate repetitive tasks, save time and provide personalized experiences to customers.
- Customer Success Platforms (CSPs): Tools like ChurnZero, Gainsight and Totango provide a centralized platform for managing customer relationships, tracking customer health, and automating success workflows.
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems: CRMs such as Hubspot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive offer a comprehensive solution for managing and tracking customer interactions and data.
- Data and Analytics Tools: Solutions like Tableau and Power BI provide powerful data visualization and analysis capabilities. CSMs use these tools to gain insights into customer behavior, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions.
- Project Management Tools: Platforms such as Asana and Trello help CSMs manage multiple projects and tasks efficiently. These tools ensure that customer success initiatives are well-organized and executed on time.
Why Jamie Is the Must-Have Tool for CSMs
Jamie is an AI meeting assistant that helps CSMs work smarter and drive better results. By leveraging advanced natural language processing and machine learning, Jamie allows CSMs to focus exclusively on driving customer success. The best part? Jamie offers a free plan, including advanced features!
Here's how Jamie can help you as a CSM overcome common challenges:
- Automated Meeting Notes and Analysis: Jamie automatically records, transcribes, and analyzes customer meetings, saving CSMs time and effort on manual note-taking and allowing them to focus on engaging with customers.
- Actionable Insights: Jamie's AI identifies key topics, action items, and sentiment from customer conversations, providing CSMs with valuable insights to improve customer outcomes.
- Seamless Integration with Existing Tools: Jamie integrates with all video conferencing tools and calendars, like Zoom, Google Meet, Gmail and Outlook.
- Improved Meeting Preparation and Follow-Ups: Jamie helps CSMs prepare for meetings more effectively by surfacing relevant customer information and conversation history. After meetings, Jamie automatically generates summaries, reducing administrative tasks for CSMs.
- Strong Security and Compliance: With robust security features and GDPR compliance, Jamie ensures that sensitive customer data is protected, giving CSMs and their organizations peace of mind.
Is a Customer Success Manager Role Right for You?
If you're considering a career as a Customer Success Manager (CSM), you're looking at a challenging but rewarding role that's very much needed in today's customer-centric business landscape. CSMs need a unique blend of communication skills, empathy, technical know-how, and a results-driven mindset.
One of the most exciting aspects of being a CSM is the potential for growth and impact. As you gain experience, you'll have opportunities to take on leadership roles, drive strategic initiatives, and directly influence your company's success.
To thrive as a CSM, you'll need to leverage the latest tools and software. From customer success platforms to AI tools like Jamie, you'll need to stay on top of the tech that can help you work smarter and build stronger customer relationships.
The bottom line is this: if you're a proactive problem-solver, a strong communicator, and someone who thrives on building relationships, a career as a CSM could be the perfect fit. With the right skills, tools, and mindset, you can set yourself up for a long and successful career in no time!
Enhance your productivity with Jamie, the AI note-taker built for customer success professionals.
FAQs: Customer Success Management
What is a CSM?
A Customer Success Manager (CSM) is central to building relationships and ensuring customer satisfaction. They are responsible for business growth and organizational success through initiatives that promote account expansion, upselling, and preventing churn.
What does a customer success manager do?
A customer success manager is responsible for ensuring customers achieve their desired outcomes and maximize value from a company’s product or service. They build strong relationships with customers, proactively address their needs, and collaborate with internal teams to drive customer retention and growth.
Is customer success manager a high-paying job?
Yes, customer success manager roles tend to be high-paying, particularly in the tech and SaaS industries. According to Glassdoor, the average base pay for a CSM in 2024 in the United States is $89,672 per year, with total compensation potentially exceeding $145,600 annually when factoring in bonuses and profit-sharing.
What skills do you need to be a customer success manager?
To be a customer success managers you need the following skills:
- Great communication and interpersonal skills
- Strong relationship-building and problem-solving abilities
- Empathy and active listening
- Business experience and strategic thinking
- Technical proficiency with relevant tools and platforms
- Project management and organizational skills
- Adaptability and resilience in a fast-paced environment
What is another title for a customer success manager?
While the exact title may vary by organization, some common alternatives to “customer success manager” include: client success manager, account manager, customer relationship manager, customer experience manager, and ustomer advocacy manager. Regardless of the specific title, the core focus remains on ensuring customer satisfaction, retention, and growth.
Is customer success manager a high paying job?
Customer success manager can be a high paying job, especially as you gain experience and move up to more senior roles. Salaries will vary depending on factors like company size, industry, and location.
What is a customer success manager’s salary?
Customer success manager salaries have typically ranged from $50,000 to $150,000+ per year. Entry-level positions may start around $50,000-$87,000, while more experienced CSMs can earn $100,000 or more. Top-level CSMs in senior positions at large companies may earn $150,000+.
What does a customer success manager do daily?
Your daily activities as a CSM may include:
- Conducting customer onboarding sessions
- Monitoring customer health metrics
- Addressing customer inquiries and concerns
- Developing and implementing customer success strategies
- Collaborating with internal teams (sales, product, support)
- Analyzing customer data and creating reports
- Conducting regular check-ins with key accounts
- Identifying upsell and cross-sell opportunities
What is the job description of a CSM?
A typical CSM job description includes:
- Developing and maintaining strong relationships with assigned customers
- Ensuring successful onboarding and implementation of products/services
- Identifying and mitigating potential risks to customer retention
- Driving product adoption and usage
- Collaborating with internal teams to resolve customer issues
- Identifying and pursuing growth opportunities within existing accounts
- Monitoring and reporting on key customer success metrics
Is customer success the same as CRM?
No, customer success is not the same as CRM (Customer Relationship Management). Customer success is a business methodology focused on ensuring customer satisfaction and value realization. CRM refers to strategies, technologies, and systems used to manage customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle.
What is a scale CSM job description?
A scale CSM job description normally includes:
- Managing a high volume of customer accounts efficiently
- Implementing and optimizing automated customer success processes
- Identifying trends and patterns across your customer base
- Developing scalable strategies to drive customer adoption and growth
- Collaborating with product teams to improve self-service resources
What is the role of a customer success account manager?
As a customer success account manager, you’d typically:
- Serve as the primary point of contact for assigned key accounts
- Develop deep relationships with decision-makers and stakeholders
- Create and execute account-specific success plans
- Identify and pursue expansion opportunities within accounts
- Advocate for customer needs internally and drive product adoption
What does CSM stand for in business?
In business, CSM typically stands for Customer Success Manager.
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