A customer success manager (CSM) is a hybrid role sitting between customer service and sales. CSMs are the people responsible for liaising with customers to ensure that they are receiving any support that they might need with your product or service. Their primary performance metrics are customer retention and customer churn rates.
CSMs act as a point of contact between the organization and your customers as they make the transition from prospects to active users of your products and services. Their focus is on building close, long-term relationships, meaning that individual customer accounts typically have the same CSM for the duration of the relationship or until the CSM moves on to a new role or company.
It's often the case that CSMs are confused with customer service representatives. In contrast, however, customer service reps are reactive and solve issues as they arise while CSMs are completely proactive and look to prevent issues from arising in the first place.
Customer Success Management Explained:
FAQs
Key responsibilities of a CSM include customer onboarding, providing product training, conducting regular check-ins or reviews with customers, resolving customer issues or escalations, and advocating for customer needs.
A Customer Success Manager is a hybrid role between customer service and sales. CSMs are responsible for liaising with customers to ensure that they're getting value from the product and if not, making sure they're receiving support.
All successful Customer Success Managers will share five competencies: Knowing their customers' goals and KPIs, being proactive to customer needs, dedicated to putting customer value and satisfaction first, knowing when to ask, listen, and act, and being capable of setting clear expectations from the start.
