Customer Success Manager Job Description

Customer Success Manager 

Client Success or Customer Service Managers are associated with friendly and yielding interaction between the customer and the company. Representing the company, they are focussed on creating loyal customers by providing every possible assistance and smoothening the process for a positive experience. They are responsible for transforming customers from buyers or enquirers to active users of the organization's products. 

What Makes a Good Customer Success Manager?

Customer Success Manager should own soft skills, presentation, and organization capability. It enables them to converse with the customers providing transparent processes in the company. It builds trust and indicates the manager's concern for customers' problems. The soft skills and real helping nature indicate that the company cares. Customers easily grasp the fake nature, and the act will eventually cost the company. 

Customer Success Manager Job Description

The Customer Success Manager is responsible for the following endeavors:

• They must foresee and solve the probable problem that might arise with the customer. 
• Connects sales and customer support
• CSM represents the company and customer to each other
• Followup for constant usage of products and services, thus bringing value to the customers
• Encourage cross-sells
• Assist the employees in directly interacting with customers
• Promote support to customers at each level by understanding the overview of each process
• Manage the team concerned with sales
• Directly onboard and guide the new customers 
• Gather and analyze the data to bring benefits to customers

6 Responsibilities of a Customer Success Manager

Apart from the previously mentioned responsibilities of a Customer Success Manager, this section describes six crucial and highly expected significant duties. 

1. Advocate for the Company

It must be clear by now that the Customer Success Manager represents the company. Customers mark CSM's ideology, statements, and actions as the company's words. They are answerable to every quality, drawback, and work in progress of the company when asked by customers. The long-term relationships of customers with the company completely depend on the reputation built by CSM about the company. 

2. Onboard New Customers

The ultimate aim of connecting, listening, and providing customer solutions is to onboard them with the company. Introduce the company's services or products designed to solve their problem. Educate them about the pros and cons and the uniqueness of solutions concerning their problems, and speed up their solutions to make them understand the company's relevance. 

3. Follow Up on Renewals

Follow-up is crucial for building long-term relationships between the company and customers. Following up on them indicates that you care for their problem and genuinely want to solve it. It also shows your seriousness towards the duty and helps create a positive image of the company. It also builds customers' loyalty and trust, making the company their first choice and priority when encountering a similar problem or related situation. The follow-up can include renewing contracts or simply asking for feedback and reviews to understand the updated needs or preferred modifications by customers. 

4. Encourage Upsells and Cross-Sells

Customers' problems may not be limited to a single solution but a combination of solutions. Use creativity, knowledge, and experience to introduce varieties by upselling and cross-selling. Upselling involves providing more benefits by upgrading to premium or other services. Cross-selling refers to additional purchases relevant to their needs. However, in the process, remember to value their money and their choices. Encouragement should not be forceful or pressurizing. Rather it should be limited to facts with pros and cons for the impartial judgment of the customer, which eventually increases the trust in CSM and the company. 

5. Build Relationships Between Customers and the Support Team

CSM is not responsible for all the company's and its customers' interactions. The support team will deal with issues concerning technical glitches, product or service problems, business questions, and other such problems. However, managing a few of these teams is the responsibility of the CSM. Also, in certain cases, CSM will redirect the customers to the support team. In mentioned circumstances, CSM is responsible for building relationships between customers and support teams. Find innovative ways to ease their interaction and solutions as you hold the best grasp over the problems. 

6. Be the Voice of the Customer

Representing the company, the Customer Service Manager has the best knowledge about the situation and problem of the customer. Also, they know about the drawbacks or incompleteness of the product and services based on the data of customers. They are aware of the dislikes, like, and other relevant information concerning the work done by the company. With this information comes great responsibility to deliver the data to the company. Be clear about the customer's requirements and necessities and ensure the company works in the direction of helping the customer. Ensure the company also keeps customer satisfaction first before itself. 

Top Customer Success Manager Skills

The Customer Success Manager can efficiently carry out the responsibilities if they hold the necessary and advanced Customer Success Manager Skills. The two are enlisted in detail in the next sections. 

Necessary Customer Success Manager Skills

These are crucial skills to function as Customer Success Manager. 

1. Customer: First Mindset

The skill is based on the candidate's mindset of looking forward to interacting with customers. It involves keeping them first, eventually requiring understanding and keeping their needs before anything. 

2. Communication

It involves interacting effectively enough to understand their problems. The current issues and the solution suited for them. It gives a reason for customers to trust and talk with the Customer Success Manager. They should also present the possibility of improving the customer's experience by considering their concerns. 

3. Relationship Management

Customer Success Managers are supposed to build long-term relationships rather than provide solutions for a specific problem. The endeavor requires gaining customers' trust and helping them believe that their problems will be heard and suitably tailored solutions will be given. It requires building relations with the customers. 

4. Industry Knowledge

The solution to a variety of problems can only be given when the managers themself hold knowledge. Knowing about a specific thing or an overview of the field won't let you last. Customers need specific and precise solutions to their problems. Inability to provide so will easily catch the pretenders and fake helpers. 

5. Problem-Solving

The most important thing to know is problem-solving. It is the basic skill a Customer Service Manager is expected to know. Almost all the problems are different, with distinct preferences and situations. No solution can accurately solve multiple problems of customers with different backgrounds and circumstances. 

6. Managing Expectations

Solutions do not always fit the criteria set by customers. Sometimes solutions are less or exceed expectations. The art of handling such cases is crucial in earning a customer for the company. 

7. Empathy

Empathy is the key to moving conversation when a customer is stating their problem. The customer's requirements must be heard, understood, and provided with a suitable solution. Showcasing a company's profits without caring for customers' needs will certainly pass on the situation. 

8. Active Listening

It helps the Customer Service Manager to let customers know they are heard and understood. Providing solutions in their language or as a specific answer to their problem comes through active listening. 

9. Teaching/Mentoring

Customers may be unfamiliar with the product specifications, be they technical or general. The product's suitability for customers and its features need to be taught. Their benefits need to be specified to the customers. Teaching and mentoring skills come in handy in these situations. 

10. Technical Skill

Highly knowledgeable or curious customers will have technically specific queries. Wrong or ambiguous answers can be easily caught in these scenarios. Customers will easily understand the act and misjudge the company, leading to its loss. 

11. Reading and Writing

Interacting with customers is not always telephonic or face-to-face interaction. Interaction through messaging and emails is quite common. Mindfully reading and understanding the content and the tone will help you gain deep insights and strategies to use to help them. Writing is equally important to let the customers know they are understood and assistance is on their way. 

12. Strategic Planning

The curation of customizable situations needs strategic planning. It requires asking the right questions and finding the way out of a maze of solutions. The problems need specific answers, which can be provided by applying different filters to many processes.

13. Time Management

Customer Support Managers are not concerned with one customer at a time. Rather they deal with multiple ones. It can easily lead to time mismanagement and the creation of confusion. It will lead to misunderstandings to customers not being heard. Thus, time management and multitasking skills are crucial in such situations.

Advanced Customer Success Manager Skills

Advanced skills will help the candidates excel in their roles. Yet, their absence will not strip them of their job. Have to look to know the additional skills you must inculcate to become Customer Success Manager. 

14. Data Integration

Data and reasoning are presented as undeniable and unarguable facts. Besides showing your knowledge and updating with current statistics, they help you convince the customers of your statements. 

15. Persuasiveness

Not all customers are alike. Some will listen to you and be completely against it. Be it their trust issues or nature, your job is to deal with and make them buy. In mentioned situations, it is possible through persuasion.

16. Project Management

Project handling helps you with the necessary skill of multitasking and addressing multiple customers simultaneously. It introduces people to handling and managing different things with undisturbed focus and efficiency. 

17. Creative Thinking

Unique problems require a unique solution. The problems might be out of the box, funny, or highly serious in certain situations. Creativity and not mere experience will lead you to the solution.

18. Cross-Selling and Upselling

Selling or promoting isn't the job of a Customer Service Manager, but if circumstances demand, a good manager can not step back. Introducing or using the products as an example will most probably be required. The general and product-based suggestions will be based on customer needs. 

Customer Success Manager Salary

The approximate salary of a Customer Success Manager in India is around INR 1 million per year. The additional pay can also be earned worth approximately INR 2.2 lakhs per year. Thus, the beginning salary is around 530k, but the extreme salary can be 3 million, a possible but not compulsive range. The most probable range is around 840K to 2 million per year, depending on the experience and expertise. 

Customer Success Specialist Salary

The salary of a Customer Success Specialist lies in the range of INR 431K to INR 980K per year. Based on this, the average salary is around INR 6.5 lakhs per year. Also, based on estimates, the Customer Success Specialist can expect additional pay of 1 lakh per year. 

Customer Onboarding Manager Salary

Onboarding Managers can expect average pay of INR 7 lakh per year. The most likely salary range can be INR 568K per year, which can be raised up to 1 million per year at the senior level. Customer Onboarding Manager can also expect additional pay of around 1.5 lakhs per year, including tips, cash bonuses, profit sharing, and numerous other opportunities. 

Senior Customer Success Manager Salary

The average Senior Customer Success Manager's salary is around 15 lakhs per year. The possible range of salary for this post is around 780K to 3 million per year, depending on the experience and knowledge level. It is inclusive of additional pay of approximately 2.6 lakhs per year.

Client Onboarder Salary

The average salary of a Client Onboarder is approximately INR 2 lakh per year. The additional pay at this post can be approximately ten lakhs per year, including bonus, commission, and other pay depending on the opportunities, relations, and expertise. 

Customer Experience Manager Salary

The average salary of a Customer Experience Manager is around INR 1.21 lakhs per year. Based on the most likely range and depending on the expertise level and status of the enterprise, the pay can range between 438K to 3 million per year. The most likely range varies from 731K to 2 million per year. Also, the Customer Experience Manager can expect additional pay of around 1.1 lakhs per year depending on the performance and quality brought to the company. 

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Becoming a Customer Success Manager

Customer Success Manager seems a promising career based on the high salary and minimal requirement of caring and understanding the customer. Having a bit of technical knowledge or passion for a field and empathy with the customers can lead to success in your career. However, it is vital to work on the essential skills. 

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