What is a customer success manager (CSM)?

Q: What is a Customer Success Manager?

A Customer Success Manager (CSM) is a role within a company’s customer success department that’s responsible for ensuring the customers find value in their product and/or service, generate adoption, and fundamentally, help them achieve their goals with the product.A CSM is the customer’s point of contact in the post-sales process. Their role is to monitor the customer’s activity, from which they can determine how successful their product is and what can be altered. These insights are used by the CSM to theoretically prevent the customer from churning.

Some heroes wear masks, some wear capes, and some dedicate their professional lives to helping others be successful.

Customer success managers (CSMs) are at the forefront of your customer success operations. They're the difference between a customer renewing and churning.

And while we might be a little biased, we think that CSMs have some of the best attributes going in business.

In this article, we’re going to:

What is customer success?

Customer success is a business strategy that focuses on to help their customers be more successful with the product they bought via them. Unlike customer support departments, who react to customer interactions, customer success is proactive by anticipating the customer needs and addressing potential problems before they arise.

Customer success isn't just about providing a good experience but ensuring customers achieve their desired business outcomes. This involves understanding what success means for each customer and helping them reach those goals.

The customer success function hasn’t been around for long, following the upward trajectory of the SaaS industry over the last twenty years. Between 1996 and 1997, the CRM company, Vantive, implemented a customer success team to ensure their customers' needs were being met.

What is a customer success manager?

A customer success manager (CSM) is a position within a company that facilitates customer success, working within a team of fellow customer success managers, senior customer success managers, and team leads, reporting to a head of customer success, director, VP or chief customer officer.

A CSM is responsible for ensuring the customers find value in their product after the sale has been made; they're the point of contact in the post-sales process. A CSM's role is to monitor the customer’s activity, from which they can determine how successful their product is and what can be altered. The CSM uses these insights to try to prevent the customer from churning.

It's their job to encourage the customer to use the product in their day-to-day life. This can be achieved through data analytics and promoting features to engage the customer. Fundamentally, through engaging with the product, adopting it and realizing value, the customer should have their needs met with the product. The customer's initial pain point and raison d'être for buying the product in the first place should be resolved with the value received.

If your organization follows the SaaS model, ensuring your customers are happy is tantamount to your success. The customer needs to use your service and find value in it, which hopefully leads to renewal. This is true in two senses:

Continued subscription (retention) equates to the product’s economic success
A high customer satisfaction rate is indicative of market authority and a positive reputation

But what do the industry leaders think? Sometimes it’s worth stripping things back, and begin asking why customer success works.

We asked Mark Higginson, Chief Customer Officer at ScreenSteps, what how he defines a CSM:

“A customer success manager acts as both the eyes and ears for the customer, as well as the company. They're an advocate. Plain and simple. Through being a constant advocate for the customer, the said customer can thrive in reaching their intended goals, and the company will keep customer priorities in mind when building for the future. They're the 'hub' through which company decisions should be formed.”

Mark touches on the dual nature of customer success; it’s all about helping customers find value in a product and monitoring the health of the company. He recognizes CSMs as the “facilitators of feedback, the hunters of new customer goals, and the friend the client needs when things aren't going well.”

Customer success managers are the lifeblood and the lifeline of a business.

Is customer success manager an entry-level position?

Depending on an organization's needs, job titles and their associated responsibilities can vary significantly. The CSM title is typically the most common in the field, but its meaning depends largely on the company's size and structure.

At smaller companies, CSMs might be the only customer success professionals on staff, meaning they wear multiple hats. In these cases, the role can span entry-level to senior-level responsibilities, depending on the company's needs.
At larger startups or enterprises, the customer success team structure is more specialized, with roles spanning junior to senior levels. For example, some companies introduce a customer success associate (CSA) position. This is typically an entry-level role designed to support more experienced CSMs and is an ideal starting point for those entering the industry.

In addition to CSMs and CSAs, you may encounter senior or specialized roles such as principal CSM, senior CSM, or CS lead – positions typically reserved for professionals with substantial experience in customer success or the industry the company serves.

Conversely, titles like customer success specialist (CSS) or customer success analyst (CSA) often focus on specific tasks, such as data analysis or operational support, rather than direct customer management.

Where should you start?

If you’re new to customer success, applying for a CSA or similar entry-level role is often the best move.

However, if you have prior experience in account management or the industry the company serves, aiming for a CSM position may be within reach.

For instance, a paralegal transitioning to a legal tech company could leverage their industry knowledge to secure a CSM role, as companies often value domain expertise alongside customer success skills.

Key skills of a customer success manager

When people refer to being ‘well-rounded,’ they usually mean that a person possesses a range of diverse skills and knowledge that enables them to be more effective and relatable in various situations. In the realm of customer success, being well-rounded is essential.

Customer success managers wear multiple hats, requiring them to excel in various competencies to help customers achieve their goals and drive business growth.

Here are the key skills that define a successful CSM:

Communication

Effective communication is arguably the most critical skill for a CSM, they must be able to articulate complex ideas and technical details in a way that is easy for customers to understand, regardless of their background or expertise. This skill extends beyond just talking; it includes active listening, writing clear and concise emails, and presenting information persuasively.

CSMs interact with a wide range of external stakeholders (customers) and internal teams (sales, product development, marketing, and customer support) daily. Top-notch communication ensures that everyone is aligned and that customer needs are understood and addressed promptly.

Particularly when helping educate customers on product features, CSMs need to be able to share what they think or how something works in a really easy-to-understand way.

Problem-solving

A CSM is often seen as the primary problem-solver for customers, taking a proactive approach to anticipate issues and mitigate risks before they impact the customer experience.

They must be adept at identifying issues before they escalate, analyzing the root cause, and developing effective solutions that prevent future occurrences. A strong problem-solving mindset allows CSMs to navigate complex situations, provide timely resolutions, and enhance the overall customer experience.

Customers will inevitably encounter challenges or roadblocks while using a product or service. A CSM’s ability to quickly and efficiently solve these problems not only helps in retaining customers but also in building trust and confidence in the company’s ability to deliver value.

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We'll let you into an insider tip: The best customer success managers can spot opportunities to solve customer problems that require new solutions or services!

Good product knowledge

A deep understanding of the product or service is essential for a CSM. This knowledge allows them to effectively educate customers, tailor solutions to specific needs, and provide insights on how to best utilize the product to achieve desired outcomes.

Being a product expert also enables CSMs to act as a bridge between the customer and the product development team, relaying feedback and suggesting improvements.

Customers rely on CSMs to guide them through the intricacies of the product and to help them unlock its full potential. A CSM’s ability to provide valuable advice and insights hinges on their product knowledge.

Empathy

Empathy is a foundational skill for any role that involves customer interaction, and it's especially crucial for CSMs. Empathy allows CSMs to understand customers' emotions, frustrations, and expectations genuinely. By putting themselves in their customers' shoes, CSMs can build stronger relationships, foster trust, and create a supportive and engaging customer experience.

Building strong customer relationships is about more than just solving problems; it’s about understanding and relating to the customer’s experience. Empathetic CSMs are better equipped to handle difficult conversations, provide comfort during challenging times, and celebrate successes alongside their customers.

We asked Mark Higginson which qualities he seeks when hiring CSMs. The results? Three very achievable attributes:

1. Be at the helm of decisions

“Someone who takes personally the success of a client. This is an attitude, a very personal attitude. I want my CSMs to leverage the company and its capabilities to steer the client towards helping them solve their intended goals. When those capabilities fail, I empower my CSMs to take any and all steps to remedy the situation. This includes direct connections to the C-level if necessary.”

2. They must be bold

“Similar to taking client success personally, they must be willing to challenge the company and challenge the client, not in a negative sense, but a bold CSM can drive adoption, innovation, and drive remedy, where someone who lacks boldness may fall short.”

3. Have a sales ability

“This may seem out of place, but when I speak of sales, I speak of the ability to help others connect the dots. Sales, in my opinion, is the ability to connect a client's goal with your company's capability and creatively lead a client through the confusion that may arise when faced with challenges. Sales, in this case, is to act as a guide, to lead the client to a place where their goals can be met with your trusted offering.”

If you missed Mark’s presentation at the Customer Success Festival, then you're in luck – you can become a member and access hundreds of hours of recordings of our past events. 🎟️

Why CSMs make the best CEOs

If that wasn’t enough, we’ve previously taken a deep dive into why CSMs have all the best qualities sought in a well-appointed CEO, and why businesses really need to wake up and open up the C-suite roles to customer success.

How do career backgrounds impact the CSM role?

Without getting ourselves into a philosophical debate, there are some universal truths that are pretty inescapable, like your past influencing your present. And when you look at professional industries, it’s pretty interesting to study the career backgrounds of people to gauge what skillsets they bring to their current role.

Due to customer success being a relatively new function, we’re intrigued by how CSMs and VPs/Heads of Customer Success landed their current roles.

After analyzing the answers from 200 respondents working within CS, the State of Customer Success 2021 report identified several findings. Firstly, the most common previous field was Account Management (AM). This isn’t surprising, as there are a lot of historical similarities between CSMs and AMs. However, this majority only encompassed a slight figure of 16.8%. And in truth, it can’t properly be called a ‘majority’. But, this figure does exemplify the myriad of skills and experiences that our customer success leaders have between them.

Other examples of other past careers undertaken by the report’s respondents included: Business Analyst, Product Manager, Project Manager, Customer Support, Customer Service, Growth Manager, and consultancy work.

Clearly, the experiences of customer success pros in 2021 represent a variety of positions within business. In fact, Business degrees were the most common college degree for CSMs and CS leaders, and Marketing came second place.

Different professional backgrounds of CSMs — *Source:* *The State of Customer Success 2024*

Using data from our report, we’ve covered that nearly one-third of CS professionals studied Business at college, and believe empathetic skills like communication (88%) and listening (71%) are essential parts of their job. A business degree is a great way of gaining a vast number of transferable skills required by most businesses, like entrepreneurship, finance, management, and accounting, helping shape a person’s analytical capabilities.

We can tell from our report’s findings that people in CS have a combination of both interpersonal and analytical skills, allowing them to understand and listen to customers’ needs, deliver impactful solutions and use data to implement a strong customer success strategy.

We asked Mark whether he thinks career backgrounds can impact the CSM role, particularly people coming from a non-SaaS background. His response was not only encouraging for non-SaaS professionals trying to break into the industry, but he emphasized how critical variety is to customer success:

When asked who he’s previously hired, Mark reveals an eclectic mix of all sorts of professions, having “hired former salespeople, social workers, high school teachers, musicians, and many more.” Despite customer success predominantly functioning in SaaS, he affirmed that ‘none of these individuals have been negatively impacted by not having a SaaS background.”

Each one of these individuals will bring a unique background and an individual skillset. On the subject of different professional backgrounds, Mark has some sage words:

“There are some challenges that are universal, regardless of industry, but what continues to amaze me is that if you can find individuals who are talented, intelligent, and truly care, they can thrive in a customer success role. The nuances of SaaS can be learned. The intangibles of boldness, "taking it personally", and the ability to guide (sell), are more difficult to teach.”

How can interdepartmental skills elevate the CSM role?

At Customer Success Collective, we’re big on learning from other teams and are firm believers that without communication and a fresh perspective, your efforts can become stagnant.

Customer retention is the overarching goal of any organization – whether it’s a subscription-based business with an emphasis on renewals or a non-SaaS model that requires customers to repeat their purchases. Losing customers shouldn’t fall solely on CS’ shoulders, it’s a company-wide initiative. This is why departments manning the different stages in the customer journey ought to collaborate. In fact, we’ve previously appraised the trifecta of marketing, sales and customer success, and why it’s crucial that all three teams are aligned.

Customer success is still a developing function that will continue to evolve from its current version. There’s a lot to learn from other teams – like product, marketing and sales – by adopting clear communication, learning, and sharing skill sets.

Mark’s presentation, ‘Why sales skills should be part of the CS toolkit’, focuses specifically on how sales skills can elevate the CSM role. Sales teams have a reputation for being slick and fast-talking, willing to say anything to make a quick buck – the antithesis of CS. But for Mark, this couldn’t be further from the truth, noting that some of the best CSMs he’s hired have come from sales backgrounds.

To avoid any prejudices regarding sales techniques, Mark lays bare the actual skillsets of salespeople:

“Sales skills are really just the ability to connect the dots for a client. They have a need (the goal), we have a capability, (the product). Selling is the ability for someone to connect these dots and guide an individual down the path of purchasing, in hopes they will use our capabilities to solve this problem or meet their goal.”

However, he notes that this is an unfulfilling prospect for some.

“Many salespeople enjoy the quick win, the hit of dopamine when they close a deal, but others find this distressing and unfulfilling. They have developed a great relationship with a client and are now turning it over to someone else in search of their next conquest. Many want more.”

Connecting these dots isn’t the problem for salespeople, Mark comments. What can be difficult is grappling with the void in the wake of the sales process: “They are great at helping guide a client to a solution, but what these individuals are lacking is the long-term relationships that can be formed.”

This is where the glory of customer success shines through, a function that Mark considers to “help their client see something through to the end, to be there when new challenges or goals surface.” Having this after-sales experience is vital for some salespeople.

“This is where customer success can save some of these disillusioned sales souls and turn them around completely. I have seen individuals become reinvigorated after they were on the brink of quitting.”

Helping facilitate customer relationships beyond the point of sale, beyond that climactic thrill, can act as a new vocation for salespeople. They are “important to the company and important to the client in perpetuity. Their skills can be leveraged continually as new challenges arise or budgets are discussed.”

The significance of customer success in a SaaS business is indisputable. According to Esteban Kolsky, 67% of customer churn is preventable if the customer issue was successfully resolved at the first engagement and if the company worked better to meet the customer’s expectations. Salespeople have experience in setting goals and expectations and nurturing customer relationships – prerequisites to work in customer success.

Let’s wrap up

To go from being a good CSM to a great one, you need to be empathetic, a facilitator of feedback, a strong communicator, and show ownership of your work. Helping a customer reach their goal is now a mantle you personally carry.

We’ve quashed any concerns about breaking into customer success with a non-SaaS background – it isn’t an issue at all. In this article, we’ve covered that having an entirely different career only adds to the wealth of transferable skills you’ll impart to your new life in customer success.

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