Customer success manager: role, responsibilities, and business impact

Many companies struggle to retain customers and it’s often down to customer experience (CX). According to the Zendesk CX Trends 2024 report, more than half of customers will leave for a competitor after just one bad experience.

So, how can you ensure your customers always have a great experience? Enter the customer success manager (CSM)—a key player in driving growth, improving customer relationships, and ensuring long-term success for your business.

But what does a customer success manager do and why should you care? Let’s explore the ins and outs of this essential role and find out how it can help take your business to the next level.

More in this guide:

• What is a customer success manager?
• Why do you need a customer success manager?
• Key responsibilities of a customer success manager
• Top skills every customer success manager should have
• Customer success manager salary
• Enhance customer relationships by leveraging a customer success manager

What is a customer success manager?

As the name suggests, a customer success manager aims to ensure the success of your customers while using your products or services. The main aims of a CSM are to ensure customers get a high ROI, stay with the company, and spend more.

Unlike customer service teams which mainly focus on resolving issues, CSMs are proactive relationship builders who guide customers through their entire journey with a company—from onboarding to renewal and beyond. CSMs also track usage patterns, recommend features, and identify upsell opportunities.

It’s important to note that customer success is different to customer experience. Customer success is about understanding your customers’ goals and helping them achieve them while customer experience is about how customers feel about their interactions with your company.

Why do you need a customer success manager?

Investing in a customer success manager or team can be a game-changer for your business, especially if you’re in a subscription-based industry like SaaS. When your renewals rely on satisfied customers getting the most out of your product, you need to make sure they’re having a great experience. Here are the top five reasons you should hire a customer success manager ASAP:

Retain customers

CSMs ensure that customers get the very best out of your products or services by understanding their goals and helping them reach them. And when you’re contributing to their success, customers are much more likely to stick with you—reducing your customer churn rate.

Solve problems proactively

Unlike reactive customer support, CSMs anticipate and address potential issues before they become problems. This can work wonders for your customer satisfaction score (CSAT) by helping you sidestep customer frustration. Thinking one step ahead also builds trust in your brand and encourages word-of-mouth marketing.

Grow your revenue

CSMs can not only help you create more loyal customers but also customers who buy higher-value products. By recognising when a customer might benefit from extra features or a higher tier service, CSMs help drive up your revenue per customer. And more income from renewals and upselling means one thing: growth.

Listen to your customers

Customer feedback is vital for any business because it provides valuable insights that can help your teams improve and develop your products in the right direction. As a crucial link between your customers and teams, CSMs help you tune into this feedback to keep your products and services in tune with customer needs.

Get ahead in the market

With so many products and services out there, it’s getting harder to stand out. Luckily, the quality of your customer success management can be a key differentiator. A strong customer success team can give your company a serious edge over competitors by providing stellar post-sale support and guidance.

Key responsibilities of a customer success manager

Customer success managers wear many hats and their responsibilities often evolve as they become more integrated into a company. Here are some of the main responsibilities of the customer success role:

Onboarding and implementation

CSMs help customers get set up and implement your products or services, making sure the customer journey starts off on the right foot. It’s vital in setting the tone of the relationship and helping customers realise value quickly.

Relationship management

Building and maintaining strong relationships with customers is the nuts and bolts of the CSM’s role. They act as the first point of contact for customers throughout their lifecycle, ensuring consistency, building trust, and fostering open communication.

Strategic planning and goal setting

CSMs work with customers to understand their objectives and create success plans that align how they use your products or services with their goals. This means regular check-ins, progress tracking, and adjustments to ensure customers are on track to achieve their desired outcomes.

Product adoption and usage monitoring

CSMs use analytics tools to track how customers use your products for insights into usage patterns, adoption, and best practice. This also allows them to reach out to customers who might not be using all the features available to them.

Upselling and cross-selling

CSMs are in tune with customer needs, which puts them in the perfect position to recommend other products and services that might be useful to them. This not only increases revenue but also helps customers get more out of what you have to offer.

Renewal management

CSMs are constantly demonstrating the ongoing value of your products and resolving any concerns before they snowball. This has a hugely positive impact on renewal decisions because satisfied customers generally don’t go anywhere else.

Customer advocacy

CSMs are often trying to turn satisfied customers into brand advocates. Whether it’s with case studies, testimonials, or social media shout-outs, showcasing customer wins motivates customers to publicly endorse your brand.

Continuous education

CSMs let customers know about new releases or features and organise any training needed. This can include webinars, self-serve videos, or one-on-one sessions to help customers get the most out of your products.

Top skills every customer success manager should have

Customer success managers need a range of skills, including technical and customer service skills. Here are the top 10 skills every CSM should have:

1. Strong communication and interpersonal skills: CSMs have to be able to communicate effectively with customers at all levels within a company, from end users to managers.
2. Empathy and active listening: CSMs can only build strong relationships and provide effective solutions if they fully understand customer needs.
3. Problem-solving and critical thinking abilities: CSMs often have to think creatively to address unique customer challenges and find win-win solutions.
4. Project management expertise: CSMs should have excellent organisational and project management skills to juggle multiple customer accounts at the same time.
5. Data analysis and interpretation skills: CSMs need to be comfortable working with data to track customer health, usage patterns, and other customer service KPIs.
6. In-depth product knowledge: CSMs should understand your products or services inside-out to guide customers and identify any upselling or cross-selling opportunities.
7. Strategic thinking and planning capabilities: CSMs have to see the big picture and align customer goals with product features.
8. Adaptability and flexibility: CSMs need to adjust strategies and approaches to suit changing customer needs and market conditions—not to mention individual customer requirements.
9. Customer-centric mindset: CSMs should have a genuine desire to help customers succeed and reach their goals, putting their needs and satisfaction first.
10. Time management and prioritisation skills: CSMs have to balance the demands of multiple customers and internal stakeholders to meet deadlines and keep everything on track.

Customer success manager salary

According to Glassdoor, the average annual salary for a customer success manager in the UK is £51,017. However, many CSMs get extra pay (like bonuses) on top of this base salary, which can bump up their total earnings.

It’s also important to remember that salaries vary depending on things like experience, industry, and company size. These factors mean that CSMs should expect to be paid anything from £30,284 to £59,555 as per Payscale research.

Pay also varies by location. For example, salaries tend to be higher in big cities like London to account for the cost of living and competitive job market. Time in the industry is another major factor. Here’s what CSMs can expect to earn on average based on their experience according to Payscale:

• <1 year experience = £30,284

• 1–4 years’ experience earn = £37,673

• 5–9 years’ experience earn = £49,894

• 10–19 years’ experience earn = £59,555

It’s worth highlighting that customer success is still a relatively new field with lots of room to grow in terms of career progression and higher wages. The role of the CSM will become even more important as more and more businesses start to recognise the value of engaging with customers after they’ve made a purchase.

Enhance customer relationships by leveraging a customer success manager

In today’s increasingly competitive and customer-centric marketplace, prioritising long-term customer success over short-term sales has a range of benefits—from reducing churn and driving growth to improving customer lifetime value (CLV).

Custom success managers help businesses bring this approach to life by addressing customer needs proactively, explaining new features, and continuously demonstrating the value of what your company provides.

In an era where customer experience (CX) can quite literally make or break a business, CSMs not only keep customers on board for the long haul but also make sure that they use more of your products and services. It’s a win-win.