Everything you need to know about a job in Customer Success
What is Customer Success?
The core responsibility of a Customer Success team is to drive success to the customers they work with (sometimes titles are spot on). How can you translate this into practice?
First, define what success means for your customers. Depending on who your customers are, their goals, and your product, this definition will vary by company. Second, determine how your products or services can provide ongoing value to your customers. Third, consistently demonstrate value and anticipate future needs.
What do Customer Success Managers do?
The most common title for someone working in Customer Success is Customer Success Manager, or CSM. These folks are on the front lines interacting with customers on a day to day basis.
As the chart above demonstrates, Customer Success’ recent creation and meteoric rise has led to a lot of variability around the responsibilities and expectations associated with the CSM title. That being said, there are a few common responsibilities of a CSM:
- Establish clear goals and milestones that you and the customer will be working towards
- Help customers receive value quickly by managing product implementation and onboarding
- Generate and share educational resources, trainings, and best practices
- Drive additional value by encouraging deeper feature adoption
- Contribute to revenue generation through renewals, upsells, and expansions
- Synthesize customer feedback and work with internal teams to respond to customer needs
- Create evangelists and advocates among your customer base
This article takes a more in depth look at what a CSM role might encompass by breaking down the Customer, Success, and Management dimensions of the role.
How is Customer Success growing?
Less than 1 in 10 SaaS companies recently surveyed lacked a Customer Success team. During the early stages, most startup employees are in Product & Engineering roles. As companies expand, they need to rapidly grow Customer Success and specialized functions, such as Recruiting and Finance.
The average salary for a Customer Success Manager in 2019 is $86,000, up from $78,000 in 2018 — source.
As someone who’s worked in Customer Success for 8+ years, I can confirm it’s an exciting and challenging career path. Still not sure about a job in Customer Success? Reach out- I’d love to chat with you more about it!
