SEO Glossary: Customer Success Manager

 

What is a Customer Success Manager (CSM)?

The term "customer success management" refers to a company's strategy to ensure that its own customers are successful and have a positive experience with the company. They ensure that customers derive the greatest benefit from a product or service.

 

Customer Success Managers, also known as Client Success Managers, are employees of a company and direct contacts for their customers. They look after them and work closely with them to ensure that their needs and requirements are met to their satisfaction.

 

CSMs gather feedback, maintain internal and external communication, review customer success and proactively look after their business by regularly suggesting new ways to improve success.

 

 

The importance of CSM for companies

Customers are the heart of every company, which is why their satisfaction is of crucial importance.

 

Customer Success Managers ensure good customer retention and strengthen customer loyalty. As CSMs always work closely with their company's customers, they can gain valuable insights into their needs and requirements, which in turn can help the company to optimize products and services.

 

Other advantages that companies gain from Customer Success Manager are

 

• CSMs can help increase sales by identifying upselling and cross-selling opportunities.
• By improving customer service and customer satisfaction, companies can improve their own reputation and image.

 

Find out why online reputation management is important with our knowledge blog!

 

Responsibilities of Customer Success Managers

CSMs should ensure success and positive experiences with the company. To ensure this, Customer Success Managers have a variety of tasks that need to be mastered:

 

Customer support and advice: CSMs are direct contacts for customers and ensure that they receive the best possible advice.

 

Customer voice: Customer Success Managers represent customers within the company and mediate between customer wishes and corporate culture.

 

Identification of customer needs: Customer Success Managers must identify the needs and requirements of customers in order to help the company improve its products and services.

 

Strategy development: CSMs are responsible for developing strategies for customer loyalty and customer satisfaction.

 

Analysis of customer data: Customer Success Managers monitor both data and customer feedback and analyze it in order to optimize the company's services.

 

Collaboration with other departments: CSMs work closely with other departments such as sales, marketing or customer support in order to meet the needs and requirements of customers holistically.

 

What makes a good Customer Success Manager?

As a rule, CSMs have a special certification or degree in areas such as business, marketing or communication as well as experience in customer service, account management, sales or marketing.

 

Essentially, however, Customer Success Managers must be good at organizing and presenting. CSMs are particularly successful if they have the right soft skills, such as good communication skills, empathy, problem-solving skills, teamwork, flexibility and customer focus.

 

Further requirements for Customer Success Managers are

• Technical skills such as knowledge of CRM systems, data analysis tools & other customer care and analysis software;
• Analytical skills to collect and process customer feedback and data to identify trends and patterns;
• Creative and social skills, such as a talent for building relationships, diplomacy, persuasiveness and assertiveness, as well as the ability to think outside the box;
• Leadership skills, as CSMs often play a leading role in customer success teams.

 

 

What are the advantages of CSM for companies?

1. bridge builder

Customer Success Managers are both sales employees and support professionals. Unlike account managers, they take care of the overall customer picture: they increase accounts, strengthen loyalty, solve problems and improve satisfaction. CSMs come into action when the sales team has done its job and ensure that customers are working successfully with their newly acquired product as quickly as possible.

 

2. attachment and relationship professionals

Customer Success Managers are responsible for relationship marketing. They maintain regular contact with customers, clarify questions and dispel concerns. Customer loyalty is particularly supported when Customer Success Managers keep an eye on the customer onboarding process. This is not even primarily about the initial onboarding process.

 

Customer Success Managers should offer customers added value and thus maintain customer satisfaction for years to come. Even if customers have already been working with the product for a while, CSMs ask whether everything is satisfactory and whether the product is being used regularly. Their work begins when a potential customer has become an active user.

 

3. support geniuses

CSMs are involved in many phases of the customer lifecycle, the customer journeyand therefore have a good overview of the big picture. In contrast to customer service, however, customer success managers recognize problems in advance that affect several customers and what this can mean for potential churn.

 

They can therefore also provide their customers with comprehensive advice, as they place their requirements in the context of their corporate strategy and have an overview of future product changes - such as increased questions about product updates.

 

4. brand & product marketers

Through regular updates and information, Customer Success Managers arouse the interest of their corporate customers in upcoming products. They provide access to demos and training, make implementation easier for customers and thus naturally find upselling opportunities.

 

CSMs maintain a trusting and personal relationship with customers, which makes it easier for them to find and exploit marketing opportunities. They are also able to help customers with technical product support and training. This is especially essential during onboarding to ensure the smooth implementation of the product.