The role of a Customer Success Manager (CSM) has now been a subject of rapid expansion in any software as a service (SaaS) company. Though, this role started out on a simpler ground; promising a keen transformation of customer engagement from an orthodox ‘reactive’ to a rather ‘proactive’ mind-set. As you can see, today the entire face of this role has changed dynamically. They have taken over umpteen responsibilities and firmly produce one of the vital pillars of ‘growth’ within a SaaS community. From a plethora of such roles that a lucrative customer success specialist holds, below are the core seven tasks that are most sought after for a customer success Manager Job description: 

Has a sound knowledge of Product and Technical Support 

It is deemed pertinent for a CSM to know all about the company’s products inside and out. As a manager, you need to be aware that you may be called upon any moment to provide technical assistance to the clients or to provide on-site training on the products. You may even have to come up with the most efficient ways to utilize a given software based on the customer’s business plans or needs. As a CSM, all your focus should not be laser-beamed on making sales, but rather on educating your customers on the capabilities and flexibility of the given software so that they do not give in on the products, that easy! 

Understands the Process of Renewals 

Yes, you heard that right! Renewals are often synonymous to be the lifeline of a SaaS company, since a large portion of the revenue comes through the existing customers. It is customer renewals, that keep the recurring revenue, recurring! As a successful CSM, you must be able to follow up on the current quarter or month to avert hindrances, if any. You can note this – larger the duration of the contract, more is the value of the effort that needs to be generated. Some of it might call for some fresh paperwork, to steer away from any last-minute surprises.  

Can walk through Customer Onboarding 

An essential point in a customer success manager Job Description is the task of customer onboarding. Some of the bullet points that you need to keep in mind is that you do not have to be too verbose. Simply put, you do not have to teach all the features of your product to your clients. Elucidate only the ones which help a customer achieve early value.  

To grab the best results, your customers must be taken through the shortest path to value so that they can get some return of investment (ROI) as soon as possible. It is a proven fact that the seeds of growth or churn are sown early, time and again. Hence, it is necessary for the CSM to streamline a well-designed customer onboarding framework that soothes the lives of the customers.  

Establishes practices for Customer Support  

As a CSM, you need to acknowledge the fact that you shall be responsible for creating policies and procedures that optimize the customer experience. For this, you will have to follow simple steps such as soliciting feedback from the clients, studying other customer success roles, and analyzing customer data to ascertain the best practices. At the end of the day, you must be able to establish policies for the whole of the staff members, which they can adhere to and receive the same quality of services.  

Supervises Staff and Employees 

Some of your other tasks would include reviewing applications, supervising staff, performing basic HR work like training and development, hiring, etc. Over and above, you might have to conduct appraisals, evaluations, process payroll of the employees, or handle disciplinary actions. Mentoring and providing on the site job training are some of the other tasks expected. And most importantly, be alert!   

Accounts Escalations 

Ranging from myriad issues like an overdue customer support ticket, red flags, poor health or be it any customer reaching out for some issue – you must ensure that you can tame the situation as much as possible or in dramatic terms control the fire when it is small and manageable. 

A customer will always have this natural feeling that you are there to help him or her whenever the situation demands. This a very helpful step during the times of renewal when you can upsell to the customers as you mentor them to reach the pinnacle of success.  

Conducts periodic health check-ups 

As a customer success specialist, you mostly cannot leave the happiest, healthiest, or youngest customer to chance. Conducting a periodic health check-up of at least the key accounts is an important activity to maintain the ever-increasing mix. Additionally, it will weather the customer success team to take effective steps, just in the unlikely event of a dissatisfied client, either with the product or with some other personal or technical reason.  

Since it is actually deemed difficult to figure out the exact condition of most of the customers in real time, what you can do in such a scenario is to render service from a customer success platform. This will not only help you in monitoring account health but also enhance your efficiency by a mile.  

Final Take  

The aforementioned are a few such points which are reckoned important in a customer success manager job description. Over and above, what cannot be given a backseat is the fact that a CSM should measure few key performance indicators (KPI), to ensure that the company is moving in the right direction at the right speed.  

An efficient CSM with a focused team can completely change the path of a company. It is the team that decides the turnover, revenue, and return of investment generated. One more thing that needs to be seen is that it is much needed to give the CSM to make independent decisions without feeling any exterior pleasure. Simply put, a good customer success team makes or breaks the company.  

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