What is A Customer Success Manager & Why Should You Hire One?

Whatever kind of business you’re running, it’s important to understand that the work doesn’t end once a customer is successfully acquired. Even after a consumer pays for your company’s goods or services, failing to follow up with an effective Customer Success strategy can cause your business to lose out on valuable long-term revenue.

To ensure that your business is building a loyal customer base and making the most of its product offering, hiring a dedicated Customer Success Manager is essential. Responsible for supporting and nurturing your company’s customer relationships beyond the point of sale, Customer Success Managers are integral to any modern business that’s looking to foster enduring brand loyalty among its audience. From who they are to what they do and how they can boost your company’s performance at every level — here is everything you need to know about the important work of Customer Success Managers.

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What Is a Customer Success Manager?

A Customer Success Manager (CSM) is a dedicated employee who ensures that customers are supported and satisfied at every stage of their lifecycle. Whether you are selling to individuals, businesses or both — CSMs ensure that your customers achieve the best possible results against their objectives and desired outcomes.

Like with any Customer Success-related role, a CSM needs to be effective in forging strong relationships to promote customer and brand loyalty among your audience. From identifying customer needs at the acquisition stage to monitoring Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and following up with active users of your service — the top priority of an effective CSM is to adopt a customer-first approach on a holistic and ongoing basis.

Why Hire a Customer Success Manager?

While every successful business holds Customer Success as a priority at some level, the absence of a Customer Success Manager — and a well-resourced team to support them — can make these efforts ineffective. Recent Customer Success statistics show that 52% of customers will redirect their business to a competitor after a single negative experience with a service provider, emphasising the increased expectation for flawless Customer Service in the digital business age.

By establishing a department to focus solely on the experience and outcomes of your customers, you can ensure that no stone is left unturned when identifying and catering to their needs. Even among dedicated customer bases, expectations around service are firmly on the rise — with 49% of consumers abandoning brands they were formerly loyal to as a result of poor Customer Experiences.

By hiring a skilled CSM, your business can make transformative improvements in the areas of:

• Customer Satisfaction: CSMs act as a primary point of contact between your business and its customers at every touch point, ensuring that issues are resolved quickly and expectations are consistently exceeded.
• Customer Retention: CSMs are experts in forecasting, identifying and dealing with customer needs — ensuring that every member of your audience receives the individualised attention they expect.
• Customer Engagement: By implementing an open and consistent line of communication with your audience, CSMs enable customers to adopt your products successfully and make the most out of the service that you provide.

What Does a Customer Success Manager Do?: 5 Key Responsibilities & Benefits

It’s clear that the appointment of a Customer Success Manager and an increased focus on Customer Experience can give your business a competitive edge, but how should you go about implementing these changes? When looking to recruit a Customer Success leader and a wider team to support them, here are some of the key CSM responsibilities that should be considered.

1. Building Customer Relationships

Focussing solely on transactional marketing and short-term success doesn’t cut it in today’s competitive business landscape, and the development of strong customer relationships is no longer something that brands can afford to ignore. Of today’s market-leading organisations, over 80% cite Customer Experience as the main area in which they expect to compete for business.

Hiring a Customer Success Manager enables your business to build meaningful customer relationships that go beyond the capabilities of a traditional Customer Service department. While Customer Service teams cater to customer queries in real time, a dedicated Customer Success team can proactively anticipate issues and provide an added level of follow-up support.

2. Championing Your Business

Customer Success Managers effectively act as ambassadors and spokespeople for your brand, establishing a direct line with customers to champion the service you provide. Unlike Customer Service programmes, a big part of Customer Success initiatives is proactively enforcing the unique selling points and benefits that your business can offer to its audience.

Using this approach, CSMs are extremely effective at understanding your customers’ needs and consistently delivering a service that surpasses their expectations. In fact, skilled CSMs can often encourage customers to become advocates themselves by effectively promoting the merits of your business.

3. Bridging the Gap Between Customers & Customer Service

A talented Customer Service team is something that no modern business can succeed without, but it shouldn’t be the only channel that links your brand with its audience. While minor technical fixes and service queries fall under the remit of Customer Service, an experienced CSM can gain important insights and craft holistic strategies from the customer data they collect.

As a result, Customer Success Managers are able to forge strong connections between customers and your support team, enabling both sides to understand each other better and streamlining communications across the board.

4. Advocating for Customers

A Customer Success Manager can be a powerful force for positive change in your business on many fronts, but particularly when it comes to ensuring that your audience’s voice is heard. By anticipating customer needs, prioritising their feedback and relaying this information to relevant stakeholders within your business, CSMs act as a voice for your customers while always aiming to improve your company’s performance.

The resulting effect is similar to having an honest and engaged customer focus group on hand at all times — consistently providing the valuable information and insights needed to make improvements.

5. Maximising Customer Lifetime Value

One of the most important responsibilities of a Customer Success Manager is to ensure that your business is making the most revenue possible from each customer that it acquires. A key way of achieving this is by ensuring that your business’ Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is prioritised at every opportunity.

By developing a deep understanding of your audience, identifying pain points and engaging in strategic upselling—Customer Success Managers greatly reduce consumer churn and aim to produce a steady increase in retention rates over time.

What Is a Customer Success Manager’s Salary?

A Customer Success Manager working in the UK today can hope to make anywhere from £34,000-£55,000 per year, depending on their specific location and level of experience. This is a median salary figure, and may not reflect the actual cost of hiring a Customer Success Manager. It’s also important to consider the financial and operational benefits that can result in the recruitment of a skilled CSM, as these can outweigh the cost of labour in many cases.

Optimise Customer Success for Your Business with Red Letter Days Corporate

If you haven’t considered it before, now is a great time to think about implementing a Customer Success strategy and hiring a Customer Success manager for your business. By gaining an intimate understanding of your audience, plugging communication gaps and acting as dual advocates for both customer and stakeholder interests—CSMs possess a valuable skill set that can positively impact your business right down to the bottom line.

Contact the Red Letter Days Corporate team today to learn more about maximising Customer Success levels with corporate gifts and experience days.