Customer Success Manager
Complete with job descriptions, skill profiles, and interview templates. Use this Customer Success Manager hiring guide to help you make the right decisions, fast.
HOW TO HIRE A Customer Success Manager
What does a Customer Success Manager do?
A Customer Success Manager is responsible for helping customers meet their desired outcomes with a product and/or service.The Customer Success Manager will develop a relationship with the customer and manage the account for anything from support with technical issues to strategy and upgrading.
Day to day tasks of a Customer Success Manager
- Be a product expert for your clients and acting as a consultant on how this platform can help your customers
- Managing a portfolio of accounts end-to-end.
- Running and managing ongoing training / implementation of new projects to customers
- Assist with onboarding new users to the platform and walking them through the basics
Customer Success Manager definition
A Customer Success Manager supports their customers as they transition from sales to active consumers of their companies products. They will be focused on customer loyalty and building long-term relationships, to ensure the customer’s reach their desired objectives and identify opportunities for account expansion.
HIRING PROCESS
Customer Success Manager Hiring Process
Build the ideal candidate profile
Skills needed for a Customer Success Manager
A Customer Success Manager must be customer-focused and relatable. They will have refined people skills and an ability to lead customers and colleagues. They will be diligent organizers and take pride in managing their time.
- Organization
- Interpersonal Skills
- Leadership
Pro Tip
For mid-level roles, you’re likely to receive a larger number of applications than you would for a senior position. Ensure you provide details about what it’s like to work for your company, and what your company values are so applicants know whether your company is the right fit for them.
WRITE A JOB DESCRIPTION BASED ON SKILLS
How to write a Customer Success Manager job description
Once you’ve determined the skills required for the role, you can write the job description to advertise for your position. Here’s what to include in your Customer Success Manager job description:
Job Title: What position are you hiring for?
Summary: What makes your company unique? What would it be like to work for you?
Responsibilities: An overview of the role’s day-to-day activities, and how the position contributes to the organization
Requirements: Skills a candidate must have to perform the job successfully
Benefits: Details of compensation, benefits, and any perks on offer
Pro Tip
In building your candidate profile, remember you’ve already identified what skills are needed to succeed in the role. Here’s where to list your “must-have” skills and maybe a couple of “nice-to-have” skills. For example, a Customer Success Manager must empathize with customer’s concerns and problems, and it would be nice to have base level sales experience.
SELECTING THE IDEAL CANDIDATE
Sample skill tests for a Customer Success Manager
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Question 1
Organization
Question Type: Text
How do you monitor the health of your customers, what do you look out for and what actions do you take when you notice something is unusual?
Question 2
Interpersonal
Question Type: Video
Mock Call/Case Study – Initial Customer Call Situation: You have locked in your first call with one of your new customers. They have been a customer for over two years and your research shows that their usage has been decreasing month on month for the last couple of quarters and there have been no new users created in that time. You will be using this call to understand the reasons for the decrease and low adoption and to put a plan in place to get them back on track.
Question 3
Leadership
Question Type: Audio
You were on a call with a junior Customer Success Manager and noticed a few opportunities for improvement. How would you approach them and what suggestions would you make?
INTERVIEW TOP PERFORMERS
How to interview a Customer Success Manager
Once your Vervoe skills assessment has surfaced the most qualified people for your open role, you can focus on interviewing these candidates. The interview should focus on any skills that require development that were highlighted from the skills assessment.
Now you know that candidates can do the job, the interview becomes more of a relationship building exercise where you can get to know the candidate on a more personal level, understand their motivations, and how they would fit in with the team.
Making An Offer
How much does it cost to hire a Customer Success Manager?
The US average for a Customer Success Manager is $90,000 according to Comparably.com while the reported average salary on Salary.com amounts to $112,422. Ninety percent of customer success managers earn above $79,780 with the top 10 percent receiving up to $151,207.
Customer Success Manager Salary United States
Customer Success Manager salaries in the United States range from $79,780 – $151,207 (USD). Customer Success Manager salaries in the U.S vary a lot depending on the size and location of the company.
Source: Salary.com
Customer Success Manager Salary United Kingdom
Customer Success Manager salaries in the United Kingdom range from £29,000 – £68,000 (GBP). Customer Success Manager salaries in the UK vary a lot depending on the size and location of the company.
Source: Glassdoor
Customer Success Manager Salary Australia
Customer Success Manager salaries in Australia range from $59,000 – $125,000 (AUD). Customer Success Manager salaries in Australia vary a lot depending on the size and location of the company.
Source: Payscale
