8 Most Important Customer Success Roles and Responsibilities

The term "customer support" is fairly common in everyday language use. But ask the people around you for "customer success" and they may not know what this department is and what people do there. And even though it may seem new, customer success as a term has been around for almost 30 years.

Today, we'll show you what the customer success department does, what the most important roles are in a customer success team, and why you might consider building this department for your business.

What does the customer success department do?

The customer success department in a company ensures that whatever product or service the customer purchases, they should achieve their desired outcomes.

For example, if someone bought software for invoice tracking, that this customer successfully integrates the software into their workflow, adds invoices, tracks them, and ensures that they are paid.

In other words, customer success teams should make sure that when a customer pays for a product or service, they get their worth out of it.

The main responsibilities of customer success roles include:

• Onboarding: making sure customers know how to find their way around your product or service immediately after purchasing
• Customer education: showing customers best practices for using your product or service, ultimately driving customer loyalty
• Improving customer retention: ensuring that customers achieve their goals and stay with your brand for the long term
• Upselling and cross-selling to existing customers: ensuring new revenue growth by offering related products or services to existing and new customers
• Relationship building by improving customer satisfaction: getting in touch with the customer base and improving customer experience, one call or email at a time
• Performance tracking: making sure each customer achieves relevant metrics for product adoption
• Collecting customer feedback and closing the feedback loop: running surveys, questionnaires, polls, interviews, and more to gather feedback from customers, then reporting back once the feedback is implemented

Customer success vs. customer support

There are three key differences between customer support and customer success teams:

• Goal: customer success is proactive and success-oriented, while customer support is reactive and oriented to solving problems
• Approach: customer success builds strategic, ongoing relationships, while customer support is transactional and tactical
• Timing: customer success is proactive, while customer support is reactive

With that out of the way, let's define roles that should be present in most customer success teams. 👇

The 8 most important customer success roles you should know about

Wondering which customer success role to hire for first? Or whether you need more customer success managers or a chief customer officer? Here are all the customer success roles you should know about.

1. Customer Success Manager (CSM)

Customer success managers are the first point of contact after the purchase is finalized. The customer success manager role is the first one most companies hire as it spans different duties.

This person checks what the customer knows and doesn't know about the product and fills those gaps. They guide the onboarding of new customers, provide ongoing support, and build relationships.

2. Customer Success Director/VP

They can also be called a Chief Customer Officer. This customer success role is in charge of the entire team.

Their goal is to make sure that the performance of the entire customer success team aligns with the overarching company goals, mission, and vision. They manage the team, keep track of customer success metrics like NPS, and come up with and monitor the performance of customer success initiatives.

3. Onboarding Specialist

In a smaller team, customer success managers do everything. But if you have the budget and need for more customer success roles, a dedicated onboarding specialist is a great addition to the team.

This person helps new customers get started with a product or service, improving customer satisfaction and product adoption from day one. They give appropriate training to each customer and set the product up for each customer, ultimately driving customer retention.

4. Customer Success Operations Manager

In a larger customer success team, the operations manager takes care of all the tools, processes, and data used by the department.

They optimize processes, make sure customer data is handled in a safe and efficient way, and manage the CRM app. Ultimately, they ensure that each member of the customer success team has what they need to thrive in their role.

5. Renewal Specialist

In businesses with a monthly or annual recurring contract model, a renewal specialist makes sure that customers renew their contract for a new period.

They manage the renewal process, negotiate the terms of the renewal, and work closely with customer success managers to ensure there are no roadblocks to renewal.

6. Customer Support Representative

While they technically belong to the support team, rather than the customer success team, customer support representatives are pivotal for this department.

They provide reactive support and help customers resolve problems they may run into while using the product. They respond to customer inquiries, troubleshoot issues, and if complex problems arise, escalate them to the appropriate team(s).

7. Product Specialist/Consultant

The product specialist is the technical expert who knows the ins and outs of using the product the company is selling. When a customer success manager or onboarding specialist has a complex question from the customer, the product specialist steps in.

They provide in-depth answers to technical questions, assist with technical implementation, and offer consultative support. In teams without this role, the senior customer success manager handles this part of the job.

8. Customer Success Analyst

The analyst takes a look at the customer data and analyzes it to identify opportunities, trends, and risks. They ensure that the team makes data-driven decisions, increasing customer retention and giving way for new customer success initiatives.

They analyze data, report on customer success health metrics, and provide suggestions for improvement, e.g. in the customer journey or relationship management.

The most important customer success skills

Wondering what to look for when hiring for a customer success manager position? These are the most important skills that anyone in this department should have.

• Communication skills: being able to communicate effectively, clearly, and with empathy, while showing industry knowledge
• Empathy: understanding customers' pain points and relating to their problems
• Problem solving: a mindset for getting down to the root of the problem, to ensure customers achieve their goals
• Product knowledge: deep technical expertise of the product or service they are trying to sell/help with
• Data analysis: the ability to look into and analyze key customer success metrics and determine which action to take next
• Time management: client success managers should ensure that issues are resolved promptly to achieve top customer experience
• Strategic thinking: the ability to create and develop strategies that align with overarching business goals
• Negotiation skills: knowing how to talk a customer into staying or signing up for an additional year of service
• Resilience: navigating customer complaints with ease while persuading them into staying with a business
• Customer-centric mindset: being focused on helping customers and increasing their overall satisfaction

Most customer success managers have all of these skills, but if your potential hire does not, don't worry. Most customer success manager skills can be taught through experience.

Wrapping up

Customer success is crucial for any company that wants to focus on retention and customer satisfaction instead of simply acquiring new customers. No matter the industry, this department provides invaluable customer assistance and contributes to a business's revenue and overall health.

The key to a great customer success team is collecting feedback.

Featurebase helps you collect customer feedback with the help of in-app surveys, feedback forms, and integrations. It comes with AI analysis features, survey templates, and feature voting, helping you get a complete picture of customer satisfaction and focus on the most impactful ideas.

Start driving customer success with Featurebase for free today →