How To Become A Great Customer Success Manager (By ClientSuccess)

HOW TO BECOME A
GREAT CUSTOMER
SUCCESS MANAGER
presented by
How to Become a Great Customer Success Manager | 2
Introduction
Your role as a customer success manager is to support new customers as they transition
from sales prospects to active product users. To be successful, you need to build customer
loyalty and maintain a strong relationship with your clients. In this eBook we’ll explore
several topics that will help you to become a great customer success manager.
Here are some of the topics we’ll explore:
• Qualities That Can Make Good Customer Success Managers Great

• Critical Skills That Successful CSMs Need to Develop
• Listening Techniques of Great Customer Success Managers
• How to Become an Active Listener
• The Golden Rule of Customer Success
• The Secret Weapon for Building Great Customer Relationships
• How Customer-Centric is Your Company?
• How Would You Rate Your Company’s Client Experience?
Qualities That Can Make Good Customer Success

Managers Great
Being on the CSM frontline allows us to directly influence the success of our clients. I love
that; as our clients are successful, we’re successful. Each day we learn from the trenches
what it takes to make clients happy and successful.
Mentor Questions
Our “Mentors” questions are geared toward CSMs receiving mentorship directly from
Director-level and above customer success leaders, in order to help them grow
professionally. The goal is that by sharing our experiences we’ll be able to learn and apply
more practical advice / practices to our careers.
One of those questions asks, “What are two to three qualities of a great CSM? And why?“
We’ve compiled a list of answers from 7 Customer Success Mentors. Let’s get started!
19 Qualities That Can Make Good Customer Success Managers Great
From: Steve McDougal, Director of Customer Success | Company: Genesys | Location:

London, United Kingdom
1. Deep, pure and natural curiosity – It’s important to be curious about a customer,
their business goals, desired outcomes, etc. CSMs must also be curious about your
own product, how it works, how it could be improved, and so forth. If you’re not
interested in any of these things, you probably wouldn’t be that great at what CSM
needs to do.
2. Resilience – The top-performing CSMs I’ve known are particularly resilient.
Personally, this has meant they respond well to setbacks. For example, it could be
working with an upset customer, responding well when the product doesn’t work
properly, or persisting through challenging situations. CSMs must be resilient and not
take feedback personally, especially when challenging customers might not be the
nicest individuals to work with.
3. The ability to build relationships – CSMs need to be able to effortlessly speak with
C-level executives and other key stakeholders. Building relationships is critical,
particularly for champion engagement. A great CSM can find and develop
relationships with these champions. Doing so regularly strengthens a CSMs position
within that account.
From: Ashley Correll, Chief Operating Officer | Company: Beyond Insurance | Location: King
of Prussia, Pennsylvania
4. Patience – If you are in the business of customer service, having patience is key.
You may be getting asked the same question 10 times a day but your willingness to
provide the same level of support and thoughtfulness through each interaction is so
important to making the customer feel valued.
5. Empathy – Being able to put yourself in another person’s shoes is always a valuable
quality. If you live your professional life the way you live your personal one, it should
feel natural to just treat others the way you would want to be treated.
6. Big-picture thinker – A great CSM isn’t just thinking about one customer service
issue or one particular client, they’re thinking about the collective good of the
organization and for all of their clients. They are asking themselves, “What strategies
or tactics can I leverage to make the entire organization more successful?” That
mindset also creates a proactive and positive culture within the organization as
you’re all working towards a common goal.
From: Natalie Williams; Head of Customer Success & Experience | Company: SurveyStance
| Location: Orange County, California
7. Authenticity – as one of the core values at my company, we try to exemplify this in

every interaction. Our customers trust us because they know we’re open, honest,
transparent, and that we legitimately want to help them. This starts with our
leadership and trickles down to the frontline employee.
8. Action-oriented – CSMs must advocate for their customers and take the necessary
actions to achieve desired outcomes. As you’re taking these actions, it’s also
important to communicate what you’re doing back to the customer so both parties
remain aligned with current success criteria and next steps.
9. Resilience – it’s important for CSMs to understand they’re the conduit for the
customer and to not take certain pieces of feedback personally. While this can be
difficult at times because of how passionate one might be, you have to remember to
work through it and engage with purpose. Be resilient in your desire to help
customers achieve success.
From: Nina Wilkinson, VP of Customer Success | Company: Canary Technologies | Location:

San Francisco, California.
10. Patience – CSMs have to be patient on many different levels, especially in terms of
working with clients and dealing with various issues. Whether it’s during an
onboarding, working through billing changes, user or champion turnover, or shifting
KPIs…the ability to be okay and comfortable with change is a must.
11. Passion – I believe we are most successful when we’re passionate about the
industry or space we’re in. To that regard, as a Director I’ve always looked for hires
who are deeply interested in the subject matter they’d be working on as a CSM. One
must be able to gain the expertise needed in order to successfully manage a book
of business. Spend time learning about your respective industry and strive to stay
up-to-date with its changes and current developments.
12. Persistence – as a CSM, you’re going to have clients that go dark which can be
incredibly frustrating. If you can find new ways to be informative and provide
customers with valued engagement touchpoints, you’ll be better off in your work.
This approach definitely requires more work than passively reaching out to your
customers. But if we’re able to provide value at every touch point we have, we’ll be
well on our way to “customer success”.
13. Perspective – consider yourself as a strategic extension of customers’ own team
and put yourself in their shoes to achieve objectives with their perspective in mind.
From: Brett Andersen; SVP, Customer Success & Alliances | Company: Wonderlic | Location:
Salt Lake City, Utah
14. Relentless Ambition / Growth Mindset – I think it’s important to distinguish between
someone’s mindsets and their skill sets. Mindsets are the natural attitudes, beliefs,
and perspectives someone carries with them, largely independent of the
environment. And skill sets are the combination of hard or soft skills that someone
has developed over time. One mindset I emphasize with our team and look for when
we hire is relentless ambition. Stanford Professor Carol Dweck calls it the growth
mindset and it essentially means defaulting to learning, growing and developing,
knowing you don’t always have the right answers, that there’s more you can learn,
that failure and mistakes are stepping stones. I’ve found that a person who has this
tendency almost always pursues excellence despite setbacks, is resilient, and
regularly seeks feedback. There’s something to learn from pushing through hard
times, because there is always the results and growth on the other side of the
challenge. That, to me, is a fundamental characteristic of relentless ambition.
15. Authentic Altruism – The other piece I think is core to any client experience client is
what I call authentic altruism, which is basically legitimately and naturally caring about
people. Do you have people who treat clients with the same respect like they would
their mom? It’s not that we can’t be frustrated with customers or disagree with them,
but it’s when it turns into disrespect, blame, or harsh criticism. Something I always
look for as a leader is if a person is generally interested in helping people. What’s
their attitude about people? How much do they value relationships? Do they
demonstrate emotional intelligence, which includes active and empathic listening?
16. Strategic Insight / Discipline – When it comes to skill sets, what are the specific
tactical things that I need CSMs to be able to do? For me there’s a few I look for, but
the biggest balance is between someone who can not only bring strategic insight but
also execute in a disciplined way. Part of this is having the foresight to ask really
good questions to know where you’re going with a given conversation, guiding the
customer to where they need to go, and bringing data into that conversation. And
then following through on what you say you can and will do. As a CSM, am I following
up on action items? Am I being deliberate about who I involve? Every interaction we
have with a client should leave them with some new insight. Our job is to create
value by bringing new ideas and insights that get them excited. Over time, these
disciplines create tremendous value.
17. Reliable Expertise – Regarding the frequent question of, “Do you need a CSM from
the industry or not?” I’ve learned that new hires don’t have to have as much
expertise in the industry as your clients…but you do need to have reliable expertise.
What I mean is that you can have conversations with the client that don’t slow down
the process of them getting to where they need to go. Can you understand their
industry, company, and role well enough to have intelligent conversations and lead
them to the outcomes they expect?
From: Tyler Richards, Director, Implementation Services | Company: Lucid Software |

Location: South Jordan, Utah
18. The ability to be agile – in every organization I have been a part of thus far, there
has never been an entirely established, fully-baked customer success machine with
no need for improvement. Additionally, my experience has been such that CSMs’
jobs descriptions can be fairly fluid. We are often tasked with being the glue
between product, sales, and support, filling in for the “grey” areas, or potentially
needing to “quarterback” various projects to help them get across the finish-line. You
need to be comfortable with ambiguity and willing to roll with the punches. I feel like
it’s really important, especially in a younger company or CS organization, for CSMs to
be agile and flexible.
19. Autonomy – as a leader, you want team members where you don’t have to look
over their shoulder. If I have to consistently coax a team member to do their job, or
reach out to clients, that’s going to be a huge drag on productivity. CSMs, in my
opinion, are the CEO of their own books of business. If they can be entirely
autonomous, while still being effective, that is something I find extremely valuable.
Learn from the Experts:

Greg Daines, the CEO of Client Velocity, shares 3 surprising ideas, 3 deadly fallacies, and 3
essential insights for customer success.
Critical Skills That Successful CSMs Need to

Develop
The role of a customer success manager (CSM) in the SaaS industry has become
increasingly complex. As platforms themselves become more innovative and functional, and
as customers become more well-versed in how these solutions impact their business, CSMs
are faced with more questions and challenges than ever before. While working with
customers takes a certain type of person with a certain temperament, there are also specific
skills CSMs must work on and develop in order to be successful.
In order to deliver the best customer experience possible, CSMs should develop the
following critical skills:
Problem Solving and Resolution
I think the number one and two more critical skills of successful customer success
managers are problem solving and resolution skills. There are always challenges during the
customer lifecycle. The ability for the customer success manager to find out the core
customer issue and build out a plan or resolution aligned with a customer is not an easy
task. The best customer success managers have learned these two skills and use them
daily to drive success with customer accounts. The end result of this skill is trust and
customer account growth.
Expectation Setting
Expectations set correctly drive customer success. Expectations set poorly create a poor
brand and customer experience. In a perfect world, this wouldn’t be a problem because
marketing and sales have done their job to set proper expectations from the start. Having
been in SaaS for 12 years, I know that many times it requires a customer success manager
to set expectations properly even when it seems like the customer was oversold. This is
why this skill is so critical for successful customer success managers.
Listening & Seeking to Understand
Listening is another important skill successful customer success managers use to drive
success with customers. Successful customer success managers know that listening to your
customers is key to establishing strong relationships. Without strong listening skills, you
won’t gain the respect and trust of your most important business relationships. Stephen R.
Covey said, “Most people don’t listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the
intent to reply.” So it not just about listening, but it’s about understanding so you can deliver
a solution that meets the customer’s needs and helps them succeed.
Level Headedness
If there’s one thing customer success managers (CSMs) can count on, it’s curve balls.
Whether the craziness comes from negotiations, confusion, or customer escalations, it will
be there, and when it hits, CSMs can’t lose their cool. Customers are counting on their CSM
to help them and be a support system through the onboarding process. No matter how bad
it gets, CSMs should never be the ones exploding – even if you want to. Keeping a level
head is crucial and cannot be understated.
Data Integration
While it might not seem like it off the bat, understanding how to handle customer data is a
huge part of a CSMs day-to-day job. Having a good handle on how this process works, how
to keep data secure, and how to coach your customers through different workflows are all
skills a CSM should have. Additionally, being able to explain to customers what’s happening
with their data will help make them more comfortable and trusting.
Solution Knowledge
This one should be a no-brainer, but all CSMs should be considered a subject matter expert
on the platform, hardware, or solution they’re working with. This will not only make it easier
for you to answer any questions that come up, but it will allow you to actually speak the
‘language’ when talking to customers. Your customers have already made the decision to
purchase your product and they’ve already made a serious investment in your technology.
They don’t want another sales pitch. They want someone who will be able to talk to them
on a personal level and get right to the value of the partnership.
Empathy
Empathy is another skill that all CSMs should have, and it’s sometimes considered the most
important skill. CSMS should have the ability to understand where customers are
approaching problems from, how they are feeling about specific milestones, and what they
are thinking about certain functionality. Talking about and focusing on feelings may sound
sappy, but it’s a must in any customer-focused business. Empathy and understanding is
what sets a great CSM apart from the rest, and it’s what customers are looking for in a
vendor relationship.
Grit (Tenacity)
This skill might be more of a personality or attitude than skill, but it’s an attribute of
successful CSMs. Being a customer success manager is not easy. It requires grit and
tenacity to never give up and to find every way to make your customers successful.
Build Out Your CS Team with the Right Skill Sets
Successful customer success leaders spend time identifying the skills needed on their
teams to drive customer success. They learn the skills, train the skills, and try to hire for
those who are already proficient in the skills. The right set of skills, grit, and attitude are the
makeup of the best customer success teams in the world.

Kristi Faltorusso, VP of Customer Success at ClientSuccess (previously VP of Customer
Success at Intellishift) and one of the top influencers in customer success, shares her
thoughts and leads a discussion on “Do the Best CS Leaders Start as Front-Line CSMs”. She
shares how starting her career as a front-line CSM gave her the experience and empathy to
lead successful CS teams. Watch the webinar by clicking on the link below:
Listening Techniques of Great Customer Success

Managers
As a customer success manager, you know that listening to your customers (both external
customers and even internal customers) is key to establishing strong relationships. Without
strong listening skills, you won’t gain the respect and trust of your most important business
relationships.
In the words of Stephen R. Covey, “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand;
they listen with the intent to reply.” And for customer success leaders, doing so could be
detrimental to not only your role, but your entire company.
There are countless books and resources on the importance of listening across all areas of
life: from listening to your significant other, raising children, teaching employees, or
negotiating on a house. Clearly, listening is one of the most important skills that we can
learn.
But in this section, our focus is specifically on how customer success leaders should listen –
both to their internal customers (those within the same organization) to external customers
(those that are paying your company for a product or service). We’ll give specific examples
and illustrations for customer success leaders to excel at the art of listening:
1. Listen First
Often times, customer success managers will dive into conversations head first with a list of
questions. “How do you like this feature?” “Can you tell me more about the problem you’re
experiencing with X?” While asking questions is certainly a gateway to get customers
talking, this format leaves little room for the customer to provide direct and honest feedback
about what’s on their mind. By asking questions, you are directing the conversation to what
you want to hear, not towards what the customer wants to talk about.
Rather than starting with a barrage of questions, write them down so you can come back to
them later. Then, start by asking a single open-ended question such as, “how are things
working out for you this week?” By asking a simple question like this, the customer can then
dictate where to steer the conversation. If they are indeed experiencing a problem, they will
likely bring it up on their own.
For customer success managers, many of your customer conversations likely happen over
the phone. This can be tricky as it eliminates face-to-face conversations where each of you
are able to read facial expressions. If you do have to use a phone, make sure you are
actively listening and following along by with simple words like “got it”, “okay”, “makes
sense”, etc. so the customer knows he or she has your full attention.
Bonus Tip: If your company gives you the option of using video technology, try Google
Hangout, GoToMeeting, or Join.Me for inexpensive ways to engage “face to face” with your
customer.
2. Seek Clarification
Once the customer begins talking, take notes rather than interrupting or cutting them off in
the middle of a story or dialogue. Let them keep talking – this is gold! Your customers love
knowing that you’re actively listening and taking notes during the conversation. When the
time is right and the customer has stepped back to let you respond, now is the time you can
refer to the questions you wrote down initially for the call.
Take the time to ask specific questions relating to what the customer has confided. Make
sure you fully understand the information before you move onto another subject.
3. Repeat Back
How does your customer know you truly understand what their situation, request, problem,
or compliment is? After you have asked clarifying questions, be sure to repeat the
information back and ask if you understand accurately. So often, we believe we understand
the situation and take action on what we believe is the problem, without actually confirming
the data points. Taking action on a situation without truly understanding it can be more
detrimental than good – even with the best of intentions.
Once you have repeated the information back to the customer and he or she
acknowledges you’ve got it right, then tell him or her what you plan to do with it so they
know it won’t disappear into a black hole. Whether you plan to share the situation at the
next customer success meeting or whether you will meet with the CEO about it the
following day, it’s important to ensure your customer knows something is happening with
the valuable information they have just provided.
4. Take Action
If you told the customer you were going to take a specific action with the information they
shared, now is the time to put the to-do into motion. Not all data points are crucially
important, but all deserve to be recorded and remembered. Whether you need to create a
calendar reminder to bring up the information in your next customer success team meeting
or whether you need to pick up the phone and act on something more urgent, do it
immediately. Waiting to take action will simply create dust and lose you trust with the
customer if he or she begins to notice nothing happens with the information they entrust to
you.
Bonus Tip: As a customer success manager, it’s likely that you often don’t have time
throughout the day to pause and take action if it’s not a fire alarm. To ensure nothing gets
lost in the shuffle, carve out an hour every morning to address problems or act on
information from the previous day. Use that time every morning to as a gut check for how
your customer information is being acted upon across the organization.
5. Report Back
One of the most forgotten steps entails reporting back. So often customers pass on great
information that may have helped the product team fix a bug, or may have created a more
seamless invoicing process, or may have helped streamline a services offering. This
customer input is gold, but unless they know their information is actually being taken to
heart and considered, you can bet they won’t continue sharing. Sharing information in this
way takes time and energy away from the customer’s job, so reporting back is one easy
way to thank them for their valued input. Let them know where their feedback is making a
difference, and what they should expect in the future.
Bonus Tip: Get marketing involved and send out a thank you card or thank you gift when
you receive incredibly valuable information from a customer. This over-the-top thank you will
be remembered, and the customer will know you’re carefully considering their input.
6. Seek Input & Repeat
Once you’ve reported back to the customer and the input has either been considered or
taken into action, go back to your customer and ask for even more input. Ask them how the
process could have been better, or what else is on their mind. Perhaps use another open-
ended question to dive deeper into another area of the business.
The key to remember is that listening to customers will produce more opportunities for
listening, so the goal should always be to encourage your customers to remain open and
honest. When they see you, their customer success leader, listening and taking action to
their feedback and concerns, you’ll create the best outcome. The outcome of trust.

Jay Nathan, Chief Customer Offer of Higher Logic (previously the Founder of Customer
Imperative), talks about ways to cultivate customer relationships through crisis. Watch the
webinar by clicking on the link below:
How to Become an Active Listener

Looking at the foundational or required skills of any CSM, ‘good listener’ is going to be on
the list. Customers – especially those working with a SaaS vendor – are known to be
extremely vocal about many things, good and bad alike. While good CSMs can listen to
customers and get things done, great CSMs understand on a deep level what a customer
is actually asking for and work with the customer to move forward.
What is active listening?
According to MindTools, active listening is defined as “the practice of making a conscious

effort to not only hear the words that another person is saying but to understand the
complete message that is being communicated”. Active listening goes beyond the surface-
level words of a question or comment to uncover the deeper meaning.
For customer success managers, implementing active listening techniques can help
uncover the root cause of customer frustrations, intent, and goals. For example, if a
customer is asking why a specific feature doesn’t perform in a certain way, they’re probably
looking for a way to achieve an internal goal. Instead of panicking and reiterating that your
tool cannot perform the specific function or escalating a product enhancement request, this
would be the perfect time to calmly ask the customer what they are trying to achieve and
develop a strategic solution to the issue at hand.
How to become an active listening expert
If you’re like most CSMs, then your customers have plenty on their minds they want to talk to
your team about. Now is the perfect time to implement strategic active listening techniques
to help your customers meet their goals – and make sure nothing slips through the cracks.
Here are a few listening techniques you can implement with your customers this year:
1. Stop interrupting customers to ask questions.
This one can be hard for CSMs, especially since we are typically a curious bunch. Instead of
launching a herd of rapid-fire questions at a customer when they are trying to explain an
issue (“Well did you try this? What were you looking to achieve here?”) listen to the entire
explanation first. Let your customer finish their thoughts and then start in on your response.
2. Let them know you’re listening.
While a customer is talking, make sure you punctuate their clarification statements like
“okay” or “sounds good” when you understand. If you do have a question or need more
information on a specific point, write it down to ask after they have finished talking.
3. Make sure you understand the situation at hand.
One great active listening tip here is to repeat back what you just heard to the customer
in your own words. Start by saying “so what I understand is…” and then go from there. This is
critical to ensure there is no confusion between you and your customer contact.
4. Don’t let things slip through the cracks.
If a customer brings up a critical issue or question, it is never a good idea to simply say “let
me take that back to my team” and then never follow up. Keep your internal team honest
and accountable by making it a point to follow up on a regular basis with your customer on
where resolution stands.
CSMs have a lot on their plates dealing with customer onboarding, implementation, and
ongoing projects. Implementing active listening techniques can help with ‘fire drill’-level
escalations, ongoing project maintenance, and general strategic partnership growth. If you
can become a better listener your customers will definitely thank you for it.

Matt Myszkowski, Vice President of Customer Experience from Cision (former VP of
Customer Success at SAP), shares ways to understand the mental health of your team and
the techniques you can use to help improve it. Watch the webinar by clicking on the link
below:
The Golden Rule of Customer Success – 8 Guiding

Principles
The term “customer success” is fast becoming one of the most talked about topics in
business today. A whole industry has emerged around customer success and a plethora of
resources have been created to support the new function and mindset: websites, white
papers, webinars, conferences, and technologies exist to guide, advise and help you along
the way to not only help add “customer success” as a department, but to instill it as a
mindset across your company culture.
The Golden Rule and Every Touchpoint
Everyone has heard of the Golden Rule: “Treat others as you would want to be treated
yourself”. But what does that have to do with customer success? Well, as it turns out, just
about everything.
The Golden Rule is really at the very heart of what customer success is all about. A recent
article on the Avention website says to, “Look at your organization through your customers’
eyes and be as constructively critical as you can be; look for the “soft underbelly” of your
business that can be the most cumbersome and arduous part of the way a customer does
business with you. Whether this is with your sales, billing, or on-boarding, keep asking
yourself, ‘Does this obey the Golden Rule?’.”
Customer Success teams need to be very embodiment of the Golden Rule as they interact
with more customers and users than any other group in a business. Very often the
interactions that your customers have with your customer success manager or customer
success teams will drive their lasting and abiding thoughts on the company as a
whole. Learn more about building customer loyalty in this ebook.
Be Proactive Not Reactive
The Golden Rule is not exclusively tied to when a customer reactively contacts your
business or goes through a defined process, such as Billing. It applies at every touchpoint
as you help customers proactively get maximum value from their significant investment in
your business. This is a true “win/win”; not only does your customer get a better return on
their investment, but your organization’s renewal and upsell rates also increase.
Keeping the Golden Rule as the standard benchmark for people, processes and products
will help ensure that your customers remain excited, engaged, and happy. The outcome will
be very tangible—renewal rates remain high. While there are many ways your organization
can put customers first, here are some tactical ways to get started and ensure the Golden
Rule is applied throughout the entire business:
8 Ways to Apply the Golden Rule in Customer Success
1. Return customer inquiries promptly, no matter how big or small the matter
2. Listen to customers and seek to understand their point of view, no matter how vocal
they may be
3. Be proactive in reaching out about potential issues versus reacting and waiting for the
customer to act first
4.Find reasons to thank customers whenever possible, whether it’s thanking them for being
a valued customer, for a piece of valuable feedback, for a product idea, for a referral, and
etc.
5. Be your customer’s advocate and always do what’s best for their business, for their
projects, and for their goals
6. Teach and share knowledge with customers and invite them to participate in company
learning events such as webinars, conferences, or even the latest ebook or case study
7.Over-communicate as often as possible to ensure both your organization and the

customer are always on the same page, reaching for the same goals
8. Build relationships high and wide throughout the customer’s organization
How does your organization embody the Golden Rule as it relates to your customers?
Customers are the lifeblood of your business, so no matter how far behind you might be, it’s
never too late to begin honoring the Golden Rule.

Greg Daines, CEO of Client Velocity, talks about how the conventional approach to client
success is profoundly reactive which hampers our ability to drive consistent client results.
Watch the webinar by clicking on the link below:
The Secret Weapon for Building Great Customer

Relationships
As a customer success professional, you understand the critical importance of strong,
lasting customer relationships. Customer-centric service has emerged as one of the leading
contributors to account renewals, recurring revenue, and upsells for SaaS-based
organizations.
In addition to your vast toolkit of customer success solutions, tools, and resources, there is
one secret weapon to include to build strong customer relationships: customer-first service.
Delivering customer-first service
For years, the customer success world operated on the underlying “Golden Rule’ principle
– treat others how you would like to be treated. What this really boils down to, however, is
that CSMs and account managers should make decisions and build project plans from the
customer mindset.
Here are some questions to ask to make sure you’re delivering customer-first service:
• How is this decision (or feature, functionality, project, etc.) going to provide value to
the customer?
• Where is there an opening for a customer to expose an issue or concern? How can
we proactively address this before the issue is escalated?
• How are the steps we’re taking today setting this account up for long-term success?
• Where can we implement a customer-first approach in every stage of the customer
journey?
• What roadblocks are in place that could potentially derail the account project plan?
Actionable ways to use your new secret weapon:
Taking a customer-first approach to customer success and implementing ideas and

strategic plans that customers actually want to see can make your customers feel seen,
valued, and appreciated. It can also ensure that renewal and growth rates stay high.
Here are a few actionable ways to use your new secret weapon to help customers:
• Set designated service level benchmarks and ask CSMs to meticulously track
progress against these goals.
• Be available for customer inquiries and requests, and make sure you treat every
customer as an individual – not just an account or a number.
• No matter how much you want to push back on a customer concern or issue, listen
intently and formulate a plan of response before jumping in.
• Partner with your product team to ‘poke and prod’ at your solution to proactively
identify any potential issues before customers have a chance to bring them to your
attention.
• Have a clear escalation process in place so you can immediately take action when
customer concerns come up.
• Work with your internal marketing or HR team to develop a ‘customer kit’ to thank
your customers for being a valued part of your organization.
• Share new content and resources with your customer contacts, including eBooks,
webinars, and product notes, to help boost their product value.
• Work with both customer stakeholders and internal strategic resources to establish
your platform and the service you provide as a must-have for the customer.

Rav Dhaliwal, Partner at Crane Venture Partners, shares how to identify whether you have
an ‘everything department’. Hint: it’s not a good thing and Rav shows us How to fix your
‘everything department’. Watch the webinar by clicking on the link below:
How Customer-Centric is Your Company?

In today’s ever-changing corporate landscape, modern SaaS organizations are asked to be
a lot of things: employee-centric, focused on new business, and profitable against goals –
just to name a few. One characteristic that is often overlooked (or left out completely) is
being customer-centric.
What does it mean to be ‘customer-centric’?
Customers are the lifeblood of any SaaS company – they are the foundational driver of
recurring revenue, offer unlimited potential in new revenue opportunities, and impact every
single department, including product and marketing. With something so important it can
come as no surprise that, in turn, every single department throughout an organization – from
finance to administration to, yes, sales – should take a customer-centric approach to
business.
This means asking questions like “How are our customers using this specific feature and
how can we make it easier for them?” or “What do our current customers feel about the
handoff from sales to customer support and how can we improve this process?” or even
“Would we be able to retain more customers by changing internal legal processes like
billing cycles or contract terms?”
Being a customer-centric company doesn’t mean that customer success is, all of a sudden,
the star department. Instead, every single department is focused on how their team and
their output makes it easier for customers to reach their goals and use the product.
Is your company customer-centric?
While every SaaS organization would like to think that it puts the needs and goals of
customers first, it can sometimes be hard to separate your organization’s corporate goals
from those of your customers.
Here are three questions to ask now to determine whether or not your company is
customer-centric:
1. Is your organization willing to change directions to help customers

achieve their goals?
One key part of being customer-centric is doing whatever it takes (in scope, of course) to
keep customers on track to success. If a product feature isn’t quite clicking with clients, your
product team should go back to the drawing board – with client input – and make it work.
If a data requirement or onboarding processes is wearing customers down, start thinking

about changing the process altogether. Simply put, when a company is customer-centric, it
means putting the customer first in every scenario.
2. Is your leadership wholly on board with a customer-centric company?
Big ideas start from the top-down and being a customer-centric company is no different. If
your CEO, executive leaders, and even your board aren’t fully behind the ideas of a
customer-centric organization, then your team might have some communicating to do.
Too often, SaaS organizations (especially ones in start-up or scale-up mode) are too
focused on bringing in new sales and new logos to really focus on ‘what’s next’, which can
make it hard to retain customers. By implementing a top-down culture of customer centricity,
executive leadership can take the first step in making this change a reality.
3. Do your CSMs have the freedom and flexibility they need to take action
on customer issues?
As the main point of contact with your customers, CSMs have a deeper level of insight into
what your customers are feeling and what they’re looking for. This being said, those on the
front lines need the freedom, flexibility, and visibility it takes to make key decisions for
customers without putting anything at risk.
This means having the right tools and resources at their fingertips, the trust and support of
leaders to make this big decision, and visibility into other working groups to help them find
the answers they need. A great CSM is the product of a customer-centric organization and
can make a huge difference for customers.
Whether your team is working to become more customer-centric or if you’re looking to

implement customer-centric best practices, now is the perfect time to step back, evaluate
your processes, and make the change.

Ziv Peled, Chief Customer Officer at AppsFlyer along with Mark Stoddard, VP of Sales &
Marketing at ClientSuccess, discusses “How AppsFlyer Became a Customer-Obsessed
Company” and how that has helped fuel their “rocket ship” growth. Watch the webinar by
clicking on the link below:
How Would You Rate Your Company’s Client

Experience?
Client experience, otherwise known as CX, is something you will hear often as you
determine how to design and implement your product solutions for your clients. A positive
client experience is crucial for long-term (and even short-term) success. In simple terms, the
client experience is the interaction a person has with an organization and/or their product or
service.
While this is what it boils down to, the client experience is far more than that. It involves any
and all touch points an individual or customer account may have with the company,
including (but not limited to) social media, in-person training, over the phone/web support,
and sales meetings.
Along with touch points, the client experience involves any positive or negative feedback
the customer may have about their journey. While every company desires purely positive
feedback, negative client experiences don’t have to be the end all be all. In fact,
constructive feedback can help propel your company to new heights it conveys what type
of interaction your client is having with your product/solution.
Read on to learn more about what you can implement to bring your company’s client
experience to a whole new level:
Tip #1: Provide Opportunities for Client Education/Training
When your clients begin using your product or service, it’s unlikely they will be an expert
right off the bat. In fact, they are going to need help and resources during and beyond initial
onboarding to find true value from your company’s offerings. With ample access to
education and training, your clients will feel more connected to your product and to your
CSM team.
The benefit of training and education to improve the client experience doesn’t end there.
You’ll find that your clients will turn to you as a trusted partner with their company; a team
they can turn to with challenges who will help them identify real solutions. It’s possible they
may even become your biggest advocated and begin sharing your product with others who
need your company’s offerings.
Tip #2: Gain Valuable Feedback from Clients
The client experience is ultimately about one group: your end customers. In order to
provide them with the greatest experience possible, you must listen – really listen – to what
they have to say when they take the time to provide feedback about their experience with
your company. Since we all want the best reviews and feedback, it can be tempting to
reach out to those who will be willing to provide the most positive comments about their
experience with your company.
However, it’s crucial to listen to clients who haven’t had the best experience. Clients who
haven’t found your product to be the solution they need for their company have an
immense amount of knowledge to share with your customer success team. They will be
able to point out what provided them with a negative client experience. Issues from poor
implementation, lack of access to support/resources, or untimely communication can help
you garner what needs to be improved for current and future clients to have an exceptional
experience. It’s also possible you may win them back as a client just by taking the time to
listen to what they have to say and offer them real solutions.
Tip #3: Embrace a Culture of Providing Positive Client Experiences
Everyone at your company must be willing and able to provide the best client experience to
everyone who clicks, calls, or comes through the door. When employees throughout the
entire organization understand their impact on the client experience, you can expect to see
happier clients and less customer churn. This begins with the highest levels and
management and trickles down to everyone else at the company – yes, everyone. This
level of dedication to a positive client experience will be evident to all of your clients and
will help you increase your customer retention.
The client experience is all about positive interactions at every level within your organization
and product. To foster the best experience possible, put yourself in the mind of your client
and decide if the experience you are providing is a negative or positive one. After you
evaluate your current client experience your company provides, contact us to learn how we
can help you provide customer success that scales with you.

Julie (Devaney) Hogan, Vice President of Customer Success & Strategy at Toast, Inc.
(former VP of Customer Experience at Drift), discusses the topic of “Using Both Customer
Success & Experience To Drive Growth”. Julie leads a discussion around some of the
innovative things they’re doing at Drift to drive an awesome customer experience.
Watch the webinar by clicking on the link below:

About ClientSuccess
ClientSuccess is a customer success management software that helps companies build
relationships that last™. Revolutionizing the way SaaS companies manage, retain, and grow
their existing customer base ClientSuccess provides customer success leaders actionable
insights, rich customer analytics, and best practices to proactively manage success
throughout the customer lifecycle. ClientSuccess helps SaaS companies increase renewal
and expansion revenue, reduce churn, and maximize the lifetime value of the customer. For
more information, visit http://www.clientsuccess.com.

How To Become A Great Customer Success Manager (By ClientSuccess)

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

How To Become A Great Customer Success Manager (By ClientSuccess)

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

HOW TO BECOME A

Here are some of the topics we’ll explore:

• Qualities That Can Make Good Customer Success Managers Great

Qualities That Can Make Good Customer Success

19 Qualities That Can Make Good Customer Success Managers Great

From: Steve McDougal, Director of Customer Success | Company: Genesys | Location:

7. Authenticity – as one of the core values at my company, we try to exemplify this in

From: Nina Wilkinson, VP of Customer Success | Company: Canary Technologies | Location:

From: Tyler Richards, Director, Implementation Services | Company: Lucid Software |

Learn from the Experts:

Critical Skills That Successful CSMs Need to

Problem Solving and Resolution

Listening & Seeking to Understand

Build Out Your CS Team with the Right Skill Sets

Learn from the Experts:

Listening Techniques of Great Customer Success

6. Seek Input & Repeat

Learn from the Experts:

How to Become an Active Listener

What is active listening?

According to MindTools, active listening is defined as “the practice of making a conscious

How to become an active listening expert

1. Stop interrupting customers to ask questions.

2. Let them know you’re listening.

3. Make sure you understand the situation at hand.

4. Don’t let things slip through the cracks.

Learn from the Experts:

The Golden Rule of Customer Success – 8 Guiding

The Golden Rule and Every Touchpoint

Be Proactive Not Reactive

8 Ways to Apply the Golden Rule in Customer Success

7.Over-communicate as often as possible to ensure both your organization and the

8. Build relationships high and wide throughout the customer’s organization

Learn from the Experts:

The Secret Weapon for Building Great Customer

Delivering customer-first service

Actionable ways to use your new secret weapon:

Taking a customer-first approach to customer success and implementing ideas and

Learn from the Experts:

How Customer-Centric is Your Company?

What does it mean to be ‘customer-centric’?

Is your company customer-centric?

1. Is your organization willing to change directions to help customers

If a data requirement or onboarding processes is wearing customers down, start thinking

2. Is your leadership wholly on board with a customer-centric company?

Whether your team is working to become more customer-centric or if you’re looking to

Learn from the Experts:

How Would You Rate Your Company’s Client

Tip #1: Provide Opportunities for Client Education/Training

Tip #2: Gain Valuable Feedback from Clients

Tip #3: Embrace a Culture of Providing Positive Client Experiences

Learn from the Experts:

Watch the webinar by clicking on the link below:

You might also like