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Differences between Customer Success Manager and Customer Support Representative

The difference between a Customer Success Manager and a Customer Support representative can often cause confusion as it can seem to be the same role as the main core to the role is to satisfy clients and customers with solutions and services. However, missions and requirements for these two roles are different but they are crucial to a business and should work well together to achieve success for their clients and company as well.

What do they do?

The role of a Customer Success Manager has a more proactive approach, providing continuous support to clients in order for them to achieve their business goals, whereas a Customer Support Representative, primarily supports inbound calls related to an issue or a problem.

As a Customer Success Manager, the aim is to create strong and long-lasting relationships with their clients and make them as successful as possible. The focus of a CSM is also to make sure they reach out to the client with any issues they are detecting, before the client reaches out to them with the problem, this way, they build trust and a strong relationship. KPI’s of a Customer Success Manager are mainly based on the positive influence on their clients’ purchases, retention rates or upsell rates.

Meanwhile, Customer Support Representative is often reached out by clients or customers firstly as he or she will be in charge of providing resolutions for products or services. Their main mission is to drive satisfaction and aim to maintain the relationships with their clients or customers. The speed and quality of support interactions are the metrics for a Customer Support Representative.

What are employers looking for?

Employers’ expectations for those roles are similar with excellent communication skills, good vision and positive attitude to satisfy their key clients or customers. They both must understand well about their company, products and services.

Recruiters often look for a Customer Success Manager with great experience, deep knowledge in their realm, relationship building skills and empathy. These skills are believed to be the key factor to reach a successful outcome and a long-lasting, proactive relationship between the parties involved.

The crucial skills of a good Customer Support Representative are patience, problem-solving and emotional intelligence skills to deal with issues or problems from clients or customers. Those personalities can help him or her overcome the challenges or obstacles which he or she is going to face every day. Positive motivation and trust are the bonus points for him or her to earn loyalty and maintain their relationships with their clients.