Manager, Client Success

Job Description

Overall Functional Objective: Lead a team and execute the associated processes and enabling technologies to efficiently and effectively engage our clients on a proactive and regular basis with a focus on managing the relationship overall and producing client retention and expansion.

Key Responsibilities

Leadership and Team Management

Team Building: Building and leading a team of high-performing Client Success Managers and Client Success Specialists.

Talent Development: Identifying and nurturing talent within the team, providing mentorship and training to enhance skills and capabilities.

Resource Allocation: Efficiently allocating resources across the assigned portfolio of clients ensuring all clients have a named Client Success Manager and that they receive the interactions as reflected in our client segmentation and engagement plan.

Collaboration with Client Success Leaders: Ongoing collaboration with Client Success leaders to scope out process and approaches required to execute the Client Success Specialist role, as a sub function within their teams.

Client Relationship Management

Client Health: Manage CSMs as they evaluate and gauge relationship health, providing a predictive view of clients that are at risk. NPS will be a primary tool with other methods ensuring efficiency and effectiveness.

Client Engagement: Manage and support the team to engage with clients on a continuous basis as reflected in our client segmentation and engagement plan striving to uncover needs and ensure that the services delivered align with their objectives.

Knowing our Clients: Manage and support the team to collect information about our clients that helps us better meet their needs and enabling us to maximize relationship expansion opportunities.

Service Expansion: Coach and manage team members to seek to improve the effectiveness of CSM conversations with clients to uncover unmet needs. Manage targeted client expansion campaigns.

Managing a Portfolio of Clients: The overall role of the Manager of Client Success is to manage a portfolio of accounts and an associated CSM team as well as guide the Client Success Specialists (CSS) in managing their tasks to enhance client experience. Periodically, the Manager of Client Success will be required to manage a small number of accounts based on their importance or status (e.g., at risk). As retention risk is increased, carefully transitioning the account back to a core team member.

Portfolio Planning and Management

Relationship Management Planning: Collaborating with executive leadership, evaluate factors within the assigned portfolio affecting client relationships and provide findings of the key drivers and recommendations on how to improve overall outcomes (satisfaction, renewal rates, expansion, etc).

Identify Enhanced Processes: Continuously review the current processes and determine required feedback loops to understand what is working and what is not working. Strive to enhance the current state processes and procedures to gain efficiency and/or enhance client experience.

Renewal & Upsell Forecasting: As a revenue engine, Client Success carries assigned budget targets that require an accurate weekly forecast to executive leadership. Evaluate renewal probability across the portfolio on a rolling basis, tracking expected renewal rates against targets and surfacing at-risk ARR early enough to enable timely intervention.

Operational Excellence

Process Management: Coach and manage CSMs and CSSs to efficiently and effectively execute standard work routines.

Process Standardization: Coach and manage CSMs and CSSs to follow standard policies, processes, and procedures.

Process Optimization: Identify opportunities to improve operational processes to improve CSM and CSS efficiency and effectiveness.

Quality Assurance

Service Quality: Establishing and maintaining quality standards.

Compliance: Ensuring that services comply with industry regulations and standards.

Communication and Collaboration

Team Communication: Maintain consistent practice of team huddles, meetings, and individual conversations to ensure team members are aligned to organization objectives and are feeling engaged and motivated to perform their role. Also encourage/enforce the team collaboration with other team members based in other locals, i.e. US based teams.

Internal Communication: Facilitating effective communication between cross-functional teams and inter-departmental teams, ensuring alignment of goals and strategies.

Collaboration: Collaborating with sales, marketing, product development, and service delivery teams to ensure a unified approach to client engagement and service delivery.

Required Skills

To excel in the role individuals, need a diverse set of skills, including:

Client Success Experience: Demonstrated experience within the Client Success industry with core understanding of the role and function.

Leadership Skills: The ability to inspire and lead teams, fostering a culture of excellence and collaboration.

Strategic Thinking: A forward-looking mindset to contribute to the development and execution of the company’s strategic goals.

Client Relationship Management: Strong interpersonal skills to build and maintain client relationships.

Negotiation Skills: Knowledge and experience working with Software, Professional Services and general consulting MSAs, Order forms, Service Level Agreements, SOWs, and other related contract documents.

Operational Excellence: A keen eye for operational efficiency, process optimization, and risk management.

Financial Acumen: The ability to manage proposals including pricing and client value expressions.

Communication Skills: Clear and effective communication both internally and with clients is crucial.

Problem-Solving: The ability to identify and solve complex problems in a dynamic business environment.

Adaptability: The capacity to adapt to changing market conditions, client needs, and industry trends.

In conclusion, the role is multifaceted, requiring a blend of leadership and operational excellence. Success in this role is marked by the ability to build strong client relationships, develop and manage a high-performing team, and contributing to the overall growth and success of the organization. As the business landscape continues to evolve, the Manager of Client Success plays a crucial role in navigating change and ensuring that the organization remains competitive and resilient.

Job Requirements:

3+ years of Account Management, Client/Customer Success Management, or Client/Customer Experience Management experience required

At least 2-3 years of team leadership or supervisory experience required.

Bachelor's degree required or equivalent experience

Deep knowledge of the managed sub-function and solid knowledge of the overall departmental function

Must have excellent analytical and problem-solving skills

Must have the ability to work independently and handle multiple priorities and deadlines simultaneously

Monitoring KPIs to ensure retention and growth practices are executed, team outreach goal are met, and general client health is managed

Sales function experience specifically, opportunity and pipeline management as well as forecasting experience required

Technical Skills:

Proficient in Office 365 suite

Experience with customer success tool usage

Data analysis and reporting capabilities for customer health and team performance

CRM proficiency with ability to optimize workflows and reporting

People Skills:

Team leadership with ability to build and develop high-performing customer success teams

Change management skills for process improvement and standardization

Individual contributor coaching and performance management

Internal stakeholder management and cross-functional collaboration

Customer relationship management and executive-level client in