How to Optimize Your CV for a Customer Success Manager Career

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In the age of eCommerce and Software as a Service (SaaS) business models, professional customer experience (CX) matters as much as the products themselves. That is why more and more brands invest in hiring customer success managers and support professionals who can service customers adequately.

According to Forbes, 57% of NA and European businesses plan to switch up their CX models in the post-COVID era, with 80% favoring omnichannel servicing. Additional data has shown that 96% of customers say customer servicing is an essential element of brand loyalty, making its existence a modern necessity.

Given the increased need for customer success managers, you can rest assured that a good career opportunity in the industry is just around the corner. In order to land the right interview, however, you will need to optimize your CV/resume to fit with contemporary employer expectations.

Let’s discuss how you can write and optimize your CV for a customer success manager career in 2021 and why you should do so.

Key Responsibilities of Customer Success Managers

What’s the appeal of becoming a professional customer success manager (or CSM for short)? The role of a customer success manager is to represent your company with potential customers regarding certain products, customer support, or product/service billing. In practice, customer success managers act as customer experience agents with the primary goals to increase customer retention and expand on their company’s customer base. Some of the key responsibilities of a CSM can thus be broken down into several key points:

  • Onboarding of new and re-engagement of existing customers
  • Analysis of customer engagement patterns and improvement of CX
  • Evaluation and improvement of customer communication infrastructure
  • Demonstration of products/services to B2C and B2B clients
  • Resolving critical customer complaints and support tickets
  • Minimization of business growth expenses and maximization of profits

According to Smart Insights, 79% of companies consider retention their primary CX goal, while 33% of customers tell people about poor experiences with a brand. This makes hiring a customer success manager a priority for many companies with extensive online features or services, such as in the aforementioned eCommerce industry.

With that said, let’s take a look at how you can write a CV that will help kick-start your career in CSM more easily.

1. Start by Outlining your Professional Experiences

Given the nature of customer success management, any professional experience you have prior to applying for such a position will work in your favour. The more experience you have in customer servicing, customer experience, or support, the better your odds at employment will become.

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Being a CSM is to be in charge of multiple facets of CX and brand representation, meaning that businesses will look for experience. List your professional experiences from the most recent employment and work your way backward. In case of a lack of professional career up to this point, you could try to make up for that with the following CV points.

2. Write about your Formal/Informal Education

Even though customer success management is a fairly modern and dynamic field, formal education can still work in your favor in terms of employment. Social studies and degrees related to business management, writing or finance, and economics can add to your CV’s strength. In terms of informal education, you should list any and all seminars, courses, conferences, and other events related to customer experience.

These will showcase that you are passionate about the field and would like to apply your knowledge to manage a business’ customer base. You can get assistance from a specialized academic help company in order to write and format your CV/resume properly for better legibility before submitting it. Again, the most practical way to do so is to start by listing the most recent experiences and make your way backward for better clarity.

3. Clearly List your Soft/Hard Skills

Customer success managers are expected to possess certain skills which will enable them to fulfil their duties adequately. Thus, you can make up for lack of past experience by listing the skills your employer is looking for. The most sought-after customer success manager competencies include but are not limited to:

  • Customer service management
  • Problem-solving mentality
  • Sales and negotiation skills
  • Leadership and teamwork
  • Coaching and training (passing knowledge)
  • Empathy and relationship-building
  • Technical computer and software expertise

Depending on the business you apply for, it will undoubtedly already rely on a certain customer relationship management (CRM) platform. Platforms such as Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zoho CRM should be on your radar if you have the time to learn how to use such tools. Knowing how to use a popular CRM will drastically improve your odds of landing a CSM position so take the time to improve your skillset.

4. Include Past Employment References

If you’ve worked in customer support before, adding references to your employers is a great way to boost your odds of landing a CSM position. Companies love to reach out to other brands and inquire about your performance with them in the past.

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Such references will improve the quality of your CV and ensure that your new employer has more trust in your skillset from day one. Letters of recommendation are also a great addition to your CV if your past employer is willing to write one for you. It all depends on whether or not you have such experiences to talk about, as well as the manner in which you parted ways.

5. Double-Check your Contact and Other Info

Seeing as customer success managers are in charge of communicating with customers, your own CV contact information should be up-to-date. Double-check your phone, email, as well as any social media or portfolio links you’ve attached to the document.

While such mistakes may seem minor at first glance, companies won’t jump at the opportunity to hire a CSM who included invalid contact information. Be sure to check your contact channels regularly for follow-up messages from employers once you start applying for work so that you can respond promptly.

Jump-Start your Customer Success Management Career

As we’ve mentioned before, customer experience management is a vast field with a plethora of career options for you to pursue. Being a customer success manager will allow you to grow both professionally and personally, especially when it comes to your emotional intelligence and organizational skills.

While it may seem scary now, you should definitely look for CSM career opportunities in your area and optimize your CV for such job openings. Take the initiative to kick-start a career that you can be proud of, and the right employer will recognize that potential.

Dorian Martin
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