This is a guest article by Swati Garg, founder and CEO, Melo Associates, and Lindsay Lynch, senior recruitment consultant, Melo Associates, a recruitment firm focused on revenue protection and expansion roles for SaaS and tech companies nationwide.
Hiring the right talent for your company’s customer success team determines its success. A clear, detailed, and well-written customer success job description is essential to attract the right candidate while providing important information about the company, necessary qualifications and skills for the role, company culture, benefits and more.
Here’s a comprehensive guide on how to create effective job descriptions for customer success and professional services roles.
1: Ensure you have buy-in on the role.
The first step to attracting the best talent for your role is to ensure the candidates are set up for success internally. This requires buy-in for the role and job description. There are many factors to consider, including:
- Confirming your current team does not have bandwidth and there are enough day to day responsibilities for a full time hire.
- Understanding the salary budget for the role based on responsibilities, the current market, and level.
- Making a strong case for the role, and where the budget will come from, to the decision makers.
- Having a clear understanding of the team structure and who the direct manager will be.
Thinking through all of these items will enable strong buy-in internally, which in turn provides more confidence as you create customer success job descriptions, then enter the interview and hiring process.
2: Start with a clear job title.
Having worked with many companies, we know titles mean something different at every organization. To ensure that your title reflects the level and scope of the responsibilities, you should:
- Ensure the title is straightforward and easily understood. Avoid overly creative titles.
- Use industry-standard titles where possible. This helps candidates understand the role expectations and how it aligns within the organization.
- Be specific and accurate about the level of the position (e.g., “Specialist,” “Associate,” Manager,” “Director” etc.) to attract candidates with the appropriate experience.
- Ensure the title reflects the primary function of the role within your organization, especially regarding customer interaction. For example, “Enterprise Customer Success Manager”. suggests dealing with larger, more complex clients than a typical CSM role.
By thoughtfully crafting your job title, you will set clear expectations and attract candidates who are the best fit for the role. To find out more, view our webinar, Why Titles Matter In Customer Success, with Parul Bhandari, fractional customer experience leader at CustomerXSuccess.
3: Provide an engaging overview.
Begin your customer success job description with a short, engaging summary that captures key details about your company, the purpose of the role and its importance, as well as expectations regarding the location. This should include:
- Overview of the company and product.
- The primary goal of the role.
- How the role directly influences or contributes to achieving the company’s objectives or mission.
- Where the role fits within the team.
- Team size.
- Reporting and Team Structure
- Where the role is based.
- Whether the role is remote, hybrid, or onsite.
4: Define the primary and secondary responsibilities.
Primary responsibilities are the core responsibilities that directly impact the role’s success. For instance, owning customer retention signifies direct responsibility for renewal rates.
Secondary responsibilities are additional responsibilities that contribute to overall performance but are not the primary focus. These might include providing product feedback or internal collaboration.
Clearly detailing the requirements helps candidates understand what you expect of them. For your customer success job description’s primary and secondary requirements, consider including:
- The main duties and what is expected of the person in this role.
- Opportunities for collaboration within the team and across departments.
- Significant projects or initiatives the role will be involved in.
- How performance will be measured and evaluated
- The level of interaction with clients or external stakeholders, if applicable.
- Unique or exciting aspects of the role that make it stand out.
- A description of the initial training and onboarding process.
Be specific and avoid vague statements. For example, instead of saying “strong communication skills,” specify “ability to effectively communicate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.”
Let’s use a customer success manager (CSM) role as an example for outlining some common primary and secondary responsibilities.
Primary Responsibilities:
- Cultivate and maintain deep relationships with approximately 50 mid-market and enterprise customers generating a combined annual recurring revenue of $3 million.
- Key performance indicators (KPIs) / objectives and key results (OKRs) they will be evaluated on, such as adoption, retention, upsell or cross sell, customer success qualified leads.
- Cadence with customers: e.g. monthly, quarterly business reviews (QBRs), executive business reviews (EBRs).
- Drive customer satisfaction, loyalty, and renewal rates within this high-value segment.
- Develop and execute comprehensive onboarding and training programs tailored to the unique needs of mid-market and enterprise customers.
- Ensure successful adoption of our product and maximize customer value through effective knowledge transfer and support.
- Proactively identify and address customer pain points, challenges, and technical issues. Utilize data-driven insights and customer feedback to develop innovative solutions and drive product improvements.
- Develop and execute strategic success management plans to foster long-term customer relationships. Monitor account health, identify upsell opportunities, and collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver exceptional customer experiences.
- Leverage analytics and customer success metrics to track product usage, adoption rates, and customer engagement.
- Proactively identify and address any issues that may impact customer satisfaction or value realization.
- Provide strategic guidance and recommendations to optimize customer outcomes.
Secondary Responsibilities:
- Collaborate closely with sales, marketing, product, engineering, and other teams to ensure a seamless customer journey.
- Provide valuable customer insights to inform product development, marketing campaigns, and sales strategies.
- Foster a culture of customer-centricity throughout the organization.
- Conduct training and workshops for clients.
- Represent the company at industry events and conferences.
- Assist in negotiating contracts and renewals.
- Staying current with industry trends and emerging technologies.
5: Highlight required skills and qualifications.
An effective customer success job description lists the qualifications, essential skills and preferred skills needed to perform the job effectively.
- Qualifications include things like educational background and certifications
- Essential skills are skills that are needed on day one of the position.
- Preferred skills are skills that would be great to have experience with, but also can be learned with time on the job.
- List the tools, software, and resources the employee will use or have access to.
- If specific industry experience is required, mention it here.
- Number of years in a particular industry or vertical.
- Experience working with a similar product.
- Experience working with a specific customer base or similar stakeholders within a business.
Let’s go back to our CSM role as an example. Required skills and qualifications might include:
- Bachelor’s degree in business administration, marketing, communications or a related job experience.
- Ability to effectively convey complex technical concepts to a variety of audiences, including executives, technical teams, and end-users.
- Proven ability to identify and resolve customer issues, analyze data to uncover trends, and develop data-driven solutions.
- Excellent interpersonal skills to foster strong relationships with customers, internal stakeholders, and external partners.
- Ability to effectively manage multiple projects simultaneously, prioritize tasks, and meet deadlines.
- Familiarity with customer success tools such as ChurnZero and a willingness to learn new technologies as needed.
- Understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities associated with SaaS companies.
- Expertise in working with a particular industry, company size, or customer type.
- Familiarity with customer success frameworks, metrics, and best practices.
- 3-5 years of experience in a customer-facing role within the technology or SaaS industry.
- 2+ years of experience specifically in a customer success or account management role.
- The ability to leverage data and analytics to drive customer success strategies and measure outcomes is essential.
6: Emphasize your company, product, culture, benefits, and perks.
Candidates are not just looking for a job, they are looking for a place where they fit in and can grow in their career.
It is important to provide a transparent and realistic view of working at your company, including what your company does, a brief history, its culture, values, and what makes your it unique. You might highlight:
- A collaborative and supportive team environment.
- Opportunities for professional development and career growth.
- Commitment to diversity and inclusion.
- In a SaaS or technology company, highlight the product. Include a demo link or video link for candidates to learn more about its value.
- Worktype: is this role remote, hybrid, onsite, etc. If remote, ensure to include states or time zones preferred/required.
- Is it a global company? What does that entail?
- Showcase the benefits and perks your company offers. While compensation is important, many job seekers also prioritize the non-monetary rewards that enhance their overall wellbeing and job satisfaction.
Benefits typically refer to mandatory programs that employers may legally be required to provide, such as:
- Health insurance
- Retirement plans (e.g., 401(k))
- Paid time off (PTO)
- Workers’ compensation insurance
Perks are additional, voluntary benefits that companies offer to attract and retain top talent. These can include:
- Flexible work arrangements (e.g., remote work, flexible hours)
- Professional development opportunities (e.g., training, conferences)
- Wellness programs (e.g., gym memberships, health screenings)
- Employee discounts or rewards (e.g., product discounts, company swag)
By highlighting both benefits and perks, you can effectively demonstrate the value proposition of your company and attract candidates who align with your company culture and priorities.
7: Finish with a clear call to action.
Encourage strong candidates to apply by providing clear instructions on how to do so. Include:
- Application deadline (if any).
- Required application materials (resume, cover letter, etc.).
- Contact information for questions and so candidates can properly address the cover letter (if applicable).
Crafting an effective job description is about presenting a transparent view of the company and clearly communicating the value and impact of the role. By following these guidelines, you can attract talented candidates who are excited about contributing to your company’s success and the success of your customers.
If you need more help crafting the perfect job description, check out Melo Associates’ job description free template resource here.
