Customer Success Specialist Job Description: Template and Examples
The first named customer success group was created in 1996. While the original driver for the role was to grow relationships and increase revenue, the customer success specialist job description has changed quite a bit since then.
Customer success teams often have a range of responsibilities, depending on the team's age, the size of the company, and what type of product they are supporting.
For instance, customer success may be responsible for implementation, onboarding, and lifecycle management at some larger companies. At others, customer success specialists are accountable for managing churn and providing essential support.
No matter what type of customer success team you've built, we have guidance and real-world examples of helpful ways to write your customer success specialist job description to start drawing in qualified candidates. Learn from those examples, and apply the elements that fit for your team and situation.
Section 1: About the job
This section introduces your company and how the role fits within the larger ecosystem. It's essential to mention anything that makes your company or the position itself unique, as this is where your potential applicants will start to feel excited as they imagine themselves working for you.
Company values, key benefits, or even exciting customer experience philosophies are all great things to include here. While the rest of the customer success specialist job description will focus on the job itself, this is the section where you'll be able to provide context for the larger company as a whole.
Here's an example:
Company ABC is a remote first company, with 110 employees working from 80+ cities all over the world. Our mission is to support small businesses with tools that make customer support more helpful and human. Today we're supporting more than 12,000 of them — we're passionate about this stuff!
As a Customer Success Specialist at Company ABC, you'll be part of a groundbreaking team working on a brand-new product. It's up to us to educate customers on the value of customer experience and what it can do for them.
We are the experts: We dive in deep to understand the layout of our customers’ technical infrastructures. We work to ensure that they know their opportunities and that their goals with Company ABC are met!
You will actively manage a group of customers on their journeys from getting implemented onward. You'll be the guide to our customers in understanding why customer experience is essential and how they can creatively address the needs of their users.
Company ABC Customer Success Specialists wield proven expertise, building deep relationships and translating significant, complicated customer needs into straightforward, measurable solutions.
This example starts with the big picture before describing the role of a customer success specialist within that context.
Section 2: Key responsibilities
Although you've already introduced some of what a potential applicant can expect from the role, this part of the customer success specialist job description gets into the nitty-gritty.
As you write the critical responsibilities section, focus on the aspects of the job in which someone would need to excel to be considered successful. You may also include non-core activities, but it is best to distinguish those from the critical work of the role.
You want to give your potential applicants a window into an average day within this role rather than an all-encompassing impression of everything the position could be.
An example:
In this role, you should expect these responsibilities to be part of your day-to-day schedule:
Drive expansion and adoption of our software and services.
Manage the onboarding process for each new customer, from technical evaluation onward.
Assist the sales team in driving and managing renewals.
Provide critical insights to the product team as a means to improve our developing platform.
Maintain customer health and introduce new, valuable features as they become relevant on the customer journey.
Educate champions and their teams on the value of our product, and help uncover use cases before they become emergencies.
Build relationships with executive decision-makers.
Generate trust and credibility at multiple levels in existing accounts after purchase and through the sales cycle.
Guide new customers through a systematic onboarding process to facilitate making decisions around their needs and goals.
Contribute to initiatives outside of customer conversations that better the customer experience, both low-touch and high-touch.
Work cross-functionally with product, sales, and support team members to foster a strong sense of community and information sharing.
Be as clear and specific as you can, as it will help your applicants match their skills and interest with your role. For conciseness you may need to use some broader statements, such as the “generate trust and credibility” example above, which you could elaborate on during the interview process.
Section 3: Skills and qualifications
Now that you've drawn in potential applicants, it's time to help them determine if they are qualified.
The most important thing to remember for this section is to be cautious not to over-describe the required skills. For instance, if someone doesn't need a bachelor's degree in computer science, don't list it here.
If it is nice to have, but you'll hire someone without it, then you can include a "nice to have" section, as we have in the following example:
Minimum 3 years in software customer experience management.
Scrappy mentality — we wear many hats and are willing to get our hands dirty.
Technical curiosity or experience — we're a specialized product for technical teams.
Proven ability to educate executive decision-makers, building and maintaining relationships with them.
Proven track record of expansion and product adoption within your book of business.
Excellent creative and critical thinking skills — we have to be preemptive.
Strong communication and presentation skills — much of our day to day is spent thinking of and presenting solutions to customers.
Adaptable nature and the willingness and ability to shift strategies on a dime to meet the needs of our customers.
Proven ability to manage multiple complex customer journeys at once.
Nice to haves:
Industry knowledge and experience.
Experience managing accounts for a product that solves complex problems across many business units.
Experience working with SaaS products.
Enterprise account management experience.
When considering benchmarks for specific experiences (like years in a role, for instance), define the minimum amount of experience you would consider.
Rather than defining a middle-of-the-road number, specify the absolute minimum you would be comfortable with and use that. You may be surprised by the excellent candidates that you receive.
6 great examples of real customer success specialist job descriptions
Below, we've selected six quality customer success specialist job descriptions that you can use as inspiration.
1. Customer Success Representative, Articulate
We liked Articulate’s emphasis on its culture and commitment to social good. For instance, they list, "You have read our human-centered organization framework and are in sync with it 100%" as a qualifying factor.
2. Customer Success Manager, Split
Split keeps this post short and sweet. It's easy for any potential candidate to read through very quickly and then even easier to apply using the "Apply with LinkedIn" option.
3. Customer Success Manager, Knotch
View the full job description
As you can tell right from the title, Knotch strives to provide as much information as possible for their potential candidates.
The most exemplary piece of this post is the "About the job" section, which breaks down the company, what they're proud of, and the individual role itself. It does an excellent job of contextualizing the high-level aspects of the position as well as what it looks like on the ground.
4. Customer Success Manager, Real Chemistry
Real Chemistry has one of the most detailed job descriptions we've seen. They break down all of the possible locations for this role before diving in-depth, explaining the company, the parent company, and all of the associated benefits of working with them.
By the time they get to the end of this post, applicants have a great picture of what they can expect.
5. Customer Success Manager, MarketMuse
While customer success roles traditionally fall under customer experience teams, for MarketMuse, the customer success specialist job description is listed under sales.
When reading the post, the thing that stands out the most is the unique usage of "you" and "we." This specific phrasing makes it easy for the potential applicant to envision themselves as part of the larger whole.
6. Customer Success Specialist, Monograph
Design company Monograph has created a compelling job post. Besides its aesthetic, what sets this apart is that it ends with an FAQ, which makes it easy for potential applicants to get answers to their questions before they even ask them.
Make it easy for your applicants
The job-hunting process is already complex enough. Once someone has found your role, it should be quick and painless to determine if they are a good fit and apply for the position.
Keep your lists accessible and informative, and provide a clear picture of what to expect so you get the best applicants for your company and your role.
More job description templates and examples:
Mercer Smith
Mercer is the VP of CX Insights & Community at PartnerHero, a yoga fanatic, and strives to make the world a little bit happier one customer at a time. You can find her at mercenator.com and on Twitter.