How To Become A Customer Relations Manager: What It Is and Career Path

What is a customer relations manager and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted Expert

Andrew Gilliam

Customer relations managers are responsible for building solid relationships with customers and maintaining a consistent and positive image of the brand or company. They strive to find opportunities to strengthen relationships with customers, building strategies to engage and connect with them.

As a customer relations manager, your key skill has to be communication. Whatever you do in this role has to align with the values of the organization you represent. You will be responsible for making sure other departments display similar attitudes towards customers, coordinating efforts to preserve fruitful relationships with clients.

Conducting surveys to measure customer satisfaction will also be your job, as well as taking the initiative to improve areas and services that fall short of customer expectations. A bachelor's degree in business administration or a related field is usually a prerequisite to landing this job. But displaying a positive and team-player attitude and extensive knowledge about your company's products is perhaps just as important.

What general advice would you give to a Customer Relations Manager?

Andrew Gilliam

Customer Experience innovator and change agent,, Informa Tech

Searching for jobs is always intimidating, and this year provides many new reasons to be discouraged. However, based on research HDI conducted in July, 57% of support organizations are creating new positions or continuing to fill vacancies. Furthermore, 82% of organizations say it is likely they will continue working from home long-term. Many companies are opening their minds to hiring candidates who don't live near their offices. That's great news for anyone entering the job market!
When looking for work, the best thing an applicant can do is to think like a hiring manager. They're filling a position to meet their needs, not yours, so consider the context in which they're hiring. Right now, businesses are searching for applicants who can contribute to remote teams and support customers remotely. Experience with unified communications, mobile, cloud, and remote support technologies are in high demand. Additionally, organizations are changing how they work at a rapid pace. Understanding the fundamentals of knowledge management, enterprise service management, incident and problem management, and organizational communications will help candidates speak directly to prospective employers' challenges. Having a dedicated space and internet connectivity to enable working from home and a proven ability to work independently or remotely helps dissuade managers' fears of hiring remote candidates.
There are plenty of ways to build these skills and competencies, even without direct work experience. HDI offers numerous resources, many of them free, to expand your knowledge, including articles, webinars, toolkits, research, and virtual classroom training. Dedicating yourself to independent learning, experimenting in a home-lab, and networking at virtual industry events are fantastic ways to demonstrate your job-readiness.

ScoreCustomer Relations ManagerUS Average

Salary

5.2

Avg. Salary $66,782

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

8.7

Growth Rate 8%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.42%

Asian 5.12%

Black or African American 5.97%

Hispanic or Latino 9.12%

Unknown 4.66%

White 74.71%

Gender

female 61.79%

male 38.21%

Age - 41

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 41

Stress Level

8.7

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

9.4

Complexity Level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

3.8

Work Life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a customer relations manager

Explore customer relations manager education requirements

Most common customer relations manager degrees

Bachelor's

57.3 %

Associate

18.7 %

High School Diploma

11.2 %

Start to develop specific customer relations manager skills

Skills	Percentages
Customer Issues	15.42%
Customer Relations	12.86%
Customer Satisfaction	12.21%
Dealership	9.24%
Customer Complaints	6.05%

Complete relevant customer relations manager training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New customer relations managers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a customer relations manager based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real customer relations manager resumes.

Research customer relations manager duties and responsibilities

Create, manage, and optimize websites, blogs, social media pages, twitter accounts.
Work within standing orders to help patients effectively manage their diabetes though medications and other specialty consultations.
Provide oversight and direction to the employees in the operating unit in accordance with the organization's policies and procedures.
Collect and distribute payroll bi-weekly.

Prepare your customer relations manager resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your customer relations manager resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a customer relations manager resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Customer Relations Manager Resume templates

Build a professional Customer Relations Manager resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Customer Relations Manager resume.