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The differences between customer success managers and customer service leaders can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 6-8 years to become a customer success manager, becoming a customer service leader takes usually requires 4-6 years. Additionally, a customer success manager has an average salary of $93,820, which is higher than the $33,791 average annual salary of a customer service leader.
The top three skills for a customer success manager include client facing, cloud and account management. The most important skills for a customer service leader are POS, sales floor, and store management.
| Customer Success Manager | Customer Service Leader | |
| Yearly salary | $93,820 | $33,791 |
| Hourly rate | $45.11 | $16.25 |
| Growth rate | 5% | -4% |
| Number of jobs | 95,053 | 301,338 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 78% | Bachelor's Degree, 39% |
| Average age | 46 | 47 |
| Years of experience | 8 | 6 |
A customer success manager works to understand repeat customers and prioritize their long-term needs. Primarily, they manage the customer relationship and give them prompt value propositions. They act as mentors to customers by educating them about the sales process and ensure efficient transaction processing. Their tasks include advocating for the company, onboarding customers to the products, follow-up on renewals, and encouraging cross-sells and upsells. Additionally, they build relationships with the customer and the support team as well as advocating customers' needs.
A customer service leader is responsible for managing a group of customer service staff to provide the best customer service for the company's clients, ensuring immediate action and resolution for all their inquiries and concerns. Customer service leaders regularly offer coaching opportunities for the team, identify their challenges, and provide strategic procedures to improve their interaction with the customers. They also help senior management search for business opportunities that would drive more revenue for the company and achieve profitability goals.
Customer success managers and customer service leaders have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Customer Success Manager | Customer Service Leader | |
| Average salary | $93,820 | $33,791 |
| Salary range | Between $61,000 And $142,000 | Between $27,000 And $41,000 |
| Highest paying City | Redwood City, CA | Tacoma, WA |
| Highest paying state | California | Washington |
| Best paying company | VMware | University of California, Berkeley |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Transportation |
There are a few differences between a customer success manager and a customer service leader in terms of educational background:
| Customer Success Manager | Customer Service Leader | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 78% | Bachelor's Degree, 39% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | University of Pennsylvania | California State University - Bakersfield |
Here are the differences between customer success managers' and customer service leaders' demographics:
| Customer Success Manager | Customer Service Leader | |
| Average age | 46 | 47 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 54.9% Female, 45.1% | Male, 32.9% Female, 67.1% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 3.2% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 9.8% Asian, 4.1% White, 78.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% | Black or African American, 10.6% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 18.9% Asian, 5.3% White, 59.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 8% |