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Customer success manager vs support manager

The differences between customer success managers and support managers 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 support manager takes usually requires 4-6 years. Additionally, a customer success manager has an average salary of $93,820, which is higher than the $90,297 average annual salary of a support manager.

The top three skills for a customer success manager include client facing, cloud and account management. The most important skills for a support manager are project management, technical support, and powerpoint.

Customer success manager vs support manager overview

Customer Success ManagerSupport Manager
Yearly salary$93,820$90,297
Hourly rate$45.11$43.41
Growth rate5%6%
Number of jobs95,053172,628
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 78%Bachelor's Degree, 51%
Average age4647
Years of experience86

What does a customer success manager do?

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.

What does a support manager do?

A support manager is responsible for developing strategic technical solutions to improve business performance for client satisfaction and improve revenues. Support managers must have excellent knowledge of the technical processes and disciplines, as well as business systems in handling the information networks and systems of the company. They should have a strong command of system codes and technology programming, as well as software and hardware applications in identifying other possible business opportunities and assisting the staff with any inconsistencies in the process.

Customer success manager vs support manager salary

Customer success managers and support managers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Customer Success ManagerSupport Manager
Average salary$93,820$90,297
Salary rangeBetween $61,000 And $142,000Between $58,000 And $140,000
Highest paying CityRedwood City, CAWashington, DC
Highest paying stateCaliforniaNew York
Best paying companyVMwareMeta
Best paying industryTechnologyFinance

Differences between customer success manager and support manager education

There are a few differences between a customer success manager and a support manager in terms of educational background:

Customer Success ManagerSupport Manager
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 78%Bachelor's Degree, 51%
Most common majorBusinessBusiness
Most common collegeUniversity of PennsylvaniaCalifornia State University - Bakersfield

Customer success manager vs support manager demographics

Here are the differences between customer success managers' and support managers' demographics:

Customer Success ManagerSupport Manager
Average age4647
Gender ratioMale, 54.9% Female, 45.1%Male, 59.8% Female, 40.2%
Race ratioBlack 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, 10.4% Unknown, 4.8% Hispanic or Latino, 17.1% Asian, 5.7% White, 61.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%
LGBT Percentage7%8%

Differences between customer success manager and support manager duties and responsibilities

Customer success manager example responsibilities.

  • Help doctors manage their facebook page and website.
  • Achieve excellent performance results as compared to other Aarons stores.
  • Help customers establish spend and savings goals and achieve those to get full ROI.
  • Link QuickBooks system with customer sales database to automate the process of tax administration.
  • Well verse in leveraging CRM to manage accounts, capture metrics, and implement relevant processes.
  • Raise RingCentral's NPS score, by creating superb relations with clients that lead to increase survey ratings.
  • Show more

Support manager example responsibilities.

  • Lead the team to a successful ISO audit with commendation for processes and documentation.
  • Utilize AutoTask for managing tickets, field technicians, and scheduling POS installs with store owners or managers.
  • Manage dependencies for the build out, maintenance, and ongoing support of QA environments during the CME/NYMEX and CME/CBOT mergers.
  • Manage eight AS/400 and Unix lab technicians, responsible troubleshooting and maintaining the AS400 & UNIX systems that support customer functionality.
  • Manage payroll issues, authore and perform performance appraisals and disciplinary actions.
  • Develop and implement strategic merchandising plans to achieve revenue objectives and reduce expenditures while ensuring payroll remains within budget.
  • Show more

Customer success manager vs support manager skills

Common customer success manager skills
  • Client Facing, 10%
  • Cloud, 7%
  • Account Management, 7%
  • Customer Relationships, 5%
  • Saas, 5%
  • Customer Service, 5%
Common support manager skills
  • Project Management, 7%
  • Technical Support, 6%
  • PowerPoint, 6%
  • Windows, 6%
  • Logistics, 5%
  • Support Services, 5%

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