Customer support manager vs customer success manager

The differences between customer support managers and customer success managers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 4-6 years to become a customer support manager, becoming a customer success manager takes usually requires 6-8 years. Additionally, a customer success manager has an average salary of $93,820, which is higher than the $91,598 average annual salary of a customer support manager.

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

Customer support manager vs customer success manager overview

	Customer Support Manager	Customer Success Manager
Yearly salary	$91,598	$93,820
Hourly rate	$44.04	$45.11
Growth rate	10%	5%
Number of jobs	128,995	95,053
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 65%	Bachelor's Degree, 78%
Average age	47	46
Years of experience	6	8

What does a customer support manager do?

The responsibilities of a customer support manager revolve around overseeing the performance of customer support staff to ensure that all clients get optimal service. They mostly delegate tasks, address and resolve issues, manage schedules, train new employees, produce progress reports, assess performances, and set sales targets. There are also instances when one must respond to calls and correspondence, offer products and services, and manage the budget. Furthermore, as a manager, it is essential to lead and encourage the team to reach sales targets while implementing the company's policies and regulations.

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.

Customer support manager vs customer success manager salary

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

	Customer Support Manager	Customer Success Manager
Average salary	$91,598	$93,820
Salary range	Between $64,000 And $130,000	Between $61,000 And $142,000
Highest paying City	Seattle, WA	Redwood City, CA
Highest paying state	Washington	California
Best paying company	Amazon	VMware
Best paying industry	Finance	Technology

Differences between customer support manager and customer success manager education

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

	Customer Support Manager	Customer Success Manager
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 65%	Bachelor's Degree, 78%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	California State University - Bakersfield	University of Pennsylvania

Customer support manager vs customer success manager demographics

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

	Customer Support Manager	Customer Success Manager
Average age	47	46
Gender ratio	Male, 56.9% Female, 43.1%	Male, 54.9% Female, 45.1%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 9.6% Unknown, 4.9% Hispanic or Latino, 17.0% Asian, 6.1% White, 61.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%	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%
LGBT Percentage	8%	7%

Differences between customer support manager and customer success manager duties and responsibilities

Customer support manager example responsibilities.

Manage global on-boarding program for new and existing SaaS customers.
Design, develop and implement internal applications to manage the SaaS and CDN platforms.
Manage one-on-one relationship with larger customers and sales reps. set up and test EDI transactions for new customers.
Lead the companywide roll-out of a new ticketing system, Zendesk, from evaluation and purchase through implementation.
Manage UNIX system support including IBM platform direction, research, sizing, proposals and weekly performance reporting.
Manage POS and desktop support help desk function for all of Wendy's company-own restaurants and corporate/field office locations.

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.

Customer support manager vs customer success manager skills

Common customer support manager skills

Project Management, 9%
CRM, 5%
Technical Support, 5%
Salesforce, 4%
Account Management, 4%
Customer Satisfaction, 3%

Common customer success manager skills

Client Facing, 10%
Cloud, 7%
Account Management, 7%
Customer Relationships, 5%
Saas, 5%
Customer Service, 5%

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Customer Support Manager
Customer Support Manager vs Customer Success Manager

Updated January 8, 2025

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