A Customer Success Manager (CSM) is responsible for ensuring that customers achieve measurable outcomes from a product or service after the sale is closed. Unlike reactive support roles, CSMs engage proactively—running onboarding calls, tracking product adoption, flagging churn risk, and identifying upsell or expansion opportunities.
CSMs typically own a named account portfolio and are measured by:
- Net Revenue Retention (NRR): revenue retained and expanded across their book of business
- Churn rate: percentage of accounts lost in a given period
- Health scores: composite metrics combining login frequency, feature adoption, and support ticket volume
- QBR (Quarterly Business Review) completion rate
In software companies, CSMs often serve as the internal advocate for the customer, relaying product feedback to engineering and coordinating with support when escalations arise. The role sits at the intersection of sales, support, and product.