Splitting Customer Support and Account Management Responsibilities

This blog has been originally published on the Remote First Recruiting site

If you’re a bootstrapped team, like us, and many of our clients, chances are you have team members wearing many hats. Nothin’ wrong with that. In fact, most startup or bootstrapped team members will tell you they thrive in the relative chaos of small teams. The love of wearing many hats, every day bringing new challenges and creativity to be had. 

But, as you scale, you need to start to separate duties so that everyone’s plate isn’t overflowing and your team members can continue to thrive. Chances are if you clicked on this article you already know that and have been racking your brain with which hires are most important for your scaling company.

You’re in good company. 

At Remote First Recruiting, we often partner with founders of remote, bootstrapped, teams who are in your exact predicament. Needing to hire urgently and split up tasks that have become overwhelming. Your few CSMs could easily handle 50 tickets a day of support request and manage your key accounts… last year… 6 months ago? But business is booming (great problem to have) and you’ve hit a fork in the road. Time to separate customer success and general support tickets coming in and account management. 

So what’s the difference between hiring an account manager and a customer success manager? Let’s break it down.

ACCOUNT MANAGERS:

• Proactively manage your key accounts
• Build relationships
• Upsell and manage renewals
• Keep customers happy, cared for and loving your product

CUSTOMER SUCCESS MANAGERS:

• Handle support tickets and general 1-off needs
• Manage live chats, email support, and ticketing software
• Work mostly with self-service clients as needs arise

Both are important roles and these team members share many characteristics:

• Kind, easy to approach
• Knowledgeable on your product, issues, and onboarding
• Able to find solutions, collaborate with other departments or team members
• Enjoy doing demos, zoom calls, and being the face of the company for clients
• Create knowledge-based articles, blogs, and education-based material
• Relationship-based sales 

Sure, one team member can handle account management and general customer success, but as you scale you may want to think about separating duties so they can give high-level or key accounts more proactive communication and keep them coming back for more. 

Is your scaling team ready to hire CSMs or account managers? 

Strategize with our team and see how we can help you hire.

You can book a 15-minute strategy call with us here.

-Krista✌️