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One day, a long time ago, when I started my career as a marketer, I found myself sitting in a meeting, slightly puzzled as I heard terms like Customer Success Manager (CSM) and Account Manager (AM) being thrown around like they were interchangeable. I thought, “Wait, so they are not the same thing, but they are essentially doing the same thing? Managing customers, keeping them happy, helping them grow?”
Once I dug deeper, I realized how crucial it was to understand these two roles’ subtle (and not-so-subtle) differences, especially if you’re trying to build long-lasting relationships with your clients.
In this blog, I’ll walk you through what I’ve learned. Think of it as a guide from someone who’s been there, confused as you might be, but now with a much clearer view. By the end of this, you’ll not only understand how Customer Success vs Account Management are different but also why both are essential for business growth.
What is Customer Success?
Let’s now discuss this in-depth about the first part of our problem statement: Customer Success vs Account Management. I remember the first time I heard the term “Customer Success.” At first, it felt like a buzzword, something cool that companies threw into their job titles to make them sound more customer-focused. But there’s real depth behind the term.
At its core, Customer Success is about proactively ensuring your customers achieve their desired outcomes while using your product or service. It’s a relationship-building role, yes, but it’s also highly strategic. A Customer Success Manager works before problems arise and focuses on making sure customers are not just satisfied, but thriving.
Here’s how I like to think about it: if your customers are plants, Customer Success is like the gardener who comes in regularly to water, prune, and nurture those plants. The goal is to ensure they’re healthy and growing all the time.
Key Responsibilities of a Customer Success Manager
I’ve noticed that Customer Success focuses on value. It’s about ensuring customers maximize the benefit they get from your product, and in turn, they’re more likely to stay with you long-term. Some of their duties revolve around:
- Onboarding and training new customers
- Regular check-ins and health checks
- Proactively identifying issues and offering solutions before they become problems
- Helping customers utilize the product to its fullest potential
- Driving customer retention, expansion, and long-term success
What is Account Management?
Account Management was more resonating with me when I first entered the SaaS world. It’s a role that most of us have probably encountered at some point, either as a customer or within a company. While it’s often lumped in with Customer Success, it plays a very different role.
While Customer Success is proactive, Account Management tends to be more reactive. The Account Manager (AM) focuses on maintaining the business relationship, ensuring the contract is renewed, and sometimes upselling or cross-selling additional services. Account Management is often about revenue growth and ensuring the company maintains a good relationship with its clients.
So to explain this in our previous plant analogy we could say, that Account Management is like the salesperson who makes sure you have all the tools, fertilizer, and equipment you need. It’s about ensuring you’re paying for the things that keep your garden running smoothly.
Key Responsibilities of an Account Manager
In my experience, Account Management has a transactional element. It’s important for keeping the revenue flowing, but its focus is more on the subscriptions and financial aspects of the customer relationship. Some of their duties revolve around:
- Renewing contracts and negotiating terms
- Handling billing, invoicing, and financial queries
- Cross-selling and upselling additional products or services
- Serving as the point of contact for the client
- Reactively solving issues as they arise
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Account Management vs Customer Success: How They Differ
While both are involved in managing customer relationships, their approach, goals, and day-to-day tasks are quite different. I’ve broken this down into a comparison table, which helped me a lot when I was first trying to figure this out.
| Aspect | Customer Success | Account Management |
| Main Focus | Ensures the customer’s long-term success and value | Maintaining business relationships and revenue |
| Approach | Proactive | Reactive |
| Key Objective | Customer retention through value and satisfaction | Contract renewal and upselling/cross-selling |
| Interaction Frequency | Regular, ongoing, even when no issue arise | For key business milestones like renewals |
| Metrics Tracked | Customer Health Score, Net Promoter Score, Churn Rate | Revenue, Renewal rates, Upsell rates |
| Role in Problem Solving | Prevents problems before they happen | Solves problems when they arise |
For me, the biggest eye-opener was in understanding how Customer Success focuses on customer outcomes, while Account Management focuses more on business outcomes.
Are These Roles Ever Blended?
That’s a great thought! And interestingly, some companies especially smaller startups tend to blend Customer Success with Account Management. I’ve been in meetings where one person is responsible for both customer success and account management. And while it can work, I’ve found that this often leads to either the proactive or reactive side of the job being neglected.
For example, if you’re too focused on renewing contracts and driving upsells, you might miss opportunities to genuinely help customers succeed with the product, which in the long run could hurt retention. On the other end, if you’re entirely focused on making sure the customer is happy and using the product effectively, you might miss the financial aspects like renewals or cross-sell opportunities.
Why Does Your Company Need Both Account Management and Customer Success
After learning more about these roles, it becomes clear why both Customer Success and Account Management are essential for a business, especially for industries whose survival depends on recurring revenue models like the SaaS industry.
Customer Success ensures that customers continue to stay loyal customers. A happy, successful customer is much less likely to churn. And when customers see ongoing value from your product, they’re more willing to renew their contracts.
Account Management makes sure that your business side of things is given enough importance. While Customer Success focuses on outcomes, Account Managers focus on the monetary aspects like making sure contracts are renewed, revenue targets are hit, and financial expectations are met.
Therefore they are mutually dependent. You can’t retain customers and drive long-term growth without making sure they’re successful, but you also can’t ignore the financial side of the relationship. Software like Office24by7 sales CRM which allows for automation is a great tool that can help your teams align their efforts for account management and customer support using a centralized database.
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How These Roles Evolve Over Time
As companies grow, I’ve seen both Customer Success and Account Management roles evolve. Initially, a startup might have one person handling both functions. But as the customer base expands and the company matures, the complexity of customer needs grows as well.
Early Stage
In the early stages, it’s not uncommon for one person to manage both customer success and account management.
Growth Stage
As companies scale, they begin to split these roles to give each its due focus. This is where I’ve seen a clear division between CSMs and AMs because of their specializations.
Mature Stage
In larger, mature organizations, Customer Success teams focus exclusively on the customer experience, while Account Managers handle contracts, financial discussions, and upsell strategies.
How Can You Build a Great Customer Success and Account Management Team
If you’re like me attending to the requirements of all teams, creating and optimizing their opportunities, you might have already understood how to create a two-strong team for both these functions. But in case you are not into marketing, here’s what I’ve learned that might be of help to you.
Define the roles clearly
Ensure there’s no confusion about who does what. This avoids overlap and ensures both functions can focus on their core responsibilities.
Hire for the right skills
Customer Success Managers should have strong problem-solving, communication, and technical skills, while Account Managers should have expertise in negotiations, sales, and relationship management.
Align on goals
Even though these teams focus on different aspects of the customer relationship, they should still be aligned on common goals, like retention and growth.
Communication is key
The success of both roles depends on clear communication between teams. After all, Customer Success will often uncover upsell opportunities that Account Managers can act on, and Account Managers might bring insights from financial discussions that help the CSM Team guide the customer’s use of the product.
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Wrapping Up
Ultimately, both Customer Success and Account Management play vital roles in ensuring the success of a business. Customer Success ensures customers are happy and thriving, while Account Management ensures the business relationship remains profitable.
If you ask me, investing in both functions is key to creating not just satisfied customers, but long-term, loyal advocates for your brand. Hope this helps your business get a clear understanding of how to advance forward. Good luck!
