Interested in tech products but can’t stand the idea of coding? Want to constantly harness your interpersonal skills while helping clients tackle tough problems? If you answered ‘yes,’ customer success might be the perfect career for you.
Don’t take our word for it, though.
Built In spoke with three Chicago tech professionals who each arrived in the field through a nonlinear path that made them realize customer success wasn’t just a stepping stone to something else — it could be their destination, and it could be yours, too.
Prosodica’s AI-powered platform automatically tags and scores customer calls to create data visualization and pinpoint areas of concern.
Tell us about your journey into customer success. What kinds of roles were you in before customer success? What made customer success the right choice for your career?
Customer success wasn’t where I initially imagined my career would lead after college. Early on, I held roles in R&D, as a solutions analyst and in project management. Each position helped me better understand what I enjoyed most — namely, working directly with clients, solving problems collaboratively and building long-term relationships. Over time, it became clear that I wanted a role where client interaction was central but also allowed me to stay close to the technical side — whether through data, integrations or platform expertise. Customer success turned out to be the ideal blend of both and it’s where I’ve found the most fulfillment and growth in my career.
What skills, proficiencies or background experience have you found to be most useful for your career in customer success? Has anything surprised you?
Coming into customer success from a more technical background, I found that skills like data analysis, product knowledge and working within SaaS environments translated really well. Being able to interpret customer conversations and connect them to actionable insights has been incredibly useful. At the same time, the relationship-building side has been just as important. Clear and empathetic communication, staying calm and learning how to deal with escalations and building trust over time are all things I’ve leaned on heavily.
What’s surprised me the most, though, is how important it is to continually reinforce the value of the product to the customer. It’s not just about solving problems — it’s about making sure the customer feels heard, supported and confident that the product is helping them reach their goals.
If you could give any advice to professionals looking to make the move to customer success, what advice would you give them?
I’d say don’t overlook how important it is to really listen to your customers and make sure they feel heard. It’s not just about solving issues — it’s about building trust and showing them the value of the product over time.
If you’re coming from a technical background, that definitely helps but you also need to be comfortable having conversations, managing different personalities and juggling priorities. Things can change quickly, so being flexible and open to learning will help you in the long run.
Bringg’s platform allows e-commerce companies to manage each step of the delivery process — tracking, routes, scheduling, dispatching, inventory and so on — from one view.
Tell us about your journey into customer success. What kinds of roles were you in before customer success? What made customer success the right choice for your career?
I had one ill-fated stint as a developer, having come from a software engineering background at university. After about six months, I realized it wasn’t the career for me. It wasn’t just the long hours staring at code — I was also terrible at it.
I found myself in customer support, where I started spending more time interacting with customers, both virtually and in person. From there, I moved into basic implementations of biometric devices and I quickly realized how much I enjoyed the social aspect — building relationships and helping people succeed.
When I moved from the U.K. to the United States, I stepped into a role that was essentially customer success before it was formally defined. It was all about ensuring customers saw value from their purchase and leveraging those relationships to make renewal conversations easier. Sound familiar?
I moved into customer success leadership as a result of my passion for coaching and mentoring. As a senior IC, I enjoyed guiding junior team members on customer success methodology and communication best practices.
Looking back, customer success was the right career path for me. I’m a true people person, a strong communicator and I genuinely love celebrating the success of others.
What skills, proficiencies or background experience have you found to be most useful for your career in customer success? Has anything surprised you?
Communication, communication, communication.
It was actually a valuable communication skills module for developers I took at university that first taught me how to present succinctly. I was also fortunate to have several great mentors early in my career who placed a strong emphasis on communication - particularly the ability to speak tech to technical audiences and translate it into business terms for non-technical stakeholders. Being that bridge between the two helped me stand out early on in my career.
In a similar vein, executive presence has been critical: being comfortable speaking or presenting to anyone — from end users to the C-suite — and the ability to tailor the conversation based on the audience is a key skill in customer success.
One skill I’ve found increasingly useful (and somewhat surprising) is my newfound love of change management. It’s often a significantly overlooked aspect of software implementations, but the bigger the project, the more change management is required. It wasn’t something I was even aware of earlier in my career, but I’ve come to realize just how many issues could be avoided with proper change management planning and preparation.
If you could give any advice to professionals looking to make the move to customer success, what advice would you give them?
Earlier in my career, customer success was more of a jack-of-all-trades role that people used as a stepping stone to move into other areas of the business like account management, product or even consulting.
Today, I see more people forging long-term careers in customer success, with the clear intention of staying in the field. It helps that it’s now common to see organizations with a chief customer officer and a dedicated customer success function, rather than it sitting under sales. This shift has given customer success a real career path for people to follow.
On the flip side, I’m now seeing professionals come into customer success from account management, sales and product roles, and they bring incredibly valuable experience. The biggest change I’ve seen over the last 10 years is that customer success did not typically carry revenue responsibilities. Now, a significant number of customer success teams are responsible for renewals, cross-sell/upsell and the (sometimes difficult) commercial conversations that come along with that.
If you’re looking to make the jump into customer success, you need to be able to form meaningful relationships, understand both the tech and the business and be comfortable handling revenue conversation, so a little bit of everything!
Alliant Credit Union’s mission is to disrupt “banking norms to do good for our members, employees and communities.”
Tell us about your journey into customer success. What kinds of roles were you in before customer success? What made customer success the right choice for your career?
My journey into customer success has been a bit of a zigzag — in the best way possible! I started my career in indirect auto finance, working closely with sales and underwriting teams. That’s where I first learned the power of service and relationship-building. In a competitive market, the way you treat your partners and customers can be the ultimate differentiator — and I loved being part of that dynamic.
From there, I moved into risk management, controls and operations. It was a shift behind the scenes, but it gave me a whole new appreciation for what makes a business run smoothly. I saw firsthand how strong processes and thoughtful controls are the backbone that supports great customer experiences.
Customer success felt like the perfect next step because it brings together everything I enjoy: building relationships, solving problems and making sure the engine behind the scenes is running just as smoothly as the customer-facing side. It’s where strategy meets empathy — and that’s exactly where I thrive.
What skills, proficiencies or background experience have you found to be most useful for your career in customer success? Has anything surprised you?
Honestly, the most useful skills in customer success haven’t come from a textbook — they’ve come from being a curious, empathetic human who genuinely cares. Developing a strong sense of empathy has been huge. When you can really put yourself in your customer’s shoes (or their inbox), everything changes. You stop thinking in terms of tickets and start thinking in terms of people.
I’ve also found that being naturally curious is a superpower. I love asking “why” and “what if” — it helps uncover root causes, anticipate needs and build better solutions. And owning outcomes from start to finish? That’s been a game-changer. Customers don’t want to be passed around like a hot potato — they want someone who’s in it with them until the job’s done.
What has surprised me the most? How much it helps to think about your customer like they’re a family member. When you approach every interaction with that level of care and respect, it shows — and it builds trust faster than any script or playbook ever could.
If you could give any advice to professionals looking to make the move to customer success, what advice would you give them?
If you’re thinking about jumping into customer success — do it! My biggest piece of advice? Take chances. You don’t need to have the perfect background; what matters is your mindset. Be curious, be bold and don’t be afraid to dive into the deep end.
Always, always think about problems from the customer’s point of view. It’s easy to get caught up in internal processes or product features, but at the end of the day, your customer just wants things to work — and to feel like someone’s got their back.
Also, become obsessed with eliminating friction. If something feels clunky or confusing, fix it. Smooth experiences build loyalty faster than any discount or feature ever could.
Customer success is part detective, part therapist, part strategist — and 100 percent about making people’s lives easier. If that sounds like your kind of fun, you’re in the right place.
