What Is a Customer Support Manager? How to Become One, Salary, Skills.

Customer support managers help create and foster excellent customer service experiences for both new and existing customers. Here’s what to know about a customer support manager’s salary, needed skills and how to become one.

What Is a Customer Support Manager?

Customer support managers (CSMs) are responsible for ensuring customer support needs are met. This role may be a people manager that oversees a team of customer support representatives, depending on the structure of the organization. 

What Do Customer Support Managers Do?

Customer support managers help lead a company’s customer support department by developing strategies and policies, training new hires and managing customer requests. 

Customer Support Manager Responsibilities

• Interview, hire and train customer support representatives. 
• Evaluate and improve ongoing training practices. 
• Develop and implement strategy for responding to customer support requests. 
• Keep the customer support team informed on latest technologies and procedures in the industry. 
• Manage and maintain the budget for the customer support department.
• Gather and present feedback on the customer experience for internal teams and leadership. 

Day-to-Day Responsibilities of Customer Support Manager

• Manage and respond to customer support calls and requests. 
• Oversee and assist customer support representatives.
• Provide technical support to their customers and team members. 

Customer Support Manager Within a Company

Customer support managers are usually a mid to senior level role with a company’s customer support department. This role may be a people manager depending on the structure of the organization or be responsible for creating customer support strategy and procedures. 

Importance of Customer Support Managers

An organization relies on customer support managers to ensure that new and existing leads receive prompt responses to their questions and concerns. Without customer support managers, a company’s relationship with its customers wouldn’t be successful. 

What Skills Are Needed to Be a Customer Support Manager?

Qualifications to Be a Customer Support Manager

• Ability to communicate with a variety of customers. 
• Ability to operate under pressure. 
• Strong understanding of customer service best practices. 
• Experience with customer support software and tools. 

Customer Support Manager Prerequisites

• Many customer support managers have a bachelor’s degree in business administration or a related field. 
• Previous experience working in customer support is usually required for this role. 

Customer Support Manager Hard Skills

• Excellent communication skills. 
• Strong client-facing skills. 
• Critical thinking and problem-solving skills. 

Customer Support Manager Soft Skills

• Interpersonal skills. 
• Presentation skills. 
• Organization and time management skills. 

Tools and Programs Customer Support Manager Use

• Zendesk 
• Salesforce
• Olark
• Hiver
• HubSpot
• Hootsuite

How to Become a Customer Support Manager

Customer Support Manager Education and Experience

Although it’s not always required, most customer support managers have a bachelor’s degree in business administration, communications or a related field. Having several years of previous experience in customer service or customer support is typically required for this role. 

Customer Support Manager Certificates and Courses

• Certified Customer Service Manager
• Customer Service Manager Training
• HubSpot Customer Service Manager Learning Path
• COPC Certification
• CCPC Certification

Customer Support Manager Career Path

Customer support managers can come from a variety of backgrounds including traditional retail or SaaS. Most customer support managers begin their careers as entry-level customer service representatives or customer support specialists before stepping into this role. Some commonly held positions after being a customer support manager include project manager, account manager or operations manager. 

Customer Support Manager Salary and Job Outlook

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that customer service representatives, a related field, are expected to decline by 4 percent between 2021 and 2031. 

The full compensation package for a customer support manager depends on a variety of factors, including but not limited to the candidate’s experience and geographic location. See below for detailed information on the average customer support manager’s salary.