What Is a Director of Customer Success? How to Become One, Salary, Skills.

Customer success directors oversee customer success teams and guide customer success managers (CSMs) to increase a company’s customer base, retention and engagement. Here’s what to know about a director of customer success’s salary, needed skills and how to become one.

What Is a Director of Customer Success?

Directors of customer success typically lead a company’s customer success department, which is responsible for building relationships with clients and ensuring the company grows and retains clients. 

What Do Directors of Customer Success Do?

Directors of customer success manage customer success managers and representatives, and they build strategies to retain and grow the customer base and contribute to company profits. 

Director of Customer Success Responsibilities

• Manage the customer success team representatives. 
• Interview and hire customer success representatives. 
• Develop strategies for customer growth and retention. 
• Review customer feedback and prioritize feature requests. 
• Develop and implement policies that address customer concerns. 
• Analyze data and metrics around customer engagement and growth.
• Share team wins and updates with company leadership.  

Director of Customer Success Within a Company

Directors of customer success are a key leadership role in the company’s customer success department and typically report to the vice president of customer success. This role often works with leadership in sales to develop growth strategies. 

Importance of Director of Customer Success

Directors of customer success are essential to a company’s financial growth as they are responsible for managing customer success teams that contribute to growing and maintaining client relationships. 

What Skills Are Needed to Be a Director of Customer Success?

Qualifications to Be a Director of Customer Success

• Demonstrated experience leading a customer success or sales team. 
• Ability to manage and guide multiple direct reports. 
• Track record of developing growth strategies and tracking progress. 
• Ability to delegate tasks and track progress of team initiatives. 

Director of Customer Success Prerequisites

• Directors of customer success typically have a bachelor’s degree in business, marketing or a related field. 
• Some directors of customer success also hold an MBA. 
• Most directors of customer success have eight to 10 years of experience managing people. 

Director of Customer Success Hard Skills

• Analytical skills. 
• Strong leadership and people management skills. 
• Business acumen. 
• Strong strategy planning skills. 
• Marketing and sales skills. 
• Critical thinking skills.

Director of Customer Success Soft Skills

• Negotiation and presentation skills. 
• Organizational skills. 
• Strong interpersonal skills. 
• Strong verbal and written communication skills. 

Tools and Programs Director of Customer Success Use

• Zendesk
• Hubspot Service Hub
• Gainsight
• Akita
• ChurnZero
• Help Scout
• Intercom

How to Become a Director of Customer Success

Director of Customer Success Education and Experience

Directors of customer success are usually required to have at least a bachelor’s degree in business administration, marketing or a related field. Most directors of customer success have approximately eight to 10 years of experience in the field and a few years of experience managing people. 

Director of Customer Success Certificates and Courses

• Top Sales Training Programs to Know
• Customer Success Training and Certification
• Cisco Customer Success Manager Certification
• Certified Customer Success Management Professional (CCSMP)

Director of Customer Success Career Path

The career path of directors of customer success often starts with entry-level positions such as customer success representative or a related role. Positions like account executive or account manager are also commonly held before becoming a director of customer success as well. Directors of customer success may move into roles like sales director or vice president of customer success. 

Director of Customer Success Salary and Job Outlook

Roles in the customer success industry have experienced steady growth over the past few years. In 2020, customer success managers, a related role, were ranked as one of the top emerging jobs. 

The full compensation package for a director of customer success 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 director of customer success’ salary.