Customer success has evolved into a critical function in today’s business environment, especially in the subscription-based SaaS industry. Companies now recognize that retaining and growing existing customers is as important as acquiring new ones. As a result, Customer Success Managers (CSMs) are no longer just “firefighters” or a support arm; instead, they are strategic partners who drive value, retention, and expansion. In fact, gone are the days of customer success being merely the “happiness department” that reacts to issues; modern CSMs play a direct role in revenue growth through renewals and upsells. This importance means the job market for customer success professionals is booming.
With demand high, expectations are also rising. Employers seek well-rounded customer success professionals who can wear many hats, from relationship-builder and problem-solver to data analyst and tech-savvy strategist. Continuous skill development isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s essential for staying competitive and advancing your career. Whether you’re an entry-level CSM or a seasoned CS leader, mastering the right mix of skills will empower you to deliver better outcomes for your customers and to open up new career opportunities for yourself. In this article, we’ll dive deep into the top in-demand customer success skills that can take your career up a level, backed by industry research and real-world insights.
At the heart of customer success is the ability to build strong, trust-based relationships with customers. Relationship management goes hand-in-hand with emotional intelligence – the capacity to empathize, read between the lines, and navigate human emotions. CSMs with high emotional intelligence excel at active listening and responding to customer needs with empathy and understanding. This fosters loyalty and makes customers feel heard. In practice, that means checking in regularly, remembering personal details and business milestones, and being proactive about addressing concerns.
Why is this skill so in-demand? Because satisfied, trusting customers are more likely to renew and expand their business with you. Executives note that customers who already have a trusted relationship with your brand are far more willing to buy new products or upgrades. Strong relationship management also equips you to handle difficult conversations gracefully. For example, when delivering bad news or managing expectations, your rapport and empathy can turn a potentially negative experience into a trust-building moment. Communication and emotional intelligence consistently rank as top skills for highly effective CSMs, underscoring that “soft” skills are actually powerful drivers of hard results in customer success.
Today’s customer success roles often require a level of technical savvy that might not have been expected in years past. As products become more complex and data-driven, CSMs need to be comfortable with technology. Technical proficiency in this context means understanding how your product works, inside and out, so you can guide customers in using it to achieve their goals. It also means being adept with the tools of the trade, such as customer success platforms, CRM systems, data analytics dashboards, and possibly basics of APIs or integrations. When a customer has a technical question or a problem using the software, a skilled CSM can troubleshoot at a high level before pulling in further support.
Beyond product knowledge, having a broader industry know-how is valuable. Many employers look for domain expertise or at least the ability to quickly learn new technologies. In fact, industry experts predict that customer success teams will increasingly require CSMs to be “deep technical experts” or, alternatively, very revenue-focused – pure relationship-only CSMs without technical or commercial depth will become a structure of the past.
Being comfortable with technology also ties into efficiency: leveraging automation, setting up integrations, and using AI tools can help a CSM manage more accounts effectively. According to a 2024 report, 81% of Customer Experience professionals believe AI will change CX and CS for the better by 2027. In short, boosting your technical acumen, whether through training or hands-on practice, will make you a more self-sufficient and scalable CS professional who can deliver value in a tech-centric business world.
Customer success isn’t just about being friendly and helpful; it’s also highly data-driven. CSMs have access to a wealth of customer data: usage frequency, feature adoption, support tickets, satisfaction scores, and more. The ability to interpret this data and derive actionable insights is a game-changer. Data-driven decision-making means you don’t have to guess which customers need attention; you can identify warning signs (e.g. a drop in logins or a decline in usage of a key feature) and intervene early to prevent churn. Conversely, analytics can spotlight happy customers who are ripe for advocacy or an upsell.
Analytics and reporting skills are so in-demand that 78% of customer success professionals in one survey said data analysis is crucial for their role. CS leaders also echo this sentiment. In a recent Customer Success Leadership Study, “analytics” and “strategy” were among the top skill sets where CSMs need development. To build your analytics muscle, get comfortable with your platform’s health score formulas and reporting tools, learn to run cohort analyses or segment customers by behavior, and practice translating data into recommendations. For example, you might notice a customer’s usage dropped after a new feature rollout; a data-savvy CSM would reach out to offer additional training on that feature, linking the data to a proactive solution. By grounding your customer management in data, you can move from reactive problem-solving to proactive value delivery.
Excellent communication underpins almost everything a customer success professional does. This includes day-to-day communication (promptly responding to emails, clarifying next steps on calls) and high-stakes communication (leading Quarterly Business Reviews or executive check-ins). But beyond just conveying information, top CSMs use storytelling techniques to give their messages impact. Storytelling in customer success might look like sharing a mini case study during a QBR (for example, “Let me show you how another client solved a similar challenge using our product”) to inspire your customer with a vision of success. It’s also about illustrating the ROI and value of your solution in a way that resonates with the customer’s goals.
Strong communicators tailor their style to their audience. You might simplify technical jargon when speaking to a non-technical champion, or conversely, present a data-rich business case when dealing with an executive sponsor. This skill also involves persuasion and influence. For instance, getting a busy customer to prioritize a training session by painting a compelling picture of the outcomes they’ll get. CSMs should be able to confidently discuss business outcomes in quantitative terms and show the role of the product or service in achieving those outcomes – then effectively illustrate those metrics with success stories that resonate at the executive level. And don’t forget that communication is a two-way street: active listening is equally important. By truly listening to customers (and listening “between the lines” for unspoken concerns), you can ask better questions and offer more relevant guidance. In short, honing your communication and storytelling abilities will help you not just inform customers, but inspire them.
If there’s one guarantee in a customer success career, it’s that you’ll face unexpected challenges. Maybe a key contact at your client quits, and you have to rebuild the relationship from scratch. Or your product introduces a new feature that initially confuses users, spiking support tickets. The ability to remain calm, think critically, and solve problems quickly is invaluable. Great CSMs approach problems with a proactive mindset; they don’t just put out fires, they figure out how to prevent those fires in the future. This often means getting to the root cause of an issue and collaborating on a long-term fix (for example, identifying that a client’s poor adoption stems from lack of training, and then organizing a tailored training session).
Adaptability goes hand-in-hand with problem-solving. The customer success field, and the customers we serve, are always evolving. Being adaptable means you stay curious and positive in the face of change. As one CS leader put it, embracing change with curiosity and action is paramount. In practice, adaptable CSMs can pivot their approach when customer needs shift or when internal strategy changes. For instance, if economic conditions cause clients to tighten their budgets, an adaptable CSM might refocus QBR conversations to highlight cost-saving features or adjust success plans to do more with less. The past few years have underscored this need for flexibility. Many teams moved to virtual engagements, adjusted their playbooks, and adopted new technologies. Those who thrived likely had a strong adaptability streak. By cultivating your problem-solving skills and openness to change, you’ll not only handle crises better but also turn challenges into opportunities to demonstrate value.
Modern customer success isn’t just about keeping customers happy; it’s about growing the customer’s value to the business as well, in a mutually beneficial way. Upselling (selling a higher-tier product or additional features) and cross-selling (selling complementary products or services) are increasingly part of the CSM’s playbook. Many organizations now tie renewals and expansion targets to customer success metrics, reflecting a broader industry trend that customer success holds primary responsibility for recurring revenue. In other words, today’s CSMs are expected to act somewhat like account managers, not just support reps.
To excel in this area, you need a bit of sales acumen blended with your consultative approach. It starts with deeply understanding the customer’s business objectives so you can spot opportunities that truly help the customer, not just pad your numbers. Perhaps you realize a particular feature in the next-tier plan could save your client time or money; a skilled CSM will frame the upsell as a solution to a problem the customer has voiced. Having comfort with commercial conversations is crucial. No, you don’t need to become a hard seller, but you should be able to discuss things like ROI, pricing (at a high level), and business cases for expansion. In fact, sales and commercial acumen have become baseline skills for CS professionals in many companies. Companies have realized that CSMs who can identify upsell and cross-sell moments and partner closely with sales teams drive more revenue and higher net retention. If this is a new area for you, consider shadowing a sales call or getting some training on consultative selling techniques. The key is to approach growth opportunities not as transactions, but as part of helping the customer achieve even greater success.
Customer success initiatives often resemble project management. Think about onboarding a new enterprise client: there are timelines, milestones, tasks for different people, and outcomes to deliver. Strong organizational and project management skills help CSMs keep such efforts on track. This includes setting clear agendas for customer meetings, creating success plans with defined milestones, and coordinating internally to get things done (like pulling in a sales engineer for a technical session or ensuring the product team addresses a bug affecting your customer).
Hand in hand with project management comes collaboration. A popular saying is that customer success is a team sport. No CSM is an island; you succeed by working with Sales, Support, Product, Professional Services, Marketing, and others. For example, you might partner with Sales on a smooth handoff after the initial sale and again later when positioning an expansion. Or you work with Product by relaying customer feedback and following up on feature requests. CSMs who excel at cross-functional collaboration can rally internal resources to resolve customer issues and drive value. Collaboration is so important that it’s listed as a key skill in many CS job descriptions and was highlighted by CS leaders as absolutely necessary to be a successful CSM. Similarly, the rise of specialized roles like Customer Success Operations (with 61% of CS teams having a dedicated CS ops role) shows how much teamwork and coordination goes into effective customer success. To strengthen your collaboration skills, focus on clear communication internally, learn to “manage up” and sideways by keeping stakeholders informed, and be proactive in involving the right colleagues at the right time for the customer.
An in-demand skill that sometimes gets overlooked is the ability to map and manage the customer journey. Customer success is responsible for guiding customers through various stages of their lifecycle with your company – from onboarding and adoption to expansion and renewal (and hopefully advocacy). Being proficient at customer journey mapping means you can visualize and plan for those stages, ensuring no customer falls through the cracks. For instance, you’ll know exactly what the onboarding phase should involve, when to schedule business reviews during the adoption phase, how to identify timing for upsell pitches during the growth/expansion phase, and the signals of renewal readiness or risk as the contract end approaches.
Why is this skill valuable? When you map the journey, you’re essentially crafting a playbook for predictable success. It enables you to deliver the right interventions at the right time. It also forces you to collaborate with other departments at each stage – for example, working with Marketing on customer education content in early stages, or with Support during the adoption phase, or with Sales as renewal time nears. CSMs who master lifecycle management help ensure customers reach their desired outcomes and maximum lifetime value. They also provide a consistent experience so that customers aren’t feeling enthusiastic at onboarding but then neglected by the time year two comes around. On the flip side, those who neglect journey mapping will take a more haphazard approach to their accounts, will communicate poorly with other departments, and will likely lose data details in the fray. To develop this skill, study your organization’s customer lifecycle stages, document touchpoints and responsibilities, and always be thinking one step ahead for each customer’s journey.
Artificial Intelligence and automation have arrived in the realm of customer success, and savvy professionals are taking advantage. We’re seeing AI tools being used to scale customer outreach (think automated check-in emails or AI-driven health scores), and to surface insights (like predictive churn modeling). As a result, CSMs who are literate in AI – meaning they understand the capabilities and limitations of these tools – have a leg up. In 2024, about 70% of customer success teams report using some form of AI-powered tools in their daily operations. However, there’s still a gap at the individual level: another study found that over two-thirds of CS professionals hadn’t yet incorporated AI into their workflow, presenting a huge opportunity for those willing to learn.
What does AI and automation literacy look like in practice? It could mean knowing how to use your customer success platform’s automation features to trigger actions (e.g., send resources when usage drops). It might involve experimenting with chatbots or GPT-based tools to draft customer communications or analyze sentiment from call transcripts. It also includes staying informed about new CS tech trends; for instance, understanding how AI can help personalize the customer journey without removing the human touch. The goal isn’t to replace the personal relationships at the core of customer success, but to augment them. As one report notes, the power of AI is in freeing up CSMs’ time from routine tasks so they can focus on higher-value human interactions. By becoming the person on your team who knows how to leverage AI (or at least is open to it), you can help your team work smarter and demonstrate forward-thinking skills that employers value.
Finally, as you progress in your career, leadership skills become increasingly important – even if you’re not formally a manager yet. Leadership in customer success can mean mentoring newer CSMs, taking ownership of cross-team initiatives, or simply leading by example with a positive, solution-oriented attitude. It also means strategic thinking: seeing the bigger picture of how customer success efforts tie into company goals, and being able to communicate that upwards. For those aiming to move up to roles like Customer Success Director or VP, skills such as hiring and coaching a team, forecasting and goal-setting, and executive presentation abilities will be crucial.
Even at an individual contributor level, exhibiting “leadership” qualities can set you apart. This might include volunteering to pilot a new process, sharing best practices with the team, or developing expertise in an area and becoming the go-to person. A growth mindset underpins all this: the idea that you are always learning and improving. Continuous learning is so vital in this field that CSMs must practice it consistently to avoid any widening skills gap. You can cultivate your growth (and signal it to employers) by obtaining certifications or attending training workshops for customer success, by reading books and industry blogs, and by seeking feedback on your performance. And when you acquire new skills, don’t forget to showcase them: update your LinkedIn or resume with tangible achievements (e.g., “Led a cross-functional project that improved onboarding time by 20%”), or bring them up in performance reviews and interviews. The best customer success professionals pair skill mastery with the initiative to step up. This combination not only boosts their own careers but also elevates the teams and customers they work with.
The customer success field is changing rapidly, and staying informed on industry trends can help you focus your skill development in the right areas. One clear trend is the increasing revenue responsibility placed on CS teams. Customer success is now seen as critical to the health of SaaS organizations, with churn rate, net retention, and expansion revenue among the top metrics CS teams are accountable for. Yet there’s sometimes a lag in enablement: only 44% of CS teams reported being compensated for expansion work in 2024 (down from 57% in 2023), indicating many CSMs are expected to drive growth without a formal sales commission structure. This puts even more emphasis on intrinsic motivation and skill in revenue-driving activities.
Another major trend is the specialization of roles within customer success. As CS matures, we’re seeing the rise of distinct positions like Customer Onboarding Specialist, Customer Operations (CS Ops) Manager, and Customer Education Lead. For example, 61% of CS teams now have a dedicated CS operations role to optimize processes and analytics. This means that as a CS professional, you might choose to deepen certain skills for a specialized career path (e.g. focusing on process design and analytics if you’re interested in CS Ops, or honing training and communication expertise if customer education is your passion). Even within the CSM role, some organizations differentiate between “technical CSMs” and “strategic CSMs.” As noted earlier, one prediction for 2024 was that CSMs will either need to be deep technical experts managing complex implementations, or revenue-focused with expansion quotas. This implies that the jack-of-all-trades relationship manager may become less common. Being aware of this can help you tailor your skill set (and how you market yourself) to the type of CS role you want.
Industry surveys also highlight where skill gaps exist. In a 2024 survey of CSMs, respondents overwhelmingly enjoyed the consultative and problem-solving aspects of their job, but many felt they could be more effective with extra training in business skills including analytics, forecasting, metrics, strategy, and negotiation. In other words, while CSMs love working with customers, they recognize the need to get more fluent in the language of business value. This aligns with findings from the Customer Success Association’s research, where 78% of pros flagged data analysis as crucial and 65% pointed to AI/automation knowledge as increasingly important. For anyone planning their career development, those numbers are a big hint on where to invest time: if you strengthen your data and tech capabilities, you’re aligning with the direction the industry is headed.
On a positive note, companies are investing in customer success more than ever. Roughly 80% of companies planned to maintain or increase their CS budgets . This budget growth often translates into more resources for training, tools, and team expansion – which can benefit individual CSMs looking to grow. The customer success job market remains robust (with high demand globally and especially in growing tech regions), but it also means competition for top roles can be stiff. By aligning with these industry trends, such as becoming more revenue-aware, data-driven, technically adept, and even specialized, you position yourself as the kind of future-proof talent that companies are eager to hire and retain.
Knowing the skills you want to improve is one thing; actually developing and demonstrating them to employers is another. The good news is that there are plenty of ways to build your customer success skill set, whether on the job or through external resources. Here are some actionable strategies:
Remember to also align your skill development with business outcomes. Highlight skills like communication, problem-solving and tech savvy when job hunting, and back them up with real results. For example, instead of just saying “I have project management skills,” you could say “I led a cross-team project to revamp our onboarding, which reduced onboarding time by 20% and improved adoption rates.” This not only shows you have the skill but that you know how to apply it to benefit the business. By continuously developing yourself and deliberately showcasing your growth, you make it easy for hiring managers (or your current boss, if you’re angling for a promotion) to see the value you bring.
With your skills sharpened and ready to go, where should you look for that next career move? While traditional job boards and LinkedIn postings are abundant for customer success roles, it can help to target sources that cater specifically to the SaaS and customer success community. Here are some of the best places and strategies for finding your next CS opportunity:
When searching, tailor your approach to the types of roles you want. And once you find interesting roles, be sure to customize your application to highlight the in-demand skills we’ve covered. The job search process in customer success is much like the role itself; it’s about building relationships and demonstrating value. Use the same mindset of proactivity and communication, and you’ll increase your chances of landing that dream CS job.
The field of customer success is exciting and fast-evolving. As businesses continue to adopt customer-first models, the professionals who can consistently deliver value and foster customer growth will be in high demand. By focusing on developing the in-demand skills we’ve discussed – from deepening emotional intelligence and communication abilities to sharpening technical, analytical, and revenue-driving skills – you’re not only improving your current performance but also future-proofing your career. The most successful customer success professionals are those who never stop learning and who embrace the expanding scope of the role.
Remember, you don’t have to master everything overnight. Skill development is a journey, much like the customer journey you guide every day. Identify a few areas to start with, set goals (for instance, “Become proficient in our analytics tool by end of the quarter” or “Complete a storytelling workshop”), and make a plan. Leverage resources around you – mentors, courses, even your customers themselves – and take incremental steps to bolster your capabilities. As you grow these skills, you’ll notice the impact: maybe your renewal rates improve, or you get selected to lead a major project, or you land interviews for that next-level position.
Ultimately, investing in your customer success skill set is a win-win: your customers achieve more, and you advance your career. So take action: pick a skill, start learning, and step by step, take your CS career up to the next level. Your future self (and your future customers) will thank you for it.