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Customer success career path, levels and ladder
Updated
5 levels, from Support Specialist to Head of Customer Success. Each one is rated on the same 38 skills — what changes between the rungs is how good you have to be at each. A remote-first SaaS ladder from support specialist to head of customer success: support, onboarding, retention and expansion.
- Level 1 of 5
Support Specialist job description
Resolves incoming support tickets to standard within a defined queue.
Read the job description - Level 2 of 5
Senior Support Specialist job description
Handles escalations and the toughest faults across the queue.
Read the job description - Level 3 of 5
Customer Success Manager job description
Owns a book of accounts through onboarding, health and QBRs.
Read the job description - Level 4 of 5
Team Lead, Customer Success job description
Coaches a pod and owns the accounts most at risk of churn.
Read the job description - Level 5 of 5
Head of Customer Success job description
Sets support and success strategy and owns retention company-wide.
Read the job description
Customer success levels and job titles
Customer success and support titles are not standard. This table maps each level on this ladder to the titles you will commonly see elsewhere. For how these titles line up across departments, see the job title hierarchy.
| Level on this ladder | Common job titles |
|---|---|
| Support Specialist | Support Specialist, Customer Support Specialist, Associate Customer Success Manager |
| Senior Support Specialist | Senior Support Specialist, Senior Customer Support Specialist |
| Customer Success Manager | Customer Success Manager, CSM, Senior Customer Success Manager |
| Team Lead, Customer Success | Customer Success Team Lead, Team Lead Customer Success, Staff Customer Success Manager |
| Head of Customer Success | Head of Customer Success, Director of Customer Success, VP of Customer Success |
Skills matrix
38 skills and 1 certification across 5 levels.
| Skill/Certification 39 | Support Specialist | Senior Support Specialist | Customer Success Manager | Team Lead, Customer Success | Head of Customer Success |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Support Operations9 | |||||
| BasicYou can triage a full queue unaided, spotting when a stated priority does not match the actual customer impact. | AdvancedYou can set the triage rules a team follows, catch tickets that are being mis-prioritized as a pattern, and retrain the process rather than fixing one ticket at a time. | AdvancedYou can set the triage rules a team follows, catch tickets that are being mis-prioritized as a pattern, and retrain the process rather than fixing one ticket at a time. | ExpertYou can set the triage and prioritization standard across the whole support organization, and decide when a new ticket type needs its own rule rather than a judgment call. | ExpertYou can set the triage and prioritization standard across the whole support organization, and decide when a new ticket type needs its own rule rather than a judgment call. | |
| BasicYou can diagnose a routine defect in the product you support after ruling out local configuration, and confirm with the customer that the fix worked. | AdvancedYou can lead diagnosis of the hardest recurring issues, decide when a workaround is acceptable versus when a fix must be forced through, and coach others through a first difficult diagnosis. | AdvancedYou can lead diagnosis of the hardest recurring issues, decide when a workaround is acceptable versus when a fix must be forced through, and coach others through a first difficult diagnosis. | AdvancedYou can lead diagnosis of the hardest recurring issues, decide when a workaround is acceptable versus when a fix must be forced through, and coach others through a first difficult diagnosis. | AdvancedYou can lead diagnosis of the hardest recurring issues, decide when a workaround is acceptable versus when a fix must be forced through, and coach others through a first difficult diagnosis. | |
| NoviceYou can check ticket ages against the posted SLA on your own queue and flag one that is at risk before it breaches. | ProficientYou can monitor SLA performance across a shared queue, redistribute tickets before they breach, and report a near-miss honestly rather than after the fact. | AdvancedYou can set SLA targets that a team can deliver, and change shift schedules, capacity or process when a queue keeps missing them. | ExpertYou can set SLA policy for the support organization and negotiate it with customers and leadership, balancing cost against the commitment being made. | ExpertYou can set SLA policy for the support organization and negotiate it with customers and leadership, balancing cost against the commitment being made. | |
| NoviceYou can recognize when a ticket is beyond your authority or skill and escalate it with the context the next person will need. | ProficientYou can own an escalated ticket end to end across several teams, chase it without being asked, and stop it being silently dropped between owners. | AdvancedYou can run the escalation process for a team, decide when a ticket needs executive visibility, and fix the handoffs that keep losing context. | ExpertYou can set the escalation policy for the support organization, including when a customer is told the plain truth about an unresolved issue rather than given a placeholder update. | ExpertYou can set the escalation policy for the support organization, including when a customer is told the plain truth about an unresolved issue rather than given a placeholder update. | |
| BasicYou can reproduce a straightforward defect directly, note the exact steps and environment, and file it without a follow-up question from engineering. | AdvancedYou can lead reproduction of defects that several engineers have already failed to pin down, and improve the reporting template from what kept going missing. | AdvancedYou can lead reproduction of defects that several engineers have already failed to pin down, and improve the reporting template from what kept going missing. | AdvancedYou can lead reproduction of defects that several engineers have already failed to pin down, and improve the reporting template from what kept going missing. | AdvancedYou can lead reproduction of defects that several engineers have already failed to pin down, and improve the reporting template from what kept going missing. | |
| BasicYou can work confidently across the main support channels a team uses, and switch a case to a better-suited channel when the current one is not working. | AdvancedYou can set channel strategy for a team, deciding what belongs on chat versus a call versus a ticket, and coach others whose channel switching is costing time. | AdvancedYou can set channel strategy for a team, deciding what belongs on chat versus a call versus a ticket, and coach others whose channel switching is costing time. | AdvancedYou can set channel strategy for a team, deciding what belongs on chat versus a call versus a ticket, and coach others whose channel switching is costing time. | AdvancedYou can set channel strategy for a team, deciding what belongs on chat versus a call versus a ticket, and coach others whose channel switching is costing time. | |
| NoviceYou can post a prepared incident update to affected customers when someone gives you the wording and the send instruction. | BasicYou can draft an accurate update from raw engineering notes, and send it to the affected customers on the channel they use. | AdvancedYou can manage communication across several simultaneous or major incidents, and decide when a customer needs a call rather than another email. | ExpertYou can set the incident communication standard for the organization, including what triggers proactive outreach and what a post-incident letter must contain. | ExpertYou can set the incident communication standard for the organization, including what triggers proactive outreach and what a post-incident letter must contain. | |
| NoviceYou can record an unhappy customer's complaint accurately and pass it to the named escalation owner within the agreed response time, without promising a fix you cannot confirm. | BasicYou can own a routine complaint end to end, agree who does what internally, and tell the customer what will happen and when. | ProficientYou can bring support, delivery and product together for a seriously angry customer, then close the loop once the fix lands, including any credit or refund within your authority. | AdvancedYou can handle escalations that reach executives or put the contract at risk, and decide which remedy, such as a fix or a credit, the organization offers. | ExpertYou can set how escalations are triaged, owned and reviewed across the organization, and make sure root causes reach the teams that can remove them. | |
| NoviceYou can check your own closed tickets against the team's quality rubric, and note where you missed a step. | ProficientYou can score a sample of a team's tickets against the rubric, and coach agents one to one on the gaps you find. | AdvancedYou can calibrate scoring between reviewers so agents are judged on one standard, and run interviews and hiring decisions for your support team. | ExpertYou can set the quality standard and coaching model for the support organization, and decide the hiring profile and performance standard for its support roles. | ExpertYou can set the quality standard and coaching model for the support organization, and decide the hiring profile and performance standard for its support roles. | |
| Onboarding5 | |||||
| NoviceYou can follow an existing implementation plan and keep the task list and dates current for one customer, while a senior colleague owns the plan and the customer relationship. | BasicYou can draft the implementation plan for a straightforward customer, naming the steps, owners and dates, and you have it reviewed before it goes to the customer. | AdvancedYou can plan implementations that span several customer teams, competing deadlines or unsettled scope, and name the risks early enough for someone to act on them. | ExpertYou can decide how implementations are planned across the organization, including templates, staffing model and escalation point, and extend that approach to partner and services teams. | ExpertYou can decide how implementations are planned across the organization, including templates, staffing model and escalation point, and extend that approach to partner and services teams. | |
| NoviceYou can deliver a prepared training session to a small customer group, answering the questions the material covers while a colleague takes the rest. | BasicYou can run standard training for a customer team with examples from their own setup, updating out-of-date materials and asking before changing the structure. | AdvancedYou can enable a large or skeptical audience, including sessions where the product falls short of what the room hoped for, and coach other trainers to improve their sessions. | AdvancedYou can enable a large or skeptical audience, including sessions where the product falls short of what the room hoped for, and coach other trainers to improve their sessions. | ExpertYou can set the enablement approach for the organization, deciding what is taught live, what becomes self-serve and what is retired, and show the effect on customer adoption. | |
| NoviceYou can write a help article for a simple task from the existing style guide and correct reported errors in articles others wrote, with an editor reviewing before publication. | ProficientYou can decide what help content an area needs, write it, and check against ticket volume whether it actually stopped the questions it was meant to stop. | AdvancedYou can restructure a failing help center section, settling disputes over voice, depth and topic placement, and edit other writers' articles to raise their quality. | AdvancedYou can restructure a failing help center section, settling disputes over voice, depth and topic placement, and edit other writers' articles to raise their quality. | AdvancedYou can restructure a failing help center section, settling disputes over voice, depth and topic placement, and edit other writers' articles to raise their quality. | |
| NoviceYou can keep a customer's milestone tracker up to date and say which steps are done, raising anything that looks late instead of judging its impact yourself. | BasicYou can track several customers against their onboarding milestones, chase the owners of late steps, and give an accurate status without being asked twice. | AdvancedYou can find the pattern behind slippage that repeats across accounts and fix its cause, and call an onboarding at risk before the tracker shows it. | AdvancedYou can find the pattern behind slippage that repeats across accounts and fix its cause, and call an onboarding at risk before the tracker shows it. | AdvancedYou can find the pattern behind slippage that repeats across accounts and fix its cause, and call an onboarding at risk before the tracker shows it. | |
| NoviceYou can carry out the steps that get a customer to a first useful outcome, and flag what slowed them for a senior colleague to act on. | NoviceYou can carry out the steps that get a customer to a first useful outcome, and flag what slowed them for a senior colleague to act on. | ProficientYou can work out what first value means for a specific customer, cut the steps that do not lead to it, and show the time saved against a comparable account. | AdvancedYou can shorten time to value for a whole customer segment by redesigning the path rather than pushing individual accounts, and you make the case with evidence people accept. | ExpertYou can set the time-to-value target the organization works to, and get product, sales and support to change the parts of the path they own. | |
| Account Growth6 | |||||
| NoviceYou can look up the existing health score for an account and explain in plain terms what its main inputs are. | NoviceYou can look up the existing health score for an account and explain in plain terms what its main inputs are. | ProficientYou can interpret a health score alongside the story behind it, catching cases where the number and the reality have drifted apart, and act on the gap. | AdvancedYou can adjust which inputs and weights a health score uses when it stops predicting outcomes, and defend the change with evidence. | ExpertYou can own the health-scoring model for the whole customer base, deciding what it measures, and replace it when it stops predicting customer outcomes. | |
| NoviceYou can pull a standard usage report for an account and describe what it shows, while a senior colleague says which numbers mean the customer is getting value. | BasicYou can compare an account's usage with a benchmark from a similar customer, and point out which features go unused. | ProficientYou can read the usage data for your accounts and say, with reasons, whether a customer is realizing value, then act on what you find rather than only reporting it. | AdvancedYou can tell a real adoption problem from a data artifact, and explain to a customer executive what their own numbers mean. | ExpertYou can decide which adoption measures the organization relies on, and get product to instrument the data that is missing. | |
| NoviceYou can prepare the standard slides and data for a review from a template, and attend to take notes. | NoviceYou can prepare the standard slides and data for a review from a template, and attend to take notes. | ProficientYou can run a review for a complex or strained account, adapting the agenda to what actually needs to be heard, and steer it away from becoming a status readout. | AdvancedYou can coach others to run stronger reviews, and personally run the reviews where the relationship is most at risk. | ExpertYou can set the review standard and cadence for the whole customer base, and decide which accounts need a different format altogether. | |
| NoviceYou can gather the goals, owners and dates a success plan needs and write them up in the agreed format, while a senior colleague runs the conversation with the customer. | NoviceYou can gather the goals, owners and dates a success plan needs and write them up in the agreed format, while a senior colleague runs the conversation with the customer. | ProficientYou can agree a success plan directly with a customer that ties what they do in the product to a business outcome they care about, and you hold both sides to what was agreed. | AdvancedYou can build a plan for an account with conflicting stakeholders or an unstated goal, and get customer executives to commit to it in writing. | ExpertYou can set how success plans are built and reviewed across the organization, including what makes a plan worth keeping, and you get sales and product planning against the same customer outcomes. | |
| NoviceYou can name the standard churn warning signs for the product, and gather the usage, support and sentiment facts a renewal review needs in the agreed format. | BasicYou can spot churn signals on your own accounts from routine monitoring, and assess a straightforward account against the renewal checklist, raising any risk before anyone asks. | ProficientYou can read weak or conflicting signals across a portfolio, rank the at-risk accounts with evidence, and start work on each risk months before the renewal date. | AdvancedYou can build the watchlist a team uses to catch churn risk early, and call the renewal where signals conflict, such as strong usage under an unhappy sponsor. | ExpertYou can set how churn risk is assessed and renewals are forecast across the customer base, and decide which risks are worth intervening on versus accepting. | |
| NoviceYou can log the growth signals you notice in an account and pass them to the named owner, while a senior colleague decides which to act on. | NoviceYou can log the growth signals you notice in an account and pass them to the named owner, while a senior colleague decides which to act on. | ProficientYou can separate real expansion opportunities from noise and hand them to sales when the customer is ready, following up until each has an owner. | AdvancedYou can find growth in accounts where the signal is not in the usage data, such as a new team forming or a sponsor changing, and shape the case before sales picks it up. | AdvancedYou can find growth in accounts where the signal is not in the usage data, such as a new team forming or a sponsor changing, and shape the case before sales picks it up. | |
| Customer Voice4 | |||||
| BasicYou can route feedback to the product owner responsible for that area with the use case, affected accounts and any workaround, and tell the customer what happened to it. | ProficientYou can turn scattered requests into one problem statement backed by evidence, and push back on the solution a customer asks for to reach the need underneath. | ProficientYou can turn scattered requests into one problem statement backed by evidence, and push back on the solution a customer asks for to reach the need underneath. | AdvancedYou can weigh feedback across the customer base so product hears the pattern rather than the loudest account, and you say no inside your own team with a reason people accept. | AdvancedYou can weigh feedback across the customer base so product hears the pattern rather than the loudest account, and you say no inside your own team with a reason people accept. | |
| NoviceYou can keep the reference list current and prepare the material for an advocacy conversation someone else leads, flagging customers who look happy enough to be asked. | NoviceYou can keep the reference list current and prepare the material for an advocacy conversation someone else leads, flagging customers who look happy enough to be asked. | ProficientYou can judge which customers make credible advocates and ask when they have just seen a result, landing a reference or case study on your own. | AdvancedYou can build advocacy out of accounts that were difficult, including customers who once escalated, and you coach colleagues on making the ask without straining the relationship. | ExpertYou can decide how advocacy is run across the organization, what it asks of customers and what they get back, and you get marketing and sales working to the same approach. | |
| NoviceYou can answer questions in the customer community using approved material and pass the harder ones on, with a colleague reviewing your posts before they go up. | BasicYou can post and reply in the community on your own, run a user group session from an agreed agenda, and bring the themes you hear back to the team. | ProficientYou can grow participation in a community space you own, get customers answering each other instead of waiting for staff, and handle a difficult thread in public. | AdvancedYou can revive a community that has gone quiet, or hold one together through a launch that upsets people, and you develop the customer moderators who keep it running. | AdvancedYou can revive a community that has gone quiet, or hold one together through a launch that upsets people, and you develop the customer moderators who keep it running. | |
| NoviceYou can send the standard satisfaction survey to the customers on your list, and report the response rate and scores in the agreed format. | BasicYou can read the scores and comments for your own accounts, and follow up with customers who gave a low score or a negative comment. | ProficientYou can find the cause of a satisfaction drop by combining survey scores, ticket data and account notes, and agree a fix with the owning team. | AdvancedYou can design survey questions and timing for a customer segment, and check whether changes made after feedback improved later scores. | ExpertYou can set which satisfaction measures the organization reports and how teams act on them, and bring the results into support and product planning. | |
| Certifications1 | |||||
| Not required | Required | Required | Required | Required | |
| Delivery4 | |||||
| NoviceYou can keep your own tasks and deadlines in a current to-do list, and tell your manager as soon as work you own will be late. | BasicYou can organize a small piece of work into steps, put them in a sensible order, and finish it by the date you agreed, raising problems before they cause a delay. | ProficientYou can coordinate a small team's work on a shared goal: who does what by when, what has to wait for what, and a revised plan when things change. | AdvancedYou can keep several people's work in step across teams, agree priorities and hand-offs with them, and keep one shared task list that all of them actually use. | ExpertYou can set the everyday habits for how work is organized and followed up across the organization, and teams you do not lead adopt the routines you introduce. | |
| NoviceYou can estimate how long a task will take once the approach is clear, and you say promptly when the estimate turns out to be wrong. | BasicYou can estimate your own work with reasonable accuracy and keep a steady enough pace that other people can plan around you. | ProficientYou can estimate a whole project including its risks and unknowns, split it into stages, and defend the estimate when it is challenged. | AdvancedYou can estimate work that spans several teams, name the assumptions behind each figure, and rework the plan when those assumptions break. | ExpertYou can forecast work and staffing quarters ahead, and set the estimating method other teams use. | |
| BasicYou can stay responsible after you hand work over: you check it did what it was meant to, fix your own mistakes, and give updates before anyone asks. | ProficientYou can pick up a problem that has no obvious owner and make yourself accountable for it, including the parts nobody enjoys. | AdvancedYou can hold accountability for outcomes delivered mostly by other people, taking the blame when it fails and passing on the credit when it works. | AdvancedYou can hold accountability for outcomes delivered mostly by other people, taking the blame when it fails and passing on the credit when it works. | ExpertYou can report the organization's most exposed outcomes to its leaders as they stand, including bad news, and answer for them. | |
| BasicYou can choose checks that suit the task in front of you, catch your own mistakes before anyone else sees them, and confirm the result works once people start using it. | ProficientYou can define what good enough means for a project, put checks in place to show it has been met, and hold work back when it falls short. | AdvancedYou can set how quality is checked on complex work shared by several teams, and you spot the problems that only appear where their pieces meet. | AdvancedYou can set how quality is checked on complex work shared by several teams, and you spot the problems that only appear where their pieces meet. | ExpertYou can raise the quality bar across the organization by building the tools and habits that make the careful way the easy way. | |
| Craft3 | |||||
| BasicYou can work out what is wrong in work you did not create, and you fix the underlying cause instead of working around the symptom. | ProficientYou can break a large, ambiguous problem into pieces and weigh the options for each against the evidence. | AdvancedYou can make the call on a problem outside your expertise and explain its cost, time and risk. | AdvancedYou can make the call on a problem outside your expertise and explain its cost, time and risk. | ExpertYou can crack problems the organization has repeatedly failed to solve, and your approach becomes how others tackle that whole kind of problem. | |
| NoviceYou can apply the basics of your field to the work you are given, and ask an expert when a task goes beyond what you have learned. | BasicYou can work confidently with the tools and methods your team uses daily, and you can explain how your work serves the team's goals. | ProficientYou can advise the team on your area and apply new developments in the field where they pay off. | AdvancedYou can bring in good practice from outside the organization and make it work here, and your judgment clearly improves the work you touch. | ExpertYou can influence how the field is practiced beyond this organization, and your expertise settles questions that have stood open for years. | |
| ProficientYou can pick up an unfamiliar area fast enough to be useful in it, and you turn what you learned into something others can reuse. | ProficientYou can pick up an unfamiliar area fast enough to be useful in it, and you turn what you learned into something others can reuse. | AdvancedYou can judge which new ideas are worth the team's time and which are not, and you make room for the people around you to learn too. | AdvancedYou can judge which new ideas are worth the team's time and which are not, and you make room for the people around you to learn too. | ExpertYou can set what the organization invests its learning time in, and the material and practice you create outlive your involvement. | |
| Communication4 | |||||
| BasicYou can explain your work so your team can act on it, and play a request back in your own words before you act on it. | ProficientYou can explain a complex topic to people with very different backgrounds, adjusting the detail to the audience without talking down to them. | AdvancedYou can bring disagreeing groups to agreement on the facts and the next steps, and help colleagues frame a difficult or sensitive message. | AdvancedYou can bring disagreeing groups to agreement on the facts and the next steps, and help colleagues frame a difficult or sensitive message. | ExpertYou can set how the organization communicates by creating the forums and norms that teams use to share information. | |
| BasicYou can work well with people in other roles, share context and credit, and take criticism of your work without defending territory. | ProficientYou can build working relationships beyond your own team and get things done through people who do not report to you. | AdvancedYou can align teams with competing priorities on a common goal, surfacing the conflict early instead of letting it harden into resentment. | AdvancedYou can align teams with competing priorities on a common goal, surfacing the conflict early instead of letting it harden into resentment. | ExpertYou can remove the barriers that stop teams working together by putting in place routines and forums they use across the organization. | |
| BasicYou can document your own work well enough for a colleague to follow it unaided, such as a how-to guide or a handover, and keep it current as things change. | ProficientYou can write for a defined audience, whether a proposal, a policy, a report, or a decision record, and make the reasoning as clear as the conclusion. | AdvancedYou can own the documents behind a large piece of work, coordinating contributions so that people who were not involved can carry it on. | AdvancedYou can own the documents behind a large piece of work, coordinating contributions so that people who were not involved can carry it on. | ExpertYou can set the writing standard the organization works to, and documents you wrote are still in use long after you have moved on. | |
| NoviceYou can keep your manager and immediate team informed of your progress, and you raise an issue before someone else discovers it. | BasicYou can identify who is affected by your work and keep them updated at a level of detail and a frequency that suits them. | ProficientYou can win support for a proposal, reset expectations when the plan changes, and turn down a request with a reason the other side accepts. | AdvancedYou can hold senior and external relationships, negotiate between competing demands, and deliver unwelcome news without losing trust. | ExpertYou can represent the organization in its most important relationships and set how it engages with everyone who depends on it. | |
| Leadership3 | |||||
| NoviceYou can act on direction well, seek feedback on how you work, and be open about what you need help with. | BasicYou can spot a problem and propose a way forward unprompted, and you take a small leading role such as running a working group. | ProficientYou can lead one piece of work shared by several people, on your own team and beyond, and make calls that they act on. | AdvancedYou can lead across team boundaries, build the credibility that makes people follow you by choice, and create room for others to lead. | ExpertYou can set direction for the whole organization, make hard calls under real uncertainty, and carry the decisions nobody else wants to own. | |
| NoviceYou can share what you have just learned with your peers and help a newer colleague find their way around. | BasicYou can help someone new settle into your team's work, answer their questions patiently, and give feedback specific enough to act on. | ProficientYou can mentor someone over months, tell them the uncomfortable thing they need to hear, and adapt how you teach to how they learn. | AdvancedYou can develop other mentors, coach people through career decisions rather than tasks, and lift the capability of a whole team. | ExpertYou can shape how the organization grows its people, and those you developed are themselves named by others as strong in their field. | |
| NoviceYou can explain why the work you were given matters and who it is for. | BasicYou can connect your team's work to its goals and question a task that does not appear to serve them. | ProficientYou can look a year ahead in your area, name what will matter by then, and turn that into work people can pick up now. | AdvancedYou can set direction for an area, choose deliberately what not to do, and defend that choice when it is challenged. | ExpertYou can shape the organization's strategy, and the bets you argued for are visible in where it ended up. | |
Use this ladder with your own team
For managers and HR teams: create a free account, then add customer success from Departments → Add from template in one click: all 38 skills, with the mastery expected at each of your 5 career levels.