Principal Customer Success Manager

Job Description

The Principal Customer Success Manager is a dynamic customer advisory role responsible for getting customers to business outcomes as fast as possible using our cutting-edge Zendesk solutions.  It is an exciting customer facing role that puts you at the forefront of applying cutting edge customer and employee service platforms and advanced AI to enable our customers to empower, service and accelerate their end customers’ businesses.

The overarching objective of the CSM is to ensure Zendesk customers realize business value and outcomes from their investment in Zendesk.  This role will work across a customer’s organization, from a CXO-level down to senior customer experience leaders and to the administrators running Zendesk solutions.  When our customers realize value and succeed, Zendesk succeeds – and the CSM is a key enabler of our customers’ success and Zendesk’s company growth aspirations. 

To achieve these goals, the mission of the CSM team will be to:

• Deliver outcome-driven engagement throughout the customer’s journey using Zendesk solutions – from onboarding, to success planning, through product adoption and value realization

• Remove obstacles to product adoption and raise the bar for the overall Zendesk customer experience throughout the customer journey

• Be the change agent force that continuously advocates for and on behalf of the customer, providing actionable, customer-driven feedback to the Zendesk ecosystem

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES

• Overarching objectives of the role include the following:

  • Proactive customer health management through intentional, outcome-driven customer engagement

  • Product adoption acceleration and customer value realization

  • Cultivating, strengthening, and accelerating growth of Zendesk customer relationships

• To deliver on those three overarching objectives, CSMs will collaborate closely with Zendesk customers and colleagues on the following:

  • Delivering a world-class customer experience anchored on getting our Zendesk customers to value as quickly as possible — from onboarding, to success planning, to adoption roadmaps, to recurring outcome-driven engagement, to customer value and outcome realization.

  • Driving, enabling and removing obstacles to adoption of Zendesk’s product suite, providing prescriptive best practices, resources, expertise and continuously linking customer adoption to quantified/qualified customer value & business outcomes.

  • Tirelessly advocating for the Zendesk customer across the ecosystem, including bringing prioritized & data-driven customer feedback and insight back into the Zendesk product development team

  • Delivering a heightened customer experience through proactive engagement and communication with the customer, both written and verbal.

  • Forging tight relationships with the rest of the Zendesk customer account team — including sales, customer support, professional services, renewals, and marketing.

  • Develop strong relationships with customer leaders at all levels of an organization – from CIO and business leaders to IT experts, professionals and architects

• In addition to core customer-facing responsibilities above, CSMs must also be able to:

  • Understand all aspects of overall customer health and know how to proactively manage health – taking into factors such as success plan status, relationship strength, product adoption/usage/currency, level of engagement, NPS and customer experience-metrics

  • Ability to learn and understand new software solutions in the customer experience space. Previous experience in the customer experience space ideal.

  • Track all engagement and touchpoints with accounts and provide continuous, unbiased intelligence on the status of customer’s overall health.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Must have a minimum of 12+ years of related experience in Customer Success / Experience

• Previous experience in customer success roles in enterprise technology / SaaS — either customer success management, professional services/consulting or technical account management.

• Track record of learning new technology/software solutions and linking software solutions to common customer use cases, product adoption maturity/frameworks, and, ultimately, business value and outcomes for customers.

• Proven ability to multi-task and perform program/project management activities to ensure multiple customers are progressing against success plans and outcomes.

• Strong interpersonal skills, with the ability to influence at multiple levels (e.g., CXO  to Director to Administrator) across the customer’s organization and across multiple functions (e.g., Sales, Professional Services, Customer Support, Product Management and Engineering) within Zendesk.

• Bachelor degree in computer science, information sciences & technology, engineering or business.

• Financial acumen and the ability to do foundational quantitative analysis and forecasting.

• Previous experience leveraging leading customer success tools (e.g., Gainsight, etc.) as an integral part of a daily routine engaging with your customers. 

The US annualized OTE (On Target Earnings) range for this position is $170,000.00-$256,000.00 with a pay mix of 70/30 (base/commission). This position may also be eligible for bonus, benefits, or related incentives. While this range reflects the minimum and maximum value for new hire salaries for the position across all US locations, the offer for the successful candidate for this position will be based on job related capabilities, applicable experience, and other factors such as work location. Please note that the compensation details listed in US role postings reflect the base salary only (or OTE for commissions based roles), and do not include bonus, benefits, or related incentives.

The intelligent heart of customer experience

Zendesk software was built to bring a sense of calm to the chaotic world of customer service. Today we power billions of conversations with brands you know and love.

Zendesk believes in offering our people a fulfilling and inclusive experience. Our hybrid way of working, enables us to purposefully come together in person, at one of our many Zendesk offices around the world, to connect, collaborate and learn whilst also giving our people the flexibility to work remotely for part of the week.

Zendesk is an equal opportunity employer, and we’re proud of our ongoing efforts to foster global diversity, equity, & inclusion in the workplace. Individuals seeking employment and employees at Zendesk are considered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, medical condition, ancestry, disability, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. We are an AA/EEO/Veterans/Disabled employer. If you are based in the United States and would like more information about your EEO rights under the law, please click here.

Zendesk endeavors to make reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities and disabled veterans pursuant to applicable federal and state law. If you are an individual with a disability and require a reasonable accommodation to submit this application, complete any pre-employment testing, or otherwise participate in the employee selection process, please send an e-mail to [email protected] with your specific accommodation request.