Client Success Manager Vs Customer Success Manager. What’s the difference?

There has been chaos around the term “Customer” and “Client” for quite a long time. Could you discover the difference it after all makes? It’s some petty distinctions that make them different from one another. If that is clear, we are well aware of what this topic has to end with. So, what is the difference between a client success manager and a Customer Success Manager? Read further to know about ‘Client Success Manager vs Customer Success Manager’.

Customer: Is the one who purchases a product from the organization for an immediate requirement in exchange for a transaction of money from the available plans. This relationship is mainly focused on the number of transactions and can only serve as a one-time transaction or multiple transactions but for a limited time as the customer tends to lean on other businesses for the same requirements.

Client: Is the one who purchases products from the organization when he needs exchange for the transaction of money but personalized services. The relationship between the client and the business is more reliant on the loyalty that brings them back for the service whenever there is a need and hence it is a long-term relationship where there is no need for the client to rely on other businesses unless there is a conflict in the relationship. 

Let’s wrap this up with an illustration that is pretty clear to make sense of these concepts. An example of a painter is a fine one to discuss upon. When a buyer purchases the portrait sold by the painter in the stall out of his collections then the buyer is a customer. And if the buyer gets a personalized painting got done by the painter at the studio then the buyer is called a client. 

So clearly the purchases made has a distinction, firstly due to available vs personalized service. And secondly due to one-time transaction vs value offered. 

What is the difference between a client success manager and a customer success manager?

In a SaaS B2B firm, every subscriber is a customer and there can be clients as well who have been using the service ever since 10 years. To be clear, building relationships need not imply only for clients but as well for customers and hence we have roles like customer success managers to carry out the operations.

The ‘Client Success Manager vs Customer Success Manager’ debate has only one answer-NO! So to conclude, there is no difference in the role and responsibilities of client success managers and customer success managers, except for the fact that they handle customers and clients respectively for that matter. 

Average Salary of client success manager and customer success manager

Wrapping up!

In recent days the demand for customer success roles that includes various subdivisions is constantly growing in the SaaS industry. The firms that hadn’t set up a customer-centric approach in the firm, have begun to set it up and require these roles. Those who relied on customer support are shifting to customer success practices and need to hire customer success teams. The trajectory has begun to rise and would sooner come to peak like the demand for Data scientists these days. 

If driving success for the clients or customers matter to you, then what are you thinking about? Take the steps to start with a customer success career path now and propel.