Shadowing Practice: Customer Success Manager career path, skills, and responsibilities - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Want to know what a customer success manager is?
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I'm Brian Rios from Wall & Case, and in this video, you will learn everything you need to know about being a customer success manager in SaaS and IT.
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What it is, what they do, and the skills you need to land a job as a CSM.
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As a bonus, I'm gonna answer some frequently asked questions that we get about customer success.
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So what is a customer success manager?
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Being a customer success manager, as the name suggests, means making sure that your customers are finding success using your product or service.
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This could be guiding them through the onboarding process or implementation, showing them features that they aren't fully using or aren't using at all,
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and coaching them on how they can improve their business even more by using your product.
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You'll constantly be meeting your clients, going over their results, and showing them how to be even more successful using your solution.
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Vendor lock -in.
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This is one of the key parts of being a customer success manager.
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You want to make sure your clients are so successful using your product that you create vendor lock -in, which is a scary way of saying
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that they feel they would be losing too much if they ever tried to stop using your solution.
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So what are a CSM's targets and KPI?
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Your goal as a customer success manager will be to maintain and grow the customer's satisfaction.
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This can be measured in your NPS, Net Promoter Score, through customer satisfaction surveys or churn rate.
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Churn is the term for customers leaving your product or service instead of renewing.
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So your churn rate is just the rate that your customers are leaving.
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Sales targets.
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Most CSMs don't have direct sales targets, but they do have upsell or cross -sell KPI, which means you will sell additional features, services, or upgrades to your clients.
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You'll also have renewal targets, so keeping your customers successful means keeping them relying on your product, which in turn means that they will renew their contract or subscription.
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So what skills do you need to be a CSM?
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A customer success manager has two sides.
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A technical side, which requires hard skills, and a client -facing side, which needs soft skills.
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Hard skills.
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Your technical skills needed will vary depending on the type of product you are working with.
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Most companies will offer training on their specific solution after you join, but having a base to build on is always a really good idea.
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Soft skills.
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Because a CSM is a very client -facing role, you will need to not only be able to read data,
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but also communicate your findings with your clients to help them understand what is working and what is not working.
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The best CSMs even anticipate the problems that might come up and solve them before they become an issue.
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Some of the key soft skills you're going to need are active listening, communication, coaching, and presentation skills.
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Does this sound exciting to you?
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Message us using the link in the description to learn what customer success positions are open right now.
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Career progression.
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Being a customer success manager gives you skills on both the technical side and the client -facing side.
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So there are a few directions you can go.
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The first and most straightforward is to become a leader of a customer success team.
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This would be titles like customer success director, head of customer success, or the more recent executive position of chief customer officer.
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Another option would be to move towards the technical side of things
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and become a solutions architect or solutions engineer or something similar that takes customer needs and productizes them.
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Productize means creating custom solutions based on your client requests.
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You could also move towards a more sales heavy role that is growth focused, using your soft skills to build a business
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and your understanding of the technical side to better illustrate the benefits of a product.
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Alternative titles.
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Customer success can have different titles depending on the company.
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These include technical account manager, client services manager, client success manager, client solutions manager, or a solutions consultant, just to name a few.
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Frequently asked questions.
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What is the difference between customer success and customer service?
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I like to think of the difference as being proactive versus being reactive.
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As a customer success manager, you will need to be engaging with your customers on a
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daily basis to make sure they're reaping the full benefits of your solution and solving problems before they even happen.
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Customer service, on the other hand, is more about responding to the issues that your customers are already experiencing
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and taking care of any complaints that they may have.
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So what is the difference between a CSM and an account manager?
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Here, the main difference is the technical aspects of the role.
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As a customer success manager, you'll be more involved in the implementation of the product
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and there's an expectation that you have the ability to dive deeper into the solutions that the product offers.
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Whereas an account manager will also handle the reporting, but it will generally be through available dashboards.
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Another difference is that the account manager can be a sales role with sales targets based on sales results, but customer success will usually not have a commission structure or a bonus.
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Check out our account manager video to learn even more about being an account manager in SaaS and IT.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 61 sentences and 924 words to shadow. The speech runs for 4:49. The speaker talks fast, about 192 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 87% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| skill noun | /skɪl/ | A capacity to do something well; a technique, an ability, usually acquired or learned, as opposed to abilities that are regarded as innate. |
| bonus noun | /ˈbəʊ.nəs/ | Something extra that is good; an added benefit. |
| solve verb | /sɒlv/ | To find an answer or solution to a problem or question; to work out. |
| implementation noun | /ˌɪmplɪmənˈteɪʃən/ | The process of moving an idea from concept to reality. In business, engineering and other fields, implementation refers to the building process rather than the… |
| depend verb | /dɪˈpɛnd/ | To be contingent or conditioned; to have something as a necessary condition |
| satisfaction noun | /sætɪsˈfækʃən/ | A fulfilment of a need or desire. |
| vendor noun | /ˈvɛn.dɚ/ | A person or a company that vends or sells. |
| renew verb | /ɹɪˈnjuː/ | To make (something) new again; to restore to freshness or original condition. |
| custom noun | /ˈkʌstəm/ | Frequent repetition of the same behavior; way of behavior common to many; ordinary manner; habitual practice; method of doing, living or behaving. |
| aspect noun | /ˈæspɛkt/ | Any specific feature, part, or element of something. |
| whereas | /(h)wɛɹˈæz/ | In contrast; whilst on the contrary; although. |
| scary adjective | /ˈskɛə.ɹi/ | Causing fear or anxiety |
| engage verb | /ɪnˈɡeɪd͡ʒ/ | To engross or hold the attention of; to keep busy or occupied. |
| complaint noun | /kəmˈpleɪnt/ | The act of complaining. |
| versus | /ˈvɝsəs/ | Against; in opposition to. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| check out verb | To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.). |
| come up verb | To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly. |
| going over noun | An inspection, examination, review, or investigation. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 11 contractions and reduced forms, such as you'll, aren't, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: implementation /ˌɪmplɪmənˈteɪʃən/, satisfaction /sætɪsˈfækʃən/, presentation /ˌpɹɛzn̩ˈteɪʃn̩/, subscription /səbˈskɹɪpʃən/, expectation /ˌɛk.spɛkˈteɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: implementation /ˌɪmplɪmənˈteɪʃən/, satisfaction /sætɪsˈfækʃən/, communicate /kəˈmjuːnɪkeɪt/, expectation /ˌɛk.spɛkˈteɪ.ʃən/, anticipate /ænˈtɪs.ɪ.peɪt/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like skill, bonus, solve.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.