Customer Service Manager – All You Need to Know about It

Are you thinking about a career change? Then maybe you should consider becoming a customer service manager. This is an in-demand position that carries a lot of responsibilities, but it can also be highly rewarding.

Before you quit your current job and start hunting for a new one, learn more about this position. Read on to find out what a customer service manager does, how much they’re paid, and how you can become one.

What Does a Customer Service Manager Do

Contrary to popular belief, there is more to being a customer service manager than just bossing people around. This position comes with a number of responsibilities, such as hiring and training customer service representatives, handling highly-valuable clients, and constantly looking for ways to improve business strategy.

Hiring, Training and Managing the Team

A customer service manager is responsible for a team of customer service representatives. This means that a manager should be involved in the hiring process. They also take care of the training of new recruits, continuous education of current employees, and making sure everyone is keeping up with their respective tasks. 

It is important to emphasize that managing the team includes more than just giving tasks to other people. It also includes making sure everyone has access to all the resources needed to do their job. A manager should be a person you feel comfortable turning to when facing an issue at work.

Nurturing Relationships with Important Clients

Although no business will freely admit it, some clients are more valuable than others. To ensure a long-lasting relationship with the most important ones, companies assign them to the most experienced person on the customer service team. More often than not, that person is the customer service manager. 

In other words, customer service managers in most companies still work directly with clients on top of their managerial tasks. This is also useful for establishing authority in the team. After all, no one likes having a superior who doesn’t know what doing the actual work looks like.

Developing and Updating Customer Service Strategies

Depending on the type of product or service a company offers, it can employ different customer service strategies. A good customer service manager will notice gaps in current strategies and find ways to fix them. They will also propose new approaches and teach them to the rest of the team.

Developing these strategies often includes cooperating with other departments in the company. Together, they plan on how to get better audience engagement and higher community engagement. These two factors have a direct impact on the quality of customer services.

How Much Does a Customer Service Manager Make

The salary of a customer service manager depends on a number of factors. These include:

• The company the customer service manager works for
• How long they’ve been working on that and other positions
• The location of the company
• The manager’s education, experience, and achievements.

As you can see, there is no direct answer to this question. Some of the highest customer service manager salaries, however, are in NYC, Dallas, Houston, and LA – between $60,000 and $66,000. If you live in a smaller town, you should expect to earn less, and if you got an offer from a large corporation, you can probably expect more.

For example, according to Glassdoor, a customer service manager in American Airlines makes around $58,000. By contrast, a customer success manager salary in Google can bring you over $100,000 depending on your experience and performance. While there are some differences between customer success and customer support, their salaries are usually similar.

How Do I Become a Customer Service Manager

Do the job description and the salary sound appealing? Then you’re probably wondering how you can become a customer service manager. Although the necessary requirements vary by company, there are some general rules you should keep in mind.

Necessary Skills

Being a customer service manager is a demanding job. You need to find the thin line between authority and authoritarianism, and you have to know how to deal with dissatisfied clients. In general, good communication skills are a must for customer service jobs.

Necessary Experience

No managerial position is an entry-level job. In other words, you will need at least some experience in customer care in order to become one. That is why most companies hire customer service managers internally.

Necessary Education

In general, there is no formal training for the customer service manager position specifically. University degrees in the field of business, communications, or similar are always welcome. However, experience and skills are much more valuable here than formal schooling.

Keep in mind that some companies will require very specific formal education. For example, an investment firm will probably want to hire someone with a background in finances, not a communications expert. This is especially true for companies that have high-stake clients and need to ensure the utmost quality of services.

Where to Look

The fact that companies usually hire managers internally means that finding ads to apply to might be a challenge. Don’t be surprised if you end up having to begin with an entry-level job, such as a customer service representative. If you’re good at what you do, you should be able to advance pretty quickly.

So what kind of companies need customer service managers? Simply put, all companies that have customers. If you are selling a product or service, your buyers should have someone to turn to if they have questions or concerns. 

Interviewing for a Managerial Position

As with any hiring process, once you’re invited to an interview, you will likely be asked a series of questions. Most of these will pertain directly to your responsibilities if you get hired:

• What qualities do you find most important when hiring new customer care representatives?
• Which customer service tools do you prefer/are you familiar with?
• What do you find the most challenging about working with customers?
• How would you address a customer care representative underperforming at work?

Other questions, however, will have more to do with your personality and social skills. For example:

• Provide an example of a situation when you performed well under stress.
• How would you handle a customer calling about a problem with X?
• A team member approaches you with a problem with X. How do you handle the situation?

In general, if you’re good at customer relations, you shouldn’t have a problem nailing the interview. You have only two things to prove: that you have the necessary skills and experience and that you can make up for what you lack by being a quick and eager learner.

Are you ready to change your career path and become a customer service manager? Then hone your communication skills, polish your resume, and begin browsing. We wish you the best of luck!