A day in the life of a Customer Success Manager at Xref

A Customer Success team is integral to the success of businesses across various industries. 

A key part of being a Customer Success Manager (CSM) is building long-term relationships with customers and catering to their unique needs and goals. Think of a CSM as a mentor to customers throughout the entire customer journey. Building a successful customer success team boosts existing customer engagement and satisfaction, expands customer accounts, solves issues, and increases customer retention.

What does a Customer Success Manager do?

The Customer Success team at Xref is responsible for setting up new customers in our platform, taking them through an onboarding process, coordinating training, offering ongoing support, and driving product usage and engagement.

At Xref, CSMs look after accounts across the entire user journey. We have dedicated CSMs for each account. CSMs at Xref look after our users. Once the decision by an organisation has been made to use Xref, an Xref CSM will support those users as they learn the basics, staying with them as their organisational needs grow and change. 

Customer Success Managers provide new customers with tailored consultations and product set-ups and work closely with customers to help them get the most from our services. For example, CSMs at Xref would advise customers about a new feature we’re releasing and how it can benefit their organisation.

Our Customer Success Managers are vital to retaining customers and enhancing customer experience as they are able to build strong connections with them by providing examples of the ways other businesses within their industry have seen success with Xref.

A day in the life of a Customer Success Manager at Xref

To learn more about how our Customer Success Managers spend a typical working day, we asked Amanda Chu, Customer Success Manager based in Sydney, Australia, about her daily projects and tasks. 

Amanda has been at Xref since February 2022 and is a valued Customer Success team member. She works with customers across a variety of sectors and sizes, predominantly Talent Acquisition and Organisational Development Teams in mid-market businesses. 

Amanda is a full-time working mum but Xref’s flexibility allows her to strike a good work/life balance. Our hybrid working model means Amanda can work from home on days that suit her and her family, and go into the office on other days where she can bond with her team.

Attending meetings is a key part of Amanda’s role as a Customer Success Manager. It is her job to maintain positive relationships with customers and go the extra mile to ensure they are getting the most out of our services. 

“On a typical day, interactions with customers will include Zoom meetings to review performance statistics, platform training and integration setup and support, as well as queries that come in via email,” says Amanda. “I talk to between 5-10 customers a day!”

For Amanda, the relationship-building element of her role is something she really enjoys. Helping customers feel like they have a handle on our software is vital.  “I find it most exciting when I am able to solve problems for my clients by offering a solution based on our product features,” she says.

At Xref, we promote work/life balance, which means employees have the flexibility to fit in personal tasks that are important to them, such as going to a fitness class or meeting a friend for lunch. On a typical day, Amanda takes her dog Gemma for a long walk at lunchtime.

Amanda’s afternoons are usually spent completing various tasks, including compiling performance statistics for customer reviews, integration set-up, troubleshooting, project work, account admin and other ad hoc tasks.

How to succeed as a Customer Success Manager

To be a successful Customer Success Manager at Xref, you must be committed to providing exceptional customer service and be willing to go above and beyond to ensure customers get the most out of our product. Customer retention is important at Xref. You must also embody Xref’s core values: be driven by ambition, have a big heart, and be positively charged.

Amanda’s top tip for excelling as a Customer Success Manager is to “never be afraid to put your hand up as there are lots of learning opportunities and a great support network across Xref that will help you.”

At Xref, our Customer Success Managers are a significant reason our loyal customers love what we do and continue using our products. In our recent 2023 Customer Satisfaction Survey, 93% of our customers said they were satisfied with the services Xref provides.

Our CSMs are recognised for their hard work and commitment to customers. Below is a review from a customer posted on our G2 page.

“Xref is a very beneficial tool for checking references. Not only is the interface super easy to navigate, but the customer support is hands down one of the best I have worked with! Xref is the complete package of efficiency, productivity and support.” – Cisco A. (Mid-market)

Amanda received a special shout-out in our recent case study for Homestyle Aged Care, who she helped to implement Xref to speed up their recruitment processes. Here is what Dawn Griffith, General Manager of Human Resources at Homestyle Aged Care, said: 

“Xref has reduced reference taking from a week to one day. Xref has a very supportive team and the service provided by Jono and Amanda is excellent.”

At Xref, we have CSMs worldwide, meaning our customers have access to 24/7 support and don’t have to rely on call centres.

Why should you work at Xref?

At Xref, we are proud of our team culture. We foster collaboration and support career growth, and our employees enjoy working towards a common goal and celebrating the wins, big and small.

Amanda values the “open communication model, from top to bottom” and the “trust between the manager and the team”.

Amanda has developed new skills since joining Xref. “In the last 18 months, I have taken on more responsibilities and have become more confident when I communicate with colleagues and clients,” she says. “I feel I've also improved my customer relationship skills and been effective in supporting new team members.”

We asked Amanda why she loves to work at Xref, and this is what she said: 

“I find the job of a CSM really fun and rewarding! Potential candidates should definitely join Xref, especially the CS team as we make work fun and we are driven individuals who really care about what we do and we do it so well! We have happy customers who really advocate our brand.”

If working as a Customer Success Manager at Xref piques your interest, we’d love to hear from you! Check out our careers page here.