Key Roles Facing the Client

In an organization, customer relationship management is divided into several key roles, each with distinct goals and responsibilities.

Although in some businesses these roles may overlap, it is essential to understand the nature of each to address conflicts in an effective and coordinated manner.

The first role is Customer Service, a primarily reactive role.

The customer service professional focuses on addressing problems and questions as they arise.

Their primary objective is to provide solutions and information to resolve the customer's immediate problem.

For example, a support agent responding to an email about a product fault is fulfilling this role.

Customer service acts as the first line of defense, handling day-to-day inquiries and complaints, and its effectiveness lies in the speed and quality of its response.

The second role is Customer Success, a more proactive role.

The The goal of this professional is to ensure that the customer not only resolves their problems, but also achieves their goals with the company's product or service.

Through planning and ongoing engagement, customer success anticipates problems and looks for opportunities to improve the customer experience over the long term.

An example might be a specialist who contacts a customer who has stopped using a software platform to understand the reasons and offer a solution, in order to prevent churn.

The third role is account management, a sales-focused role.

Account managers focus on sales activities and account growth, such as contract renewals, upsells, or business expansion within an organization.

Unlike customer service or customer success, their primary motivation is sales activity.

Despite their differences, these roles often intersect and overlap.

For example, A customer success professional might identify a sales opportunity by seeing a customer need a premium feature and collaborate with the account manager to close the sale.

Similarly, a serious technical issue affecting a major customer may require collaboration between customer service and the account manager, especially if the issue impacts payments or contract renewal.

Understanding these intersections is vital to ensuring a consistent and seamless response to any dispute, as a single issue can have both technical and commercial implications.

Overview

Customer relationship management is divided into several key roles. The customer service role is reactive, resolving immediate issues. Its effectiveness is based on the speed and quality of the response.

The customer success role is proactive, working to help the customer achieve their goals with the product. They anticipate problems to improve the long-term experience.

Account management focuses on the sales side. Although their motivations are distinct, these roles often overlap and must collaborate for a smooth and consistent response.