How to Become a Customer Engagement Manager [+Tools and Resources]

Embarking on a career as a customer engagement manager involves a combination of education, skills development, and practical experience.

Whether you’re just starting out or looking to transition into this role, understanding the key steps and requirements is essential.

This guide will provide you with a comprehensive overview of the path to becoming a successful customer engagement manager.

Let’s dive in!

TL;DR

• A customer engagement manager is a professional who acts as the main point of contact between a company and its clients, overseeing projects, ensuring client satisfaction, and working to build strong, lasting relationships.
• The typical career path for a customer engagement manager includes:
  • Associate Customer Engagement Manager (assists senior managers and develops an understanding of customer needs)
  • Customer Engagement Manager (owns specific client engagements and leads cross-functional teams)
  • Senior Customer Engagement Manager (oversees multiple complex projects and implements strategic initiatives)
  • Director of Engagement Management (provides strategic leadership for the entire function)
  • Vice President of Professional Services (responsible for strategic planning, business development, and overall success)
• To become a customer engagement manager, obtain a relevant degree, gain experience in project management, client relations, or business development, and consider obtaining certifications. Staying updated on industry trends is also crucial.
• Customer engagement managers utilize various tools to enhance their work. Some essential tools include Userpilot for in-app experiences & analytics, Appcues for user-friendly in-app guidance & onboarding, and Pendo for comprehensive product experience & analytics.
• Looking into tools for customer engagement managers? Userpilot is an all-in-one product platform with engagement features and powerful analytics capabilities. Book a demo to see it in action!

Product Teams Can Use Userpilot to:

• Improve Product Adoption with Insights from Analytics
• Improve User Onboarding Interactive Guidance
• Collect User Feedback with No-Code In-App Surveys

Get a Demo

• 14 Day Trial
• No Credit Card Required

What is a customer engagement manager?

A customer engagement manager is a professional who acts as the main point of contact between a company and its clients. They oversee projects, ensure client satisfaction, and work to build strong, lasting relationships.

Customer engagement manager’s main responsibilities

Customer engagement managers are the driving force behind successful client relationships. They ensure clients derive maximum value from products/services, leading to long-term partnerships and growth.

Their key responsibilities include:

• Relationship Building: Foster trust and rapport with key client stakeholders, becoming their trusted advisor and advocate.
• Onboarding and Implementation: Guide clients through seamless onboarding, develop personalized implementation plans, and ensure successful product adoption.
• Customer Advocacy: Proactively address client concerns, gather feedback, and advocate for their needs within the company.
• Value Demonstration: Showcase product value through data-driven insights, demonstrating ROI and business impact.
• Retention and Growth: Drive customer retention, secure renewals, and identify opportunities for upselling or cross-selling.
• Data Analysis: Leverage analytics to track product usage, identify trends, and optimize customer engagement.
• Collaboration: Partner with cross-functional teams to deliver a unified and exceptional customer experience.
• Communication: Maintain clear and proactive communication with clients, ensuring alignment and addressing any issues promptly.

Customer engagement manager career path

To help you map out your professional development and career progression, here’s an overview of a typical career path for customer engagement managers:

• Associate Customer Engagement Manager (0-2 years): This role will help you develop a deep understanding of customer needs and expectations, while you assist senior customer engagement managers in project execution, stakeholder management, and issue resolution.
• Customer Engagement Manager (3-6 years): In this role, you’ll own specific client engagements, taking responsibility for end-to-end project management, including scope definition, planning, resource allocation, and delivery. You’ll lead cross-functional teams to ensure successful project outcomes, build and maintain strong client relationships, and showcase your ability to drive project success and manage client expectations.
• Senior Customer Engagement Manager (6-10 years): You’ll oversee multiple complex projects simultaneously, ensuring alignment with company goals. This role will challenge you to foster collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement within your team while developing and implementing strategic initiatives to enhance service delivery and client satisfaction.
• Director of Engagement Management (10+ years): As a director, you’ll provide strategic leadership for the entire engagement management function. Your focus will be on establishing strong partnerships with other departments and ensuring the consistent delivery of high-quality services to clients.
• Vice President of Professional Services (15+ years): At the highest level, you’ll be responsible for strategic planning, business development, and the overall success of the professional services organization. You’ll drive revenue growth, develop new service offerings, and ensure alignment with company goals.

How to become a customer engagement manager?

SaaS product thrives on happy, engaged customers, and customer engagement managers play a pivotal role in making that happen. So, how do you land this highly sought-after role? Here’s a roadmap to get you started:

• Gain Relevant Education: A bachelor’s degree in business, marketing, management, or a related field is typically required. Some employers may prefer candidates with a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA).
• Understand the SaaS Business Model: Familiarize yourself with the subscription-based model, customer acquisition, and retention strategies, as well as the importance of customer success in the SaaS industry.
• Build Relevant Experience: Most customer engagement manager positions require 6-8 years of experience in project management, client relations, or business development. A good starting point is to focus your job search on entry-level or junior positions like Associate Project Manager, Junior Account Manager, or Business Analyst within SaaS companies.
• Obtain Certifications (Optional): While not always required, certifications like Project Management Professional (PMP) or Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) can demonstrate your knowledge and expertise.
• Stay Up-to-Date with Industry Trends: You can subscribe to newsletters and blogs from leading SaaS companies (i.e. Userpilot, Product School, etc.) or follow influential figures in the SaaS industry on LinkedIn. Some prominent names to consider are:
  • Jason Lemkin: SaaS investor and founder of SaaStr
  • Tomasz Tunguz: Venture capitalist at Redpoint Ventures
  • Lincoln Murphy: Customer success expert and author

What skills should a customer engagement manager have?

Here’s a breakdown of the most sought-after skills for customer engagement managers:

• Relationship management: Building rapport, establishing trust, and maintaining strong, long-term client relationships.
• Communication: Excellent verbal and written communication skills, adept at tailoring communication to diverse audiences (technical and non-technical stakeholders).
• Data analysis: Proficiency in analyzing data to identify trends, measure success metrics, and inform decision-making.
• Onboarding and implementation: Experience in guiding clients through successful onboarding and implementation processes.
• Project management: Proven ability to plan, execute, and deliver projects on time and within budget.
• Problem-solving: Proactive approach to identifying and resolving issues, focusing on finding creative solutions.
• Tool knowledge: Proficiency in CRM, project management, and data analysis tools.

Best certifications for customer engagement managers

Based on discussions and recommendations we gather from professionals, here are some of the most widely recognized and valuable certifications for customer engagement managers:

• Project Management Professional (PMP): The gold standard in project management, the PMP demonstrates your ability to lead and direct projects of any size, making it a highly valuable asset for customer engagement managers who often juggle multiple client projects.
• ITIL Foundation: If you work in a tech-focused environment, this certification demonstrates your understanding of IT service management best practices, which can be beneficial for managing client expectations and ensuring smooth project delivery.
• Change Management Certifications: (Prosci, APMG, etc.) If change management is a significant aspect of your role, these certifications can be valuable.
• Strategies to Effective Customer Engagement by the Imperial College Business School: The course is designed for business professionals interested in learning about the latest tools and cutting-edge knowledge of customer engagement. Some of the topics covered in the course include customer relationship marketing, customer engagement strategies, marketing channels management, strategic marketing communications, and brand management.

Best resources for customer engagement managers

Here are some valuable resources to help customer engagement managers excel in their roles

Best books for customer engagement managers

Customer engagement managers need a well-rounded skill set that spans from understanding customer psychology to mastering project management methodologies. To help you excel in your role, here are some must-read books that provide valuable insights into customer success, loyalty, and retention:

• Customer Success: How Innovative Companies Are Reducing Churn and Growing Recurring Revenue by Nick Mehta, Dan Steinman, and Lincoln Murphy: This comprehensive guide provides a deep dive into the world of customer success, outlining the essential strategies, metrics, and frameworks for building a successful program. It’s a must-read for anyone serious about understanding the field.
• The Effortless Experience: Conquering the New Battleground for Customer Loyalty by Matthew Dixon, Nick Toman, and Rick DeLisi: This book challenges the conventional wisdom that exceeding customer expectations is the key to loyalty. Instead, it argues for creating an “effortless experience” that reduces customer effort and increases satisfaction.
• Driving Customer Equity: How Customer Lifetime Value is Revolutionizing Corporate Performance by Roland T. Rust, Valarie A. Zeithaml, and Katherine N. Lemon: This book focuses on the concept of customer equity—the total combined customer lifetime values of all of a company’s customers. It provides a framework for measuring and managing customer equity to drive long-term growth.
• Chief Customer Officer 2.0: How to Build Your Customer-Driven Growth Engine by Jeanne Bliss: This book offers a roadmap for building a customer-centric culture and driving growth through customer satisfaction and loyalty. It’s packed with practical advice and case studies from leading companies.
• Subscription Marketing: Strategies for Nurturing Customers in a World of Churn by Anne Janzer: This book is a comprehensive guide to subscription marketing, covering everything from acquisition to retention. It offers insights into how to build a sustainable subscription business and keep customers engaged over time.

Best webinars for customer engagement managers

Staying updated on the latest trends and best practices is crucial for customer engagement managers. These platforms and events offer valuable webinars that cover a wide range of topics, from customer success strategies to product adoption tactics:

• Userpilot Events: Keep an eye on our events page for our own webinars, with talks often covering topics like in-app experiences, onboarding, and product adoption strategies.
• BrightTALK: This platform hosts a wide range of webinars from various industries, including many focused on customer success, engagement, and marketing.
• Gainsight Pulse: Their annual conference often features webinars and virtual sessions on customer success and engagement best practices. Check their website and social media for upcoming events and recordings.
• ChurnZero: Their BIG RYG (Reduce, Grow, Yield) events usually include webinars focused on churn reduction and customer expansion strategies.

Best blogs for customer engagement managers

Enhance your understanding of customer engagement, success, and onboarding with these informative blogs:

• Userpilot Blog: This blog is a fantastic resource for customer engagement managers, offering in-depth articles, guides, and case studies on user onboarding, product adoption, and customer retention.
• The Help Scout Blog: This blog provides valuable insights on customer service, support, and engagement, with a focus on building strong customer relationships.
• The HubSpot Blog: This blog covers a wide range of marketing and customer engagement topics, including inbound marketing, content marketing, and social media marketing.
• Customer Engagement Blogs – Feedly: This Feedly collection aggregates articles from various blogs on customer engagement, making it easy to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and insights.

Best podcasts for customer engagement managers

Here are some of the most popular and updated podcasts for customer engagement managers, based on reviews, ratings, streams, and recent episode releases:

• The Jasons Take On: Hosted by seasoned customer success veterans Jason Noble (ChurnZero CEO) and Jason Smith (Founder of SaaStr), this podcast provides a deep dive into customer success strategies, SaaS growth tactics, and the evolving landscape of the industry. Their combined experience delivers actionable insights and thought-provoking discussions, making it a valuable resource for customer engagement managers.
• Gain Grow Retain: Led by Jeff Breunsbach (President of Customer Imperative), this podcast explores the full customer lifecycle, offering practical advice for improving customer experience and driving retention. With a diverse range of guest experts, the podcast shares real-world case studies and actionable tips for building customer-centric cultures.
• The Customer Engagement Lab: Hosted by customer service expert Adam Toporek, this podcast dives into the nuances of customer engagement. It uncovers the latest trends and best practices for creating meaningful connections and long-term relationships with customers, blending practical advice with research-backed insights.
• Client Success Podcast: Featuring interviews with customer success leaders and practitioners, this podcast, hosted by Jay Nathan (Founder of Customer Imperative), showcases real-world examples of customer success strategies in action. It offers inspiration, motivation, and networking opportunities for customer engagement managers.
• SaaS Breakthrough: Hosted by SaaS Academy founder Aaron Krall, this podcast addresses the unique challenges and opportunities faced by SaaS businesses. It explores various aspects of SaaS growth, including marketing, sales, product development, and customer success, offering a broad perspective and practical tips for scaling your business.

Best tools for customer engagement managers

Whether you’re looking to analyze user behavior, create personalized onboarding experiences, or manage customer support interactions, there’s a tool out there that can help. Let’s explore some of the top solutions that can empower customer engagement managers to excel in their roles:

• Userpilot – Best for no-code in-app experiences & analytics: It empowers customer engagement managers to create personalized onboarding flows, feature walkthroughs, and surveys without coding. It also comes with powerful analytics that provide data-driven insights to optimize user engagement.
• Appcues – Best for user-friendly in-app guidance & onboarding: With its intuitive interface and templates, Appcues enables customer engagement managers to craft visually appealing in-app tours, tooltips, and surveys, streamlining onboarding and driving feature adoption.
• Pendo – Best for comprehensive product experience & analytics: Pendo offers customer engagement managers a robust feedback loop, and powerful analytics tools to make data-driven decisions for optimizing the user experience.
• Amplitude – Best for advanced product analytics & user behavior tracking: It equips customer engagement managers with the ability to track user journeys, analyze funnels, and measure the impact of product changes.
• Heap: Best for automatic capture & analysis of every user interaction: It provides customer engagement managers with a complete picture of user behavior, allowing for retroactive analysis and identification of friction points.
• Zendesk – Best for centralized customer service & support: It streamlines customer support operations for customer engagement managers, allowing them to efficiently resolve issues, empower users with self-service resources, and analyze support trends for product improvement insights.
• Custify – Best for B2B SaaS customer success management: It enables customer engagement managers to proactively monitor customer health, identify at-risk customers, deliver personalized engagement, and uncover upsell/cross-sell opportunities, ultimately reducing churn and maximizing customer lifetime value.

Product Teams Can Use Userpilot to:

• Improve Product Adoption with Insights from Analytics
• Improve User Onboarding Interactive Guidance
• Collect User Feedback with No-Code In-App Surveys

Get a Demo

• 14 Day Trial
• No Credit Card Required

Customer engagement manager FAQs

What is customer engagement management?

Customer engagement management (CEM) is the process of fostering meaningful interactions between a company and its customers across various touch points. CEM involves strategies, tools, and technologies to create positive customer experiences, gather feedback, and personalize interactions.

Is an engagement manager in HR?

No, an engagement manager is not typically part of the HR department. Engagement managers are more often found in customer-facing roles within sales, marketing, or customer success teams.

What is an engagement manager vs customer success manager?

While both roles focus on customer relationships, there are key differences:

• Engagement Manager: Primarily responsible for driving initial customer engagement and adoption of a product or service. They focus on onboarding, education, and ensuring early success.
• Customer Success Manager (CSM): Takes over once the customer is onboarded. CSMs focus on long-term customer satisfaction, retention, and growth. They proactively address issues, advocate for the customer, and identify upsell/cross-sell opportunities.

What does a head of customer engagement do?

The head of customer engagement plays a critical role in ensuring that customers feel valued, understood, and connected to the company, ultimately leading to increased satisfaction, loyalty, and revenue growth.

Conclusion

Becoming a successful customer engagement manager requires dedication, continuous learning, and a proactive approach to developing relevant skills.

By following the outlined steps and leveraging the resources available, you can effectively navigate your career path and achieve your professional goals.

We hope this guide has provided you with valuable insights and practical advice to help you on your journey to becoming a proficient and impactful customer engagement manager!

Looking into tools for customer engagement managers? Userpilot is an all-in-one product platform with engagement features and powerful analytics capabilities. Book a demo to see it in action!