Customer Success Manager

What the role is accountable for

The Customer Success & Service Assurance Manager reports to the Service Delivery Manager and acts as the independent voice of the customer and assurance point across the service lifecycle. The role is accountable for measuring whether customers receive the services, outcomes and service levels for which they are contracted; validating that operational evidence supports reported performance; identifying delivery, experience or contract-alignment gaps; and coordinating corrective action with the Service Delivery Manager and Operations Managers. Through open, honest and evidence-based engagement, the role protects and strengthens the existing customer base, supports retention and renewals, contributes customer insight to proposals, assists with post-project customer acceptance, and develops credible customer success stories and references.

Role reporting

Service Delivery Manager

A typical day may include

Service Assurance & Measurement

• Measure and verify delivery against contracted scope, SLAs, service schedules, commitments and agreed customer outcomes.
• Use service reports, customer feedback, incidents, risks, actions and trends to maintain an evidence-based view of customer health and service performance.
• Identify service gaps early and agree accountable corrective actions, owners and due dates with the Service Delivery Manager and Operations Managers.

Customer Engagement, Retention & Advocacy

• Build trusted customer relationships through regular, open and honest discussions about service performance, expectations, risks and improvement opportunities.
• Conduct customer health reviews, satisfaction engagements and face-to-face meetings, including travel to customer sites when required.
• Identify retention risks, relationship concerns and advocacy opportunities, and coordinate appropriate interventions.

Contract-to-Delivery Alignment

• Compare actual delivery and customer expectations with current contractual scope and identify under-delivery, over-delivery, ambiguity or misalignment.
• Escalate material gaps and support the Service Delivery Manager, Operations Managers and relevant commercial stakeholders in agreeing corrective, contractual or change-control actions.
• Provide customer insight and service-performance evidence to support contract renewals and extensions.

Project Acceptance, Proposals & Success Evidence

• Support post-project customer acceptance and sign-off by confirming delivered outcomes, outstanding actions, readiness and customer feedback.
• Provide customer context, lessons learned, outcome statements and reference input to service proposals where required.
• Develop approved customer success stories, case studies, testimonials and reference-letter inputs with clear evidence of business and service outcomes.

Qualifications we look for

Essential Qualifications

• Grade 12 or equivalent.
• Relevant diploma or degree in Business Management, Customer Experience, Information Technology, Operations Management or a related field.
• ITIL Foundation certification or equivalent practical service-management knowledge.
• Valid driver’s licence and willingness to travel to customer sites.

Preferred Qualifications

• Customer success, customer experience, account management or service-delivery certification.
• Training in contract interpretation, stakeholder management, facilitation, negotiation or business writing.
• ITIL Managing Professional or advanced service-management training.

Experience we look for

• Functional: 7+ years in below
• Substantial experience in customer success, service delivery, account management or operations within a managed-services or complex technical-service environment.
• Proven experience measuring service performance against contracts, SLAs and customer outcomes and coordinating corrective action.
• Demonstrated ability to conduct candid customer discussions, manage expectations and protect long-term relationships.
• Experience identifying misalignment between contracted scope, customer expectations and actual service delivery.
• Experience supporting renewals, extensions, proposals, customer references or case-study development.
• Experience supporting project closure, customer acceptance, handover or post-implementation reviews.
• Strong experience preparing customer health summaries, service insights, actions and executive-level communications.
• 3–5 years in a senior customer-facing role

How the role raises the bar

Service Assurance & Contract Alignment

• Strong understanding of managed services, ITIL practices, SLAs, service reporting and customer outcomes.
• Ability to interpret contracts, service schedules, scope, obligations and service-level commitments.
• Ability to analyse performance data, customer feedback and operational evidence to identify gaps and trends.
• Disciplined action tracking, escalation, governance and follow-through across Service Delivery and Operations.
• Sound judgement in distinguishing service recovery, expectation management, scope change and contractual correction.
• Ability to support customer acceptance and sign-off without replacing formal project, technical or commercial approval authority.

Customer Engagement & Advocacy

• Trusted-adviser presence with strong listening, facilitation, empathy and relationship-management skills.
• Confidence to hold open, honest and constructive conversations about performance, gaps, risks and expectations.
• Strong executive communication, presentation, report-writing and stakeholder-influencing skills.
• Ability to convert customer outcomes and evidence into compelling success stories, case studies and reference material.
• Commercial awareness to contribute relevant customer insight to proposals, renewals and extensions.
• Willingness and ability to travel for customer visits, service reviews and face-to-face engagements.