Customer Success Manager, Higher Ed

About Niche

Niche is the leader in school search. Our mission is to make researching and enrolling in schools easy, transparent, and free. With in-depth profiles on every school and college in America, 140 million reviews and ratings, and powerful search tools, we help millions of people find the right school for them. We also help thousands of schools recruit more best-fit students, by highlighting what makes them great and making it easier to visit and apply.

Niche is all about finding where you belong, and that mission inspires how we operate every day. We want Niche to be a place where people truly enjoy working and can thrive professionally.

About The Role

The Customer Success Manager role functions as the day-to-day contact for our school partners. The CSM’s role is to ensure the clients receive the best in class service and support. The CSM is responsible for: onboarding new clients, hosting regular calls with clients,  ensuring clients are utilizing products and services, reviewing ROI with clients, and generally creating customer delight.  In this role, you will work closely with the Account Managers to ensure clients continue to renew their partnership agreements. The Customer Success Manager is responsible for retaining our current clients, which is key to Niche’s long-term success.

What You Will Do

• Manage a full account portfolio and relationships with customers to drive long-term adoption and high client health
• Serve as the primary point of contact and manage customer communication by proactively engaging with customers: communicating via email and phone, and conducting formal business reviews (overall and by product)
• Cultivate a trusted advisor relationship with stakeholders and executive sponsors
• Monitor and identify adoption and utilization trends, provide recommendations based on risk and customers’ business needs
• Maintain overall health of accounts to ensure account success increases
• Manage customer onboarding for new customers via the handoff from the net new sales team
• Collaborate with Operations to ensure the IS team has everything they need to implement successfully
• Collaborate with technical support to assist in triaging customer technical issues or product questions
• Identify opportunities and work with Account Managers to help be the conduit to allowing them to drive expansion within current accounts 
• Conduct ongoing customer training
• Present product demonstrations
• Support customers and solve problems for specific and individualized use cases
• Strong understanding of the platform and product suite
• Serve as the voice of the customer to drive improvement and provide a customer feedback loop to product and data teams
• Meet personal quarterly and annual dollar retention goals

What We Are Looking For

• Bachelor's degree required 
• A strong understanding of Salesforce is required
• 3 years of experience in a customer success role
• Preferred experience in the Higher Education market (specifically enrollment management)
• Someone who is data-driven, problem-solving, and inquisitive
• Exemplifies Niche’s core values: We do right by each other; We play to win. Not to not lose.; We make no excuses.; We embrace a growth mindset.
• Experience with digital marketing and Google Analytics preferred 
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities 
• Customer-centric approach with a focus on building trust and rapport
• Ability to manage a portfolio of accounts effectively
• Understanding of the product or service and its value proposition
• Data-driven literacy to analyze customer retention and identify trends

During the First Month:

• Complete onboarding training
• Shadow client calls 
• Gain proficiency in tech stack (Salesforce, Gong, Slack, Google Workspace, Asana) 
• Work closely with your manager and mentor to learn 
• Receive account assignments & work closely with Account Managers to learn assignment needs

Within 3 Months:

• Provide excellent customer service through phone calls, virtual meetings, and email communications
• Adopt existing clients and onboard new clients 
• Assist Account Managers in the contract renewal process
• Work cross-functionally with Customer Support, Revenue Operations, Implementation Services, and Digital Marketing Services teams to ensure client joy

Within 6 Months:

• Continue to work cross-functionally with support teams
• Manage a full account portfolio 
• Successfully overcome account objections 
• Continue to provide excellent customer service

Within 12 Months:

• Manage full account portfolio successfully
• Successfully pass cross-sell opportunities to the AM team
• Successfully retain customers and drive revenue 
• Minimize account churn

Compensation 

Our national target base salary is $100,000 with $120,000 OTE, plus participation in our Stock Option Program. Base compensation will be commensurate with experience and skills.

At Niche, our Total Rewards Philosophy is centered around creating a workplace environment that attracts, motivates, and retains top talent by providing a comprehensive and competitive rewards package.  This philosophy is built on the principles of performance-based compensation, best-in-class benefits and work-life balance, and employee well-being.

Interview Process

Candidate experience is a top priority for our talent and hiring teams.  We believe in providing a transparent, authentic and comprehensive interview process where you have the opportunity to learn about us while we get to know you and your experience.  The interview process is outlined here:

• Phone Screen with Talent Acquisition Partner - 30 Minutes

• Video Interview with Hiring Manager - 30 Minutes

• Team Interviews - 45 Minutes

• Leadership Interview - 30 Minutes

Why Niche?

• We are a fully flexible workforce empowering our employees to choose to work remotely, in our Pittsburgh office or whatever combination suits you
• Full time, salaried position with competitive compensation in a fast-growing company
• Best-in-class 100% paid employee health plan, including vision and dental and supplemental coverage
• Flexible Paid Time Off Policy
• Stipend that allows you to build your work from home office in a style and function that suits your personal preferences
• Parental leave for all employees (12 weeks fully paid) in addition to short term disability for birthing parents
• Meaningful 401(k) with employer match
• Your ideas and work will make an immediate impact on our company and millions of users
• You will join a team that cares about you, our mission, our work - and celebrates our wins together!

Niche will only employ those who are legally authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship now or in the future for this opening.  

We are currently hiring in states where we currently have employees: AZ, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, IL, IN, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MO, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, TN, TX, VA, WA, DC, WV.

Candidates only.  No recruiters or agencies, please. Sorry, we do not offer relocation assistance.

Niche is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive, innovative environment with the best employees. Therefore, we provide employment opportunities without regard to age, race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, disability, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or any other protected status in accordance with applicable law.

All interviews are being held remotely. If there are preparations we can make to help ensure you have a comfortable and positive interview experience, please let us know.