40 Keywords You Should Include in Your Customer Success Resume

This article identifies 40 keywords you need to include in your resume based on my analysis of 500 Customer Success jobs across 25+ countries.

Using a combination of the keywords will help you showcase your transferable experience and understanding of the role, even if you don't have direct experience in customer success.

The following resume keywords are divided into three categories to clarify when and how to integrate each.

Let’s dive in!

Role-specific Keywords

Using these keywords can demonstrate potential if you have previous Customer Success experience or transferrable skills.

Include quantitative data and results achieved when integrating these keywords.

Keywords:

• Client management
• Customer management
• Account management
• Growth
• Adoption
• Onboarding
• Retention
• Revenue
• Upsell
• Renewals
• Retaining
• Cross-selling
• Relationship
• Customer journey
• Risk management

Examples:

• Achieved X% renewals in Q4 2022 vs Y% in Q3 2022/Q4 2021.
• Built a process that increased company-wide retention by X%.
• Exceeded annual goals for upselling by X% for Y Accounts.

General Skills Keywords

These keywords are more generic yet still relate to Customer Success. Adding these keywords will showcase your passion and willingness to learn on the job with minimal guidance.

Keywords:

• Product knowledge
• Communications
• Customer satisfaction
• Usage increase
• Flexibility
• Training
• Strategy planning
• Feedback analysis
• Market analysis
• Ownership
• Sales

Examples:

• Developed a plan that increased customer satisfaction by X%.
• Increased clients’ usage X% by implementing a quarterly market analysis for Y industries.
• Identified X new product features through a feedback analysis from Y accounts.

Supporting Keywords

Combined with the previous keywords, these supporting keywords demonstrate your clear understanding of the role and force you to provide quantitative examples of your previous experience.

When using these keywords, try to be moderate. The recruiter may question the honesty of your claims if you use too many. This is called resume keyword stuffing.

Always be honest and ethical, but don't undersell yourself. Getting a second opinion on your resume is highly advisable as well.

Keywords:

• Support
• Added value
• Goals
• Identify
• Develop
• Process
• Stakeholders
• Achieve
• Engagement
• Impact
• Performance
• Lead
• Improve
• Collaborate

Examples of using these keywords can be seen above.

Next Steps

Your previous experience, whether directly in Customer Success Management or not, can still be almost 100% transferable. But you must ensure your resume shows that to the recruiter/hiring manager.

An excellent way to integrate these 40 keywords in your resume is to do the following.

1. Make a list of all your quantitative (results you achieved) and non-quantitative (responsibilities you handled) previous experiences.
2. Using the quantitative list, make sure at least one resume bullet point per previous experience contains a “role-specific keyword” and at least one contains a “general skills keyword.”
3. Use the "supporting keywords" above to improve your non-quantitative bullet points.
4. Get a second opinion from a few friends and peers on your resume. Are your bullet points clear? Do they showcase your results and not just your job responsibilities?
5. Adapt your resume to the keywords used on the job application where needed.

Improving your resume doesn’t guarantee you will land a job any faster.  Job searching involves more than just your resume. It involves how you search for a job, how you choose a job, networking, reaching out to hiring managers, cover letters, portfolios, referrals, and probably more things I'm unaware of.

There are thousands of resume-building tips available on the internet. Mix and match, improve along the way, and get active on LinkedIn by following experts like Carly Agar, Rachel Provan, Diana De Jesus, Kevin Leonor, and Jan Young.

Remember, your resume shows who you are, and being authentic will lead you to great places.

Happy hunting!