This blog is part of a series of posts exploring the different companies that have looked for or are currently looking for Customer Success Managers. Learn more about your potential employers, see if their values align with yours and whether you can see yourself working there. As we’re nearing the end of this segment, we can’t ignore one of the OG tech brands. Before the Instagrams, the Facebooks, the Twitters, before there was any social, there was an operating system. That’s right, I’m talking about Windows and the brand that owns it, Microsoft.
Microsoft – One of the founding fathers of commercial tech
In the early days, when I was in school in the 90s, my first experience of Microsoft was through Word. I can’t remember the specific machine I worked on, but I do remember becoming familiar with the different tools within Word, typing slowly with two fingers, then more over time. The funnest part was using Word Art!
Fast forward to today and I do most of my typing in web-based browsers and applications. But there’s no denying the impact Microsoft had on that early behavior. You would hardly attribute it to a commercial company but if it hadn’t been for Bill Gates in those early days striking a deal to have his Windows OS installed by default on a bunch of computers, who knows where we would be today?
The Products Themselves
So Microsoft’s definitely an interesting beast. It straddles the line between software and hardware. Depending on the individual, you might know it better for its gaming consoles (XBox), laptops (Surface) or even smart phones. However, software has been a big part of its core offering, most notably it’s Microsoft Office Suite.
In terms of which products/services needed the help of Customer Success Managers, I had to do a bit of reverse engineering to find out. We’ll look at the job later, but I found that the CSM role was recruited (at least in Australia) for their Modern Workplace solution set.
This was borne off the back of COVID and the changing world that means that companies have to better accommodate the needs of modern workers who want flexibility. However, on the flip side of the coin, how does this impact on the organizations supporting them?
It’s mainly through:
- maximizing productivity,
- maintaining security, and
- increasing remote collaboration.
Job Description Example
The below JD is for a CSM role based out of the ANZ geography:
Let’s go through each of the dot points:
- You have to know about the collaboration platforms modern enterprises are using. Hint: having an understanding of Teams would help a lot here,
- Being a trusted advisor to ANZ enterprise accounts is critical,
- FSI (Microsoft’s Financial Services solution) would be a big plus,
- customer journey mapping to look at the customer’s business process to match product capability is important,
- being a consultant in IT/business would help out a lot, and
- experiencing building relationships at the Executive Customer level would also help out a lot.
What They Care About
They have a lot of benefits that emcompass work-life balance:
- starting a family,
- health and wellness (including mental health)
- financial wellbeing
The list goes on. This link is for the Australia page, but feel free to check it out in your own locality.
Like many of the larger companies, being able to put Microsoft on your CV could be a game changer in your life. Maybe you don’t feel ready for it now, but one day, you might find “Customer Success Manager at Microsoft” next to your LinkedIn profile!