The language of customer success
Customer success is a relatively young function, and job titles and terminology vary widely across companies. That inconsistency creates a challenge: the same skills get described a dozen different ways, and ATS systems can only match what's in their keyword list.
Knowing the standard CSM vocabulary — and using it — closes that gap.
Core CSM keywords by category
Retention & Revenue: customer retention, churn reduction/churn prevention, net revenue retention (NRR), gross revenue retention (GRR), expansion revenue, upsell/cross-sell, renewal management, contract renewals, logo retention, ARR (annual recurring revenue), MRR (monthly recurring revenue).
Customer Health & Engagement: customer health scores, quarterly business review (QBR), executive business review (EBR), customer lifecycle management, adoption metrics, product adoption, feature utilization, risk identification, time-to-value (TTV).
Onboarding & Implementation: customer onboarding, implementation management, onboarding playbooks, success plans, go-live coordination, change management, training delivery, documentation.
Metrics: NPS (Net Promoter Score), CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score), CES (Customer Effort Score), churn rate, renewal rate, expansion rate, product usage data, customer segmentation, renewal forecasting.
Tools: Salesforce/Salesforce CRM, Gainsight, Totango, ChurnZero, HubSpot, Intercom, Zendesk, JIRA, Tableau/Looker.
Strong CSM bullet point examples
Keywords embedded in measurable outcomes carry the most weight.
"Managed a portfolio of 45 enterprise accounts ($8M ARR), achieving 96% gross retention."
"Reduced churn by 18% YoY by implementing proactive health score monitoring and intervention playbooks."
"Drove $1.2M in expansion revenue through strategic upsell conversations during QBRs."
"Onboarded 30+ new enterprise customers per quarter with average time-to-value under 45 days."
"Maintained NPS above 65 across assigned book of business for 4 consecutive quarters."
The pattern — metric + keyword + result — works for both ATS matching and demonstrating impact to human reviewers.
Keywords by CSM seniority level
CSM/Associate CSM: onboarding, product adoption, CSAT, NPS, Gainsight, renewal support, QBR prep, health scores, training delivery.
Senior CSM: churn reduction, expansion revenue, executive relationships, renewal forecasting, playbook development, cross-functional collaboration.
CSM Manager/Director: team leadership, hiring and coaching, book of business strategy, NRR targets, QBR program design, Gainsight administration, stakeholder escalation management.
Don't just drop keywords into a skills list. Embed them in quantified accomplishments. "Churn reduction" by itself is meaningless — "reduced churn from 14% to 8% through proactive health monitoring" tells a story.