Senior Customer Success Manager for SEO Agency

Client Retention, Churn Reduction & Team Leadership Awkward Media is looking for an experienced Customer Success Manager who knows how to protect client relationships, solve problems before they escalate, and systematically reduce churn. This is not a traditional customer service role. We are not looking for someone who simply responds to emails, forwards requests to other departments, or waits for clients to complain. We need a proactive operator who can: - Identify accounts that may be at risk - Understand the real reason behind client frustration - Develop solutions across multiple departments - Improve the performance of the team members they manage - Create initiatives that increase client satisfaction and retention - Take personal responsibility for reducing churn Experience working with an SEO or digital marketing agency would be a major advantage. The Primary Objective Your most important responsibility will be: Reducing client churn. You will be expected to understand why clients leave, identify patterns across accounts, and implement practical initiatives that improve retention over time. This includes addressing individual client problems as well as finding larger operational issues that may be affecting multiple clients. For example, you may discover that clients are becoming frustrated because: - Expectations were not properly established during sales - Results are not being clearly communicated - Deliverables are delayed between departments - Reports do not explain the value of the work - Account managers are failing to identify warning signs - Internal teams are not communicating effectively - Clients do not understand the SEO strategy or timeline Your job will not stop at identifying the problem. You will be expected to work with the relevant departments, create a solution, implement it, and measure whether it improves retention. Key Responsibilities - Client Retention and Churn Reduction - Take ownership of client retention across your assigned accounts - Identify at-risk clients before they request cancellation - Develop recovery plans for unhappy or disengaged clients - Analyze cancellation reasons and identify recurring patterns - Create initiatives designed to reduce preventable churn - Improve client onboarding, communication, reporting, and expectation management - Conduct difficult client conversations calmly and confidently - Find opportunities to strengthen relationships before problems escalate - Track retention-related metrics and report on improvements - Active Problem Solving - Investigate problems instead of accepting surface-level explanations - Identify the root cause of client dissatisfaction - Develop solutions without waiting to be told what to do - Catch mistakes, delays, communication gaps, and performance concerns early - Escalate serious issues while also presenting potential solutions - Make sound decisions when the situation is unclear or time-sensitive - Balance the interests of the client with the operational realities of the agency - Cross-Department Leadership You will work closely with our: - SEO team - Content team - Development team - Sales team - Reporting and analytics team - Leadership team You must be capable of bringing different departments together to solve client-related problems. This may include: - Improving the handoff between sales and onboarding - Creating better internal escalation procedures - Resolving delays between SEO, content, and development - Improving the way results are presented to clients - Ensuring client feedback is properly communicated and implemented - Identifying recurring operational issues that are contributing to churn We need someone who can create solutions that improve the entire client experience, not just temporarily calm down one unhappy client. - Team Management and Development - Manage and support customer success team members - Review their client communication and account management - Identify weaknesses in performance, judgment, or follow-through - Provide direct and useful feedback - Create coaching and improvement plans - Hold team members accountable to clear standards - Help team members become stronger problem solvers over time - Ensure important client issues are not being ignored or mishandled -Improve the overall consistency and quality of the customer success department What We Are Looking For You should have demonstrated experience in several of the following areas: - Customer success or account management - Client retention and churn reduction - Managing a team - Coaching underperforming team members - Handling difficult or unhappy clients - Creating new processes or retention initiatives - Working across multiple departments - Managing clients for an agency or service-based business SEO, digital marketing, web development, or content marketing SEO experience is strongly preferred because it will help you understand client expectations, ranking timelines, reporting, deliverables, and common agency challenges. However, strong customer success and retention experience may outweigh direct SEO experience. You May Be a Strong Fit If: - You naturally look for problems before they become emergencies - You take ownership instead of blaming another department - You can explain what you personally did to reduce churn in a previous role - You have improved a struggling team member’s performance - You can challenge internal teams professionally when client experience is being affected - You are comfortable having direct conversations with clients and employees - You make decisions based on patterns, data, and evidence - You can turn repeated client complaints into permanent process improvements - You understand the difference between temporarily saving an account and fixing the underlying reason clients are leaving You Are Probably Not a Fit If: - Your experience is primarily answering support tickets - You wait for management to tell you how to solve every problem - You routinely forward client concerns without taking ownership - You avoid difficult conversations - You believe client retention is solely the responsibility of the sales or fulfillment teams - You cannot provide specific examples of processes or initiatives you created - Your management style is limited to checking whether tasks were completed - You are reactive rather than proactive Position Details - Full-time remote position - Monday to Friday - Working hours: 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time - Long-term opportunity - Fixed monthly compensation - You must be consistently available and responsive during working hours How to Apply Please begin your application with the words: “I reduce churn.” Applications that do not begin with this phrase may not be reviewed. In your application, answer the following questions clearly and specifically: - Tell us about a churn-reduction initiative you personally created. What problem did you identify, what did you change, and what was the result? - Describe a situation where you caught a client issue before the client complained or cancelled. How did you identify it, and what did you do? - Tell us about an underperforming team member you managed. What was wrong, how did you coach them, and did their performance improve? - Describe a customer service problem that required cooperation between multiple departments. How did you create and implement the solution? - What experience do you have with SEO or digital marketing agencies? - What are the earliest signs that a client may be preparing to cancel? - In your opinion, what are the three most common causes of preventable churn at an SEO agency? Please use real examples rather than general theories. IF YOU PLUG THIS LISTING INTO CHAT GPT AND COPY AND PASTE THE RESPONSE WE WILL KNOW AND YOU WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED! We are looking for someone who will treat retention as a business function they own, not simply another task on their list.