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For · Customer success managers

Tools for customer success managers.

Account managers and customer success operators responsible for retention, expansion, and product adoption. The stack is heavier on knowledge bases and support tooling than the sales stack.

"Customer success software is mostly about making product knowledge findable — for the customer and for the CSM."

Categories in this view

Every tool below comes from one of these categories.

Customer supportCRMAI chatbots & assistantsKnowledge base & wikiSchedulingScreen recordingVideo conferencing
Essential

Core picks for customer success managers.

01
Calendly
Automated scheduling tool that eliminates back-and-forth by letting contacts book meetings directly on your calendar.
Essential Scheduling
96/100
02
Perplexity
The AI answer engine that cites every claim — the right tool for research, not conversation.
Essential AI chatbots & assistants
96/100
03
ChatGPT
OpenAI's flagship AI assistant — the tool that put conversational AI in the mainstream.
Essential AI chatbots & assistants
95/100
04
HubSpot
All-in-one CRM platform combining sales, marketing, and service in a single database.
Essential CRM
95/100
05
Loom
Screen and camera recorder that replaces status meetings with shareable async video messages.
Essential Screen recording
95/100
06
Cal.com
Open-source scheduling with the polish of Calendly and the ownership of self-hostable software.
Essential Scheduling
92/100
07
Help Scout
Shared inbox and help desk built around human conversations, not ticket numbers.
Essential Customer support
92/100
08
Google Meet
Browser-based video meetings bundled into Google Workspace — the no-friction default for Gmail and Calendar teams.
Essential Video conferencing
91/100
09
Microsoft Teams
The communication hub bundled into Microsoft 365 — chat, meetings, and files in one app for Microsoft shops.
Essential Video conferencing
91/100
10
Claude
Anthropic's safety-focused AI assistant — the best model for long documents, coding, and instruction-following.
Essential AI chatbots & assistants
90/100
11
Zendesk
Enterprise-grade support platform with ticket forms, SLA management, and broad channel coverage.
Essential Customer support
87/100
12
Zoom
Video conferencing platform used by 300 million daily meeting participants at its peak.
Essential Video conferencing
87/100

Tools tagged as useful for customer success managers are surfaced from 7 categoryies we cover: customer support, crm, ai chatbots, knowledge base, scheduling, screen recording, video conferencing.

We don’t write per-tool reviews from the persona’s point of view — instead, each tool’s underlying review and 80/20 verdict is the same regardless of who reads it. The persona view re-slices the catalogue so the right tools surface for the right buyer.

Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between a CSM and a sales rep's tooling?

Sales reps live in the CRM and scheduling tools; CSMs live in the support inbox, knowledge base, and meeting tools. The CRM is shared, but the daily surface is different.

What software do customer success managers need?

Across 7 categories we cover for customer success managers, the 8020 picks include Calendly, Perplexity, ChatGPT. The full ranking is below.

How is the customer success view different from a category page?

Category pages show every tool in a single bucket. Persona pages re-slice the catalogue: they show every tool — across multiple categories — that's typically part of the customer success managers's working stack.