Customer Success Manager

Who you are

• 1–3+ years of experience in customer success or account management specifically with payroll, PEO, or HCM accounts — general SaaS CS experience alone is not a substitute
• Working understanding of Payroll and/or PEO fundamentals — wage/hour basics, tax filing cadence, benefits administration — sufficient to distinguish Payroll, PEO, Tax, and Benefits issues correctly when triaging
• Experience supporting large or medium-sized accounts (higher complexity, lower volume) rather than pure high-volume SMB motion
• Comfortable operating under compliance-critical escalation protocols — knows what requires Compliance/Legal sign-off versus what can be resolved directly
• Proficiency in Salesforce; familiarity with Zendesk and NetSuite is a plus
• Comfortable using AI-enabled CS/adoption tooling (health scoring, workflow automation) as part of daily account management
• Exceptional written/verbal communication; able to explain payroll and compliance topics clearly to non-technical customer stakeholders
• Data-driven mindset for interpreting payroll accuracy and filing-timeliness metrics against each customer’s stated objective

What the job involves

• The Customer Success Manager, Payroll owns adoption, retention, and expansion for Fourth’s large and medium-sized Payroll and PEO accounts — a smaller, higher-complexity portfolio than the general Emerging CSM book
• These accounts carry more regulatory exposure, higher payroll run complexity, and greater churn cost per account, so the role trades volume for depth: fewer accounts, deeper payroll/PEO domain expertise, and tighter coordination with Payroll Operations, Tax, and Benefits
• This is a specialist track within the CSM level, not a step up the management ladder — scope, financial authority, and outcomes ownership match the standard CSM tier. What differs is domain: this CSM must be able to distinguish Payroll, PEO, Tax, and Benefits issues correctly, know when something is compliance-critical, and route it through the right channel before it becomes a churn event
• Own an assigned portfolio of ~75–125 large and medium-sized Payroll and PEO accounts across the customer lifecycle — onboarding through renewal
• Define the value moment for each account in payroll-specific terms — first clean payroll run, accurate tax setup, on-time filing, compliant benefits enrollment — and track progress against that objective, not generic usage volume
• Partner with Payroll Operations, Tax, and Benefits teams (not a generic Services team) to monitor onboarding progress and ensure customers hit payroll-specific adoption milestones quickly
• Monitor payroll accuracy rate and filing timeliness as leading indicators — payroll errors in the first 90 days are a high-signal predictor of churn for this segment
• Correctly distinguish Payroll, PEO, Tax, and Benefits issues when triaging customer concerns, and flag anything compliance-critical immediately per the 24-hour escalation SLA — compliance-critical items require Compliance Lead and Legal sign-off before any resolution, not CSM judgment call
• No signing, pricing, or discount authority. The CSM does not negotiate contract terms or approve concessions
• Identify and flag expansion opportunities and renewal risk to the CSM Manager or Sales/Account Management for commercial follow-through
• Flag PEO at-risk accounts with elevated urgency: PEO churn remediation is an active company-level dependency before PEO acquisition can scale, so PEO retention signal on this portfolio carries outsized weight
• Payroll accuracy rate within portfolio
• Time to first clean/successful payroll run
• Filing and compliance timeliness
• PEO account retention within portfolio
• SLA adherence (24-hour triage) and CSAT
• Identify trends in payroll/PEO-specific customer challenges and suggest improvements to process, documentation, and automation
• Use AI-enabled adoption and health-scoring tools tuned to payroll-specific signals (payroll accuracy, filing timeliness) to surface risk and expansion signal earlier
• Maintain accurate, current records in Salesforce (primary CRM), and Zendesk/NetSuite as needed
• Work cross-functionally with Payroll Operations, Tax, Benefits, Support, and Sales; operate independently with minimal day-to-day supervision
• Measures of Success:
• Payroll accuracy rate trend within portfolio
• Time to first clean payroll run
• Filing/compliance timeliness
• PEO account retention rate
• SLA adherence and CSAT

Benefits

• Paid Time Off
• Charity Days
• Refer a Friend Bonus
• Birthday Off
• Paid Maternity/Paternity Leave
• Medical Care Insurance
• Employee Assistance Program
• Health and Wellbeing Initiatives
• Corporate Discounts
• Corporate and Team-building Events
• Retirement Plans