What to do when a client success manager leaves: how to hand over their clients.

A client success manager with 250 clients gives notice. Those 250 people will each have a new contact within a few weeks, and most of them will ask why.

How hard that is depends on what is written down. Without SOPs, losing one person means rebuilding everything they did by hand. With a current board, SOPs and recorded Looms, it is a week of careful messages.

What do you do in the first days after notice?

1. Decide who takes the clients. Split them by load across the remaining client success managers, or hand the list to a new hire.
2. Ask the leaving person to bring every client entry on the Monday.com board up to date.
3. Ask for a three-line note per client: where they are, anything promised, what is next.
4. Pull the list of clients who are overdue, new in the last 30 days, or ending in the next 60 days.
5. Agree the date clients hear about it, and send nothing before then.

The three-line note is what keeps promises from getting lost. "I said I would check her sales page this week" lives in one person's head until it is written down. Every open promise goes on the board.

What message do clients get?

Two short messages, one from each person, sent the same day. The leaving client success manager says goodbye and names the new one. The new one says hello, shows they know where the client is, and asks one question.

From the leaving client success manager. "Hey [name], quick news: I'm moving on from the team on [date]. [New CSM] is taking over as your contact, and I've walked them through everything, including [one specific thing]. It's been great working with you."

From the new client success manager. "Hi [name], I'm [new CSM], your new contact from today. I've seen you're on [milestone] and working on [thing]. What's the one thing you want help with this week?"

Keep the reason short and neutral. Clients do not need the story, and a long explanation makes them wonder what went wrong. What they need is proof the new person knows them.

Which clients do you call first?

Three groups, in this order. Overdue clients first, because they were already drifting and a new face is an easy reason to stop. Then clients in their first 30 days, who have barely built trust. Then clients ending in the next 60 days, who are close to the next-offer conversation.

These get a short call or a voice message from the new owner in the first week. Everyone else gets the two messages and the normal rhythm of check-ins. Watch the overdue count for the next month; a rise means the handover leaked.

If someone leaves without notice, the steps are the same, only faster. Whoever runs client success sends the introductions and works through the three groups in the first days.

How does the new person learn the job?

The same way any new client success manager does. A worksheet for the role, the SOPs, Loom recordings of each task, a few training sessions, then room to learn with regular check-ins. If the leaving person recorded how they run their day, that Loom is worth more than any meeting.

Hold KPIs for the first month, as with any new hire. Everyone has a learning curve, and early KPIs are pressure for no reason.

What makes a handover go wrong?

Silence and surprise. Clients who find out from a new name in the chat with no introduction. Promises nobody wrote down. A big announcement post in the community that turns one change into a thread of questions. Short messages from the two people involved avoid all three.

Watch out. Remove the leaving person's access to the board, the chat tools and the community on their last day, and change shared passwords. Do it after the handover messages, not before.

Further reading: The SOPs every coaching back end needs · How to train a client success manager in 30 days