Five (5) Ways to improve your productivity

How do you improve productivity in Customer Success?

Customer Success has brought significant improvements both to companies and customers. With their ability to help customers generate the most value from a product or service, companies improve their renewal rates while gaining more net new customers. However, Customer Success Managers can only do so much of a lot of things. One major problem that many Customer Success Managers face is how to keep up with all of the different things they need to do each day. 

CSMs are expected to do so many things simultaneously and with excellent quality. This can lead to burnout, lowered productivity, and frustration among other team members who find themselves waiting on you for approvals or information. Suppose your goal is increased productivity so you can spend less time doing repetitive tasks and delegate more client-facing time. In that case, then this article will give you some tips on how you can achieve this goal by streamlining communication, providing faster responses, and focusing on the future: 

1. Organize your workload

We understand that there’s a lot of work to be done, and sometimes, sitting down and organizing them feels like a complete waste of time, but in reality, it’s the opposite. A scattered workload would only leave you thinking more of “what do I need to do next?” and panicking from overlooked, resulting in more wasted time.   

Take your time to list your tasks not to forget anything. You can use CRMs to keep track of your customers and what needs to be done for them, project management tools for your specific company duties, calendars to schedule your activities, or a simple to-do list to ensure that you’re always on track with what needs to be done. 

 Having an organized workload is great for organizing the details of both large and small projects in a way that doesn’t overwhelm you with deadlines looming all day long. 

2. Focus on what matters

Working from home or in an office makes it easy to get distracted by small tasks that don’t matter. Your pets may ask for your tender loving care and attention, or you suddenly remember that you need to mow the lawn. Instead of focusing on those things, prioritize your tasks based on: 

– What work needs to be done 

– How vital the tasks are 

– When are the tasks due 

Set your goals. Everyone in an organization should have specific goals they need to meet throughout the year- whether those are increased retention rate or improved customer satisfaction ratings- you should know precisely what you’re working towards and identify the steps you need to do each day to reach those set expectations. If you don’t have any selected metrics by which you can measure your progress (or lack thereof), take some time out of your day-to-day activities to set KPIs and evaluate them.  

3. Be proactive

As a Customer Success Manager, you must always be proactive. Don’t wait for a customer to reach out and ask you a question. Instead, proactively learn more about the problem they are trying to solve and devise strategies to facilitate value realization. Always find a way to evaluate their progress, identify which issues they are experiencing or may experience, and begin helping the customers before they even realize a problem. Actively listen to your customers and build a trusting relationship with them. 

Your availability to the customers could affect how you serve customers and solve their problems; how would they talk about ways you can help them when you failed to build a trusting relationship with them? 

4. Leverage reports and dashboards, if possible. 

Reports and dashboards are valuable tools that help you understand how your organization is doing in terms of performance and customer satisfaction. They typically use data from your CRM system to provide insights into how customers interact with your business, including which channels they use most frequently and what types of interactions result in high-value sales or retention. Properly utilizing these data helps you identify the right time and approach to a customer that would result in the most value without much effort. 

5. Streamline your communication

One of the main reasons customer success managers are often frustrated with their productivity is that they spend too much time on repetitive tasks (i.e., sending emails or responding to frequently asked questions). Here are some quick tips to help you: 

• Use a CRM (customer relationship management) tool to organize your interactions and stay on top of when each one should be followed up with. This will allow you to focus on more critical tasks, such as offering value above and beyond what customers or prospects expect. 
• When sending emails, use templates to have a good foundation for each message. This way, you can easily send similar responses without having to write them over repeatedly—and without wasting valuable time. It also makes it easier to follow up with customers who haven’t had any contact since last month! 
• If any kind of chatbot is available within your company’s ecosystem, then take advantage of it! These tools ensure conversations go smoothly by using natural language processing algorithms that enable both parties involved in discussions (whether employees or customers). They work great at removing barriers between humans, so anyone who needs help gets exactly what they need immediately without having any problems whatsoever. 

To sum it up

Customer Success has proven the value it can bring from the short years it’s been in the field, and this has driven great expectations from companies and customers alike. While it means that there are a lot of tasks that a Customer Success Manager must effectively juggle around, it doesn’t need to be overwhelming. By following the tips above, you’ll be able to improve your productivity and ensure that you can keep up with your customers’ growing demands and needs. 

Learn more about CSMs and Productivity in this short video: https://practicalcsm.com/csms-and-productivity-rantsmusings-with-rick-adams/