The irony of becoming more productive is that it often takes some trial and error, how can you know if something will make you more efficient without trying it? And if it doesn\u2019t work for you, has that been unproductive?<\/p>\n
Well, don\u2019t worry about any of that for now, because we\u2019ve collected productivity and development tips from customer success leaders. With the context and real-life examples of their tips, you should have a better idea of whether it\u2019s something you\u2019re more likely to benefit from.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no favouritism here, but we\u2019ve included two tips from Dan<\/a>: one on personal productivity and one that relates to team development.<\/p>\n Personal: \u201cI read as much as I can, not just regarding the customer success profession, but also psychologically and about the SaaS industry to stay in touch with the key trends. Jason Lempkin is the perfect person to look up and read from.\u201d<\/p>\n Team: When discussing how they improve the customer success performance of Seenit<\/a>\u2019s CS teams, Dan reminded us of the importance of open and regular collaboration. \u201cIn order to improve performance, we have regular\/open one-to-ones, where we challenge each other and work together to help increase our overall Health Score as a team by learning from each other.\u201d<\/p>\n Like Dan, Emma<\/a> shared some personal and team advice on productivity and we just had to share both with you!<\/p>\n Personal: \u201cI write down what must be done by the end of the day before I open my inbox or Slack. Looking through my inbox or Slack messages puts me into reactive mode, at the beginning of my day this is a productivity killer for me!\u201d<\/p>\n Team: \u201cAs our customers are looking to have an effective social media presence, our Customer Success Team [at SmarterQueue<\/a>] are subscribed to social media influencers YouTube channels, newsletters and are on the pulse of the latest trends and market news.\u201d<\/p>\n In true productive style, Lauren<\/a> provided us with eight short tips for productivity, listed as bullet points. Now that is productive! You can read the full list<\/a> in our interview with Fixflo<\/a>‘s Head of Customer Success, but here\u2019s some of the highlights.<\/p>\n Lauren limits distractions by using Gmail snooze and not looking at her phone throughout the day. With \u2018do not disturb\u2019 mode on, it\u2019s time to plan the tasks for the week ahead.<\/p>\n \u201cI always write a list of my top goals of the week (and include any I didn\u2019t do the week before) and try and block out appropriate time in the calendar to get them done and tick off as I go.\u201d<\/p>\n Lauren adds a great tip to: \u201cbreak down elephant-sized tasks into bite-sized chunks so you can better prioritise\/feel less overwhelmed and feel accomplished quicker.\u201d<\/p>\n At what point is your to-do list to-doing too much? As Troy<\/a> indicates below, it\u2019s when your number of tasks becomes unrealistic or unachievable, at least in the short-term.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you have a list of five things you want to do, then do one of those things very well, even in your personal life. Don\u2019t try to lay it on thick and try to improve 100% over 2 days, it\u2019s much better to do it incrementally and do stuff properly over a year, rather than quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think there\u2019s a pressure to self-improve overnight and everybody thinks there\u2019s a quick fix, to be an expert on stuff. It\u2019s not going to happen overnight\u2026 If you\u2019ve got a gap that\u2019s 10 metres wide, and think you can get over it in one day, you\u2019re always going to fall down the gap, but if you can train yourself to do a 30cm leap, a metre leap and then a two-metre leap over time, there\u2019s more chance you\u2019re going to do it as you\u2019ve trained yourself to repeat that over and over again.\u201d<\/p>\n You can learn more about Amplience here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Sometimes, you just need some time to yourself to focus or learn something new. Whether you achieve that goal or not is another thing, but hopefully Nuno<\/a>\u2019s tips might guide you to success.<\/p>\n \u201cIn terms of getting the work done, I Slack myself several times a day, and I try to book-in time on my own at least 60 minutes a day \u2014 away from my desk \u2014 maybe in a meeting room, maybe in a caf\u00e9. I try to have my own space within the working hours, even if it\u2019s 5-10 mins looking at LinkedIn, or watching a video about customer success or trying to address specific business challenges.\u201d<\/p>\nEmma Tiegan, Head Of Customer Success & Operations, SmarterQueue<\/h2>\n
Lauren Cumming, Head of Customer Success at Fixflo<\/h2>\n
Troy Pratley, Head of Customer Success (EMEA) at Amplience<\/h2>\n
Nuno Paiva das Neves, Head of Customer Success (EMEA) at SafetyCulture<\/h2>\n