In the dynamic realm of Customer Success, professionals often juggle multiple responsibilities - from onboarding new clients to ensuring product adoption, from handling customers’ escalations to managing renewals and upsells... the to-do list can be long.
With such a broad spectrum of tasks, effective prioritisation becomes essential to maintain efficiency and drive customer satisfaction. to maintain efficiency and drive customer satisfaction.
In every consulting project I worked on, CSM prioritisation is always a topic that can’t be ignored. The below guide and tip&tricks delve into a few proven prioritisation techniques, offering actionable insights for Customer Success Managers (CSMs) and Heads of Customer Success. By implementing these strategies, you can enhance your team's productivity, foster stronger customer relationships, and achieve your organisational goals.
As a consultant, I must ensure very quickly that the roles & responsibilities of CSM are clarified as well as the company’s objectives. That’s where it starts! Effective prioritisation ensures that CSMs focus on tasks that align with customer needs and business/company objectives. One first tip is to start identifying high-impact activities it helps teams allocate resources efficiently, reduce churn, and enhance customer satisfaction.
CSMs often face obstacles such as:
• Overwhelming task lists: Managing numerous client accounts can lead to an extensive list of responsibilities
• Reactive workflows: addressing urgent issues can overshadow strategic initiatives
• Lack of clear prioritization frameworks: without structured methods, important tasks may be overlooked
On any consulting project I have worked on, I have spent time looking at the CSMs’ portfolios and customer segmentation and made recommendations to improve the efficiency of CSMs and impact customers satisfaction.
Apart from these essentials, I recommend the 3 following frameworks in order to address prioritisation.
1. The Eisenhower matrix: Urgency vs. Importance
The Eisenhower Matrix categorizes tasks into four quadrants:
- Urgent and Important: tasks requiring immediate attention (e.g., critical client issues)
- Important but Not Urgent: strategic activities (e.g., planning customer success initiatives).
- Urgent but Not Important: tasks that can be delegated (e.g., routine emails)
- Neither Urgent nor Important: activities to minimize or eliminate (e.g., unnecessary meetings)
Implementing this matrix helps CSMs focus on tasks that drive long-term success.
2. Leveraging the Pareto principle (80/20 rule) in customer management
The Pareto Principle suggests that 80% of results come from 20% of efforts. For CSMs, this means identifying and focusing on tasks that yield the most significant outcomes, such as nurturing high-value clients or addressing common pain points.
3. Leveraging the MoSCoW method for task categorisation
This framework helps setting clear priorities and managing stakeholder expectations.The MoSCoW method classifies tasks into:
- Must-Have: Essential tasks for success
- Should-Have: Important but not critical tasks
- Could-Have: desirable tasks if time permits
- Won't-Have: tasks to exclude for now
Finally, part of my consulting projects, I provide coaching and training to CS leaders and CSMs and help them to re-assess their calendar. The goal is to better organise their work week and I find time blocking as very efficient. It is fairly straight forward and forces you to identify then allocate specific time slots for different tasks or activities. This method helps CSMs and CS leaders:
• Reduce distractions: by dedicating time to specific tasks, interruptions are minimized
• Enhance Productivity: focused work periods lead to higher efficiency
• Ensure balanced workloads: allocating time for both reactive and proactive tasks maintains equilibrium
In many cases, my clients approve an increase in efficiency, productivity and overall business impact. If you’re looking for similar results, contact us.