Admin Fridays Are Happy Fridays
Does your to-do list keep getting longer even though you check things off? Do you struggle to manage your calendar? If you’re nodding along, then you’ve probably experienced similar challenges as me. Whether you’re in a customer-facing role or not, staying organized and in control of your schedule is essential for productivity.
I’m Rita, a Customer Success Manager (CSM) at Customer.io, and I want to share my experience in hopes it will help you as well.
The Challenge: Keeping Customers Happy While Maintaining a Balanced Calendar
My goal as a CSM is to keep my customers happy and looked after, but it is sometimes very challenging to juggle everything.
I have weeks where my calendar is full of customer meetings that I do not even have the chance to check my inbox. I need to send a follow-up email with every meeting, which adds another task to my ever-growing to-do list. And on top of that, I need to stay current with the latest updates and features being made in the product so I can share with my customers and provide them with the best possible service. After all, we are a tech company and are constantly changing, evolving, and innovating! This means reading articles, watching videos/meetings, and doing online trainings.
The backlog quickly becomes massive, and two main problems arise—customers do not get what they need when they need it, and you get stressed out about it.
The Solution: Admin Fridays
And then, suddenly, an obvious solution came to mind—Admin Fridays! After weeks of feeling overwhelmed and stressed out, I decided to block my next Friday to make sure I closed all matters for that week.
Admin Friday Goals:
- Complete my task list for that week: product updates, trainings, etc.
- Make sure the follow-ups sent to customers were personalized, clear, detailed, and valuable.
- Reduce my stress and the feeling of being overwhelmed to start Monday fresh rather than play catchup from the week before.
The Outcome: A Happier, Less Stressed CSM
Fridays are now uninterrupted focus time. Whether it’s for diving into a complicated customer use case, building a presentation, or even writing this blog post! Admin Fridays are the equivalent of professional me-time days, and the activities I focus on are sometimes different tasks that need my undivided attention.
Both myself and, surprisingly, my customers got used to Amin Fridays. Most of them already know that they will get whatever they need (troubleshooting/investigating an issue, advice on strategy, account analysis) by Friday to continue with their project. They no longer feel the need to remind me, and I no longer feel like I am not meeting our customer’s expectations. Overall, the health score of the relationship is the one that wins!
Tips on Decreasing Stress and Implementing Your Own Admin Friday
- No meetings on Fridays. This time is for everything else that needs undivided attention.
- Structure your day. Schedule the day with the several tasks you need to complete and stand by it.
- How about some music? Most people really benefit from a soundtrack when focusing on a project.
- Turn off Slack notifications. Schedule two times during the day where you will spend 15 minutes checking notifications.
- Check it off. Tick all the boxes on your to-do list and enjoy the satisfaction!
Rita is based in Portugal and oversees customers all over Europe. When not at work, Rita enjoys travel, all things food-related, and candlemaking. Fun fact: Rita is also a trained makeup artist and led the team in a session on how to get the perfect skin during our last virtual retreat.
Customer.io is hiring! View our open positions and apply today.