Your most important renewal of the year in Customer Success
By: Chad Horenfeldt
Tags: Startup, Account Management, Retention, Customer Success, SaaS

I’m exhausted. This year has easily been the most challenging time of my life handling everything that has been thrown at me. I’m grateful for my health and the health of my family, but the pandemic has taken a toll on me. I’m confined to my home, and I can no longer see my colleagues nor visit our clients in person. My children and I are on Zoom calls all day and I’m trying to keep my family and myself from going insane. The only thing that is certain is uncertainty. I’m doing my best. My team and I have accomplished so much. Yet, I still have the biggest and most important renewal to close.

No, that renewal isn’t our biggest client. That renewal is me. I need to take the time to renew myself. I need to renew my spirit. I need to renew my passion. I need to renew myself so I can start again. This includes shutting myself off from the regular Slack messages and the stream of email. It means powering down my devices and disabling my Zoom backgrounds.

When I’ve taken the necessary time off to recharge my batteries, I can come back as the best Customer Success leader, the best father, the best husband, the best colleague, and most importantly, the best person that I can be. I can’t energize others unless I have energy myself. I can’t work on renewing our clients unless I renew myself.

You need to renew yourself

Have the attitude of gratitude

I know that many of us can’t be with our friends and family this holiday season. This can be very painful and can bring us down. My advice is to dig deep and think of all that you have to be grateful for. Think back to all of the positive memories from the year instead of dwelling on the negative ones. Take the time to thank those who helped you through these tough times. I’m grateful that I have such a loving family. I’m grateful for the amazing Customer Success team that I get to work with every day. I’m also grateful for the broader CX department, my colleagues at Kustomer, my manager, and of course, our customers.

Besides being able to work from home and spend more time with my family, I’m proud and thankful to have been named one of the top 25 Customer Success Influencers. I’m thankful for my fellow CS leaders in NYC and from all over that I’ve had the chance to remotely meet with this past year. I’m most thankful for the moments I’ve had with my family that I never would have had without this COVID crisis. I’ve never felt closer to my wife or children. Take some time to reflect on what you have to be thankful for.

Create a QBR and success plan for yourself

Next, write down what you are looking forward to and what you want to accomplish next year. Start to plan out how you will make this a reality. Think of this exercise as a QBR but for yourself (a personal review). What did you set out to do and what did you accomplish? What’s your roadmap for next year? What are those priorities that will help you accomplish your personal goals? Write out a personal success plan that includes your goals. My goals for next year include writing more, and to share my knowledge on Customer Success with others. I’ve outlined areas where I want to further my knowledge which includes leadership, data analysis, and personal finance. I’ve renewed my fitness goals for next year and have outlined my financial objectives. This is only my first draft and as I want to take this time to reflect more on what is really important to me. I recommend that you do the same type of personal review.

Remember that you need to take care of yourself before you can take care of others. It’s like those demonstrations on airplanes that you used to see when you were told to put on your own oxygen mask before putting it on children (remember what it was like to fly in a plane?). Take the time to focus on the most important renewal of the year. You. Happy holidays and all the best next year!