May: Day in the Life: CSM Volume. 4

Visit my Site!

---

Welcome back everyone to another edition of Day in the Life: CSM.

I can’t believe it’s already June… said everyone on every call this week.

But in all seriousness, the quarter and year is truly flying by and it’s been packed with updates, priorities, and challenges.?

I am starting this journey off mid-week coming off a mini vacation with my family.

I am a father of a 1-year-old son, and we’ve always kept our travel up to this point short, under an hour. This mini-vacation was set for Maine, and we were nervous as it was a 2-3 hour drive, and didn’t know how he’d handle the trip

To cut to the chase …. Not great… he ended up getting motion sickness and we had to stop twice as he spit up in the car and over the car seat!

Off to a fantastic start for our quick vacation!

We ended up having a pretty good time and the road trip back was better as we strategically planned breakfast better and were better prepared for the challenge ahead.

This resilience I don’t think is an accident or something that comes naturally - the more often you can put yourself in hard or tough situations builds resilience and an ability to navigate difficult situations.

Don’t forget how little things in life can translate to all areas of your life and if you optimize areas this too can lead to better performance.

Wednesday:

Morning

Wake up: 5:30am

I woke on this day at 5:30am which is my typically wake up time, not because I’m a hero, but because I know my son gets up around 6:30am so this allows me to set my day for success and build a morning routine.?

I always drink 2 glasses of water to start my day after a night of dehydration and weight myself as well.

Coffee: 5:45am

I typically set my coffee the night before so it’s ready to go first thing in the morning after I’ve brushed my teeth.?

I’ll then combine stretching, breathing and reading with my coffee.

Right now I’m reading Do Hard Things by Steve Magness which has been a cool interesting book.

I’ll typically do this process until 6:15am, after which I’ll get sunlight into my eyes before getting my son ready for the day.

Workout: 7:30-8:30am

Now is the fun part but also the hardest part of my day: Training.

I put a lot of focus on training and working out especially since I just recently competed in a bodybuilding physique show it’s now stuck with me.

I lost over 30lbs over the last year, so this is a big integrated part of my life.

I’ll then get my post workout shake and meal and get ready for the day.

Work Day:

I knew this day would be challenging as a lot of calls had been moved or rescheduled to this day since I was on vacation earlier in the week.

I began running through emails and catchup’s in slack and communication that I missed.

One key piece on this day was priortizing internal handoffs with other CSM’s who were returning to work and getting them caught up to speed on accounts I had been covering. This was critical as I had a call scheduled later that day at 4pm with the client and needed to lead and introduce the new team members as well. Being prepared for these internal handoffs is important and I store the majority of my notes in our CRM, Catalyst which I focus on a lot during my preparation early in the day.

Along with the early set up I typically will then prioritize client emails to get back to urgent matters and block out time to respond to other tasks. This can typically take a bit of time in the morning but it structures my day and leads to greater prioritization.

Mid Day:

Later in the day was filled with client calls, some ranging from escalations with a client needing to coordinate job board issues with Indeed all to monthly cadence calls.

These types of calls can be pretty typical for CSM’s and being prepared for these can make or break these discussions. I use Salesforce and catalyst regularly to prep for these calls and make sure I’m giving as much value to my clients as possible.?

After each call I’ll typically get an AI recap of the call and send out a follow-up to my client and fill out these notes in my CRM database. This structure helps tremendously for the next call and to reflect on any outstanding items that need to be addressed.?

My last call was regarding a feature request bug escalation and ultimately the client wanted a refund. These can be hard conversations, but with the relationship and rapport built up over a period of time you can arm yourself with a calm approach and give them solutions instead of more issues. I typically approach these conversations with an open mind and try to exhaust all outcomes first for the client, especially reallocation of the feature to fit other recruiting feature need they may have. This call ended on a strong positive note and should lead to a favorable outcome for myself and the client.

End of Day:

I always try to wind down with any emails at the end of the day to have a zero email inbox which I do prefer.

I’ll then clear out all tabs, reflect on the day, make any notes for tomorrow and close my laptop and head downstairs ( did I mention I work remote..) to play with my son before dinner and family time.

I think having the structure planned out from the start of my day helps me navigate the CSM challenges with clients and escalations.?

Also taking learnings from outside of work and resilience situations helps me navigate this as well.

That's it for today's edition of "Day in the Life:CSM" Until next time, stay inspired and keep shining!

Warm regards,

Colin Foley

Day in the Life