3 Best Practices I Learned From Remote CS Teams
And why every team needs to adopt these practices.
“Working in-person is more productive.”
But is it?
Post-pandemic, many companies asked their employees to return to the office. However, studies show that 98% of people still want the flexibility to work remotely. This has led to a large number of people working in a hybrid model.
And while many feel the hybrid model is the best of both worlds, companies often fail to adapt how they work. This leads to frustration and unproductive work.
This is where we can learn from fully remote teams.
In our recent interview, we sat down with Mario Meijide, Head of CS at Omnipresent. He shared how he's effectively leading fully remote Customer Success (CS) teams.
Here are 3 best practices that all CS teams should adopt, fully remote or not.
1. ✏️ Prioritize Documentation
Clear and consistent documentation serves as the backbone of remote collaboration.
Document everything from onboarding procedures to customer escalation guidelines. This will empower your team to work autonomously and efficiently.
Establish a centralized knowledge repository. This should include all essential product/sales info, processes, procedures, and best practices.
Create clear onboarding plans to guide team members on how to find key information from day 1.
Implement a process to update the information consistently to ensure accuracy and reliability.
2. 🏝️ Respect Personal Time
One of the biggest critiques of remote work is that the boundaries between personal life and work are blurred.
This makes it even more important to respect personal time.
People need time for their personal lives otherwise they will burnout.
Implement a no Slack/email policy during PTO. Managers must lead by example and follow this, otherwise no one will.
Encourage adherence to standard working hours and discourage after-hours communication, except in emergencies. This is particularly important for globally distributed teams.
Create a shared team PTO Calendar to know when someone is off and encourage team members to take time off.
3. 🔨 Leverage Tooling
One of the biggest mistakes in-person or hybrid teams make is under-utilizing tools that make daily tasks easier.
When working at the office, it’s easy to have impromptu meetings, but it’s not efficient and can be disruptive.
Invest in tools that streamline communication, project management, and task organization. Take note of any repetitive manual tasks and see how to automate these.
Schedule regular team training to learn how to maximize value from the tools. Different team members can serve as knowledge experts for different tools.
Mario Meijide, Head of CS at Omnipresent, recommends the following tools:
The tl;dr
Whether your CS team is fully back in the office or not, there are 3 best practices we can all adopt from fully remote teams.
✏️ Prioritize Documentation
🏝️ Respect Personal Time
🔨 Leverage Tooling
❓What tools are your CS team using to work remotely? Comment below or reach out directly on LinkedIn.