Mental health in CS: It's ok not to be ok!

Mental health might still be a taboo topic in your Customer Success department, but we are here to help you change that. So, what are some of the first steps a CSM or a CS leader can take in making sure that mental health is prioritized at their workplace and that it is actually “ok not to be ok”? And how do you find the balance while still delivering results and outcomes for your customers?

In this episode, our host Anika Zubair chats with Matt Myszkowski, VP of Customer Experience for EMEIA at Cision about why mental health should be prioritized in Customer Success.

In his role at Cision, Matt looks after the Customer Success, Customer Support and Onboarding & Training and CX Operations teams. Prior to Cision, he was the VP of Customer Success at SAP leading a team of 100s of CSMs. Matt has worked in several leadership roles within customer experience and enjoys creating business value by aligning technology, education and data analytics.

For the last couple of years, Matt has spoken a lot about mental health and how “it is ok to not be ok”. After sharing his own story on social media, he has become a mental health advocate for people working in Customer Success.

“There were a couple of significant events in my life where I became a lot more conscious of my mental health and my wellbeing. My time at SAP back in 2017 became quite an influential stage as I talked to my team about it and started sharing more on social media. And then COVID came, and I think the last two years have really challenged us in terms of our mental health and our mental wellbeing.”

Mental health is (of course) important for all workplaces and industries. But why is mental health especially important for Customer Success teams?

“One of the biggest challenges is that Customer Success is always at the risk of being the everything department - the dumping ground - if we're gonna be brutally honest. We are victims of our own success. Most CSMs are people that want to please other people, who want to please customers, and their internal stakeholders. And therefore, it is quite easy to take on too much both as an individual contributor and as a CS leader. You need to be stronger around managing boundaries, expectations and your time. And your business needs to clearly articulate what the CSM role is, but most importantly what it isn’t.”

Listen now to the full conversation with Matt and Anika to learn about why mental health should be prioritized in Customer Success.