Customer Success and the Struggle with Urgent versus Important

Many CSMs don’t necessarily struggle with prioritization.
But they do struggle with the difference between urgent and important.

Urgency = time pressure.
Importance = strategic impact on customer health and revenue outcomes.

And in Customer Success, urgency wins far more often than it should.

Why? Because most CSMs are wired to help. We’re responsive, relationship-first, and tuned into whatever feels pressing in the moment.

But here’s the trap:
😱 Urgent work screams.
🤫Important work whispers.

The urgent work looks like:
🔸 “Can you resend that link?”
🔸 “Quick question—got a minute?”
🔸 “Can we hop on a call today?”

It’s all time-sensitive, but rarely outcome-changing. Meanwhile, the important work, the work that actually drives NRR, sits quietly in the corner:
✔️ Analyzing health trends and finding those simmering risks
✔️ Building an adoption play focused on measurable outcomes
✔️ Prepping a QBR for strategic impact to secure a renewal

No one is yelling for these. But these are the things that truly move the business.

The Eisenhower Matrix becomes a superpower when you apply it honestly:
1️⃣ Important + Urgent = Do now
2️⃣ Important + Not Urgent = Schedule and plan
3️⃣ Not Important + Urgent = Delegate or delay
4️⃣ Not Important + Not Urgent = Delete

Most CSMs burn out because they spend way too much time in Box 3. And if you don’t actively fight your people-pleasing tendencies, you will always default to the loudest or most recent request, instead of the highest-impact one.

This applies to your customers and your teammates, by the way. Sometimes the right answer is:
“I can help, but not right now.”
Or,
“Support is the best owner for this.”
Or,
“This meeting doesn’t require me.”

Boundaries aren’t about being less helpful. They’re about protecting the work that actually improves customer health and retention.

A simple filter? “Will this meaningfully improve health, reduce risk, or create growth?”

If not, it’s noise.

Customer Success becomes a revenue engine the moment CSMs stop reacting to every time-sensitive request and start prioritizing the work that truly drives outcomes.