What does a Customer Success Manager at Attentive do all day? Learn how Senior CSM, Lydia McGrath, is making an impact on the brands she loves.

What does a day in the life of a Customer Success Manager at Attentive look like? Since joining Attentive in 2021, I’ve moved up through the ranks of the CS org, most recently getting promoted to Senior Customer Success Manager. As a strategic partner to our customers, I act as an extension of their marketing teams—understanding their challenges, identifying opportunities, and providing data-driven recommendations to help them succeed with Attentive.

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Here’s what my day looks like at Attentive

7:30am - Rise and shine

I like to kick off my day with a workout class—thankfully, Attentive makes it super easy with our monthly wellness stipend! I’m a regular at Pilates, especially classes taught by my friend  and Attentive teammate, Emma, a visual designer on our CS team. We became friends while collaborating on a client’s email flows, and now we’re gym buddies too. 

After a quick change and refresh, I head into our NYC headquarters, ready to take on the day.

9am - Arrive at the office

I walk in and perform my morning ritual: Make coffee, eat breakfast, and set up the walking pad I keep under my desk (because there’s no space for it in my NYC apartment, IYKYK). At this point, people probably know me as “the girl with the walking pad” at the office. But it helps me focus, plus I get my 10,000 steps in while I’m on calls. 

We have a gorgeous kitchen in our office, with pretty much every kind of coffee and fixing you can imagine. My go-to breakfast is yogurt and an iced coffee with sweet cream. 

9:15am - Getting down to business

I use the first hour of the day to get myself organized. I catch up on emails and Slack messages, send any follow-ups from yesterday’s calls, and prep for my morning calls. 

I also use this time to figure out my priorities for the day. If I have a slower day in terms of client meetings, I’ll typically focus more on internal team initiatives and planning. If my day is meeting-heavy, I’ll make sure to keep my to-do list light so I can focus on any action items or follow-ups that come from the meetings. Today I have a few internal and external meetings, so I’m right in the middle.

10am - Data + Processes Sync

My team meets monthly to evaluate our workflows and data insights. During this call, my team analyzes how we can work smarter, optimize processes, and create greater impact for our customers. Most recently, we created automations using internal tools to better support our customers at scale.  

11am - Customer call: email onboarding

Win alert! One of our long-time SMS customers just expanded to Attentive Email. I scheduled time with them to walk through best practices for email segmentation and building emails within journeys and campaigns, ensuring they feel confident leveraging both channels for maximum impact.

When customers switch over from their previous ESPs, they typically need a little bit of hand-holding to get comfortable and confident using their new email platform. I always reassure them that, just like learning any new tool, it gets easier with time. Seeing customers level up their marketing strategies is one of my favorite parts of the job. 

‍12:30pm - Lunch with the team

Across all the Attentive offices, one of the fan-favorite perks is free lunch every day. It’s not just for the free food but because it acts as community-building for our team. Each day we get to choose between two local restaurants, and today we have my absolute favorite: sushi. As the weather warms up, we’ll start taking our lunches to the rooftop to soak up the sun, but today we eat in the kitchen

1pm - Heads-down focus block

After lunch, I do some heads-down work and tick off a few action items for my clients. Here’s what I checked off today’s to-do list:

• Spin up a renewal contract for an apparel brand and send it out for signatures
• Analyze SMS journey performance for a beauty brand and make strategy suggestions for their next campaign
• Update our team’s internal info hub with new resources from our enablement and product marketing teams 

2pm - Customer Strategy Roundtable

My team checks in twice a week to collaborate on challenges and wins. Whether it’s strategizing a renewal, optimizing an SMS strategy, or sharing industry-specific best practices, we all tap into our collective expertise to drive better outcomes.

2:30pm - Email + SMS Orchestration Webinar

To support our clients at scale, my team has started hosting weekly webinars for brands in our book of business. Today’s session is focused on walking through SMS and email orchestration best practices for our customers. It’s a great way to provide strategic guidance to a large range of brands at once.

3:30pm - Snack time (required IMO)

I always need a mid-afternoon pick-me-up. My go-to is a perfectly crisp Diet Coke with lemon (trust me), and a cheesy snack from the office pantry keeps me going. Shoutout to our NYC Office Ops team for always keeping us fueled!

3:45pm - Customer call: campaign planning

I wrap up the day with one of my favorite jewelry brands to plan out their campaign strategy for the quarter. One of the most rewarding parts of my job is helping brands I personally love grow and succeed. 

‍5pm - Softball with The Two Taps

After work, I swap my laptop for my softball jersey and meet up with Attentive’s company team, The Two Taps, named for our patented two-tap technology. We play in the spring against other NYC companies. While none of us are pros, it’s always a blast—and a great way to connect with my colleagues so we can be a strong team both at and outside of work. 

6:30pm - Time to unwind

I go home and I’m ready to chill out after a busy day. Although the environment is fast-paced, I love that I’m getting an opportunity to make an impact on brands I love and stretch myself while doing it—surrounded by phenomenal people, of course. 

Want to join my team? We’re hiring!