The Journey: #26 Face Time Matters

A few years ago, I was logging 200,000 miles a year.

Great for my Delta status.

Brutal on my body, marriage, and sanity.

But completely worth it.

Back then, I was leading a Customer Success team at a company that believed in proximity. We didn’t just serve our customers, we sat near them. We opened offices in key cities and hired locally so we could meet with customers in person, regularly.

Some days, I’d spend the morning onsite walking through product roadmaps, troubleshooting rollout issues, and whiteboarding new ideas. By afternoon, I’d be at a working lunch or a team dinner, talking about everything but business, families, career goals, weddings, life.

Those meals? They were where the real relationships were built.

Fast forward a few years, and I still follow many of those customers on Instagram. We still celebrate milestones together, new jobs, babies, half-marathon medals, cross-country moves. That’s the kind of bond you don’t get from a quarterly email.

Those relationships weren’t transactional. They were personal.

And they were made possible by showing up.

Fast forward to today…

Remote-first everything.

Offices optional.

Travel, expensive.

Logistics, tricky.

So does that mean face time is dead?

Not even close.

But it does mean we need to be more intentional.

Here’s what I’m doing to create more in-person opportunities with customers, even in a remote-first world:

5 Ways to Make Face Time Happen

Track Individual Locations

It’s no longer helpful to track just the company HQ. Know where your actual stakeholders live and work so you can plan smarter when you're on the road.

Coordinate Small Customer Meetups

Organize intimate gatherings with customers in the same city or region, ideally grouped by role or level. Low effort, high impact.

Prioritize Your Company’s Customer Conference

If your company runs an annual customer event, use it as an anchor. Get your key contacts there, and make time for meaningful connection beyond the stage or booth.

Attend Their Events

Find out which industry events or conferences your customers are attending and show up. Sometimes just being there sparks the best conversations.

Join Their Offsites or Team Events

If a customer is bringing their team together, ask to join. Offer to lead a session, share best practices, or just be there to listen. These are golden relationship-building moments.

I know this takes effort. I know it’s not scalable.

But the strongest partnerships aren’t built on scale, they’re built on presence. So yes, you'll need to prioritize. Yes, you'll have to determine if it's worth it.

But when you show up, it means something.

It says, “I care enough to be here.”

Let’s bring face time back.

Let’s get in the room again.

And if you’ve found other creative ways to prioritize in-person time, hit reply.

I’d love to hear what’s working for you.