In a previous post, I shared some thoughts on creating high-quality Calls To Action (CTAs). This week, I’m back on the same theme, with some examples of low-quality CTAs. If these CTAs sound familiar, or if they haunt you from your Cockpit, consider how you might improve the game by making revisions.

The “FYI” CTA

Something isn’t usually “just for your information” and then simultaneously “requires your action”. Therefore the FYI CTA is truthfully an oxymoron. If it’s an FYI, then surface in an email, share a Slack / Teams message, or build into a Report or Dashboard. It crosses into a CTA when action is required. By literal definition, a CTA is an Action.

The “anniversary” CTA, and its sibling, the “pre-anniversary” CTA

I often see CTAs that read “Onboarding project completed 90 days ago” or “Customer’s renewal is in 120 days”. That’s interesting, but that’s not an actionable CTA. If there’s an intended action to accompany these anniversaries, reform this notice into a CTA. Perhaps you have “Re-affirm customer’s goals and validate intermediate value since onboarding completion” or “Prepare and deliver a business impact presentation ahead of the renewal”.

The “lingering” CTA

This CTA is like that pile of mail you build, knowing you’ll eventually get to it. Except you don’t get to it. These CTAs need a due date, and if it’s not vital enough to have a due date, then get rid of it altogether. CTAs that linger like this are typically non-impactful, and it’s worth a discussion with your CS or CS Ops team about the ultimate value of those CTAs.

The “perpetual” CTA

I heard a story of a company that delivered Business Reviews, using CTAs to prompt and track BR delivery. Great….I like it so far. Then I learned that the very evening the CSM closed their Business Review CTA, their platform would automatically issue a new CTA for the next Business Review prep. Talk about de-motivating; even simple psychology states that we like to make progress. Having a system where closing a CTA automatically re-generates exactly the same CTA isn’t very motivating or action oriented. (Somehow, this reminds me of trying to kill the villain in Terminator.) Hold that new CTA until you actually need to start the BR processes anew; that improves CSM motivation and focus, by showing them only the items that actually warrant their bandwidth.

The “undocumented” CTA

“Meet with the customer about a drop in usage”. OK, this CTA might have potential. Except there’s no detail about what dropped. Was it the number of users logging in? How many users then….and now? Quantify that drop with very accessible data or verbiage inside the CTA. Or did they stop using a mission-critical feature? Which feature, and by how much? Make it easy for your CSM to see the through-line from the data straight to the CTA.

Talk to me….I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Or perhaps you’ve got another CTA we need to band together to fight off. What is it? And what’s your best advice?