Introduction
In customer success, the ability to anticipate and resolve issues before they escalate can make the difference between retaining a customer or losing them. Digital signals—such as product usage trends, support interactions, and engagement levels—offer critical insights into potential risks early in the customer journey. By tracking these signals in real-time, you can proactively manage risk, ensuring customers remain engaged and satisfied. This article will walk you through setting up and leveraging digital signal monitoring in Gainsight to detect risks before they become serious.
Step 1: Identify Key Digital Signals to Monitor
To start, define the digital signals that provide early warning of potential customer risk.
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Product Usage Trends: Use Product Analytics to monitor feature usage. A significant drop in usage can indicate that the customer is not deriving value from the product.
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Support Interaction Volume: Track support tickets and customer complaints using custom dashboards in Gainsight Dashboards. An increase in support tickets may suggest product friction or dissatisfaction.
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Engagement with CSMs: Monitor customer engagement through Timeline to ensure regular touchpoints with key stakeholders. A lack of recent interaction can be an early warning signal.
By defining these signals, you can keep a pulse on customer health and intervene proactively when necessary.
Step 2: Automate Risk Alerts Using Rules Engine
Once you’ve identified key digital signals, use Gainsight’s Rules Engine to automate risk alerts:
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Set Up Automated CTAs: Create rules in the Rules Engine to trigger CTAs when specific digital signals cross predefined thresholds, such as a drop in product usage or increased support tickets.
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Prioritize Alerts: Use severity levels to prioritize which alerts require immediate action. For instance, a sudden drop in engagement from a high-value customer should trigger a higher-priority alert.
Automating alerts ensures that your team is notified as soon as critical risk signals arise, allowing for timely intervention.
Step 3: Segment Digital Signals by Customer Type
Customize the way you track digital signals by customer segment to ensure more tailored risk detection:
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Segment-Based Tracking: Use Scorecards to track digital signals by customer segment (e.g., Enterprise vs. SMB). For example, large enterprise customers may require different thresholds for engagement compared to SMB customers.
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Lifecycle Stages: Track signals based on the customer’s lifecycle stage (e.g., onboarding vs. expansion). Use Adoption Explorer to monitor adoption patterns during onboarding, while focusing on engagement and ROI metrics for expansion customers.
Segmenting your monitoring helps ensure that each customer type is receiving the right level of attention based on their specific needs.
Step 4: Continuously Monitor and Adjust Signals
Digital signals evolve over time, so it’s important to continuously monitor and refine how you track them:
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Review Signal Trends via Dashboards: Use Gainsight Dashboards to track trends in product usage, support tickets, and engagement. Regularly review these trends to spot emerging risks.
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Refine Signal Thresholds: Based on feedback and performance data, adjust the thresholds for when CTAs are triggered. For example, if certain customers show early signs of disengagement, lower the threshold to trigger alerts sooner.
By continuously refining how you monitor digital signals, you can stay proactive and address risks before they escalate.
Next Steps for Success
With digital signal monitoring in place:
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Prioritize high-risk accounts: Use dashboards to track high-priority accounts based on product usage, support issues, and engagement signals.
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Automate CTA triggers: Ensure that automated CTAs are set up to trigger for all key digital signals, so your team stays on top of early risk indicators.
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