Now that you can customize your Timeline Activity types, what additional activity types are others using?

Generic type "Update" for information received outside of a call or meeting.  "News & Press" for logging any press releasees, articles, etc.  It would be very helpful to have the attachment feature for this type of activity so a permanent copy of an online article could be save to file and attached.  

We are still early in implementation of Timeline but these were quick wins for us.

We use all of the standard options for Activities and have all synced to Salesforce Activity History. We've added an activity for "Account Notice" which we use to record cancellation notices provided by customers. These usually come via email, so we paste the email trail in there. I added two fields to this activity: a checkbox to verify the CSM Stage has been updated on the account and a date field for Last Date of Service on the product. 

Don't forget to automatically track Email Assist messages that are sent in Timeline! Here's how you set that up:

1. Navigate to Administration > Calls to Action > General Settings at the account or relationship level.
2. Switch the Automatically track email assist emails in timeline toggle to ON.

 

Our CS team is being bogged down with Support escalations, so our Gainsight CSM recommended we add an activity type for that since the team is more likely to do that than log a formal CTA.  We are calling it "Support Escalation", and we plan to use it to quantify how many escalations we find ourselves getting involved in.

Awesome idea! And with duration and event level details being reportable (use object Activity Timeline in report builder) you can look at trends and time investment by CSM, Customer, Segment, Time Period, etc

I like this idea. We would like to have it show in the dashboard as well; based on owner id=current user. I am struggling with the report to be based on the current user ( I can use user name=, but that doesn't have the option for current user), as well as account name being displayed. Might be a mapping issue on my end, but seems my only option is account ID (not account name), which doesn't link. Any ideas? 

Thanks for any help. 

Update: figured out I need to use "user ID" for current user. 

Hello Samantha! We are still exploring our timeline activities and have created up to the 11 allotted different types. Based on our relationships with out clients but also with any follow-up items internally, we need to track and eventually report on the various activities. Today, we have the following: Log a Call Internal - we want to be able to differentiate activity with internal users vs. clientsLog a Call with Client - standard activity was too generic thus we wanted to identify more specificityLog a Follow Up Items - This activity can be generated from an impromptu call, email or even internal discussion and within the activity, we can now take the follow-up step in creating a task. Log an Escalation Issues - We use this to identify issues that need the attention of leadership, management, product management, R&D, etc. Log a Regular Cadence Review - instead of using OneNote, we can track and document regular calls with clients. Again, looking long term for reporting capabilities, we can then constrain just on the cadence calls to see history/momentum.Log a Case Audit - as we utilize Salesforce for cases, we like to provide a trend of cases to be included in a client's QBR or as a tool for data mining to look at problem areas and/or trends with the future capability of adding attachments.Thanks!

Roxanne

I'm seeing some customers establish a "Renewal" Activity, so that they can break out any engagements with their customers that relate specifically to the contract renewal and start seeing what level of effort is involved there. 

We're doing similar to Roxanne.  We were previously using Success Plans as sort of tracking folders for all the more "not scheduled" events with the customer like trainings,  sending reporting, sharing success stories, etc, so we're looking to convert those over to timeline activities instead so that we can actually start using Success Plans the "right" way.  :)  It's really nice to be able to customize the fields on each so that we're only asking them to fill in what's necessary.

Hey Tracy,

How do you think this compares to capturing the renewal context as an attribute on different activities, or having a renewal CTA with all activities captured within it?