Share and Learn Best Practices

I'm looking to understand what other CSM Leaders are doing in regards to portfolio reviews with their CSMs. I would like to review the accounts and set goals with my team for the year. I"m thinking of including the following items, but want to see if anyone else has done this and has some suggestions? - Engaged vs Not Engaged - why not, what are we doing to change that? - Time spent in accounts - are we spending the right amount in the accounts, are the activities productive or redundant? - Create goals around MBOs Thanks in advance for any ideas!

One of the questions I get asked a lot is where to start when creating a digital customer journey. It’s one question that I always hesitate to answer because the true answer is “Well, it depends”. It depends on what processes and automation you have in place currently, who your customers are, and what products you are offering. In my opinion, it’s best to first map out the existing customer journey, noting which parts of the experience are manual, and which are automated (or perhaps could be in the future). Once you have that mapped out, look for the low-hanging fruit, the easy wins if you will. This is commonly found in the very first step of your customer journey. The new customer welcome email.Think about your shopping habits and the experience that come with them. Whether you’re buying a new family car or furniture to be delivered. The person serving you thanks you for your purchase and may provide you with some additional information for you to read until the product is delivered.

It’s not uncommon to hear customer-facing teams answer the same questions time and time again. The questions could be about functionality or general how-to’s. Sometimes, these questions become feature requests, and it can be challenging for teams to record this information in an efficient manner so product teams can prioritize feature requests accurately.That’s where the customer community comes in. Gainsight offers a community solution called Digital Hub that offers the ability for you to empower your customers to ask questions about your product, log feature requests and interact with other customers. If done well, your customers will answer each other questions, and you will have a well-formatted report of feature requests, votes, and revenue associated with the features. In fact, in our new book on customer communities set to be published in November 2023, we talk about how you can integrate community into every part of your customer journey and the importance of doing so.Getting b

'Are you a mid-market CSM who is fatigued from juggling multiple customer accounts and struggling to keep everyone on the same page? Do you find it challenging to collaborate effectively with your technical counterparts, account managers, and your manager? You are not alone, and we are here to help! On Wednesday, August 2nd at 10:00am PT I will be hosting a webinar about how to unleash the power of Gainsight in a fast-paced landscape, where tech stacks are under scrutiny, breaking down communication barriers is more crucial than ever while driving efficiencies to deliver ROI. To kick-start the conversation and get you engaged, we''d love to hear your thoughts on how you break down communication barriers within your team to provide an exceptional customer experience. What strategies and tools have you found most helpful in fostering cross-collaboration and achieving success?  Share your insights and join the conversation with like-minded professionals who are passionate about revolution

 In the ever-evolving landscape of customer success, I am excited to share how I see businesses are harnessing the power of digitization to elevate customer engagement and achieve sustainable growth. The rise of 1:Many programs has been a game-changer, revolutionizing the way businesses scale their customer success efforts. These programs play a pivotal role in maximizing efficiency, fostering consistent communication, and identifying growth opportunities within the customer base. In this post, I want to share my take on how 1:many programs are set to revolutionize businesses across various aspects, ultimately leading to amplified customer satisfaction and growth.Scalability: 1:Many programs empower customer success teams to reach and engage with a larger number of customers simultaneously. This scalability is crucial as businesses onboard and support a growing customer base without compromising personalized attention. Imagine the empowerment of Customer Success Managers (CSMs) when th

Hello Fellow GS Folks!Anyone out there working to create DS (High/Low/Tech Touch) segment that works in healthcare - specifically with hospitals & automation? We are creating a pooled CS team and would appreciate any ideas, tips/tricks, BP and more importantly, step by step what you did first in order to be successful.  FYI - we do utilize basic GS functionality - would love to incorporate more regarding unused functionality that we may already have & not using - please note that we do not have PX functionality at this time so that is not an option.  Hopefully in the future.  Thank you in advance!With Care,Molly Walden - molly.walden@omnicell.com 

We've launched a new short CS skills course on Gainsight's Durable Growth Playbook, designed to empower CS professionals to prevent surprise customer churn, boost product adoption, and keep customer success outcomes at the forefront. The best part is the course is available for FREE! 😉 Check it out today!Link to course for current Pulse+ subscribers Link to course for everyone elseAfter completing the course, you’ll receive an email offer from Credly.com with your digital badge. Share it on LinkedIn, and let others know about this training!And if you like this course, check out the rest of the CS training and certifications in our Pulse+ training program.

Previously, we explored the importance of defining a default customer 360 view. Now, we delve into - Accessing and updating CRM account records from Gainsight. By seamlessly integrating these two systems, you can optimize data management and empower your teams to make near-real-time updates.Imagine a world where your customer success teams can effortlessly access and update CRM account records directly from the C360. This workflow propels you from the initial phase to medium visibility, enabling efficient and informed decision-making.To create this visibility, leverage Gainsight's powerful connectors, rules engine, custom fields, and C360 capabilities. Let's explore the keys to success:CRM Connector: Integrate your CRM tool with Gainsight to pull key customer data into the C360. By centralizing customer information, you equip your teams with a holistic view of customer interactions, enabling them to deliver personalized experiences. Usage and Support Ticket Data: Gainsight's connectors

Looking forward to discussing one of my favourite topics: why and how CS Operations & Enablement working effectively together is the key to a successful Gainsight environment. Technology is only as good as the enablement behind it. As Gainsight Admins & CS Ops professionals, we need to think like Product Managers. Before building something as simple as a report or a dashboard, let alone editing the 360 views of our customers, we need to ask ourselves: how are my end users going to gain value out of this? Not only that, but how easily will they gain that value?In our world, we often think about things like story points or level of effort, but we need to add two more factors into this: level of impact and ease of adoption.Then, we work backwards from that enablement. In this session, we’ll dive into the actionable tactics you can bring back to your development process to prioritize the user experience and a strong partnership with CS enablement.About Me: by day, I’m the Senior Ma

I am honored to be speaking at Pulse 2023, come and join me for my CSM workshop! Are you ready to take your Customer Success to the next level?Join us for an exciting presentation on "Creating exceptional experiences and building advocates within your customer base."Discover the secrets to listening to your customers and delivering exceptional experiences that will turn them into raving fans.I’ll show you how to close-the-loop and take action on customer feedback to drive satisfaction and loyalty.And that's not all – I’ll also reveal how to mobilize your promoters and turn them into advocates who will spread the word about your brand. Get ready to revolutionize your customer success skills and build a base of loyal advocates – all with the help of Gainsight’s expert tips and tricks.Don't miss out on this must-see presentation! If you have any questions, feel free to ask me in the comments below!

In customer success, it is important to comprehensively understand your customers to ensure personalized and impactful interactions. To embark on the journey towards increasing the customer-facing team's impact, let’s start defining your default customer 360 (C360) views.Imagine having a basic C360 that serves as a centralized hub, organizing key customer data and applications your team utilizes for effective customer management. This workflow allows you to move toward a deeper understanding of your customer's needs, preferences, and pain points.While the initial phase may signify the beginning of a 360 view, its impact is far from insignificant. Organizing vital customer data within the C360 gives you a medium level of visibility, facilitating quick access to information that drives actionable insights. Consider the following questions as you begin setting these up:Do you regularly need to access data from various tools or systems? Are insights effectively organized within a single vi

I'm thrilled to be speaking at Pulse for the first time, along with my colleague @JKucek, on driving engagement with Stakeholder Alignment! This topic is near and dear to my heart as I believe it is a key workflow that takes CS organizations from reactive to proactive.As a CSM, navigating political complexity and multiple stakeholders is par for the course. But as your customers change priorities and shift strategies (especially in today's economic climate), maintaining alignment with multiple executives and decision makers becomes paramount. In this session, you'll learn how to systemize your executive sponsorship approach, which ultimately impacts GRR.Be sure to mark your schedules and join us on Wednesday, May 17th at 2pm to learn the Why, What, Who, When and How of Stakeholder Alignment.This is the first time Gainsight has dedicated an entire track to CSMs and I couldn't be more excited to be a part of it. Looking forward to seeing everyone soon!

Digital hub serves as a central platform for businesses to connect, engage, and support their customers in the digital realm. It plays a crucial role in driving digital customer success by providing a seamless and personalized customer experience.How does DH enhance DCS? Self-Service Resources and Knowledge Base: By providing a comprehensive knowledge base and self-service resources within the digital hub, customers can find answers to their questions independently.  Product Education and Onboarding: An intuitive digital hub with clear documentation, interactive tutorials, and user-friendly guides facilitates customer onboarding. Quality interactions: Digital Hub can help in reducing cadence by providing a centralized platform that offers  easily accessible information, resources, and self-service capabilities. Enhanced Customer Experience: A well designed Digital Hub provides customers with an engaging experience, which can improve customer satisfaction and build customer loyalty.In c

Thanks to the foresight and awareness of my colleague Margo Martin who leads the Customer Success team at Deltek and Deltek’s implementation of Gainsight PX I have gotten a front row seat to understanding the benefits of the Customer Success and Product Management teams working together closely. We have discovered that in a strong product and customer focused organization, the Customer Success and Product Management teams have a huge opportunity to create significant value by having a strong, synergistic relationship to help ensure customer loyalty and retention. As a result, I’ll be sharing the stage at Pulse with Margo Martin in our session titled Harnessing the Power of Customer Success and Product Management Working Together.  In this session, you can hear about how Deltek's implementation of the Gainsight suite of tools has prompted and highlighted the importance of nurturing this relationship and why, how and what benefits we are seeing by having Customer Success and Product Mana

It’s been said many times before that Chrome is the best browser to use now days for its security, ease of use, and speed. But the real reason I love Gainsight on Chrome is because of the extensions!The most interesting admin in the world!Chrome extensions are small apps that are built to sit on top of Chrome and extend its functionality. They typically serve a small single purpose like ad blocking, password protection, or to easily schedule a Zoom meeting within Google Calendar. They are distributed through the Chrome Web Store and all go through a full review process by Google.Why I love extensions is because you can customize Chrome to better suit your needs in administering Gainsight. And best of all, you never have to leave Chrome and open another app. Here’s my favorite Chrome extensions that I hope will make your life as a Gainsight admin easier as well.  Salesforce Colored FaviconsIf you work in Gainsight on SFDC and/or work in multiple Salesforce environments because you also

We are now a week away from when most of us will be descending upon San Francisco for this year’s Pulse!🔥Looking forward to sharing on Wednesday @4:15PT about key elements of EBRs that have proven successful in garnering Executive Alignment, Valuable Dialogue in the EBR Setting, and an unforgettable Experience for your external and internal Customers that will have them all looking forward to the next time you want to get the band back together to talk business. 

Helllloooo Pulse Party People! Last year, I attended my very first Pulse conference, and I remember walking away having learned SO much. I can’t wait to see what new and innovative information I will be leaving with this year!In our session, my Product Marketing counterpart Mike and I will talk through some of the core foundations that we use at Sequoia to keep our Grove Community a flourishing, people-led community.We will share examples of our learnings over the course of (nearly) 2 years of having an online community for our clients, and how we are working to seamlessly integrate Gainsight PX with our inSided platform.Looking forward to sharing our knowledge, networking with other client, community, and product folks, and hopefully taking back some innovative ideas and strategies to keep building!See you all next month! 😎 

“A good first impression can work wonders.”  - J.K. Rowlings. The first experience with your team and product sets the tone for the entire customer journey. This is your chance to provide your first point of value. Do you miss this opportunity? You might be asking “How do I ensure every time an opportunity closes the customer receives a welcome email? That seems like a lot of work for my team.” You’re right. It can be a lot of work for your team if you’re manually triggering each welcome email. One of the first places to start scaling your customer lifecycle is the Welcome experience. Below, I’ve outlined a few things to consider when you begin your welcome email. A step-by-step guide to implementing an automated Welcome Email:1. Segmentation and Target Audience:Define the customer segmentation and target audience for the welcome email. This should align to the decision with onboarding strategy and customer personas. When segmenting customers, consider their unique needs and collaborat

  The GameChanger Awards are designed to celebrate the Gainsight customers that never stop challenging the status quo when it comes to customer success and experience. All Gainsight customers were eligible to apply for the 2023 awards. The winners were decided by a panel of judges based on their quantitative and qualitative results/stories. The winners Digital Customer Success Disrupter Award: @Jbarker from Alteryx, Samsara, and SAP Concur won the Digital Customer Success Disrupter award. These champions of efficiency combine the strengths of digital experiences and human expertise to power healthy customer life cycles at scale. They don’t just think about success for a few customers, they set out to accomplish success for all customers. As a result, their companies reap the rewards of stronger adoption and customer retention. Transformation Leader Award:  Mike Dover, VP of Customer Success at Certinia (formerly FinancialForce), is the winner of the Transformational Leader award which

Scenario - If you are having a dedicated team of CSMs (Pooled CS team) responsible for handling the long tail customers or small to medium business, that comprises of 100-400 customers and the CSM to account ratio is 1:50 (approx),What’s your strategy to;track engagement of such customers? maintain contacts hygiene?Let’s brainstorm and share ideas in the comment section below👇🏻

Absolutely THRILLED to be speaking at Pulse for the very first time 😅I’m talking about the importance of the often much neglected cadence call. This is all about bringing your A game every single day as you work with customers (not just on those Business Reviews, not just just when you need to combat a risk, and certainly not just right before renewal!) and making a consistent habit of building structure and value into your calls. You will walk away from this session with some practical tips and habits that you can start taking action on right away to position yourself as a strategic advisor and assure you earn that partner, not vendor designation with your customers.  I cannot wait to see you all there in May! 🔥Meet the Speaker! 

Hello!  Going to be my first time speaking at Pulse and its a little nerve racking 😛, I heard once that feeling nervous and excited are similar and if that’s the case I am VERY EXCITED!!Thankfully I’m passionate about digitalization and I’ve got our CCO Nikki Bishop by my side to share the stage with.  We experience digitalization constantly; whether at self-checkout in the grocery store or ordering your niece’s birthday present from amazon. The reality is, the world is moving to digital - and in the world of customer success where scaling is top of mind, how do we incorporate a digital touch into our workflows while continuing to drive customer value and satisfaction? Over the last year, Gainsight has enabled Seeq to move forward in the digitalization of our customer journey to drive scalability, consistency, and ROI. Join this session to hear our methodology, learnings, and next steps as we continue to improve this process for our customers.Seeq is globalization analytics at an ente

Hey y’all! This will be my first in-person Pulse, but I am SO-FREAKING-PUMPED™ to be speaking about a topic I’m particularly passionate about: Advocacy 💜.  Advocacy is one of the most underrated metrics in CS, but one of the most important for helping your company build its presence and meet its goals. With the proper approach, advocacy not only celebrates your customers, but also drives NRR and New Sales. Be sure to mark your schedules and join me to learn:Key indicators your Adopter is ready to be an Advocate What I consider an “Advocacy Event” How we built partnerships throughout the organization to rally around Advocacy How we built every process into Gainsight for collaboration and measurement, at scaleTLDR: Advocacy is a magic relationship strengthener and brand builder - and when done well, it leads your customers to excel in their own career paths (making you the hero and your company the beneficary). Outside of NRR, it’s one of the key metrics my department tracks on a weekly