Share and Learn Best Practices

Hi everyone - after a small hiatus, I’m back with another post to share how we run CS Ops internally at Gainsight. If you missed the first post, you can check it out here. I discussed how we run our quarterly planning and sprint processes. Today, I’ll be discussing one of my favorite tools to foster learning within our team - Retrospectives!In the ever-evolving landscape of customer success, staying ahead means continuously adapting and improving strategies and operations. Incorporating regular retrospectives into your CS Ops team can help achieve this goal. These retrospectives foster teamwork by providing a space where team members can share without judgment and find common ground in their work. Why Retrospectives are Valuable Retrospectives foster a culture of continuous improvement and teamwork. Through regular check-ins, tea

Hi Community!As we continue to develop capabilities around Timeline, we wanted to get your feedback on how you would like to use it in the future.Originally we designed Timeline in response to many customers who wanted a superior note taking tool. They were using systems like OneNote, Evernote and others and it just didn't meet the grade. So we built Timeline.One of our original goals was to provide a high quality repository of customer notes. Different than SFDC activity history, which logs everything and can get pretty noisy, Timeline would be cleaner and easier to find specific human interactions.But things evolve and we want to get your input. We've had some customers ask about having the ability to sync every JO or Advanced Outreach email, CTAs, Milestones, NPS survey responses and even health scores to Timeline. [i]What's your point of view? 

Gainsight hosted our first Customer Advisory Board focused on Customer Education with an amazing group of education and post sale leaders.  Learn how companies are blending education and customer success to scale. See below for Summary, Key Points, How to Get Started, Common Org StructuresSummaryThe lines between educating users, driving adoption and guiding customers to achieve ROI are completely blurred.  If your education programs are not strategically woven into your post-sale experience, you’re missing a huge opportunity to scale while increasing adoption, retention and expansion!The discussion focused on improving the customer experience through education, aligning customer education and success, and using data/metrics to demonstrate education impact. Key themes were enabling cus

We have implemented Gainsight within the last 1.5 years. We’re still maturing and expanding our usage of Gainsight as well as standardizing some of our processes across teams. As part of the CS growth we’re bringing in resources for a CS Ops role. Right now, we have an admin, project manager, business analyst, and product manager, so this would be outside of one of those roles.  I’m looking for input from the community on how you utilize this role and areas you really feel like they provide the most value. 

Hi GS Fam!   I’m hoping to draw some inspiration from y’all around tracking customer goals via a Success Plan.  I would LOVE to see if y’all can share your best practices around the process and documentation.  A simple screenshot of your plan info section would suffice too!   We are in the middle of really REVAMPING how we track, document and manage these bad boys via Success Plans, would love some inspiration and best practices!   What we are looking for: We want to record Customer Goals (easy) Document current KPI measures Document target KPI measures Document customer outcomes    I know it’s easy to just create a text field and document these, but looking to see if anyone has more innovative ways, even if it means changing the overall process.   Thanks! Andor

'Working on Digital CS motions, there''s one thing that comes up over and over: having the best strategies is great - but aligning teams around those strategies is often really, really hard. Keeping everyone aligned, whether at work or in life, means juggling a lot of inputs and needs and working together to be successful. It’s something I’ve seen at Gainsight (working on several cross-functional projects at the same time) and outside of work (trying to get my 2 and 4 year old daughters on the same page definitely requires some expert-level collaboration and juggling - and lets face it, they win most of those rounds). Digital Customer Success can be executed in different ways by different companies, and with different alignments in between. But often teams struggle with this question in the same ways - how do you work effectively, together, with competing priorities. I’m really exc

Are you ready to delve into the heart of our platform? Let's explore some incredible features that give you the keys to understanding and optimising your user experience.  Tag & Identity Code: Seamlessly track user interactions and behaviors across your product, giving you invaluable insights into user journeys.

🎉 Whoa, the webinar was absolutely fantastic! 🎉 A huge shoutout to the incredible Champion @melissa_allen  for launching our First Spotlight series CS with such a bang! The collaboration between @lane_h  and @melissa_allen  was nothing short of amazing. The key lesson that resonated with me was mastering the art of managing that 80% of customers responsible for 20% of the ARR. And the best part? They shared how to achieve this in a digital yet incredibly personalized manner. Melissa's insights struck a chord with me: the secret lies in starting small, meticulously testing on a small scale, fine-tuning through iterations, and then scaling up. No doubt, I'm

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

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

'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.

 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 s

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 trainin

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,

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.

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