Share and Learn Best Practices

 Calling all Customer Success champions! As a Senior Manager of Digital Customer Success within BMC Software, I've seen firsthand how departmental silos can hinder our efforts. Everyone's focused on their own goals, leaving the customer experience fragmented.Here's how a lack of collaboration hurts your customers:Confused by conflicting information from different teams. Stuck in slow-motion resolutions as issues get passed around. Solutions that only address part of the problem, leaving them frustrated. Feeling like they're just a number, not a valued customer.But imagine the possibilities with customer-centric collaboration!Join me and the amazingly brilliant, Victoria Barry at my session at #Pulse24!  We'll equip you with actionable strategies to:Unify the business: Align everyone around the common goal of customer success. Speak the same data language: Use data insights to make informed decisions for your customers. Embrace a customer-centric mindset: Put the customer at the heart o

Hello Gainsight Community! I wanted to share some thoughts on the value of ROI as we work with our clients on a daily basis.  I would love to hear your thoughts or experiences around this topic.  Please see the article I published below: ROI, the big 3 letter acronym we love to use in the business world.  Return on Investment is the underlying theme when it comes to providing a product or service.  Before a concept can become a reality the question of ROI is addressed.  What is in it for the customer?  How will the customer realize enough value to buy and stay with your product?  How will ROI be measured and shared with customers?  These are all important questions when it comes to gaining new customers and retaining current customers. As a Customer Success Manager, you have many responsibilities and tasks to complete each day.  There are executive business reviews to conduct, escalations to be resolved, documentation to update, cadence calls to prepare for, and many other to-dos on yo

 Picture this: It's Monday morning, and you need to understand why customer engagement dropped last month. Your current options? Wade through multiple spreadsheets, wait for an analyst to build a custom report, or click through countless dashboard filters hoping to stumble upon the answer. Sound familiar?Here's a reality check: while every enterprise software product comes equipped with robust reporting features, what users actually want isn't reports – they want answers.The Hidden Cost of Traditional ReportingFor too long, getting business insights has felt like playing a corporate version of telephone. You start with a simple question: "How are our customers using our product?" What follows is an all-too-familiar routine: requesting reports, waiting for them to be generated, analyzing various visualizations (yes, including those occasionally indecipherable pie charts), and often repeating the entire process when the initial data doesn't quite answer your question.This isn't just inef

"Help! My champion just left the company!" "Wait, when did this person join the account?" "Why are these emails bouncing? We just had a QBR!"Sound familiar? 🙋‍♀️I've been having fascinating conversations with many of you about a challenge we all share - maintaining accurate contact data. Every time I bring this up at customer meetings or CS events, I see knowing smiles and hear deep sighs of recognition.Last week, a CS leader shared something that really stuck with me: "We spent months building the perfect digital engagement strategy... only to realize half our contact data was outdated. It felt like planning an amazing party but sending the invitations to old addresses!"This got me thinking about how we've traditionally approached contact management:Traditional Approach:CSMs manually updating contact records Quarterly contact audits "Last known good" email lists Reactive updates when emails bounce Endless spreadsheet maintenanceThe results? Usually:Outdated org charts Missing key sta

Embarking on the digital customer success journey can feel daunting—deciphering ownership and team responsibilities often poses just one of the many challenges. Questions loom:Who should spearhead the digital customer success team? Is hiring dedicated resources necessary to begin? Where should this team fit within our organizational structure?Let’s navigate the best approach to structure your team and support your journey into digital customer success.1. Inaugural Steps: The Tiger TeamStart by assembling a digital customer success 'tiger team,' comprising representatives from pivotal departments like Customer Success, Marketing, Operations, Support, and Product. While it may seem like a medley of opinions, having one representative per department minimizes the "too many cooks" situation. 2. Evolutionary Phases: The Journey to DedicationAs your digital customer success journey blossoms, recognizing the value becomes paramount. At Gainsight, our pivotal shift occurred in 2019, leading us

Exciting news! The recordings from Pulse Europe 2024 are now available!  Missed a session or simply want to relive your favorite moments? You can now catch up on all the insights, strategies, and inspiration you missed (or loved) from the Pulse Library.Whether it’s cutting-edge AI trends, strategies to boost retention, or tips to build stronger communities, it’s all there, on demand and ready for you.Happy listening and watching!  

Remember 2021? NFTs were the talk of the town, remote work became the new normal, and traditional customer onboarding was still largely a manual, time-consuming process. Fast forward to today, and artificial intelligence is revolutionizing how we bring customers onboard - not by replacing human expertise, but by making it exponentially more powerful.Gone are the days when customer onboarding was a simple handoff process. In today's enterprise SaaS landscape, it's evolved into a specialized function that can make or break customer success. But here's the challenge: how do you maintain quality while scaling your onboarding operations? The answer lies in the strategic application of AI.The New Face of Customer OnboardingToday's onboarding ecosystem is a complex network of specialists, each playing a crucial role in customer success. Implementation teams handle technical setup, Customer Success Managers guide long-term strategy, and dedicated training teams ensure proper customer enablemen

Every year at Pulse Europe, we recognize European industry leaders who have made significant contributions to the field of customer success (CS), driving innovation and transforming the way businesses engage with their customers.Without further ado, put your hands together for this year’s Pulse Europe GameChanger Award Winners!The Architect : Odido, Jason de Krijger ​ ​@Jason_Odido The Architect Award recognizes the individual or team that has gone above and beyond to build a thriving customer community. The Architect is a visionary leader who understands the power of community to drive customer engagement, loyalty, and success. They are adept at creating a space that is not only informative and helpful, but also fosters a sense of belonging and connection.This year, The Architect goes to … (drumroll, please) … ​@Jason_Odido, Community Manager at Odido.Odido is the largest mobile phone company in the Netherlands—and offers the best mobile network in the world. The company wants everyon

 Picture this: A neural network peers into a brain scan and spots a tumor that three skilled radiologists missed. Another one listens to whale songs and decodes a previously unknown pattern in their communication. And somewhere in a lab, a third network is dreaming up new molecules that could revolutionize battery technology. Welcome to the fascinating world of neural networks, where artificial minds are pushing the boundaries of what we thought possible.Remember your first day learning to ride a bike? At first, you wobbled and fell. But gradually, your brain formed new connections, strengthened pathways, and suddenly – balance! This remarkable process of learning and adaptation isn't just limited to biological brains anymore. Welcome to the fascinating world of neural networks, where artificial intelligence mirrors the very essence of how we learn.The Architecture of IntelligenceImagine walking into a vast control room. At the front, you see rows of sensors catching every detail of th

Remember when virtual assistants were just glorified alarm clocks? "Hey Siri, set a timer for 30 minutes." Those days feel almost quaint now. In 2024, we're witnessing something far more revolutionary: the rise of AI agents that can actually get things done – from booking your flights to writing your code, and even running entire business processes autonomously.The New Digital WorkforceAI agents are fundamentally different from the chatbots and virtual assistants we've grown accustomed to. Think of them as digital employees who can understand context, make decisions, and execute complex tasks without constant human supervision. They're not just responding to commands; they're proactively solving problems.For instance, an AI agent can now:Schedule meetings by understanding everyone's preferences and time zones Research competitors and generate market analysis reports Debug code and suggest optimizations Manage customer support tickets from start to finish Monitor and adjust digital mark

I’m a familiar face around here in this community, but I’m also excited to be going to Pulse Europe this week where I’ll be giving the talk: Community Magic: How Collaboration fuels an Engaged Community.When I do talks I’m normally drawn to strategic topics with lots of cool nerdy frameworks that hopefully people want to take photos of.  😅 Who doesn’t love frameworks!?  But this talk will be a bit different.  It’s going to be about the very real challenges of running a mature enterprise community across multiple use cases, products, modules and more.  As the title suggests, the heart of the talk is about the power of internal collaboration, where I’ll be sharing four key strategies that we employ to navigate the complexity of our programs, along with a lot of very practical examples.  If you’re at Pulse this year and you see me around, please do come and say hi!

Hello everyone! 🖐🏻I'll be attending Pulse and would like to connect with community managers to share insights, discuss best practices, and explore ways we can strengthen our communities. I would like to chat about engagement strategies, challenges, or just network, I would love to meet up. Feel free to reach out or let me know if there’s a specific meetup for community managers. Looking forward!!!See youuu… 🙂Pelinsu

Have you ever heard this from the business?Can you add the CSM Sentiment score to the My Portfolio widget on GS Home? Can you add the Product Usage score to this renewal opportunities report? Can you add the CSM Sentiment comments to the current quarter renewals report?Seeing scorecard data in non-scorecard object based reports is a very common request, but not a straight forward thing to build in Gainsight! I wanted to share how I accomplished this for us at Amplitude and how we’ve been able to incorporate scorecard throughout our Gainsight reporting as a result.Step 1: Create a custom low volume object to hold your score detailsI called mine “Current Score by Measure” It includes fields for Score (# data type), Label (String), Comments (String), and Last Modified (Date) of all the scorecard measures we have There’s also a Company GSID field to hold the account ID of the current score by measure dataStep 2: Create a rule to load to your Current Score by Measure object Fetch current sc

Super excited to be joining Pulse once again and discuss the benefits of tracking value throughout the customer journey, why it matters, how to implement it company wide, and what are the expected results!And yes, there will be some tactical advice on how we leveraged Gainsight to implement it at Benchling 👍There will be something for everyone, if you’re just starting in your journey or if you’ve already got a value relay going at your company!See you tomorrow!

...then I’m super excited to invite you to my session at Pulse Europe! 🚀Take a step back from the day-to-day hustle and reflect on your career journey with me. During this session we'll challenge the traditional linear path, redefine success in Customer Success, and explore actionable strategies to help you map your career. You’ll walk away feeling inspired, empowered, and ready to take ownership of your professional growth!✨ Whether you aim for leadership or want to thrive as an individual contributor, this session will equip you to make bold moves. See you there! ✨

I'm excited to be a speaker at Pulse Europe 2024! I've been invited to talk about elevating Customer Communities beyond Service - and becoming a Customer Success powerhouse.During the session, I will talk about how to step up your support game by empowering customers to help themselves and each other.I will dive into how to make use of your limited resources by building and expanding Community programs that help you identify customer experience issues.We're going to discuss how to identify and nurture the most important users in your community and how to build trust on your mission to creating a tight-knit and self-sustaining Customer Community.And I will show you examples to further leverage your community in order to create even more added value.So, buckle up. It's going to be a fun ride with lots of ground to cover in 45 minutes.Date: November 13, 12.15 pmSession Name: Turn Your Community Into Your Top CS Asset: Elevating Your Customer Community Beyond Service

Really excited to be attending Pulse again this year but this time I'll be sharing the stage with Brenna O'Neill and Patrick McCrudden, my colleagues at Mews talking about Enabling Self-Sufficient Customers Through Community and Digital Onboarding. 🚀Day 2; 15:45 - 16:30Part of (Track 4 - Empowering Customers to Succeed on Their Own)We will explore how to enable customer self-service by leveraging digital onboarding and community engagement throughout the customer lifecycle. Attendees will learn practical strategies for automating onboarding, reducing resource demands, and scaling solutions across regions and languages. Real-world examples and insights will demonstrate how to implement scalable digital solutions in your organization.Looking forward to connected with my peers once again in Amsterdam next week! 🙋🏼 

ITS ALMOST TIME!!!!!  

 Remember the first time you called a customer service line and realized you were talking to a chatbot? That slight pause in conversation, the too-perfect responses, and perhaps a hint of frustration as you repeatedly asked to "speak to a human." Fast forward to 2024, and AI has evolved dramatically – but so have customer expectations. The question isn't whether to use AI in customer interactions anymore; it's about finding the perfect balance between artificial intelligence and authentic human connection.The New Reality of Customer SuccessToday's customers demand both efficiency and empathy. They want instant responses at 2 AM and deep, meaningful conversations about their business challenges during working hours. It's a tall order, but one that forward-thinking companies are learning to fulfill by masterfully blending AI capabilities with human expertise.The Art of Knowing When to Use WhatThink of AI and human interaction as a well-choreographed dance. Each partner has their strength

Join me at Pulse Europe to explore how to step off the traditional career path, redefine success, and gain practical strategies to drive your own professional growth in Customer Success. Watch now to get inspired!   Can’t wait to see you there! 

Hi everyone, On the first day and first session of Pulse EU 2024 I will run a presentation called: Fast Track to Excellence: Halving Onboarding Time While Achieving +80 NPSIn this session I will share what we did and what we learned in our project to make onboarding smoother and more efficient. If you have any input or thoughts on the topic, let me know and I may cover it in the presentation. My goals is that you leave this session inspired and equipped with valuable insights on:Stakeholder Alignment and Engagement: Strategies for getting buy-in from both internal teams and external partners. Onboarding Journey Analysis: Identifying and smoothing out the rough edges in your process. Automation in Onboarding: Leveraging technology to enhance efficiency and consistency. Leveraging Gainsight: Tracking, measuring, and reporting on onboarding metrics. Integrating Systems for Transparency: Ensuring internal communication about customer status for seamless coordination. And even a bit of prod

Hello Community!Kirsten and I will be presenting at Pulse EU this year - and we’re thrilled!In our presentation, we’ll talk all about the solutions we have adopted (automations, data, and self-service system) to empower our CSMs to do what they do best - take care of our customers.Can’t wait to see you all there very soon!

Managing risk within your portfolio is close to, if not, the number one priority for CSMs. Many find themselves hesitant to open risks for their customers because they are concerned it might seem like they aren’t being a successful CSM. However, I would argue that identifying risk in your portfolio and raising it makes you a more successful CSM. As leaders, it is our role to ensure team members have a way to identify risks in their portfolio and share them back with the organization. One of the best ways to do this is to have a Call To Action (CTA) type in Gainsight for Risk.  The good news for you is that “Risk” is an out of the box CTA type in Gainsight. So you are already on your first step there! This allows your team to create CTAs for each risk in their portfolio. Then your leadership team is able to see reports on how many risks are in the customer base (more on this later).  When you’re starting a Risk process, best practice would be to identify 2-3 main risk types. Typically,

Picture this: Pope Francis strutting down Vatican City in a pristine white puffer coat. The image went viral, capturing global attention and sparking countless discussions. The twist? It never happened. The photo was created by Midjourney, an AI image generation tool, demonstrating just how far artificial intelligence has come in creating hyper-realistic imagery.Welcome to the new frontier of visual creation, where the line between human-made and AI-generated art is becoming increasingly blurred. Midjourney: The Creative PioneerMidjourney, developed by a San Francisco-based research lab, has emerged as one of the leading forces in AI image generation. Like its counterparts DALL-E and Stable Diffusion, Midjourney transforms text descriptions (known as prompts) into stunning visual artwork. The platform's ability to generate photorealistic images has captured the imagination of artists, designers, and creators worldwide.The Magic of PromptsThe true power of Midjourney lies in its ability