Ever wish your team(s) could get vital Gainsight information without having to constantly log in? You're not alone! At Acquia, we've found that using Gainsight's internal email features has transformed how we communicate and collaborate. I'm excited to share some examples of how we do this and how you can too.
Improved Response Time
For our teams with occasional Gainsight tasks, we’ve built out notifications to prompt action from those teams.
Example 1: Our CSMs create CSQLs (Customer Success Qualified Leads) via a CTA that they then assign to the Account Manager to work. Account Managers tend to operate mostly in Salesforce, so it’s not always top of mind for them to go work CTAs. To solve this problem, we’ve created two internal emails that they can use to complete the process of updating and tagging the CTAs appropriately. (One that fires a few days following the creation of the CTA, and then, another that fires a few days later if no action has still been completed)
Both emails contain all the details of the CSQL and include an inline survey question that asks them to tell us what steps they have already taken to work the CSQL. Based on the response, a rule is then triggered in Gainsight to update the CTA accordingly. This allows the AM to complete the process without ever going to Gainsight. If you are interested in learning more, our Director of Customer Success,
Example 2: One of our teams needs to manually assign a representative once a certain product is sold. We’ve created a notification from Gainsight that notifies the leadership team that the product has been sold, and it’s time to assign someone.
Data-Driven Insights
Beyond streamlining immediate responses, Gainsight's internal emails are also incredibly valuable for delivering key data-driven insights directly to our teams, ensuring they stay informed even when they're not actively in the system
Example 1: We’ve created a weekly email to go out to each CSM to show how they are tracking towards their internal KPIs. This email contains specific reports to show how they are progressing and where they need to take further action towards KPIs such as Exec Engagement, Success Planning and CSQLs.
Example 2: CSMs often need to receive information for awareness, even if they're not required to take direct action. One internal email we use to accomplish something like this is a notification sent if their customer responds to our CSAT survey negatively. The CSM gets the below email detailing the response and additional actions they might need to take.
Collaboration and Task Management
While data-driven insights are essential for keeping our teams informed, internal emails also play a vital role in fostering communication for collaborative efforts and task organization.
Example 1: To maintain strong relationships, Acquia Sponsors regularly reach out to customer executives as part of our dedicated Executive Sponsor Program. Our internal email alerts the sponsor when it's time for customer outreach. Importantly, we also include the account team in this notification, encouraging them to collaborate by adding any relevant details or updates before the sponsor connects with the customer.
Example 2: We also often use internal emails when we need to do some clean up of our CTAs or Success Plans. For example, when we were rolling out an updated risk process, we needed to do some clean up of existing Success Plans. We did this by incorporating a survey asking if the plan should be closed, and then, used the survey results to create an automated process to close those plans.
Process Automation
Beyond facilitating collaboration and organization, we've found that internal emails are powerful tools for process automation, eliminating numerous manual steps within our workflows.
Example 1: We have a robust risk management process that involves a Customer Health Forum (CHF). In this forum, CSMs discuss customer challenges and collaborate with colleagues and leaders to develop solutions. This forum will be detailed in a future post, but we use internal emails to kick off several aspects of the process. Prior to implementing these, the CHF leader had to manually review which accounts were eligible and send out notifications and reminders themselves. With Gainsight’s internal emails, processes that were previously manual have been fully automated.
Email 1: Notifies the account team that their customer will be included in this week’s CHF and includes key details for preparing.
Email 2: Notifies the CHF Leader of the accounts scheduled to be reviewed in this week’s CHF so that if needed, they can follow up with the appropriate parties.
Email 3: Notifies the CHF Leader and participants of the final list of accounts to be reviewed the day prior to the meeting.
Example 2: For onboarding, we’ve created a process to help in documenting the detailed requirements the sales representative gathered during pre-sales so that those could be referenced as needed in the system. Prior to this, the information was either siloed in the Opportunity in Salesforce OR communicated via email or Slack with no in system record.
Email 1: If the sales representative provided the information in the Opportunity, we send a notification detailing the next steps with a survey link to capture some additional information that’s helpful to the account team.
Email 2: If the sales representative did NOT fill out the details on the Opportunity, they receive a similar email but with a full survey asking them to share the information.
Once these surveys are completed, we use the responses to populate fields in the Onboarding Success Plan so that information continually lives with the customer record.
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In conclusion, internal emails in Gainsight are a powerful tool for communication, collaboration, and automation. By implementing targeted notifications and surveys, teams can improve response times, receive data-driven insights, streamline task management, and automate complex processes, ultimately maximizing efficiency and improving customer success outcomes. Feel free to reach out to me if you have questions or would like to dig in deeper into any of these use cases.
Have you used internal emails for any of these reasons? What suggestions do you have?
Stay tuned for my next post on “Risk Management using Success Plans” where I’ll do a deep dive into the Customer Health Forum(CHF) process mentioned above.
I pushed back on a lot of these, but ultimately the needs of the business outweighed other considerations. Some of them are also compromises for other suggestions from the business like CTAs that don’t really need action. 
on the internal collaborators/SF teams, and fighting battles you don’t win. Even if the users can log into Gainsight and view the dashboard, there are several advantages to JO programs (emailing specific info and playbook links, CCing an account team to facilitate a conversation...)