Question
Ideas on how to make reporting and building rules for large teams more manageable?
One of the challenges we're finding with Gainsight is building reports and rules for large teams. We don't have a field in Salesforce where we can easily say "Show me team = X". As a workaround we're having to individually add each account manager's name to reports and rules. As people leave and join the company it is going to be quite the task to update everything accordingly. Aside from creating a field in Salesforce for the individual team names, does anyone have any ideas or best practices for solving this problem? We tried something called "Team manager" creation where we assigned names to a "Team Manager" through a rule, but it did not have the expected behavior and only worked for accounts, not people.
Ben,
The way we have segmented our accounts, each group essentially has some shared needs and some individual needs. I agree that creating any kind of rule based on a specific person's name isn't scalable, but here's how we're currently addressing this.
On the User Profile are a few fields that help us know how to segment our accounts: User Role, Profile, Manager, and Territory. Currently I'm using the Role to help us segment, because our segmentation is not yet reliable enough to rely on the ASV values alone. We could use any of these fields to help us know which way to manage an account, but I did have to create a formula field on the Account record that returns the user's Role (again this could be Manager or Territory or anything that reliably groups together the teams you need).
Because it's a formula field, and because it relies on data that is already required to be accurate in order for approvals to work correctly, I can reliably segment Accounts by team, and then create rules for each segment. Even so, because some of the teams approach CS differently, I still have had to create unique dashboards for them, but this way I can reuse the reports and just change what team/group they look at as a default.
The way we have segmented our accounts, each group essentially has some shared needs and some individual needs. I agree that creating any kind of rule based on a specific person's name isn't scalable, but here's how we're currently addressing this.
On the User Profile are a few fields that help us know how to segment our accounts: User Role, Profile, Manager, and Territory. Currently I'm using the Role to help us segment, because our segmentation is not yet reliable enough to rely on the ASV values alone. We could use any of these fields to help us know which way to manage an account, but I did have to create a formula field on the Account record that returns the user's Role (again this could be Manager or Territory or anything that reliably groups together the teams you need).
Because it's a formula field, and because it relies on data that is already required to be accurate in order for approvals to work correctly, I can reliably segment Accounts by team, and then create rules for each segment. Even so, because some of the teams approach CS differently, I still have had to create unique dashboards for them, but this way I can reuse the reports and just change what team/group they look at as a default.
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+13Ben,
We definitely had the same challenge, and unfortunately, the only way we were able to get around it was by creating a field in SF. We already had some hierarchy data in SF for the SF User level, so basically, we took the reporting structure for that and mirrored it into a field on the Customer Info object called CSM Manager. So, now, the CSM Manager updates any time we hire a new employee, someone moves teams ,etc. without me having to do anything.
We do also have some fields on the account that would let us do what Bradin mentioned, but there turned out to be enough exceptions that they didn't work reliably.
Overall, the CSM Manager solution has worked the best for us. Then, I just created one dashboard that they can filter to just their team by entering their name.
We definitely had the same challenge, and unfortunately, the only way we were able to get around it was by creating a field in SF. We already had some hierarchy data in SF for the SF User level, so basically, we took the reporting structure for that and mirrored it into a field on the Customer Info object called CSM Manager. So, now, the CSM Manager updates any time we hire a new employee, someone moves teams ,etc. without me having to do anything.
We do also have some fields on the account that would let us do what Bradin mentioned, but there turned out to be enough exceptions that they didn't work reliably.
Overall, the CSM Manager solution has worked the best for us. Then, I just created one dashboard that they can filter to just their team by entering their name.
+2Hi Heather,
This is exactly how we do it internally at Gainsight and what I recommend for my customers. Having that CSM Manager field makes it really easy when filtering and reporting in dashboards, cockpit even things like creating powerlists.
The dashboard level filtering is something we use internally multiple times a day.
Best,
Dan
This is exactly how we do it internally at Gainsight and what I recommend for my customers. Having that CSM Manager field makes it really easy when filtering and reporting in dashboards, cockpit even things like creating powerlists.
The dashboard level filtering is something we use internally multiple times a day.
Best,
Dan
Great suggestion thank you Bradin!
Great suggestions guys thank you! I really like this idea. 🙂
+2If anyone is interested in learning more about dashboard level filters that allow the entire dashboard to be tuned to show results just for a specific filtered group (instead of having to change filters on each individual report) - check out this Gainsight support article for general info : https://support.gainsight.com/Product_Documentation/Reports_and_Dashboards/User_Guides/Gainsight_Hom...
This article has details on how to setup and configure: https://support.gainsight.com/Product_Documentation/Reports_and_Dashboards/Admin_Configuration/Confi...
This article has details on how to setup and configure: https://support.gainsight.com/Product_Documentation/Reports_and_Dashboards/Admin_Configuration/Confi...
VP of Customer Success at Forcepoint
1 person likes this
Heather, can you please help me understand some of the details around setting this up? Where are you storing the hierarchy data - is that in user roles or a custom object? What method are you using to populate this field, is it a Gainsight rule, a workflow or flow, or trigger?
+13Hi Ben,
Forgive me because I'm not a SF Admin. We created a field on the Customer Info object called CSM Manager, and then, we added a formula to populate that field. Our formula looks like this:
JBCXM__Account__r.CustomerCareSuccessRep_Id__r.Manager.FirstName & " " & JBCXM__Account__r.CustomerCareSuccessRep_Id__r.Manager.LastName
Let me know if that's not enough info, and I'll get some additional details from our IT Team. 🙂
Forgive me because I'm not a SF Admin. We created a field on the Customer Info object called CSM Manager, and then, we added a formula to populate that field. Our formula looks like this:
JBCXM__Account__r.CustomerCareSuccessRep_Id__r.Manager.FirstName & " " & JBCXM__Account__r.CustomerCareSuccessRep_Id__r.Manager.LastName
Let me know if that's not enough info, and I'll get some additional details from our IT Team. 🙂
That's exactly what we needed, thank you Heather!
Thanks to all for your helpful replies! You've all been granted points as part of the ongoing best practices competition; continue to post for the opportunity to win a free CSU Online pass.
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