Syncing CTA status "In Progress" with task status

Related products: None

Our team often indicates "In Progress" for one or more CTA tasks.  Which they then have to also update the overall CTA status.  It would be a nice UI feature to have the CTA automatically update to "In Progress" when any task was set to this.
Thanks for the feedback. 


Right now we do not have an option to do this, but the enhancement is in roadmap. ETA to be decided.
I know this is an older request, but I am casting my vote for it. 





We are trying to streamline tasks for our CSMs and have them click less but also drive good CTA reporting for all.  We can't achieve the reporting goal if the CSMs don't update the CTA Status.  The CSMs are forgetting to update the CTA status when they check off certain Tasks, even when the Task includes a description that instructs them to "Remember to set the CTA Status to ____ when you complete this task."  So they have requested that I automate the update of the CTA Status field in response to their checking off a Task as complete.





In our use case, not all Tasks will trigger a CTA Status change, but some will. 





Thinking through potential solutions, one way that this could be pulled off might be to allow us to specify on the Task, when editing it in the Playbook config section, whether completing the task should update the CTA Status automatically.  We could do this by simply selecting the CTA Type from one picklist (to narrow the list of CTA Status options), then select a CTA Status from another picklist.  If we don't want to use this feature, we would just not select any values.  If the CSM attaches the Playbook to a CTA that isn't of the same type and doesn't have that status value, maybe just ignore that setting (soft fail) rather than prevent them from doing it, and perhaps even warn them. 





Just a thought.  Our users know that I can build workflows to handle this use cases like this in Salesforce and it has been difficult to explain to them why I can't do it in Gainsight.





Sarah
+1 for everything Sarah said! Granularity in picking which ones change the status of the overall CTA would be great! Has there been any update or further consideration of this FR? The original post was 3 years ago and when I reached out to support, they suggested we use a SFDC workflow rule to accomplish this functionality, which is probably more work than its worth. It would be a very low priority for our SF dev team. 
Couldn't agree more with comments by Sarah. The ability to update the status based on certain tasks is a must needed feature. Looking forward to hearing the status of this request.





Thanks,


Joel
Any updates on this feature request from the Gainsight Team?
Hi Joel,





This is in our roadmap but there are other things thats keeping the team occupied. But this is definitely in our radar.





A Quick Question on same:





1) Do you want the CTA status to be changed to a particular status as soon as some modifications are made in Task or to the CTA itself.


2) Or it would be better to give a confirmation message to the CSM asking if they would like to change the CTA status (because not always they would like it to do so)





Regards,


Hitesh
Hitesh,





Thanks for the quick response. From the situations that my team has discussed, we would expect that the status would change to the appropriate status that is setup for the closure of the particular task. This means that some tasks may change the status of the CTA but others wouldn't and would be something our Gainsight Admin would configure. We are really looking to cut down on the number of clicks that our CSM's are having to make. Thank you for your consideration





Thanks,


Joel




Our biggest problem (along these lines) is that we push out CTAs in a Not Started state.  Then when the CSM starts working on a task they "should" update the CTA status to In Progress.  They don't.  So when we are looking at reports to see where we are in a process it isn't evident because they don't update the status properly. If the CTA status would update the in progress as soon as one of the tasks statuses changed (either to in progress, closed, or declined) it would keep the overall CTA in sync with the actual progress of the the work being done. 
Option 2 would be preferable over letting the system determine when it's In Progress (Option 1) because we have multiple In Progress states, e.g. Outreach, Escalation, Waiting on Customer ... that sort of thing.  I would actually like to see an Option 3 where the administrator can associate a CTA Status to a Task's "Completed" state.  For example: If the Email Task for sending an initial outreach is marked as completed, the system knows to mark the CTA Status to "Outreach" for the CSM automatically.  I may have 3 tasks that result in the CTA Status of "Outreach", and another that results in "Escalation" and another that results in the CTA being closed out completely.  
Automaically move the CTA Status to Work In Progress when any Task Status is updated preferable for us. If the status of any task has been changed, we can assume the CTA is being worked.




We would also like to see the CTA status changed to Work in Progress anytime a task status has been updated. I understand the need for more granular control as mentioned in the above posts but if that delays development perhaps it’s better to start with a more simple version. It is difficult for CSMs managing a large number of CTAs/Tasks to remember to set both a task status and a CTA status leading to reporting that is often not accurate.  


Whoa… on the roadmap 5 years ago and still not functional??? From a high level PM mindset (and per MS Project...the grandaddy of all task mgmt software), if a child task is in-progress then certainly the parent task is in-progress as well.  It can’t be any other way.  The logic already exists and doesn’t have to be reinvented. Please fix this bug. 


Thanks everyone for the inputs. We are aware that this has been pending for a really long time. We are addressing this as a part of our ongoing horizon efforts. Thank you!


I am curious to know where this is on the roadmap? I would also like a CTA to auto move to In Progress when a task is completed, this allows for fewer clicks for the CSM.

Is there a way to use the rules engine to do this if its not set up in the UI?

 

THANKS!!!


@sam_suhajda CTA improvements are on the road-map. 

This is should be possible with Rules. 


@sam_suhajda While I can’t point an exact release timeframe, we are actively working on revamping the entire admin experience and this will be a part of that experience.


I am curious to know where this is on the roadmap? I would also like a CTA to auto move to In Progress when a task is completed, this allows for fewer clicks for the CSM.

Is there a way to use the rules engine to do this if its not set up in the UI?

 

THANKS!!!

I don’t think a CTA can be updated directly via a rule.  Our TAM helped us with an API call to update CTA assigned to the current CSM, so there are very complicated work-arounds that might be possible.  It would be ideal if the playbooks themselves could trigger different statuses based on completion.  At minimum, moving from New when at least 1 task is complete would be great.  Looks like this request is still Under Consideration, but would appreciate any updates to the expected release.


@angela_domenichelli Can you please expand on the playbook triggering different statuses? Can you please provide an example to elaborate that? Curious.


Here is a possible example, with the status that the CTA would change to automatically when a task is complete in parenthesis.  

 

Task 1: Review resources (Initial Review)

Task 2: Email client o schedule call (Initial Outreach)

Task 3: Hold call with client (Call Complete)

Task 4: Review current status (Final review)

Task 5: Follow-up template (Closed - Complete)

 

Please note, we are not using all of these statuses today because it is too cumbersome for the CSM to even update the status once, but this would give us a far more accurate picture of the progress a CSM is making on a CTA and help the CSM group their work by the actual next steps instead of broad buckets like “In Progress”.


@angela_domenichelli Thank you for the detailed example. This is a very interesting use case. We will evaluate this. Thanks again!

 


Can see lastest update on this post was over a year ago. Any news on this feature? To me this seems like a pretty basic feature to improve CSM productivity and platform/process automation. If not implemented already, is there a timeline or roadmap anywhere? 


@dstupar I got tired of waiting so I eliminated the “New” and “In Progress” CTA statuses and have just gone with a singular “Open” status.


Team… this item is in the queue with others and there’s no start of Dev planned yet. Let us revisit this in 2023.


@rob_deaderick  Tagging you on this.

Question: will this be possible with the horizonized rules engine launching at the end of this month and the ability to Update a CTA with Rules?

@sriram pasupathi @anirbandutta  


This feels like a forever ago request that is going nowhere. It really hampers accurate reporting and impacts end-user adoption.