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518 Posts

seth
Gainsight Employee: ACE
sethGainsight Employee: ACE
posted in Customer Success Best Practices

CS Ops Compensation Benchmark Survey Results

 Compensation data has not existed specifically for Customer Success Operations. In January 2022, Gainsight and the customer-run Gainsight Global Admins community collaborated to gather the first set of benchmarks.Our anonymous survey received 296 responses. Gainsight customers likely represent a significant portion, but the survey was also publicized broadly. Responses were encouraged from all types of CS Ops professionals.See the ResultsPDF attached belowReactions? Questions? Post them below!

3
jessica_keenan_palmer
2 months ago
spencer_engel
MVP
spencer_engelMVP
published in Product Experience Best Practices

CSM Pooled Model Documentation

Hi everyone! CSM pooled models (a.k.a. round robin CTA assignments) have been quite the hot topic lately with more and more customers looking for scalable ways to manage their long tail of customers.  I know @jean.nairon  and others have posted about this concept previously, and so I wanted to share a detailed solution, complete with thorough documentation and a video example from a dev org. Please note that this is meant to be a base foundation for a CSM pooled model, so you may well need to add more nuanced configuration to your own. I’m here to help with any questions or feedback!  First, let’s start with the prerequisites.   Queue CSM (string) - Purpose is to denote whether a CSM belongs in the pooled model. Manually update from Administration > User Management, and enter “Yes” if they are a Queue CSM. Otherwise leave blank.   Queue Next Up Number (number) - This is updated via rule(s) that you have in place for pooled CSM CTAs. In addition to the action of creating a CTA, there

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R
Gainsight Rookie
6 months ago
tara
Gainsight Rookie
taraGainsight Rookie
posted in Customer Success Best Practices

Pooled CSM Model

We are looking at instrumenting a Pooled CSM Model where a team of CSMs can respond to customers without being assigned to their account specifically. We are familiar with how to do this using Salesforce and creating a ticket queue with email integration, but want to know if we can do something like this in Gainsight. Has anyone done this before and/or explored this option?

9
jean.nairon
All Star
1 year ago
michael_phelan
michael_phelanGainsight Community new member
asked in Customer Success Best Practices

Downloadable CSM Account-Specific Planning Template

Does anyone have a downloadable word template that a Customer Success Manager could use to plan for account level Customer Success on an annual or quarterly basis?

10
dan_ahrens
ACE
5 years ago
bill_davis
Gainsight Rookie
bill_davisGainsight Rookie
asked in Customer Success Best Practices

Success Plan Template Ideas

I am creating a couple of Success Plan Templates that my team can use to get a quick start. I created one Called First Win, which captures some key objectives that we identify when a new customer goes live.  This template shows Key Players, Risks, Reason they bought our product, and timelines to First win. I am looking for a few idea for other 'LifeCycle' Success Plan Templates and their associated objectives.

5
darkknight
ACE
4 years ago
seth
Gainsight Employee: ACE
sethGainsight Employee: ACE
posted in Customer Success Best Practices

How Anyone Can Become a Gainsight Admin

Gainsight Administrator is a creative, powerful role. It drives career development, it lives in the cutting-edge world of Customer Success Operations, and it’s both a new challenge to a systems administrator veteran and an entry-point for someone looking for a first ‘technical’ role.I know, because I’ve lived it and I’ve seen it. I became a Gainsight Admin in 2015, and earned my Level 3 Certification when it first became available. After transitioning from ‘Gainsight customer’ to ‘Gainsight employee,’ I ran Gainsight’s CS Ops team for 2 years, which included experienced Admins who have since grown into leadership, and first-time Admins who had never configured a piece of software before. In my newest role, I see the experiences of Admins with all levels of experience, plus their managers, on a daily basis. I hear about what they need and what has worked well for them.And I hear how out-of-reach the role can feel for newcomers. It’s intimidating, or confusingly different from job descri

6
V
1 month ago
J
jhc2020Gainsight Community new member
asked in Customer Success Best Practices

Success Plan Example

We have used Gainsight for a few months primarily focusing on Timeline and our CSM dashboard. We are now creating our approach for success planning. Prior to finalizing our template and having CSMs leverage this functionality, we want to have a success plan example to share with CSMs that demonstrates a focus on a customer’s time-based goals and measurable outcomes. Does anyone have a success plan example they are willing to share? Thanks!!

7
roja_kode
Gainsight Employee: Veteran Rookie
1 year ago
tom_wix
Gainsight Rookie
tom_wixGainsight Rookie
published in Customer Success Best Practices

What Makes A Good CTA ?

A new system Gainsight, wonderful.   A new way to work proactively, instead of reactively.  What are these Call To Actions (CTAs)?   Within the tool, there is an easy way to create an action (task) based on some activity that has occurred or some situation that exists or perhaps there is just some periodic task that should be scheduled. The next bit of information is going to assume the reader is aware of the CTA feature, in general.So what makes a “good CTA?”  Without using the canned answer of “it depends”, let me share a couple suggestions around a few specific pieces of a CTA;  title, status, priority, type, etc. First of all, don’t just create a CTA because you can.   CTAs are easy to create, but one should make sure the CTA has an action that can be taken – hence the name “call to action”. Make sure you are creating a CTA, that has a task or set of tasks that should be completed by the assignee. Creating a CTA, just for awareness, can be valuable, but may end up being clutter in

59410
sarahmiracle
All Star
11 months ago
john_apple
MVP
john_appleMVP
asked in Customer Success Best Practices

Cleaning Up Email Bounce list and Email Validator

As we continue to use Gainsight for Outreaches/Programs and Cockpit/Email Assist, we are running into a frequent situation where a participant has been added to the bounce list and then cannot be sent further emails through Gainsight - Journey Orchestrator or Email Assist. However, using the Email Validator under Administration > Email Configuration, we can typically find the email domain as blocking, reporting our sends as spam, or other errors that aren't indicative of an email address that no longer exists. As an Admin, I have permissions to view results of the Email Validator and remove emails from the bounce list one at a time. Our CSMs do not have this permission so they encounter a roadblock when trying to send an email in Email Assist or determine why a contact did not receive an email from one of our Programs (typically an operational notification). I can/have created a report of Hard Bounces and the message that was received (similar to email validator) but I can&#

9
kelly
All Star
1 year ago
hpinaud
Gainsight Employee: Shoshin
hpinaudGainsight Employee: Shoshin
posted in Customer Success Best Practices

Beta Program Opportunity: help build the ultimate solution exchange for Gainsight users!

Calling all admins! We’re looking for Gainsight game changers with big ideas to contribute to the newly announced Sightline Vault.   Sightline Vault is all about harnessing the power of our admin community to make your best practices available to all -- in just a click. Think: NPS JO templates, your favorite playbooks, healthscore configurations, and other Gainsight best practices you can’t live without and want to share with the world.    What’s in it for you:  Your name in lights! (...almost!) You’ll be credited on any of the solutions you suggest that we publish and we'd love to further showcase you as an admin! Your favorite template or configuration, built to help thousands of future admins The opportunity to influence an amazing program for customer success technologists   What we need from you: Share suggestions - favorite templates, configurations, dashboards - let us know what you think other admins would benefit from if they could just click “go!” Permission to showc

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gunjanm
Golden Ruler
1 year ago
C
ChristyRaeHGainsight Community new member
asked in Customer Success Best Practices

CSM vs CSA?

For thise of you that have both Customer Success Managers (CSM) and Customer Success Architects (CSA) how do you describe the distinctions? What are the swimlanes of each? How do you describe the different value adds internally and to the customer?Any and all insight here would be greatly appreciated!*May be relevant to note that we also have Education and Professional Services team members.

2
lane_h
Gainsight Employee: MVP
1 year ago
nicole_alrubaiy
Gainsight Rookie
nicole_alrubaiyGainsight Rookie
asked in Customer Success Best Practices

Pre-Renewal Survey

Does anyone use a customer survey before a renewal to understand propensity to renew or to get a pulse on customer sentiment? If so, what are you asking and when? We've heard of some doing the NPS survey at some # of months before renewal, but what other questions help you gauge risk?

5
cnichols
Veteran Rookie
1 year ago
ed_bazel
ed_bazelGainsight Community new member
asked in Customer Success Best Practices

Elevator Pitch for Customer Success To Interal Team?

Checking to see if any of our Customer Success professionals here have an elevator speech about Customer Success that you deliver to your internal IT team?   We have developed one, but our internal team - still seem a bit confused and reluctant about what we do.   Churn hasn't been an issue, but they wonder if we are stepping on their territory.  Has anyone experienced this and do you have a winning elevator speech that we can explain to IT - so they can explain to the people they face on our Customers team?

5
darkknight
ACE
6 years ago
jean.nairon
All Star
jean.naironAll Star
published in Customer Success Best Practices

Productivity Hacks with Chrome Extensions for Gainsight Administrators

It’s been said many times before that Chrome is the best browser to use now days for its security, ease of use, and speed. But the real reason I love Gainsight on Chrome is because of the extensions!The most interesting admin in the world!Chrome extensions are small apps that are built to sit on top of Chrome and extend its functionality. They typically serve a small single purpose like ad blocking, password protection, or to easily schedule a Zoom meeting within Google Calendar. They are distributed through the Chrome Web Store and all go through a full review process by Google.Why I love extensions is because you can customize Chrome to better suit your needs in administering Gainsight. And best of all, you never have to leave Chrome and open another app. Here’s my favorite Chrome extensions that I hope will make your life as a Gainsight admin easier as well.  Salesforce Colored FaviconsIf you work in Gainsight on SFDC and/or work in multiple Salesforce environments because you also

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kyle_handley
Gainsight Rookie
1 year ago
seth
Gainsight Employee: ACE
sethGainsight Employee: ACE
posted in Customer Success Best Practices

Key Takeaways from CS Ops Meet-Up about the Value of CS Ops

Everyone I’ve spoken to who has a CS Ops team is grateful to have them, but that’s different than explicitly defining and even measuring the value of CS Ops. 80 CS Ops leaders got together to discuss the topic, which kicked off with a presentation (view recording) from Jeff Heckler, describing a commission program he stood up for CS Ops team members at Pipedrive. (Talk about aligning CS Ops value to $$$!)In breakout groups following Jeff’s session, folks talked through the topics in more detail, and then shared these key takeaways, in their own words:Defining the Purpose/Value of CS OpsOrchestrating journey of customer through data, consistency through methodology of process CS Ops is the CSM for CSMs CS Ops is both process / efficiency as well as data to drive value and action To give the team some space to take a look at the bigger picture and plan/mitigate expected risks CS Ops provides resources, training, processes to maximize CSM time to engage with customer and bring more revenu

2
A
7 months ago
cmultanen
Champion
cmultanenChampion
posted in Customer Success Best Practices

Servicing customers with groups of CSMs?

Does anyone out there have experience with servicing customers with a "group" of CSMs instead of a single CSM? Our team is currently exploring the idea of grouping several CSMs together along with a more junior member and having this group collectively service a patch of customers. The thought here is that the more junior member would learn on the job by supporting the CSMs with the more tactical/day-to-day request while the more senior member focus on the strategic aspects: conducting EBRs, stakeholder engagement, adoption, etc. We're hoping that this would also help mitigate the friction/pains of account transitions when a CSM moves roles or leaves the company entirely. Instead of being assigned a completely new CSM, the customer would still have the familiar names and faces of their dedicated CSM group. Thoughts? Would love to hear if anyone else has experimented with this and/or has other ideas for reducing account transition pains. If so, would also be intereste

11
Dylan.Shields
1 year ago
J
Gainsight Employee: Rookie
JyothsnaGainsight Employee: Rookie
posted in Customer Success Best Practices

How to calculate anniversary dates(half-yearly)

Hello, in this post I am explaining how to calculate the anniversary dates based on existing date field in an object using Rules Engine.Here is the link to the document  Below are the few use cases where this might be helpful. To follow-up on account’s renewal. To send NPS surveys every 6 months to customers. To create CTA for EBR set-up every 6 months To send customers a survey after 6 months of onboarding to know customer feedback.  

2
phani_kumar
Gainsight Employee: MVP
1 year ago
andorfuhrer
Team Captain
andorfuhrerTeam Captain
asked in Customer Success Best Practices

Best Practices on CSM Portfolio Penetration aka Engagement

Our customer base are traditionally not that engaged.  CSM’s have about 120-180 customers to manage.  Some customers take up a lot of time, while others either get neglected or we even forget to engage with them (yikes, I know!) We want to revamp our workflows with how we engage with our customers and providing visibility to managers ans leaders on effort of engagement and outcome.  We have a strong appetite to track how often CSMs ‘touch’ a customer, meaning how often are we reaching out to the customer.   Additionally we want to track of often customers engage back to us  Can anyone share what they have put in place to make sure CSMs are able to:Engage with all your customers (in the scenario that you have 100+ customers to manage From a reporting perspective: Show customers that were outreached but they never responded back Show customers that were outreached and resulted in an engagement

9
jean.nairon
All Star
9 months ago
faust_belarmino
Veteran Rookie
faust_belarminoVeteran Rookie
asked in Customer Success Best Practices

Embed Gainsight Survey into our Software.

We are currently using Wufoo surveys and placing it on a tab in our company's software. Our clients log into their accounts for the first time and fill out those surveys. It's convenient and we get a higher response rate because those particular surveys are in their instance of our software. Once they fill out the survey, the information is stored in Wufoo and a team member exports it and emails it to the proper CSM. We'd like to revamp this process by utilizing Gainsight surveys. This ensures that the survey data is stored in the survey object, which we can then use to populate survey information on the C360. It's a smoother process and allows are CSM's immediate access to the results.  To be able to do this, we would need to embed the Gainsight survey onto a tab in our software. I know Gansight surveys are supposed to be used and sent via CoPilot.. but we'd really love it if we could embed it in our software so it's easier for our client's to fill out.  Has anyone ran in

11
gunjanm
Golden Ruler
1 year ago
dshorter
Gainsight Employee: Shoshin
dshorterGainsight Employee: Shoshin
posted in Renewal Management Best Practices

Webinar Recording: Risk Escalations: How To Configure and Implement a Weekly Business Review Process With Your Leadership Team

Missed our webinar last week on “Risk Escalations: How To Configure and Implement a Weekly Business Review Process With Your Leadership Team” You’re in luck, you can find the full recording here:   password: GainsightWebinar   This is a two-part webinar, where Easton Taylor, Regional Director of Client Outcomes, will first walk through how to run a cross-functional risk meeting and the workflow in Gainsight, followed by a live step-by-step configuration tutorial by Elliot Hullverson, Client Outcomes Manager.   

1
sai_ram
ACE
1 year ago
seth
Gainsight Employee: ACE
sethGainsight Employee: ACE
posted in Customer Success Best Practices

Key Takeaways from CS Ops Meet-Up about Mapping the Customer Journey

When you’re building digital-led journeys for your customers, it makes one question extremely important: What’s the best way to map your customer’s journey so it’s useful for this purpose?We got 80 digital-led CS leaders and strategists together in breakout rooms to talk through their successes, stumbling blocks, and ideas. Below, find their takeaways that they found most valuable from those conversations, in their own words.Rules of thumb when getting startedStart small, with one persona for one segment Bite size digital journeys can be a good starting place Customer journeys can be simple. Don’t overthink. Just START something and build on it. It’s not easy to get Product/Engineering, CSM and GTM aligned. Lol! Less is more! It’s a slippery slope to a monstrosity of a map, which no one outside your immediate team can understand. So, context is key to determining what you’re mapping. Takeaway:  "Simple is good."  A map should give a simple frame of reference for where a customer "is at

0
seth
Gainsight Employee: ACE
8 months ago
bruno_giacomelli
Gainsight Rookie
bruno_giacomelliGainsight Rookie
asked in Customer Success Best Practices

Timeline vs CTA: What will you prefer to register activities?

Hello Everyone, With the new feature of timeline and the log of activities, I'm curious to know how other companies will encourage CSMs to register customer activities. In our case, today we are using CTAs to log meeting/calls annotations. [list] [*][b]CTAs pros: [/b]can create reports based on CTA reason, duration, etc. [*][b]Timeline pros:[/b] much better interface, formatting, connect with contacts, etc.[/list] This means that if I want to use both, a CSM would need to follow this process: [list=1] [*]Receives a new QBR CTA. [*]Do the call. [*]Take notes logging a new timeline activity (without reason categorization). [*]Go to cockpit and close QBR CTA without annotations.[/list] This would result in a CTA disconnected from its notes. What will you guys going to recommend to your teams? Cheers

16
dstokowski
Gainsight Employee: ACE
5 years ago
lane_h
Gainsight Employee: MVP
lane_hGainsight Employee: MVP
published in Customer Success Best Practices

Building a Tech Touch/Digital Led Segment

Over the last year, the most common topic I’ve heard from other CS Leaders is how to build a Tech Touch or Low Touch CS team/motions.  Through all my conversations, there two most common approaches:Pooled Model Designated Program ManagersIn the Pooled Model, there are a few CSMs who managed a “queue” of customer inquiries as well as manage proactive events such as webinars and round tables. With a Program Manager model, someone manages the programs for a different stages in a customers life. For example, one program manager might specialize in Onboarding, another Adoption, and another in Renewal management.  I would not argue that these two are mutual exclusive. In fact I would argue combining these two models begins to bridge the gap for a high touch model to a low/no touch as it allows customers to still have “someone” to reach out to through the pool. One thing to also consider is the shift in getting information to customers. Moving to a tech touch or digital led model puts the own

2503
N
9 months ago
krishna_reddy_k
Gainsight Employee: Veteran Rookie
krishna_reddy_kGainsight Employee: Veteran Rookie
published in Renewal Management Best Practices

Calculating Retention Rates in Gainsight

We assume that you have a way to identify which customer is due for renewal and when is their renewal and you are tracking the renewal process(Opportunity) something similar to the below example.   To calculate Retention Rates in Gainsight, We should use the Data Designer feature. Click here to know more about Data Designer. Calculating Net Revenue Retention Rate:Step 1:Using Data Designer, fetch Renewal and Expansion Related Information from Opportunity along with their Close Dates and Stages.   Step 2:Next step is to get the First day of the Quarter for the Close Date of Opportunity. In case if you want to get Retention Rates by Month, You need to get the First Day of the Month for the Close Date of Opportunity.  Step 3:Get the SUM of Amount of all the Opportunities, SUM of Current ARR  and Total Number of Accounts per Quarter(Grouping by Quarter).  Labels: SUM of Amount → Total Renewable ARRCount of Accounts → Total Renewable AccountsSUM of Current ARR → Total Current ARR .Step 4:Ge

2232
sai_ram
ACE
10 months ago
dan_ahrens
ACE
dan_ahrensACE
asked in Customer Success Best Practices

Your input needed - what should go in Timeline?

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 CoPilot or Advanced Outreach email, CTAs, Milestones, NPS survey responses and even health scores to Timeline.  [b][i]What's your point of view? [/b] Should we keep Timeline as a view of human interactions only or would you want to drop automated, system g

23
rajesh_gande
Gainsight Employee: Rookie
3 years ago

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