Best Of

Re: CSM certifications

https://gaingrowretain.com/discussion/comment/11644#Comment_11644

I keep my kindergarten diploma on my wall because it covers the essentials: I play well with others, I show up on time... I still don't color in the lines very well yet. LOL. Thank goodness I don't post my report card.

DbradyScaledCSDbradyScaledCS

Re: Hubspot for Customer Success?

Well, slightly biased opinion here, but I would agree with Jeff. Whenever possible, you want to use the right tool custom built for the job. Yes, I have used a wrench as a hammer...because i didn't have one handy, but its obviously not ideal. In the same way, using a CRM as CSP is not ideal. Nor would I suggest trying to use a CSP as a CRM. Different tools for different purposes.

But as was mentioned above, if you are not a big enough team to pay for both...sometimes you have to leverage what you have in hand...so a wrench may do the trick. (just try not to bend too many nails) ;-)

chrisdishmanchrisdishman

Re: What's your worst post-sales-engagement story?

I have so many lol. Here is a situation I was asked to fix:

Story #1 - Project Never End

  • Implementation 8 months late ​

  • Product sold as white label and could be​ customized.​

  • Features promised by CEO in sales cycle without LOE scoping​

  • No professional services team to build features​

  • Dependent on Development team​

  • Development team didn't want to build customer features​

  • Product team reported into Development and instructed that this was not a priority

  • Customer rude to CSM and implementation resources

  • Customer paying for 2 vendors

FIX:

  • Internal Stakeholder meeting to get all teams aligned

  • Development team​ allocated to work on features

  • Hired Project Manager to decouple CSM from feature development

  • ​Stakeholder meeting with Customer once we knew conservative timelines 

  • Dear Customer- Rudeness will not be tolerated 

  • Agreed to MVP features needed for Launching and shutting down old vendor

  • Agreed to Launch date that all could be comfortable with

  • Agreed to no more talking about the past

Jeffrey KushmerekJeffrey Kushmerek

Re: GGR Blog - When is the right time to ask a customer for help?

@rdesmarais - I always like facetious. :)

I agree with you - the persona matters. Also, as you were commenting about the AE, I was getting chills about times where I had sales rep jump in and ask for a reference call when the incumbent customer was having a severity 1 production issue. Timing is another key factor for sure!

Sabina PonsSabina Pons