POC left

Amit Kumar

Hi guys, what mid term plans we can implement for clients where POCs have left?

Kevin Mitchell Leonor

Generally, what has worked well for me is treating the customer as if they are brand new. I do this using these steps.

1. Revisit the handoff slide deck.
2. Have a first consultation call
3. Highlight the things that were already accomplished and things that are pending.
4. Come to a mutual agreement on success plans
5. set a cadence call with expectations of benchmarking the success plans.

We do this because we can not assume that the new POC will pick up where the last left off. We also have to understand that the new POC may be brought in because they specialize in a certain desired outcome that they are motivated to accomplish.

Kevin Mitchell Leonor

@Ronni Gaun Amit is actually one of my colleagues at Birdeye. Would love to get your input on his question!

Shaun Porcar

Great suggestions @Kevin Mitchell Leonor 

I would also recommend including your exec sponsor in this conversation OR use this as an opportunity to introduce yourself up the ladder and develop one — especially if ownership and staffing timeline is unclear at the operational level with your customer.

 

 

Kevin Mitchell Leonor

Great call out @Shaun Porcar. @Amit I hope this gives you a good framework. Any questions or thoughts?

Alex Turkovic

Agree fully with all suggestions. Perhaps this goes without saying - but I think it's worth digging into that first consultation call a bit more.

Specifically, I feel it is vital to present the already agreed upon decks, completed tasks and pending items with the preface that the you are open to revisions the new POC feels they need to make. Not doing this on the outset might set both sides up for surprises down the road.

Might be obvious - but worth mentioning.

Amit Kumar

Thanks guys. Great insights. @Alex Turkovic @Kevin Mitchell Leonor @Shaun Porcar 

Effie Mansdorf

Here are some of my guidelines and playbook tasks:

1. Backup and then Backup the backup - redundancy is key. A customer should never have only one contact per team you deal with ( assuming you have different teams within your customer who touch your product). Whether it's someone below your contact, above or another team member. They all should be involved.
2. Executive sponsors - For those high touch high tier customers, there should always be a C level exec sponsor as a supplement to other contacts and SCM relationship
3. Relationship - unless the contact is suddenly asked to leave the company, the CSM should have a deep relationships with all contacts in order to predict and prepare for their departure. If you find out your contact has left via auto email or linkedin update, you are not doing your job!
4. Playbooks - The CS team should have a clear playbook of what to do when a key contact leaves. It should include items like:
   1. Handover from current contact to new contact  while the old one is still in their position. There should be overlap.
   2. Retraining on your product - you may need to onboard from scratch, depending on the new contact involvement.
   3. Intro and kickoffs - as with the above, you will need to have sessions that cover the history of the product as well as planned next steps, in order not to lose momentum.
   4. Status update - customer is placed on automatic risk when a champion is replaced. CSMs have to work on relationship building and ensuring that customers goals are still aligned and addressed with the new contact taking over. They need to make that person the new champion.