What strategies have you used to engage with customers that are active with the Product (although no

Angela Guedes

 

Alejandro Sanchez

Angela, there might be many reasons why they are not engaging with the CSM. Some reasons to worry about but others not to worry. Of course you still want clients to be engaged with your CSMs so this is a critical question you are asking. 

In these situations, what I've done before is first understand the specific situation for that account. Discuss with the CSM, recall how engaged they were during launch (and even go back to the time of the sale and talk to sales. See how much where they engaged then, who was more engaged, etc). Also think about your audience. Who are we talking to normally? Is it the same person or group of people we've talked to before or a new person. Have they usually gone MIA and only reach out when there is an issue? Have they been engaged or disengaged when we are able to get on a call with them, sharing info and asking questions...So anyway ask yourself those questions and do the research. That should give you a better idea of the specific situation so you can better take action. 

For example, if they have never been super engaged, let's say your contacts are engineers, they launched and know how to use your system and don't want to be "bothered" and think of CSMs as white glove support. Are they unhappy? Are they going to churn? Probably not. But are they seeing value in jumping on the phone with the CSM. Probably not as well. Why? Maybe the couple calls they had where "check ins", high level without deep technical detail which is what they care about. They didn't learn anything new so why bother. If this is the situation, get on their shoes. What do they care about? How can you provide that? What are you trying to convey in those CSM calls and what are you actually doing? Think about providing value to your audience and find the best way to communicate that to them to get them re-engaged.

The situation could also be one with real underlying risk. They are not engaged because they are evaluating other systems. Or they are super busy in another project and this one was launched halfway and then left on the back burner which, if not addressed properly, will likely end in churn. Usually if this is the case, there are other signals. Their usage of the system is down, they are opening less support tickets, they paid an invoice or two late, they asked for a copy of the contract. If this is the case and you do have some of those signals and it's been a quarter or more since you've heard from them, my suggestion would be to reach out directly to your executive contact. If you don't have one, reach out to the person who signed the contract. Be upfront and direct about what you are seeing. Recall why they signed with you and chose you, that desired outcome that they want to get and ask if they are not getting to it with your help. Be concise and to the point and ask for a meeting. Basically the message is: we want this to work for you, we are not seeing you around and are worried that we are not helping you achieve your goals. Let's discuss and see if we can get the boat back on route, or find alternatives and be transparent with each other. People appreciate this.

Good luck!

Thomas Seelbinder

Just like with personal connections, we give them space.  Last thing we want to do is overwhelm or give off the impression we are "hovering". We also want to start gathering and reviewing as much information as possible.

If they aren't interacting with the CSM but are a healthy user, our touches need to be extremely focused and value-heavy. 

As mentioned already, we also need to take into account how their engagement has evolved over the lifecycle and use that information to position our next move. 

 

Jared Scoubes

I've been thinking about this a lot lately as it seems that those that are "active" may just be using our service and not interested in newest features (or are completely unaware of them) and as a result, either cancel or don't wish to renew their agreement. I feel that it is often such a tightrope that we walk on. Lately, I've attempted either sending a quick email to celebrate a small victory/win based on a few recent results (as a sort of "just thinking about you" sort of touch point) and/or an invite to train on a couple of new features. More often than not, I find that part of the reason for their lack of engagement has to do with a change with their point of contact. In that case, I kill them with kindness, introduce myself and offer assistance. My advice: put on your investigation hat and try to find out what may really be going on. Best of luck to you!!

Andreas Knoefel

I look at what is relevant to each contact as a prelude to a dialog and try to offer them a way to participate in a dialog that is beneficial to them:

Business stakeholder: 

1. Are they getting the value they expected  
2. ways to expand that value 
3. featuring/promoting them in a use-case study

End-user: 

1. New capabilities found at other customers 
2. new things you can offer
3. invitation o provide feedback to roadmap

 

Vikas Kaushik

This is a great question.

I see this situation in 2 scenarios-

1. Net new customer assigned to the CSM- 

It’s slight problem if as a CSM one is not able to establish the kind of relationship with your customer that allows you to do regular monthly/ quarterly check-ins with the customer.

2. Account handed over to CSM during some point of Customer Journey-

This is a difficult situation as you would be required to build a fresh relationship with the customer who is already comfortable with the product

Below are some of the ways we can try to initiate the engagement:

• Defining importance of CSM clearly as a part of customer journey during the Kick off call itself. (Setting expectation and the value CSM brings)
• Ensuring smooth handover between teams (Sales to CSM, Implementation to CSM, CSM to CSM)
• Sending the placeholder invites for your QBRs or monthly check-ins in advance. (Keep a slide on your Kick off or QBR Deck for this and share it with the customer with minutes)
• Reaching out to different stakeholders (for this, it’s important to know the politics and personality details at customer side from your Sales team)
• Inviting them to a company sponsored event (Christmas drinks event etc.) or offering discounts to them for attending major technology events where you’ve a stall at.
• Send them a glimpse of comparative analysis of similar size customer in their industry (best practices used by competitors/ use cases)
• Getting your Executives to reach out to their counterparts on customer side.
• If nothing works, try to proactively look for couple of support tickets where you can intervene and add value from CSM standpoint. (visibility and good chance the secondary contacts working on those tickets from customer side can open the backdoor to key contacts)

Thoughts?