Vetting CS Software Platforms- What are the best questions to ask?

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Chrissy Hines
Chrissy Hines Member Posts: 11 Contributor
edited October 2020 in CS Technology
Hi all! 
I'm currently vetting CS platforms for purchase- I was wondering if the community might share questions you're asking the providers when receiving a demo? I do have a list of questions, but I want to make sure I'm not missing something important that might come back to haunt me. What are some of your BEST questions in regards to what a CS software can do? Any pitfalls to look out for? As a note: we are not looking at the big guys (churn zero gainsight etc..). Thanks so much as always for your feedback.







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  • Jeff Breunsbach
    Jeff Breunsbach Member Posts: 266 Gain Grow Retain Staff
    5 Insightfuls Photogenic First Anniversary GGR Blogger 2022
    edited October 2020
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    Tagging @Kristi Faltorusso - she's done this many times!
  • Yanira "Janita" Sesniak
    Yanira "Janita" Sesniak Member Posts: 53 Expert
    edited October 2020
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    Hi Chrissy -

    One question I like to ask is what their plans are to continue updating their platform and how you as a customer will be notified of updates/releases/etc.

  • Kevin Mitchell Leonor
    Kevin Mitchell Leonor Member Posts: 248 Expert
    First Comment Name Dropper First Anniversary
    edited October 2020
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    What are the things I need to have prepared to be successful in using your platform?

    this is important because there is not a single platform that will be CS in a box.... that includes the company CS in a box.

    you will be expected to have your CS identity fully developed. If you don't have a CS identity, you will be paying for something you aren't ready to use
  • Matt Myszkowski
    Matt Myszkowski Member Posts: 143 Expert
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    edited October 2020
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    I am very interested in this too. Does anyone have or use a scorecard for scoring and assessing each vendor?

    If yes, can I "borrow"?
  • Alex Thebert
    Alex Thebert Member Posts: 9 Contributor
    GGR Blogger 2020
    edited October 2020
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    Hi Chrissy!

    A big component that I would look as is how a platform integrates with the other tools you're using. Will you have do double-enter any information or can it get piped over? As an example, making sure we can pipe in CSAT to the platform was mission critical for us. Would be happy to chat more!

  • Carl Hoffmann
    Carl Hoffmann Member Posts: 16 Thought Leader
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    edited October 2020
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    I agree with Alex with avoiding the double-entry situations.  I would also expand on that and check with other internal stakeholders who access CS data and see if/how it will affect their workflow, too.  It might just need to be a courtesy, but you may get insight into more good questions to ask a vendor, too.
  • Amanda Ingraham
    Amanda Ingraham Member Posts: 3 Navigator
    edited October 2020
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    Teams have all sorts of reasons to buy Customer Success software; the questions come down to the why behind your purchase. If it's data consolidation, the questions are around the integrations. If it's automation, what kind of automation is most important (CSM tasks vs messaging to customers). If it's health scoring, what do you want to do with that data? 

    We went through a really robust vetting process when we bought our Success software, and we refined the questions on every demo we had. As we learned more, we were able to ask better questions. 

    ~Amanda

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