Ways to establish ownership in a start-up CS role
Hi everyone! I've been an Onboarding Specialist at my company for a month now and am part of a very new CS team. This is my first CS role, so it's very exciting and I love how we're figuring it out together. I've noticed a few areas that need to be addresses and would greatly appreciate any insights the community has. I apologize in advance if this is long but I'll do my best to be brief.
1) Blurred ownership/conflicts of interest
Someone from sales messages me and my co-worker about a large account they just closed. My co-worker is the onboarding owner but he allowed me to take it. I have a great conversation with the POC for the customer. For the next few days, the sales rep messages me everyday about this customer. At first it's ok, as he has great domain expertise and wants to help any way he can. After a while, it becomes a bit grating but I simply tell him I will let him know when the customer transacts. Finally, I see transactions pending and when I tell him, he lets me know the customer is upset and the higher ups are working on it. The last thing I want to do is be in the dark about an escalation. So I call the customer later and we have a great convo where he lets me know (unprompted) that he was going to contact me but the sales rep contacted him.
Why? I was a bit miffed because I believed sales had no incentive past the closing of the deal. Wrong. There's a bonus incentive when customers transact a certain amount, so for large accounts there's more at stake for them. I learned this after bringing it up with my supervisor, who said they can't stop him from contacting the customer but he needs to keep me in the loop. That doesn't sound like a working solution but she is working on a way to establish better territory ownership. Part of that leads me to my next issue...
2) Lack of centralized database
For my own sanity, I've begun to build my BOB in Google Sheets. With no easy way to parse which accounts are mine, I've been building it manually. I'm very proud, as its my first and I feel a sense of ownership. However, as I mentioned before, I've got a sales rep with cart blanche to interrupt my cadence with one of my largest accounts. There are also a few projects composed of different spreadsheets based on customer activity and none of them have clearly marked ownership. A member from customer support was brought in to help with one of them, but he has no CS training and a few of these accounts were mine. I made the mistake of redundantly reaching out to a couple of them because I didn't check three other databases to make sure the customer hasn't been contacted. Very tedious!
Thanks for your patience and that's exactly what I know I need here: patience! There's no real established CS team/leadership, as my supervisors are wearing too many hats. It's my first time at a start-up and the company itself is barely 8 months old. While I feel the sales rep went about this the "wrong" way, I understand why he did it and at this point, there isn't a great protocol around handoffs. I can manage my emotions, I'm interested in solutions. So my questions are:
What are some of the ways you've dealt with helping your new CS team establish ownership? Did you find a way to establish a more symbiotic relationship with sales? Is there any software you feel makes centralizing data easier?
