In the world of Customer Success, the word “adoption” is essentially synonymous with customers’ usage of our product. But as a Gainsight administrator, “adoption” inspires a different interpretation: our CSMs usage of Gainsight and the various workflows associated with it.
Just as CSMs work to inspire and guide our customers to fully utilize our products, I was on a similar mission to get our team of CSMs to regularly use the multitude of tools within Gainsight that I had configured for them. In my mind, Gainsight was a way to make their lives easier and their days more efficient, but amidst their hectic schedules, it sometimes fell by the wayside. I knew I needed a new way to inspire the team to adopt the software.
I looked at past initiatives, and the ones that always proved the most effective were friendly competitions. I didn’t have either the bandwidth to do weekly in-depth analysis of usage and build new dashboards or the capability (as this was before G360 was released), so the Usage and Habits Report emails were the perfect solution. Since I didn’t have a budget for actual prizes, I knew the competition had to tell more of a story than just who were in the top three spots, otherwise it wouldn’t resonate with the CSMs. I started a simple Google Sheet that tracked their rank and page views so that I could compare week-over-week jumps or falls. And now, the G360 reports have made this much easier. More than that, I knew I had to find a way to make the graph something they would actually look forward to seeing every Monday in our team Slack channel rather than just skimming over it. I’m a bit on the graphic design-challenged side of things, but the simple shapes and stamps in Snagit were perfect to turn a run-of-the-mill report into a fun, interactive Monday afternoon staple. To take it even one step further, I put a fun spin on the captions, filling them with lots of praising and, of course, some shaming.
Immediately, the CSMs were ignited to improve their Gainsight usage. Everyone wanted to earn their own digital gold star, and no one wanted to be shamed for dropping on the graph or, even worse, not making the graph. Before long, Cockpits were getting cleaned up, Timeline activities were being logged, and Outreaches were being sent to take a targeted approach with customers. The CSMs would even pop by my desk just to tell me what they had done in Gainsight that week and how they were anxiously waiting to see how that changed their rank in the Usage reports. Several CSMs told me it was their favorite weekly update—not just from the department, but the whole company. The Managers of the Customer Success teams also began using the graphs in their team meetings and one-on-ones to encourage the CSMs to utilize the software more and more. I even began using them to effectively select certain CSMs to pilot new features or provide feedback on desired new workflows to streamline their day-to-day activities.
Here at ServiceTitan, we make HVAC software, and one of our core Guiding Principles is Customer Obsession. CSMs put all on their focus on their relationships with their customers, and that’s where they felt they needed to spend all of their time. In their eyes, Gainsight felt merely like a distraction from their main priority. However, by gamifying Gainsight and taking a fun approach to adoption, the CSMs began to see Gainsight in a very different light. At first, Gainsight was seen as an entertaining challenge, but as the CSMs began to spend more and more time inside the software, they saw its true value, which intrinsically supported their main priority of strengthening their relationships with their customers.
Here are some examples:
Alright party people! @here It’s time for GS Usage Updates. This week there has been a MAJOR development. This is only the second time this has happened (I think). I have been knocked out of the true # 1 spot by @Brendon 🤯🤯🤯 @Arvey is holding on to #2 but our 👸🏻 of the Cockpit @Chelsea is now #3 in addition to being one of our biggest upward movers this week alongside @Chris and @Priti. Gold stars for you three 🌟!! Still sad to report Survey Respondents have earned a spot in the top 20 😭 Welcome @Casey and @Carrie to the board 🎉 ! But careful because you and @Audree are in the scary drop off zone 😱! CSMs beware; the managers are coming for you!!! @Edward @Erica and @Amanda were our biggest drops this week, while @Saniya @Tejas @Lindsay @Paul and @Lesley are missing
For Cockpit usage @Chelsea is still queen bee 👸🏻 🐝 of the Captain’s Lounge with @Brendon in second. We have two newcomers to the top with a tie for third @MeilaniK and @MiaK!!! Coincidence they have the same initials? #illuminati @MiaK also earned a gold star 🌟 for being one of our biggest page view increases along with @Casey and @Carrie. Team bredward (@Brendon and @Edward ) had the biggest drops in views while @Matthew fell from the board. I sense a comeback on the horizon for next week though!
