In Brief
When Tackle realized their Customer Success Platform (CSP) was adding more complexity than value, they turned to Staircase AI by Gainsight. By switching to Staircase, Tackle was able to reset their other CS tool with a solution from Gainsight that aligned to their team’s size, stage, and goals. Fast implementation, automated insights, and predictive health scoring gave them immediate value—and became the foundation for smarter customer engagement and renewal forecasting.
Challenge
As a lean and growing company, Tackle, the Cloud GTM industry leader, needed clear visibility into customer health without heavy operational overhead. Their initial foray into customer health scoring with their existing CSP didn’t go as planned.
“It failed on rollout,” said Brian Palmer, CX Operations at Tackle.io. “Once it hit the field team, they said, ‘this isn’t going to work.’ It felt like we were spending more time managing the tool than actually working with customers.”
Their CSP’s manual processes and project management-style setup didn’t resonate with Tackle’s team, who needed a solution that could deliver quick, reliable insights without the burden of inputting data or managing complex workflows. With low adoption and little buy-in, it was time for a change and instead looked into the latest solutions that Gainsight had to offer within its product portfolio.
Solution
Tackle needed a reset—something simpler, faster, and better suited to their current stage. Enter Staircase AI. They chose Staircase because it delivered exactly what they needed—health scoring, sentiment analysis, and customer engagement data—automatically and effortlessly, enabling their team to spend less time managing tools and more time taking action.
“We’re a lean team. It couldn’t create a bunch of overhead,” said Palmer. “Staircase actually generates the number for us. It gives us the data to support how our accounts are doing, without requiring extra work.”
Out of the Box Insights
One of the biggest advantages of Staircase was the ability to get immediate insights into customer health and sentiment without needing to spend time configuring the platform. Within a short implementation window, Tackle was up and running—ingesting customer data, tracking engagement, and surfacing risk signals across their customer base.
Unlike the CSP they used before working with Gainsight, Staircase didn’t demand constant manual input or task management. Instead, it served up actionable data that allowed the Customer Success team to prioritize and respond quickly. Health scores, sentiment scores, and alerts were available almost immediately, empowering the team to make informed decisions with minimal setup time.
Lean Team, Big Impact
As a lean team, Tackle needed a solution that scaled with them – not one that added complexity. Staircase AI’s automated approach to health scoring allowed them to focus on customer engagement rather than operational maintenance.
Palmer shared, “It felt like with our CSP, we were just managing a tool. With Staircase, we’re working with customers, not software.”
The team also appreciated how easily Staircase integrated with Salesforce, allowing them to port insights into their existing workflows. Rather than changing systems, Staircase empowered Tackle to enhance the tools they already used, providing sentiment and engagement data right where their team was already operating. This seamless integration helped the team stay aligned, reduce bias in account reviews, and focus on customer outcomes.
Impact
Predictive Insights for Churn and Renewal
To assess the real impact of Staircase, Palmer ran a win/loss analysis over three quarters, comparing account health scores and sentiment scores to revenue outcomes. The results spoke for themselves:
- 95% of accounts Tackle renewed had a health score >30.
- 81% of accounts they churned had a health score <30.
- Sentiment score was the most aligned single metric:
- 83% of accounts renewed had a sentiment score >30.
- 80% of accounts churned had a sentiment score <30.
“Sentiment was a very good tell for us,” Palmer explained. “We compared every Staircase metric and our internal metrics. None of our data aligned as strongly with our retention outcomes as the health and sentiment scores from Staircase.”
Beyond Staircase’s predictive health and sentiment scores, Tackle compared additional internal signals—including stakeholder count, contract consumption, and product usage. The strongest internal metric aligning with win/loss outcomes was multiple product area usage. For example, 84% of accounts that renewed used more than one area of the product.
By analyzing multiple data points, Tackle validated that Staircase’s insights provided one of the strongest indicators of renewal likelihood—enabling a more data-driven approach to customer retention.
Enabling Better Risk Conversations
Staircase’s insights didn’t just deliver numbers—they transformed how the team discussed customer risk. The health and sentiment scores served as a starting point for identifying at-risk accounts and strategizing next steps.
“We have a lot more conversations about risk and what’s going on with customers now. The account owners populate their list of at-risk accounts using Staircase scores, then we collectively plan how to reduce or mitigate that risk.”
Supporting Forecast Accuracy
Incorporating Staircase into renewal forecasting added a layer of objectivity and data-backed validation for the sales team. Tackle compared Staircase data with sales sentiment and found strong alignment, increasing their confidence in forecast accuracy.
“We’re feeling good about the addition of this data into forecasting, but we’ll have to see how accurate it is over time. Each quarter had some variance, but looking across several quarters, the scores really showed to be a good indicator of win/loss.”
What’s Next
As Tackle continues to evolve its Customer Success motion, they’re expanding their use of Staircase AI to include stakeholder engagement tracking and persona alignment. When executive leadership asked for these capabilities, Palmer was thrilled to already have a solution in place.
“Before our execs even knew Staircase had stakeholder features, they started asking for them. It’s great to already have a tool that meets those needs. I don’t need to research or build new systems—I can just run with what we have.”
For Tackle, Staircase AI has become more than a tool—it’s the foundation of a smarter, more agile Customer Success strategy. And for any team starting their CS journey or looking to reset, Tackle’s experience shows that starting with Staircase delivers fast time to value—and a clear path to better outcomes.
