Deep-dive into how Gainsight manages risk from the CSM level. See how we build an effective workflow for visibility into customer risks and actionable steps for handling them.

1. Gainsight on Gainsight:
Managing Risk from a CSM’s Perspective
12 | 9 | 2015

2. Presenter Introduction
Chelsea Taylor
CSM

3. What are the current challenges CSMs face when it
comes to managing risks?
• CSMs are juggling a lot of things at once
• CSMs don’t have insight into risks that could potentially surface
• CSMs don’t know how to prioritize risks
• CSMs don’t know which risks are most important to the business
• Customer risks can pop up out of nowhere
OR
• Customer risks can build over time, leading to a “final straw” scenario
AND
• Customer risks that pop up can be extremely serious or sensitive

4. Goals of a CSM in managing risk
• Proactive vs. reactive
• Appropriate prioritization (ARR, logo, risk measure)
• Seamless cross-functional collaboration
• Efficient and effective resolution
• Sense of ownership, mastery and accomplishment

5. ©2015 Gainsight. All Rights Reserved.
Understand your risk management framework
Support Company Sentiment Habits
Exec
Owner
Director of Support VP Customer Success VP Customer Success VP Customer Success
Definition
What volume of open
support tickets does
the customer have,
and what’s their
priority and duration?
Is there a change at the
company that will affect
the customer’s use of
Gainsight?
Is the customer generally
happy? (e.g. NPS)
Is the customer using
our product in a
significant, sticky way?
Readiness Implementation Product Bugs
Exec
Owner
VP Sales VP Services VP Product VP Engineering
Definition
Was the customer
ready to purchase
Gainsight?
Is the implementation
project plan on track?
Does the customer
require a product
enhancement?
Does the customer have
a high volume / priority
of bugs open?
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8
GAINSIGHT EXAMPLE

6. How does each risk category affect my customers?
Questions to consider:
• Which risks am I seeing the most? How can I work cross-functionally with that department
to alleviate some of these risks in the future?
• Will I be proactively warned about a risk? Or could I potentially be blindsided by it?
• Which risks can I control or affect? Which ones are going to be difficult for me to affect /
prevent?
• Which risks will matter most to my customers? Which ones will matter most to me?
• Does the absence of risk actually indicate a risk for this customer?

7. It is critical to understand the risks you are dealing with
Data is illustrative

8. Managing a lot of risks
What should I be looking for in my Cockpit?
• Customers with flagged risks
• The ARR of a customer
• Their most recent sentiment
• Overdue risks
Your Cockpit is where you will organize your
risks and help yourself align on what to tackle
first

9. It is critical to have a clear view of your customers
Data is illustrative

10. Factors that can indicate risk
What should I be looking for when I go to the C360 page?
• When was the last time I engaged with this customer? Additionally, have they been
opening our emails?
• How many open support cases or bugs cases do they have open?
• What was their last NPS survey response?
• How are their habits (usage) trending?
• Have they had a sponsor change?
This can all be captured and readily available in
your C360 view!

11. It is also critical to have a clear view of the
health of your entire customer base
Data is illustrative

12. How do I evaluate the health scorecard?
Elements to consider when looking at the health scorecard:
• Where am I see the greatest amount of “red”?
• Based on ARR, who is at highest risk?
• What risk measure is most important for me to focus on?
• What execs can I loop in to support me as I work to resolve these risks?
This information can be captured and configured
in the health scorecard view.

13. Track trends with dashboards and reports
Habits Scores by CSM
Personalized Dashboard
Track Habits Decline or Improvement
Data is illustrative

14. So now what do I do with this information?
Let’s talk CSM strategy:
• Check Cockpit à C360 à Chatter à Support Cases, Surveys (etc.)
• Tackle quick and easy wins first
• Prioritize
• ARR
• Renewal date
• Upcoming meeting
• Friend of the CEO
• Prior risk
• The absence of risk can also be the sign of a customer being at risk!
Always remember, a high or urgent risk issue
trumps everything!

15. How do I work through a risk to resolve it?
Important things to remember:
• Define clear and comprehensive playbooks that are easy to follow
• Utilize your internal escalation process
• Follow up, both internally and with the customer, and then follow up again, and then
once more to be sure… hey, maybe even follow up once more
• Ensure that you have an internal best practice for communicating risks, resolution
timelines and resolutions to your customers (and that you are following it)
• Show you care! Add a personal touch, stay available, send a gift…
• Build relationships constantly!
• BUT do it on a wide scale (contacts and sponsors can come and go, so don’t
rely on those!) and make sure that you always keep your eye on the ball

16. Understand and use playbooks to solve risks
Company Risk Playbook: Sentiment Risk Playbook:
GAINSIGHT EXAMPLE

17. Gainsight’s Internal Escalation Process
Team Leader
Rest of Team
+ Allison
Other
departments
• Flagged CTAs, when you @-mention the team leader
• 1:1s: Can cover all CTAs
• Friday CSM team meeting: Flagged CTAs for Habits, Sentiment, Company, Renewal,
Opt-out
• Monday Leadership meeting: Flagged CTAs (Red Scorecards) for all categories, for
customers > ARR threshold
• Other departments to review all Flagged CTAs in real time + CSM should @-mention the
right person on your Chatter update
• Manual Product risk: fill out "product feature request" form to provide info to product team
Allison
• When team leader asks Allison for help with a Flagged CTA, especially when:
• Renewal is at risk (within 90 days) or pending Opt-Out
• Yellow/Red Habits (need better strategy for using Gainsight)
• Loss of exec sponsor (type of Company Risk)
Who can
provide help… …in which situations
Services /
Support
• Wednesday Support Risk meeting: Flagged Support Risk CTAs
• Friday Launch Risk meeting: Flagged Launch Risk CTAs
GAINSIGHT EXAMPLE

18. Trust your gut and rely on your understanding of
the customer
Questions to ask yourself:
• What is my gut feeling about this customer, that call, this email, our last interaction?
• When was the last time that I spoke to or interacted with the customer?
• Is this a risk or incident that, while potentially insignificant to another customer, is a big
deal to this customer?
• What type of outreach or resolution would this customer appreciate most? What type
of resolution makes the most sense for this customer?
Remember, you are the closest connection to the
customer, your gut feeling is often accurate!

19. Questions?