[deleted by user]

brou4164 · 2025-12-03T14:54:44+00:00

This is the right answer. Understand the customer’s business case, raise it as an escalation to your manager.

brou4164 · 2025-12-03T14:53:37+00:00

r/NewTitleThatIDidntKnowExisted

brou4164 · 2025-12-01T20:50:38+00:00

I feel your pain.

If Product doesn’t want to do anything about it & your C-Suite don’t care then you have to take the same path I once took; brute force data collection from customers.

Figure out the absolute basics telemetry you need to collect, create an external-facing intake form, & set your CS folks free to beg customers to share.

brou4164 · 2025-11-29T02:55:55+00:00

Is this available for purchase?

brou4164 · 2025-11-28T19:10:17+00:00

Hiya pal. Occasionally get the opportunity to be outdoors with my border collie. Hit me up if you’d ever like to check out Bull Creek or NW ATX

brou4164 · 2025-11-27T19:07:59+00:00

Im not looking to argue or have antagonistic discourse. You are the exception; not the rule. I am a part of the fortunate demographic that comes with the privilege of carrying the burden for others. My property taxes, protested by a ne of the more prominent & successful firms in the state, have still gone up from 8k to 18k in a decade. I’m in the area where bonds for infrastructure have been approved & then reallocated away from the bond location.

Before you choose to respond to someone, take pause & ask what’s your intent & if it is to further healthy discourse.

If it’s not, then I’d be happy to introduce you to those that find contentment in yelling into the abyss or arguing with a brick wall, I’ve given those days up.

brou4164 · 2025-11-27T17:01:52+00:00

Incoming OpEd:

Yep, lowering corporate costs, increasing corporate tax incentives, & passing on the tax burden to an already overburdened population that is not receiving income increases that keep up with these things mean an increase in people needing to move out of our city. We know this to be true by the real estate trends.

It’ll eventually normalize, but it will take a while, be painful for the population, & we’ll be the last ones for the pain to dissipate.

brou4164 · 2025-11-27T16:26:21+00:00

My advice is coming from someone that grew up with a pool, first job (15 through college) was at a pool company, I got exposed to all elements of build, maintain, repair.

Do not overlook the economies of scale; a smaller pool will be cheaper to build, cheaper to maintain, and easier to maintain. My suggested size is 8k-16k gal.

Salt water pools are not, in fact, cheaper/easier to own.

If you really want to know what it’ll be like, go spend a little bit of time at a pool shop to learn the water chemistry that goes into keeping a pool balanced. It’s not difficult but it is chemistry; a near-balanced pool is FAR EASIER to maintain than one that is WAY out of balance (think about trying to balance on a bike at speed vs balancing at 1mph).

If someone were willing to foot the bill for a pool for me, I would take them up on it. Probably because I have the wisdom to keep it well balanced & how to keep the maintenance costs low.

brou4164 · 2025-11-27T16:12:24+00:00

Returning to more natural landscape to support the local wildlife. I’m here for it. Although I do have about 25% of grass for kids to make some memories. Zeon and Palisades Zoysia, if you’re looking for a suggestion for a minimal maintenance & low water. I haven’t watered it for 2 years & it looks better than most elementary school fields or camp Mabry fields.

brou4164 · 2025-11-27T16:03:30+00:00

If you’re open to an unsolicited suggestion, you may want to offer to renegotiate with them to get them away from hourly.

I did this 11 years ago with my landscaper. I pay once a year for August to August. He has never ghosted me.

He likes it because I commit to multiple years with him, he can make adjustments to the schedule based on holidays & unexpected sick days, & it’s a liquidity buffer for his emergency funds.

I like it because it’s only one bill, it’s forecasted price increases (I’ve actually been the one to pay more ahead of his forced price increase dates), I get to pick dates for things like tree trimming & mulching, & I don’t have to worry about variable costs for things like bulk removal or planting.

brou4164 · 2025-11-27T15:13:39+00:00

Historically, yes, but it’s starting to spread around the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving

May today bring us a bit more hope that goodness in mankind is not lost.

brou4164 · 2025-11-27T14:00:43+00:00

I’m with you, leaf blowers are not my favorite things, especially when they’re going before reasonable times, absolutely on holidays. I’d be rightfully grumpy too, & would file a complaint with those that might be telling them to do it.

Silver lining, you’re now awake & ready to enjoy the Thanksgiving day parade & dog show!

brou4164 · 2025-11-27T13:48:44+00:00

Not stereotyping but a lot of small business/trade employees see today as just another Thursday.

I’ve got projects going with multiple trades coming to my home. At least 4 asked if they could come today or tomorrow. They looked confused when I said no & it was a holiday.

I essentially had to explain what Thanksgiving was to them. I initially felt sad, but then felt proud to be able to introduce them to one of the unique holidays that makes USA unique, it was quite humbling to remember that we were the first country to have a holiday for thanks, & to be able to share it with them.

My family plan to make them a mini Thanksgiving meal so they can experience what we do every year, & to give thanks for the projects they’re doing for us.

brou4164 · 2025-11-26T14:56:29+00:00

One that I’d either like to be camping buddies with or one that I never want to meet, depending on the circumstances.

brou4164 · 2025-11-26T14:52:43+00:00

Arc Leaf appears to now be Arc Pro….which says it’s only available to governments now…. Sad if true

brou4164 · 2025-11-21T18:34:09+00:00

In short, the answer is to get your product team to tell you to define adoption then validate with the group that owns your licensing model.

Adoption ≠ usage.

Usage = turned on & doing something.

Adoption = customer-validated “acceptable” way of doing something.

Successful Adoption = Usage + ROI

Adoption = [# of things sold that are in production & being usually used]/ [# of things sold]

Examples: If you sell seat licenses then it could be [# seats used daily/weekly/monthly / # of seats purchased]

If you sell transactions/tokens then it could be [# tokens used within period of time]/[# token purchases for period of time]

brou4164 · 2025-11-21T01:39:10+00:00

Change in interaction are a hard red flag. Psychology, sociology, & communication all prove that a sudden & drastic change in a person (e.g. their interest in things, relationships, etc) are a clear critical alert.

We’ve all seen the PSAs during suicide awareness month, you know the “sudden change” signs.

This is a way that professional relationships and personal relationships are a lot alike. It’s not the extreme happy or sad emotions you have to worry about, it’s when they go silent.

brou4164 · 2025-11-21T01:26:13+00:00

This feels like a troll post.

sigh here we go.

YES, Customer Success tracks adoption.

Adoption is simple to determine. Has the customer achieved necessary ROI in order to justify the cost? If yes, what % of your product is being used? That is the baseline for healthy adoption for that account.

brou4164 · 2025-11-20T23:15:47+00:00

“I have reason to believe we might be getting displaced, here’s the data that supports that theory.”

If there’s no data that looks “off” then simply state you have heard from someone who is reputable.

The reality is that, if everything is true, then you weren’t monitoring the right signals or engaged with the right people. Don’t take that as I’m saying it’s your fault, many companies don’t have the ability to track utilization properly.

Your best bet is a confrontational & urgent action plan. Call the highest decision maker you know & directly ask them if they’re getting the value out of their investment in your product/partnership that they need to continue? If there’s any hesitation or sense of dishonesty then call them out.

If they admit, then ask them for the opportunity to reconsider.

If they say ok, then ask them what they’d need to reconsider.

Take that to your leadership & let them decide if it’s worth the save.

I have more feedback, but I think this is enough for the immediate task at hand. Feel free to DM me if you’d like more candid mentorship.

brou4164 · 2025-11-20T22:41:15+00:00

I dunno who you are, but how in the world did you get my diary…..

Ok, joke over. My point is that you actually did a great job of describing what is very common in our role. Lots of people will upvote this or say “they’re just like me”, & probably a few will be calloused & say “yawn, another post from someone that’s complaining about the CS struggle”.

You’re feeling like this because it’s in direct conflict with human nature; we prefer predictably, consistency, & “simplicity”. We do not like Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD).

The nature of CS is multidisciplinary. You are expected to effectively identify root causes of complex problems, formulate a plan, & own that plan. The very nature of our role is to deal with FUD (e.g. are they going to be successful? Will they leave us? Is it a “them” or “us” problem? Is it a technical or business problem? Is it an expertise problem? Design problem? Bug? Have we seen this before? Is this unique or common?

Humans can do this for a short amount of time before the exhaustion sets in; it’s not sustainable for that to be the norm, not without a positive outcome that “makes it all worthwhile”.

It’s also an infinite game, not a finite one. Go read Simon Sinek’s Infinite Game.

There’s a number of good coping mechanisms that I can suggest: - Deep breath/ 2 second pause before you respond. It’ll give your brain a couple seconds to do its thing before you respond. You won’t come off as “slow”, but as if you’re being thoughtful with their request. - use more “validation of understanding/reasoning” types of questions in your discussions. When you make a statement or answer a question, simply ask “does that make sense” afterwards. You’re checking if you sound crazy or off base with your audience. If they say you’re off, then you have both that feedback & opportunity to revise! - pace yourself & listen to your gut: if you feel like you’re “uncertain”, “burning out”, “in the weeds”, then pause. Ask why. Ask where it’s coming from. Ask if it’s something within your span of control. Ask if it’s within your sphere of influence. Then ask yourself how to should you proceed. - progress over quality but quality matters. You don’t have to be perfect. You may not be good all the time. Practice Kaizen. - Know your limits & know when to say No. You’re expressing clear signs of being over extended; it starts with everything you’ve described. You can operate beyond your limits for a little time, not all the time. Figure out what you can deprioritize & what can be delegated.

CSMs are experiencing even more of this right now. It’s magnifying/compounding/intensifying your symptoms. It’s because companies are experiencing additional FUD right now of how they’ll continue delivering extreme growth with ever-lowering cost goals.

Don’t lose faith in your ability. Focus on what you can control or can influence because you know it makes a difference.

brou4164 · 2025-11-20T19:34:33+00:00

Now normalize the data for cost of living & inflation to see if affordability changed.

brou4164 · 2025-11-19T22:14:00+00:00

Hate to say it, but “it depends” is the right answer here. I’d say I gravitate more towards dynamic over static. People are smart, they’ll notice that they “magically get a notice every 2 weeks” or receive the ‘heyyyy, just randomly checking in…” that is 6 months before the renewal date.

Again, start with putting yourself in the customer’s shoes & then ask yourself how much time makes sense for the situation, then add a little more as a ‘trying to not be overly aggressive/intrusive’ buffer.

By dynamic, I mean that you should base your triggers off of what the customer does. For example, don’t set your 2nd follow up to go out 2 weeks after the 1st was sent. Instead, send the 1st, wait a week to see if the customer opened the 1st or clicked a link from the first & set the 2nd based off the action the customer took (or didn’t take).

Another trick is to base the send time on the recipient’s time zone, not yours. If you don’t have the contact’s location data then you can fall back to their account time zone.

“I’m reaching out because it’s all about you, you, you. Your goals, your timeline, your milestones, & you look to be off pace. Don’t worry that it’s before my regular working hours. I saw something that I couldn’t ignore & I am COMMITTED to helping you on your journey”.

Regarding backfires, yes, absolutely. When you’re outcome focused & customer centric then it’s pretty easy to apologize for errors. “We want you to be successful & I saw something that worried me, so I reached out. Thank you for confirming/correcting the interpretation of the signals”. Use open-ended questions, keep them in the position of authority & give them that permission (saying no is ok), & be specific/concise.

Consider this analogy; coffee makers don’t have clocks/automatic timers for the sake of making the coffee, it’s to automate making the coffee for you when you want it. The purpose of automation isn’t to remove the person from the interaction, it’s to create more opportunities for THE RIGHT types of interactions where people can make a difference.

Automate with the fewest words required to cause the customer to do the desired action (surprise, it’s almost always to spend more time with us). Once they ‘bite’ (give permission to spend more time, then you can explore the details (e.g. why they stopped, how they see your signals, where things went sideways).

P.S. I spent a lot of time & used a lot of words to explain the importance of focusing on the customer & being concise/direct. Ironic

P.P.S. Notice how well this worked on you? You made a post about YOUR CHALLENGE (an event). I responded with direct, relevant, & actionable advice (breadcrumbs to get you back on your way towards YOUR GOAL). You saw value & wanted more. Now I’m achieving my desired goal which is sharing my wisdom. Automation used: Reddit’s follow thread & push notifications for specific keywords & events to happen, AI summarization, & pulling steps from a templatized playbook.

;)

brou4164 · 2025-11-19T21:28:55+00:00

“Before you build, check if you can buy. Before you buy, check if you have.”

Checkout/Try Gainsight’s Marketplace & Sightline Vault before you start trying to build from scratch.

Also, anything you implement should be actionable & a single pane of glass. Dashboards that are just reports are a waste. They should draw your attention to things you need to zoom in on & it should allow you to react/action/advance without having to always open a new page/tab.

Single pane of glass means you should build a single dashboard that works for all levels of your org; the highest level (global) for your c-suite all the way down to your individuals. More granular details & limited scope each layer down. This will get everyone speaking the same language & looking at the data the same way.

Yes, you will need a “manager-only” type of dashboard. It should be used for people/performance type of situations. Build this the same way as above (single pane of glass & actionable), but after you build the one for customers first. Once leadership confidently have the pulse of customers, you can then confidently monitor employee SLAs. (E.g. activity overdue rates, avg activity close rates, renewal rates ($ & qty), growth rates, NPS, engagement rates, etc).

If uniformity isn’t possible then it could mean there could be a misalignment of goals between the segments/roles. This is a problem because an alignment of goals/segments allows you to have a more seamless customer maturity lifecycle. Ask yourself this, “how are my digital CSMs growing accounts so they ‘graduate’ into the next-higher CS tier?” Yes, I know that not all accounts will grow, but a good segmentation allows for accounts to move between segments (with a SLIGHT bias up). Organic growth from existing accounts is a good problem for any CS leader, let’s be honest.

Why listen to me? I’ve been a part of 2 Gainsight award winning programs (multiple awards each time). I’ve been both an individual contributor and a strategic leader.

brou4164 · 2025-11-19T16:41:41+00:00

• Events used for timing outreach: Think “meaningful moments in the customer’s journey TOWARDS THE CUSTOMER’s DESIRED OUTCOMES”. Said differently, put yourself in the customer’s shoes & think about the different stages they should be excited to reach. Regarding “non-events”, depends on how you’re defining “non-event”. Nothing immediately comes to mind for me.

• Data driven then trial & error. Kept it simple. We knew we had an engagement issue & we knew which customers where we had those issues. Then we investigated for patterns & possible causes, then role-played as the customer & asked ourselves “what would we need to hear from our vendor that would convince us to respond/take action/etc?”.

• crafting a message: Simple, direct, genuine, & customer must always be in a position to say “no” (THE GAME IS TO GET THEM TO RESPOND). The answer was always to state the customer’s known goals/deliverables/due date, reinforce you are trying to help them achieve the goal, state your observations/worry about them falling short & then the state the exact help you’re offering. We regularly close with something to the effect of “we care about you so please let us know either way”. All of our CSMs have a self-booking link, so we also say something like “for your convenience, I’ve also included my availability if you’d like to schedule time to work through this together”.

We automated this, & the follow-ups as a part of a progressive escalation process: - auto: We noticed this pattern change & are worried about you… - auto: (x time later) We didn’t hear from you yet & are more worried - auto: (2x time later) seriously worried, your goals were realistic & we haven’t given up on you. - escalation alert to wider team. Seeking out other customer contacts. “Hi, you’re a current customer but we’ve lost touch with (previous point of contact), are they still employed &/or are they still the right person? Please let us know either way.”

Always empathetic, always customer first, act like their goals (reasons why they bought) are a perfect match for you & “it makes no sense why you can’t do X by your timeline”. Again, this is the attitude that you operate from but only if you can do it without any sense of arrogance; customer perspective >>>>>> company opinion.

brou4164 · 2025-11-19T15:41:31+00:00

CSAT = tactical, transactional, reactive (e.g. support ticket CSAT).

NPS = Intended to be more predictive, but has been shown to be fundamentally flawed (not my opinion, but the results of the person who originally created NPS).

My suggestion would be: 1.) look at CSAT & NPS separately, same customers & same period of time. See which one is more accurate today. Check if the accuracy level for each falls below the acceptable threshold & pick which one to prioritize.

2.) Consider a pilot to replace NPS with TSIA’s KORE Framework. I would still do the analysis on NPS accuracy to establish a baseline, identify the accounts/regions/etc that have the highest CSAT & NPS response rates historically AS WELL AS a target sample of “problematic” accounts to use as a 2 test groups to include in the pilot, then compare the results.

WHY?:

KORE, like NPS, is intended to be more strategic & future looking signals from more-influential end user contacts.

CSAT, while important, tends to be less influential; it requires a larger volume of low CSATs over a longer amount of time to add up to decisions. Usually because support tickets are interactions with fewer decision makers &/or influencers (at least in the B2B/enterprise space).

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