16 Ideas for Getting Started with Automated Alerts

Automated alerts from a Customer Success platform can provide early indicators that could help you save an account, present opportunities to expand the account, and in general allow you to be proactive in contributing to your Customer’s Success.

As you think through implementing alerts, here’s some potential points you may want to consider as triggers.

Awareness – Maintain awareness surrounding your accounts.

• Open Tickets Above X in the Last 30 Days – This may mean that the customer needs to have further training or may be frustrated with their experience.
• Customer Fell Behind in Journey – This could be an indication that the customer does not quite understand what they need to do next or is struggling.
• License Utilization is less than X% – This may be a sign that the organization is not adopting at the proper rate or needs further training.

Usage – Give yourself a heads up on positive and negative usage trends.

• Event Decrease by X% over Y Time Period – Consider that a customer has a sharp decline in usage of a core function or logins – this could indicate they’re looking elsewhere or are no longer engaged.
• First Time Usage – Don’t just focus on negatives – consider getting alerts for the first time someone uses a complex feature so that you can reach out to offer help.
• POC Usage – We’ve all been there. A POC doesn’t let you know they’ve left the organization. Find out earlier by setting up an alert to let you know when they stop performing actions in your solution.

Relationship – Consider some alerts that help to manage the relationship.

• ChurnScore Variation – For simple awareness and to prompt further investigation, consider setting an alert for when your customer crosses into the red.
• Net Promoter Score – The score your customers give you can be very telling. Set up an alert to let you know when a customer becomes a Detractor, passive, or Promoter.
• Frequency of Contact – Depending on where you are in the Customer Journey and how mature your customer is – it could be helpful to know if you haven’t engaged with your customer at all in X days.
• Specific Contact Online – It might be helpful to set an alert for when your main POC or Decision Maker logs in close to renewal, so you can catch them for a discussion.

Administration – Keep yourself organized and on time with these alerts.  

• Task Well Overdue – It might be worthwhile to know when a high priority task is X days past due to avoid anything going too far without being addressed.
• Check and Balances – Should a field on the account be updated by a specific point in the customer journey or an opportunity created but is still missing? Alert yourself to make sure all information that will be used in the future is up-to-date.
• Missed Step – Sometimes, we get so wrapped up in the day that we forget to log something. For example, if you’re supposed to have a QBR every 90 days but haven’t logged one – consider setting up an alert to get the action of setting it up on your radar.

Opportunity – Reveal key opportunities for retention and expansion.

• Customer is Approaching License Limit – Set an alert when the customer is within 8—90% of license utilization – allowing you to approach them ahead of time to recommend more licenses before hitting the limit.
• Recommend Complimentary Features – When a customer adopts a feature in full that is nicely complimented by another feature – set up an alert to reach out to that person at the point they pass the ideal threshold an educate them on the value of using the two features in tandem.
• Low ChurnScore + Renewal – If a renewal is coming up within the next 90 days and their ChurnScore is below X – it is a great opportunity to reach out and secure an early renewal.

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