Item: Gainsight CS
Rating: 8
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Gainsight is mostly used by the Customer Success org. As a whole, it is not completely adopted by all teams, but the efforts of our Operations teams have made sure to display dashboards and important data regarding upcoming renewals and any risky activity. Where Gainsight is heavily used is within a CS team that focuses on scaling the Customer Success manager role and responsibilities. We've been able to automate many engagements along the Customer Journey via Journey Orchestrator, engagements that would've been time-consuming for human resources. Automation frees up CSMs' time to focus on more strategic initiatives. Internally, it has been an amazing tool to help the scale CSM team prioritize which accounts to engage with first. We have triggered alerts that will keep CSMs aware of all the accounts in their book and select the higher risk clients to address.

Pros and Cons

Gainsight Community is so useful for more live support, and networking with other clients is definitely possible.
Gainsight support is rapid responding and will not leave you wondering.
Help Center and documentation is kept up to date which is very difficult for fast-changing technology.
Webinar topics are on point.

Account managers/CSMs can introduce and demo new features at the time of rollout. Be proactive to schedule time with your power users.

Support Rating

I enjoy working with the support team because they never leave you wondering for too long. If there is a case that is taking longer than usual, they will let me know that they've escalated the issue and will return with results ASAP. I would love it if support enabled us further-- my learning curve for Gainsight was intense, and it would be amazing if support continued to push recommended reads and content to accelerate my knowledge even faster.

Executive Visibility

Executives use dashboards, mostly, but the CS operations manager usually gets requests to pull reports when the time comes.

Return on Investment

Automated surveys for more data collection and more informed business.
CTA dashboards to improve team efficiency.
Inspire client base and initiate upsell conversations.

Alternatives Considered

Zendesk and Adobe Photoshop

There's really nothing like it that I've experienced, as this is one of my first positions within a Customer Success org. I've had quite a bit of experience in Adobe Creative Suite, and just how the features in those are complex, Gainsight has similar vibes-- that it takes a bit of experience to learn but once you know the complexities, the world is your oyster and possibilities are endless. I love that it's constantly innovating and challenging me to keep up with those changes. I cannot wait until the UX is perfect.

Impact of Data Connectors/Integrations

The tech stack that we have is Salesforce, Mixpanel, and possibly Zendesk. It is so useful for our workflow-- our technology is based on social mentions, so when clients hit their limits, Gainsight triggers notifications which are crucial for good engagement.

Likelihood to Recommend

There's a whole hierarchy of Gainsight users at an organization. If your company is relatively small, it might be more difficult to establish Gainsight at your firm because one person cannot do everything. You will need a strong admin, someone who is technically savvy and understands CRM backends (Salesforce background is great) and terminology. Then you have the users of just the interface who know how to interact with them (filters, toggle, locate). Finally, you have some continuing to innovate and explore the possible features of the tech. There's an overwhelming amount of abilities and features to implement and use, so a clear vision is important before you start overwhelming yourself with the Gainsight possibilities.

Users and Roles

30 - Customer Success Management, Sales Operations, Customer Success Operations

Take on the challenge, it is worth it.

Overall Satisfaction with Gainsight