Workflow: New Customer Hand-off

Provide a swift and consistent hand-off and engagement experience for new customers after a contract is signed.

Summary

Once the program is set up, this is the high-level workflow for your teams:

✨Align internally to facilitate customer hand-off

Help your team transfer knowledge and account assignment responsibilities.
  1. Assign a task for CS leader to assign a CSM to the new account, using the CSM capacity layout to guide the decision
  2. Notify the CSM of the new account assignment
  3. Create a note template to capture important sales-to-CS hand-off information

✨Provide customers with resources and next steps

Ensure your customers feel welcomed and prepared to hit the ground running.
  1. Create a playbook to welcome customers and share resources
  2. Create a note template to help capture kick-off notes and next steps
  3. Create a note template for a recurring meeting cadence

Setup Summary

Ready to get started? You can customize this program as you see fit. Here is the setup process for an "New Customer Hand-off" program:

  1. Define fields
    Identify the hand-off and recurring sync details you want to track.
  2. Create note and task templates
    Facilitate your team's input of new customer details.
  3. Build playbooks
    Build a playbook to welcome new customers and notify team members of new customer assignments.

1. Define fields

Fields within Catalyst allow you to define the hand-off and recurring sync details you want to track.

Account fields

Ensure the appropriate non-synced fields on the Accounts object are available. Examples:

  • Contract signed date (date)
  • Previous tech stack (text)
  • Top business priorities (picklist)
  • Program owner (text)
  • Executive Sponsor (text)
  • Technical Lead (text)
  • Meeting recap launch date (date)
  • Meeting recap (rich text area)
  • # of Referenceable Contacts
Contact fields

Ensure the appropriate non-synced fields on the Opportunities object are available, as relevant to your contract. Examples:

Opportunity fields

Ensure the appropriate synced fields on the Opportunities object are available, as relevant to your contract. Examples:

  • Amount  (decimal)
  • Contract term length (integer)
  • Billing frequency (text)
  • Subscription start date (date)
  • Renewal date (date)
  • Contract link (text)

2. Create note templates

Note templates help facilitate your team's input during hand-off and onboarding phases.

Sales to CS Hand-off (note template)

Create a new note template. This template helps your team transfer knowledge so your IM and CS team clearly understand the customer's expectations and goals.

Note Item Description
Title 🤝 Sales -> CS Handoff
Category Onboarding
Body

Customer/Opportunity Info:

Close Date
Amount
Products
Renewal Date
Contract Signed Date
Top Business Priorities

Project / Eval Team:
Executive Sponsor

Customer Background Info:
How did this customer learn about us?
Why did they buy our tool?
Who does our team need to meet with?
Any red flags?

Implementation Details:
When are they looking to go live?
Kick-off call (note template)

Create a new note template. This template helps your team collect critical information about your customers in your first meeting.

Note Item Description
Title Kick-off Call Notes
Category Onboarding
Body

Instructions: Please fill out with all fields complete. Remember to attach the meeting deck to the field above! ☺️

CSM Meeting Notes
Team Structure
Total team members
Planned team growth
Team OKRs/KPIs
Team Location

Additional notes for reference

 
Recurring sync (note template)

Create a new note template. This template provides a standard format for information intake to ensure a consistent picture of each client. 

Note Item Description
Title 📆 Recurring Sync
Category Monthly
Body

Agenda
First item
Second

Current OKRs
Include new field lines by using the /field shortcut
# of Referenceable Contacts

Automated Recap Email Fields
Meeting Recap
Mtg Recap Launch Date

Fields to Update
Top Business Priorities
CSM Sentiment

Stakeholder Updates
Contact role
Personality details

3. Create an account layout

Create an account layout to help with capacity planning.

Team Productivity + Capacity (account layout)

Create this layout to help you assign accounts to CSMs, making sure that books stay balanced and doesn't overload any one team member.

4. Build playbooks

CSM Assignment

Create the following playbook to kick off the workflow for assigning CSMs to newly assigned accounts.

Item Details Other
Playbook Properties Name: CSM Account Assignment
Type: Opportunities		 -
Entry Conditions
 Customers enter playbook for these reasons. 		AND:
-Stage Name: Closing
-Close Date: Within the next 45 days
-Type: New Business
-Customer Success Manager: is blank		 Allow Manual Entry: Yes
Objective
 CSM successfully assigned 		-Customer Success Manager: is present  
1. Task
 -Title: Assign CSM to this new opportunity
-Body: Use the Capacity layout to determine who should handle this upcoming account.
-Assignee: CS Leader
-Priority: High		  

Consider also setting up a playbook to notify the newly assigned CSM.

CSM Intro

Create the following playbook to introduce CSMs to their new accounts.

Item Details Other
Playbook Properties Name: Intro / Welcome
Type: Contacts		 -
Entry Conditions
 Customers enter playbook for any of these reasons. 		AND:
-Contact Created Date: is within the past 3 days
-Role: is any of ...		 Allow Manual Entry: Yes
(Do not allow re-entry)
1. Email
 Send the customer an introductory email. 		Email design and send strategy: See example

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