10 Customer Success Playbooks for Client Management

Taking care of your clients is a big responsibility. And it should be: Timely attention to customer needs and a long-term commitment to communication and engagement are the cornerstones of Customer Success. 

But you’ve got multiple clients that all deserve that level of support, so how do you manage them at scale? The answer lies in your process. Along with the power of CS software solutions, a predictable, repeatable Customer Success process is the key to supercharging your team’s productivity. 

At Vitally, our customers — and our own CS team — have come up with fantastic ways to make client management smoother and more successful using the features of our Customer Success Platform (CSP).

Whether you're focused on providing regular updates your clients will love, best-in-class support, or workflows to ensure renewals, we’ve put together this roundup of Vitally Blueprints — our Customer Success playbooks and best practices — that you can take advantage of today.

Customer Success Examples for Client Updates

Regular client updates are essential to effective Customer Success as they foster transparency and trust. Maintaining effective communications also provides an opportunity to address any concerns, ensuring client satisfaction and long-term relationships. Let’s look at some of our favorite Blueprints to help.

Sourcegraph’s Monthly Update Template

customer success templates for client updates

Type: Vitally Conversation Template

Best for someone looking to deliver regular customer updates that help foster trust and retention.

Using a Conversation Template is a simple and reliable way to nurture clients, provide a high-level recap of product usage, and gauge interest in upgrading. We recommend this blueprint from Sourcegraph’s Amiee Menne to streamline customer communication for various use cases — from business updates to new product releases and more.

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Easy QBR From Followup CRM 

Type: Vitally Conversation Template

Best for someone looking to schedule a QBR in a hybrid or high-touch model (for accounts that have a 1:1 relationship with a Customer Success Manager).

Use this Blueprint from Christine Francois at Followup CRM to streamline and standardize customer QBR communications. Give your Customer Success teams an opportunity to strengthen their relationship with customers and uncover what they have achieved using your product. A QBR can also help you address challenges, regain executive and user buy-in, and set your customer back on the path to success.

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Related:
How to Prepare for and Conduct an Effective QBR

Duco’s EBR Note Template

Type: Vitally Note Template

Best for someone looking to prove business ROI to executives and key stakeholders.

EBRs are a great way to show the value of a client’s investment in your service. It’s also helpful in surfacing business updates and addressing any potential roadblocks to success. Using this Note Template, courtesy of Joe Peters at Duco, your team can prep for an EBR, and can easily record the most up-to-date customer information on the spot.

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Sales & Account Management Hub

Type: Vitally Hub Template

Best for someone looking to navigate renewals, boost productivity, and drive growth effortlessly.

Leverage Vitally’s Hub view to create a customized workspace perfect for Account teams that want to focus on renewals, at-risk accounts, and expansion opportunities. This Blueprint — created by our own team — structures your Hub to spot opportunities and ensure successful renewals. 

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Customer Success Client Support Examples

It should be no surprise how crucial it is to address and resolve client issues quickly. Handling client escalations with care and efficiency can help improve customer trust and prevent potential reputation damage to the business. Here’s some of our go-to Blueprints for support.

Customer Escalation Template

client escalation template customer success playbooks for client management

Type: Vitally Project Template

Best for someone looking to streamline the steps taken in a client escalation.

Standardizing steps in the client escalation process ensures everything gets resolved smoothly. Celine Doumar, Senior Customer Success Manager at Vitally, designed this template to guarantee customers receive the right level of care and that issues are resolved in a timely manner.

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Client Re-Engagement Template

Type: Vitally Note Template

Best for someone looking to set recurring follow-ups with high-touch customers.

Using a Customer Success Platform (CSP) is a surefire way to ensure you’re being proactive with your client roster. Client re-engagement is one way to regularly flag any issues that pop up and ensure your solution is helping them achieve their goals.

Vitally Customer Success Manager Laura Alvarez uses this Blueprint she designed to ensure their clients' experience with your product has a positive effect on their business goals. 

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InsightCRM’s Guide to Managing NPS Detractors

Type: Vitally Project Template

Best for someone looking to quickly resolve customer concerns.

NPS detractors can either be a sign of trouble or an opportunity to dig deeper and learn how customers are experiencing your product. 

Kapil Sharma at InisghtsCRM uses three milestones — investigation, resolution, and feedback — to provide a great starting point for those who may not already have a process in place for addressing unsatisfied customers in a Hybrid or High-Touch Customer Success model.

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Related: What’s the Difference Between NPS and CSAT?

Customer Success Renewal Examples

Frictionless renewals are the key to keeping long-term customers around. From early engagement, to clear communication, being able to demonstrate that you are actively invested in your customers' success will go a long way to keeping their business. Below are three best practice Blueprints you can use to help.

Renewal Call Note Template

renewal call note template for customer success

Type: Vitally Note Template

Best for someone looking to streamline and scale their renewal process.

The key to a successful renewal is preparation. Having all your client information at your fingertips before you begin can provide your CS team with vital info, including overall customer sentiment, product usage and product experience thus far, and the value they see from using your product. 

Vitally Account Manager Lauren Axworthy uses this Renewal Call Blueprint she created to thoroughly analyze a customer’s current status and strategize a successful renewal.

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Avoma’s Renewal Project

Type: Vitally Project Template

Best for someone looking to standardize what needs to get done before, during, and after a renewal period.

As we all know, high-touch clients expect personalized and consistent experiences as part of their contract with you. Mark Stagi at Avoma created a step-by-step project template to ensure that Customer Success teams who operate with a High-Touch Customer Success model are fully prepared for renewals in advance and that customers receive a great experience all around.

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Salesmsg's Value-Driven Upsell Template

Type: Vitally Conversation Template

Best for someone looking to automate and scale outreach with tech or low-touch customers.

Upsells become less of an uphill battle when your CS team can easily identify expansion opportunities.  With this Blueprint, created by Ben Francis at Salesmsg, you can customize your own upsell or cross-sell emails. Ben’s template includes an overview of why he is reaching out to the customer, the value add to upgrading their plan, and a link to his calendar to schedule a call. With this type of messaging, Ben has seen a 60-70% booking rate!

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Bonus! 

Identify and Engage Customer Advocates

Emma Miller-Crimm at PeopleGrove created a Blueprint to streamline their process for collecting customer stories and creating a scalable engine for advocate outreach.

Her Blueprint includes two example templates: one for Customer Success Managers to use when speaking with customers (Value Story Note Template) and one that Emma uses herself when reaching out to potential advocates (Reference Program Conversation Template).

Check out this interactive tour to learn how to set up your own advocate engagement Blueprints. 

These are just some of the many Customer Success playbooks available in our Blueprints library to help you build better processes around client management, internal processes, account expansion, and more.

Want to learn more about how the Vitally platform can help your Customer Success team reduce churn, drive retention revenue, and achieve better business outcomes? Request a demo today!

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