MT-CS-004: Retention and Upsell
- arlene.coello
CONTEXT / SCOPE
The goal of this SOP is to provide a structured process for proactively engaging with customers, in order to maximize their lifetime value and increase overall customer satisfaction, while effectively avoiding churn. This SOP will be a guideline for:
Defining the goals and objectives of the retention and upsell process, including key performance indicators (KPIs) that will be used to measure success.
Identifying the customer segments that will be targeted for retention and upsell efforts.
Outlining the various retention and upsell strategies that will be used, such as proactive outreach and expansion pipeline.
Establishing a process for tracking and analyzing customer behavior and engagement data to identify opportunities for retention and upsell.
Establishing guidelines and best practices for customer engagement, including how to communicate with customers, when to offer additional users or products, and how to handle challenging customer situations.
Creating a process for measuring the effectiveness of the retention and upsell process, including regular reporting and analysis to identify areas for improvement.
IMPACTED TEAMS
CSM Team
CS Operations
GLOSSARY
CSM – Customer Success Manager
LMS- Learning Management System
Opp - Opportunity (where RSM registers the process of sales and information about the purchased product.)
CRED SOFT - Self-Managed Credentialing Software(Credentialing Software)
CRED SERV - Fully Managed Credentialing Service (Credentialing Service)
SF - Salesforce
DNC – Do not contact
MRR – Monthly Recurring Revenue
BoB – Book of Business
RSM – Regional Sales Manager
OTR - One-Time Revenue
MRR - Monthly recurring Revenue
KYC - Know Your Customer
Q - Quarter
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Retaining an Account
Customer or account retention is the creation of brand loyalty that can result in a long-term partnership.
An effective customer retention strategy ensures your customers are accurately educated about your brand and products.
Accounts at Risk
This can be defined as customers who are at a higher risk of leaving or churning from the product or service. This may be indicated by factors such as:
Decreased engagement or activity with the product or service
Negative feedback or sentiment expressed by the customer
Unresolved support tickets or issues
Late or missed payments or signs of financial strain
Changes in the customer's business or organization that may impact their need for the product or service
After identifying accounts at risk, the Customer Success team must proactively engage with these customers to address their concerns and provide additional value to encourage them to continue using the product or service, avoiding Churn.
To help save an account, it might be helpful to revisit the Rescue Plan (point 5) section of the
Past Due Accounts
If one of your accounts has become past due, please follow this workflow (this can also be found in the MT-CS-005: EscalationsSOP):
Once the account changes to past due status in Recurly, Finance will have 14 days to reach out to the customer.
If after 14 days, the account is still past due, please create an escalation case in SF and let your CSM Lead know about the situation.
KYC Questions and Account Analysis
Once we have identified the accounts at risk, we need to use the KYC approach and gather information in order to determine actions to be taken on those accounts. For that, answer the questions below, in order to have the complete knowledge of the account and its pain points. Fill an Account Analysis Checklist to have further detail.
Account Details and Background
Review mission, vision and statement on their website (Customers appreciate when you know about their business.)
What is the account's industry and size?
How long has the account been with MedTrainer?
What are the key stakeholders within the account? (Review About us section on their website and determine if we are reaching out to the decision makers)
Are there any specific challenges or goals for the account?
Contact and Billing information
Who are the key people within the organization for the following areas - Finance / Training / Compliance / Credentialing
Invoice amount (MRR)
Usage and Engagement
Which products does the account have contracted?
Policy & Document Management (Is the Policy Manager being used to distribute and update policies or other documents? If not, how is the client tracking employee acknowledgements and how are employees accessing policies?)
Safety Plans (Are Safety Plans updated and available to staff – this is an OSHA legal requirement and always an accreditation standard.)
Incident Reporting (If this feature is not being used, the client may have had a bad experience when it was first rolled out. Maybe it’s time to re-engage them with the features.)
Contract Management (If the organization is a FQHC or ASC they are required to track contracts. Discuss how they are currently tracking.)
What are the key features or modules the account has been using?
Has there been a decrease in usage or activity?
Are there any specific areas or features the account is not utilizing to its full potential?
How frequently does the account interact with the software?
People Reports (Top 3-5 positions - Work with the admin to engage departments with the largest groups of staff such as nursing and medical assistants, nurses, behavioral health specialists, etc. and create awareness of courses based on their job duties.)
Support Interactions
How often has the account contacted the support team?
Are there any unresolved or recurring issues?
What is the average response and resolution time for their support tickets?
Financial Stability
Have there been any late or missed payments?
Has the account requested any changes to their subscription or payment terms?
Retention Plan
What to Include:
Once the KYC questions have been answered, work on a specific plan to retain the account. Plan needs to include:
Proactive Outreach - get in contact with key decision maker or admin (shareholders)
Establish Account goals with the shareholder - Collaborate with the account to establish measurable targets and track progress regularly
Product re-training - offer retraining for the products that you identified lack or decrease in use.
Value propositions - Identify and articulate the unique value propositions and benefits of MedTrainer solutions for the specific account.
Schedule regular check-ins and strategic discussions to understand their goals and align your efforts with their objectives.
Account-Related Information:
Maintain a comprehensive record of all interactions, activities, and action items related to the account:
Each email and a call must be logged in into the SF
Recap email must be sent to the client after each meeting
Short recap must be added to the “Notes” section in the account level, in the following format:
MM/DD/YY-Initials-Note
Upselling
An upsell can be defined as the process of encouraging existing customers to upgrade or purchase additional products or services from MedTrainer. This will be done by identifying opportunities where the customer's needs or usage patterns benefit from additional features, products, or services.
CSM Book of Business
Each CSM should periodically review their Book of Business to identify upsell opportunities, which include (but are not limited to):
Opportunity Factors: Review your Book of Business frequently, and identify possible upsell opportunities based on the following factors:
Products acquired : Check and confirm which products are eligible to be added to the account. For example, if the account only has MT Learning, we can offer MT Compliance and MT Credentialing Software/Service. Please review the contracts and the LMS accounts.
Historic user/provider growth: Identify the pattern of users added to the platform, and determine which accounts are eligible to be offered additional users, based on their history of adding users by month. Please review the Billing Dashboard.
In the process of discovering the opportunities, please review the questions in your copy of the Welcome to MedTrainer! KYC Form and the answers given by your respective clients.
When discovering opportunities and reaching out to the client, use the KYC Questions outlined in the MT-CS-004: Retention and Upsell | KYC Questions and Account Analysis section.
Creating Sales Opportunities
After detecting the upsell opportunities, create a Sales Opportunity in SF, following the steps below:
Go to the respective SF Account, the on the Opportunities section, click on “New”,
Select the “MedTrainer (Master)” Record Type:
Fill out the following fields:
In the Opportunity Information section:
Opportunity Name
Revenue Classification: Expansion Revenue
Stage: Prospect
Opportunity Origination: CSM
Lead Source: Customer Upsell
Close Date: select the last day of the Q
Primary Contact: your main admin, ideally the one interested in the sale.
In the Other Info section:
Lead Origination: CSM
Lead Origination Demo: CSM
In the Owner Details section:
Assigned RSM (please refer to the note below)
Customer Success Manager (NEW)
Customer Success Manager Leader (NEW)
Fully-Managed Credentialing Lead (if applicable)
In The Channel Information Section:
Channel Payout: MedTrainer
Click Save once done, or click Save & New if you are going to create another opportunity. Follow the same process if this is the case.
Locate and go into your new Opp.
Before creating the quote, go into the “Details” tab and change the Opportunity Owner.
Click on New Quote, and once created, click on it
Click on Edit Lines
Add the necessary products or services.
Type in the number of users under QUANTITY, and then click on Calculate.
Back in the Quote, click on Submit for Approval. This will send you a confirmation email.
Click on Generate Document:
Select Agreement Addendum. If the product is FMC, Select the CPQ Quote Template option
Preview the document, to make sure everything is in order
Click on Save
Click on Send with DocuSign
As soon as your admin views the document, you will receive this email:
Expanding the Pipeline
One important task of a CSM is not only to prospect sales opportunities along the Q, but to keep track of them effectively and help them grow. Therefore, here are some key points to consider when expanding your pipeline (For more reference, please refer to the CS & Sales Guidelines for Expansion Opps Guru Card
Communication with the Customer
How effectively are we keeping in touch with our admins? Take notice of the following:
What is the admin’s overall attitude towards our service and our/ the platform? How have they been interacting with us lately?
Have we lacked any follow-up on this account?
On the other hand, are we following up too much and possibly overwhelming the admin?
How accessible has the admin been with their availability?
Opportunity Categories
Make sure to identify which one of these categories your current opportunity will fall into:
HOT! - “They want to buy now”.
Warm - “They are interested, but there is further discovery and selling needed”.
Potential need - There’s a lot of selling and additional discovery needed.
Keeping in Touch with the RSM
Having a good relationship with the Sales department is not only beneficial but important, as we need to achieve common goals. Keep the following in mind for RSM-CSM interactions:
Are both parties on the same page regarding the goals to handle and close the sale in question?
Is the communication between both parties clear?
Are both parties being cooperative and showcasing effective teamwork?
For any expansion opp, the sales rep and CSM should be copied on all communication.
Scheduling a 5-10 min internal sync is strongly recommended. Objectives of that internal call:
Talk about the current client sentiment and usage
Identify any current conversations going with the CSM
Collaborate on a plan forward
As an additional best practice, invite sales to any existing calls you have with that Account
Adding Service Tiers to Existing Contracts
We are handling three service tiers: basic, standard and premium. However…
If a current client is mid-term on their contract, you do not NEED to add a service tier to their contract. We should be adding when that client comes up for renewal.
That said, if the client is adding on something and they would benefit from aspects of Standard or Premium Service, you can add a support tier to their contract.
Pricing is based on the total MRR for their software spend (no FMC), but we could have additional pricing flexibility. Raise to your manager + Evan Horibe & Chrisandra Morse to discuss this case by case.
Effective and Timely Scheduling
Knowing how to handle timing is key. Consider the following:
When Discovering the Opp
Did the sale opportunity surface during a regular follow-up with the client, via email?
In turn, did you dig for the opportunity by contacting the customer and directly asking through a:
Discovery call?
Discovery meeting?
An already scheduled meeting?
The Demo
Are both you and the RSM prepared for the Sales Demo? It is suggested to huddle up before the scheduled time just to touch base on how to and who will handle certain points and questions; most importantly, it is key to set the correct expectations for the admin.
Another suggestion will be to let the RSM handle pricing details and questions, are they are the ones that can get the following approved by their managers:
Waiving billing
Providing a 1-month free deal
Generating payment plans
Offering discounts
Creating a package or a bundle
Closing Follow-Up
Though this may depend on each account’s preferences, it is suggested to have weekly follow-ups in order to prevent:
An Ice Age - the deal going cold and potentially dying off.
Cold Feet - too much insistence on our part can make us seem overly eager/intense, and that may cause the admin to back out from closing the deal.
Planning Ahead
It is never too early to prospect for future Q’s as some sales negotiations do tend to get extended more than what was planned. Doing so can reflect the following effects:
Less stress - Rushing through the closing process of any sale is not only taxing on you, but can also affect the overall health of the sale.
More efficiency - Having early prospects can help make the full process more easygoing, and let you focus on fine-tuning for optimum results.
More proactivity - Developing your pipeline during early stages will naturally make you as the CSM appear and be more proactive.
Better time management - Requests and escalations surface on their own during the Q. Hence, you will also have some down-time to attend those, as well as your regular follow-ups, refreshers, and any upcoming onboardings or training sessions.