CTAs, Tasks, and Playbooks Overview
This article helps Customer Success Managers and Account Managers understand how CTAs, tasks, and playbooks work together in Cockpit to manage customer risks, opportunities, and lifecycle activities..
Overview
Cockpit is the day-to-day workspace for Customer Success Managers (CSMs) and Account Managers (AMs), providing a centralized location to drive revenue and mitigate risks.
Calls to Action (CTAs) are the backbone of the Cockpit. Each CTA is tied to a customer and represents an action that a CSM must take. CTAs can be created manually or triggered automatically by business rules. Common triggers include Drop-in Usage, Support Cases, Change in Sponsor, and Survey Results. Each CTA typically includes a set of tasks for CSMs to complete.
CSMs can group and sort CTAs using the Cockpit List View. Users who prefer a task-oriented view can use Task Views in Cockpit to see all their tasks and apply the same group and sort options at the task level.
CSMs can access and log Timeline activities directly from the CTA detail view using the Timeline tab.
The following table describes the key benefits of using Cockpit:
| Benefit | Description |
|---|---|
| Standardization | Provides a single source of truth for your team's action items. |
| Collaboration | Makes your action items and associated updates visible to others in the organization. |
| Integration | Links your action items to Opportunities, Activities, Contacts, Cases, and more. |
| Automation | Configures rules to automatically trigger action items based on customer data or time factors. |
| Reportability | Reports on your action items to communicate progress to your team. |
Note: Before CSMs begin creating or managing CTAs in the Cockpit, Admins must configure CTA settings such as Types, Reasons, Priorities, and Standard Cockpit Layouts. For more information, refer to the Configure Cockpit: CTA Types, Reasons, Priority article.
CTA Types
CTAs are data-driven or lifecycle-driven, allowing CSMs to act on real customer signals. Admins can also create custom CTA types.
The following table describes the default CTA types available in Cockpit:
| CTA Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Risk | Represents negative trends with customers, such as a 50% drop in usage, an executive sponsor leaving the company, or a negative NPS survey score. |
| Expansion | Represents positive trends with customers, such as a high NPS score, a customer agreeing to a case study or reference, high page views, or increased product usage. |
| Lifecycle | Represents lifecycle-based and typically scheduled events, such as training sessions, EBR/QBR meetings, and renewal meetings. |
| Activity | Tied to C360 Timeline activities. This type is assigned by default to CTAs created automatically from the Timeline feature. CSMs can also create Activity CTAs manually from the Cockpit page. |
| Objective | Represents a goal or milestone that a CSM wants to achieve for a customer. |
Admins can modify the names of the Expansion, Lifecycle, Risk, and Activity CTA types, and can also create custom CTA types.
For more information on creating custom CTA types, refer to the Configure CTA Types, Reasons, Priority, Snooze article.
Tasks
Tasks are the individual action items within a CTA that CSMs must complete to resolve or progress a customer engagement.
Each CTA can contain one or more tasks. Tasks can be assigned to specific users, given due dates, and tracked to completion. You can add tasks to a CTA in two ways:
- Click Apply Playbook to populate the CTA with a predefined set of tasks.
- Click Add Manually to create individual tasks one at a time.
CSMs who prefer a task-focused view can use Task Views in the Cockpit to filter and manage their tasks independently of the parent CTA.
Playbooks
Playbooks are predefined sets of tasks that guide CSMs through the right steps for a customer engagement.
When a CTA is created, you can apply a playbook to populate the CTA with a standard set of tasks. This ensures CSMs follow a consistent process across the organization.
Additional Resources
For more information on Cockpit, CTAs, and Playbooks, refer to the following articles: