Cockpit FAQs

How do I understand the difference between Call to Action (CTA), Task, Playbook, and Success Plan? 

• Call to Action (CTA): A CTA is an alert that can be added manually by a user or automatically using business rules. There are five CTA types available by default: Risks, Opportunities/Expansions, Events/Lifecycle, Activities (from Timeline), and Objectives (for Success Plans). You can also create custom CTA types. 

• Task: The smallest item is a Task. Tasks are always part of CTA.

• Playbooks: They are the pre-configured sets of Tasks, that can be dropped into a CTA. The only function of a Playbook is to set up those Tasks so that they can be easily applied to a CTA; a Playbook does not have any other functionality on its own.

• Success Plan: CTAs when grouped together is a Success Plan, where you can also add information about the purpose of the plan in both standard fields and custom fields. The Objective Type of CTAs can only be added to a Success Plan; the Objective CTA Type is created specifically for this purpose (in any business plan, you want a series of objectives). Pre-configured sets of Objective CTAs can be dropped into a Success Plan. They are called Success Plan Templates.

How does Gainsight prevent duplicate CTAs, and/or update existing CTAs? 

When a rule generates a CTA, Gainsight checks for any existing open CTAs containing several identifiers. The Company, Type and Reason are always used as identifiers, and optionally Name can be used as an identifier. If there is an open CTA with the same identifiers, then the existing CTA is updated; otherwise, a new CTA is created. If there are multiple open CTAs with the same identifiers, then only one of the CTAs is updated. While updating, if the priority of the existing CTA is lower than the new CTA, we update the priority. Comments are updated based on the Comments setting in the rule (comments do not include the updated properties but it includes the comments that the rule is trying to post, based on settings like a post once, always, or never). For Relationship level CTAs, the Relationship is also included in the default identifier.

What is the maximum number of CTAs that I can view in the Cockpit? 

CTAs in Cockpit will max out at 1000 for each view. You can use the built-in filters/groupings to narrow your search and it will still respect the 1000 views.

Are there any plans to hide/archive-year-old closed CTAs at some point? 

Gainsight does not plan to archive or delete CTAs based on the historical time periods. You can run a report on closed CTAs in the report builder.

Is it possible to restore the CTA's that were deleted recently?

No. Deleted CTAs cannot be restored, not even from backend.

Why can't I see closed CTAs if I group by Due Date, or filter to include them? 

From Cockpit, if CTAs are grouped by Due Date, closed CTAs do not appear even if you apply a filter to include them. This is because anything that is closed will not have an upcoming due date or be due today.

When grouped by Due Date, why does my CTA appear in the today group, even though the CTA due date is not today? 

Cockpit groups CTAs by CTA due date unless a task is either due today or overdue. If the task is due today, it moves the CTA into the "today" grouping. If overdue, it moves the CTA into the "overdue" grouping.

Is it possible to keep CTAs from triggering while CSM is on vacation (vacation "snooze")? 

No. (While technically you could update every rule to say CSM not equal to <CSM on VA>, this is NOT recommended because you would miss important CTAs for those customers AND it is not an efficient process).  Gainsight recommends having a backup CSM  check the other person's Cockpit for new CTAs in their absence, by typing in their name right in the Cockpit screen. Alternately, the CTAs will be there when the CSM returns from vacation.

Can a rule trigger a CTA with no due date or no owner? 

No. The system is designed to ensure CTAs do not get 'lost.'

If a CTA is snoozed, does it come back with the tasks as you left them (or re-set)? 

They will appear as you left them.

Why do I see CTAs in my Cockpit List View that is assigned to another CSM? 

This will happen when you are the Assignee of one or more of the tasks from your colleague's CTAs. The CTAs appear in both person Cockpit List Views. You can use the My Tasks view to see task level items that are assigned to only you.

Why does a recurring CTA appear to be closed in Cockpit, but open in a report? 

CSMs can manually create recurring Event CTAs. The original or master CTA remains in an open status, while some child instances of the recurring CTA may be closed. In reports, if you notice open CTAs that you expect to be closed, this may be the cause. To adjust the report, add a filter for IsReoccurring !=(not equal) to True. This eliminates the master CTAs from the report so you only see the children (the real ones).

Can I search for my closed tasks in the Cockpit? 

Gainsight does not have the ability to search based on tasks in the Cockpit. If you want to search based on closed CTAs, then we only return up to 100 closed CTAs in Cockpit.

An Admin could also use the report builder to search for closed tasks, with "contains" searching the task subject to look for a particular keyword.

Should we be using CTAs for day-to-day tasks or more targeted notifications? 

CTAs are best utilized as low-frequency, high-value alerts regarding your customers. When you can definitely use CTAs and Tasks to track your daily activities, Gainsight recommends that you keep CTAs at a high level to help you better manage your customers.

Should we use Cockpit differently for high-touch and low-touch customers? 

Yes, you must absolutely be using the Cockpit in different ways. For example, in the case of low-touch customers, Gainsight recommends:

• Greater use of Cockpit over Email Assist for automated emails.
• A more limited number of CTAs (with a focus on risk and lifecycle CTAs).
• A prescribing more simplified Playbooks that are tailored to the low-touch segment.

What can I do if I have too many CTAs and Tasks? 

It is important to keep the Cockpit clean so that your team can focus on the right activities. Your Gainsight Admin can help cut down on less relevant CTAs and make Playbooks leaner. Admins can also lead system-wide clean-ups and even implement mechanisms to auto-close CTAs after a set number of days. CSMs can also do their part to keep their Cockpits tidy so that the CTAs do not pile up.

What can I do if I have too few CTAs and Tasks? 

If you have a few CTAs that you are not seeing the value in using Cockpit, then your team should explore:

• Making the current CTAs more prevalent and/or relevant

  • How do you make them appear more frequently?

  • How do you make them more useful?

• Implementing new ways to use CTAs

  • What other types of CTAs can you implement?

  • Reminding the team about current processes around CTAs, how do you promote usage of Cockpit?

Is there a limit to the number of custom views a user can create?

No.

Are Cockpit List Views sticky?

Yes. If you log out of Gainsight and log in later, the last Cockpit View you were using automatically displays.

Can Admins create views for users or departments?

Yes, admins can configure custom views for Cockpit based on Reason, Priority, etc. using the Custom Views section in the Call to Action (CTA) page. The option to create Custom Views is only available in the Global tab. For more information on how Admin can configure custom views, refer to the Custom Views article.

Can I sort by CTA Owner in custom views?

Yes, there are two ways to do this. You can use the Owner default filter in the Custom View if you just want to look at one user's CTAs or all users' CTAs. To see CTAs for more than one user, add another Owner filter and select another user value and save the view. For more information, refer to the Commonly Used Filters in Cockpit List View article.

If a User or Company does not meet the criteria for a layout, will the default layout be used?

Yes, and if a Company matches more than one criterion for a layout, the first matching layout is applied.

Is there a recommended view for new Gainsight users?

The default Cockpit List view is My CTAs view, without any filters applied. If your org is starting out by triggering just a handful of CTAs, then this view is a good option. But as your organization expands its use of CTAs to include manually created CTAs, Survey-triggered CTAs, and CTAs triggered off of health scores, for example, then you probably want to use more of the filters and create custom views. For more information on how to create some commonly used filters/views, refer to the Commonly Used Filters in Cockpit List View article.

What is the time zone that is used to store CTAs data?

UTC time zone is used to store the CTA Close Date, Due Date, or Original Due Date time component. This must be ignored.