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Create Success Plan

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​​This article explains CSMs how to create and manage Success Plan details such as Plan Info, Objective CTAs, Gantt Chart and Timeline.

Overview

Success Plans help CSMs monitor and drive success with individual customers based on Objective CTAs and criteria that are defined. Success Plans use a Call to Action (CTA) type called Objective CTA. They are composed of one or more Objective CTAs, and may include associated Tasks, either manually created or applied through Playbooks.

In order to use Success Plans, Admins must configure them for the Success Plans or C360 page. In addition, Admins can also Create Success Plans using Rules Engine. For more information, refer to the Load to Success Plans 2.0 Action Type article in the Additional Resources section at the end of this article.

To create or edit a Success Plan, CSMs can:

  • Enter Success Plan info; including Owner, Status, Type, Company highlights, etc.
  • Apply a template when adding Objective CTAs in the Objectives tab or when creating a Success Plan through Rules Engine.
  • Manually create Objective CTAs for the Success Plan (similar to creating CTAs).
  • Add Playbooks or Tasks (optional).

Create a Success Plan

CSMs can create a Success Plan from the Success Plans page or C360/R360 page. After a Success Plan is created, CSMs can apply templates and add Objective CTAs to the Success Plan.

To create a Success Plan:

  1. Navigate to Success Plans page from the left navigation bar or C360 > Success Plan section. The Success Plans page is displayed.
  2. Click Create Success Plan.

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  1. In the Name field, enter a unique name of the success plan.
  2. In the Company field, enter the company name and select the required Company from the search results.
  3. In the Relationship field, enter the relationship name and select the required Relationship from the search results.
  4. In the Type field, select the type of success plan.
  5. In the Status field, select the status of success plan.
  6. In the Due Date field, select the due date of success plan.
  7. In the Owner field, enter the name of the owner and select the required owner from the search results.
    Note: Users with Internal Collaborator license type cannot be added as owners of Success Plans.
  8. Click Save.

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Note: Similarly, CSMs can follow step 2 to 10 to create Success Plans from the C/R 360 page.

Apply Template to Customer's Success Plan

Admins can create Success Plan templates for each Success Plan type from the Administration > Success Plan page. You can create Templates for all Success Plans or for specific types, so they only display for Success Plans of that type. After applying a template, users have to manually edit or add Objective CTAs and tasks to the plan as required.

For more information on how to configure Success Plan Templates, refer to the Configure Success Plans for C360/R360 article in the Additional Resources section at the end of this article.

To apply a template to a Success Plan:

  1. Click the name of the Success Plan in the dedicated Success Plans or or C360 > Success Plan section. The Plan info page is displayed.

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  2. Click the Objectives tab.
  3. Click Create and select Apply Template. The Apply Template window is displayed.
  4. Select the template that you want to apply to the Success Plan.
  5. Click Apply.

Notes:

  • In the Apply Template window, Templates are populated based on the Success Plan type except for Templates created under the All category.
  • If the due date of an Objective CTA or Task exceeds the Plan’s due date, a warning message is displayed and the overall Plan’s due date is updated to the Objective CTA’s due date.

Plan Info

The Plan Info tab displays high level information about the Success Plan. CSMs can share the Success Plan with required persons from this tab. It contains the following two sections:

Overview

This section contains the following information:

  • Customer Name: Displays the company name. Click the company name to open the C360 page of the company.
  • Type: Displays the type of the Success Plan.
  • Due Date: Displays the due date of the Success Plan.
  • Status: Displays the status of the Success Plan. The following are the types of status:
    • Draft - The default plan status. Objective CTAs are not visible in the Cockpit.
    • Closed - All Objective CTAs and tasks are automatically closed.
    • Active - Changing the plan to Active causes the Objective CTAs to become visible in Cockpit.
      Note: Admins can create custom status types in Administration > Success Plan.
  • Owner: Displays the name of the Success Plan’s owner.
  • Objectives: Displays the number of total, completed, open and overdue Objective CTAs. Click any Objective CTAs number to view all the Objective CTAs in the Objectives tab.

Note: Users can edit the information in the Type, Due Date, Status, and Owner fields in the Overview section.

Default Group

In the Default Group section, CSMs can enter information in the following fields:

  • Description: Enter a description of the Success Plan.
  • Highlights: Enter a description about the goals or Objective CTAs of the Success Plan.
  • Action Plan: Enter a description of the action plan for the Success Plan.

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Notes:

  • Users can close the Draft Success Plan only after setting the Success Plan to Active status.
  • It is important to make the Success Plan Active, to see the Objective CTAs and any associated tasks in Cockpit.
  • You can add reasons to Objective CTAs, providing clearer guidance and context for customer interactions.

 

Objectives List View

The Objectives tab displays a list of Objective CTAs. CSMs can manually create Objective CTAs and apply templates to the Success Plan from this tab. For more information on how CSMs manage Objective CTAs, refer to the Manage Objectives section in this article.

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The Objectives tab has the following options:

  • View: View the types of Objective CTAs by their status such as All Objectives, Closed Objectives, My Objectives, and Open Objectives.
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  • Search: Search for Objective CTAs by typing their names in this field.

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  • Sort: Sort the Objective CTAs by the following options:
    • Created Date
    • Due Date
    • Company>Relationship
    • Type
    • Status
    • Priority
    • Reason
    • Source
    • Relationship
    • CTA Name
    • Next Task Due Date
    • Objective Category
    • None

      Note: If a Success Plan has a list of Objective CTAs, and some of those Objective CTAs include numbers before the name, those Objective CTAs are displayed first when you sort by Name, followed by the remaining Objective CTAs.

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  • Filter: Users can add filters to the default filter criteria of the selected view. Click (A) to add more filter criteria based on your requirements.

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Create Objective CTA Manually

To create an Objective CTAs in a Success Plan:

  1. Navigate to the Success Plans page or C360 > Success Plan section.
  2. Click the name of the Success Plan.
  3. Click the Objectives tab.
  4. Click Create and select Add Manually. The Create Objective window is displayed.
  5. Specify the following information in the Create Objective window:
    • Name: Name of the Call to Action (CTA).
    • Company: Name of the company.
    • Relationship: Name of the relationship (Optional, if applicable).
    • Due Date: Can be different from the Plan due date.
    • Owner: Assign to yourself or another user/external contact (Person).
      Note: Users with Internal Collaborator license type can be added as owners of Objective CTAs.
    • Type: Select the type of Objective CTA.
    • Priority: Set the priority of this CTA.
    • Status: Set the status of this CTA.
    • Objective Category: Select the Objective CTA category.
    • Success Criteria: (Optional) Defines how to measure success with this Objective CTA (1000 character limit).
    • Comments: (Optional) You can specify some comments.
    • Playbook: (Optional) You can select a playbook. If a playbook is selected, all the tasks assigned to the Objective CTA are created automatically.
  6. (Optional) Click +Add More Details and type the name of the person you want to associate to the Objective CTA in the Associated Person field.
  7. Click Save.

Manage Objective CTAs

After you create Objective CTAs, manage them in the Success Plans > Objectives tab or Cockpit List View page. You can apply/replace a Playbook to an Objective CTA, create manual tasks, use Snooze (if it's enabled), manage Owners, Priority, and Status, etc. The Objective details page consists of the following tabs:

  • Detail
  • Tasks 
  • Timeline 
  • Company
  • Detail: Displays the following information:
    Fields Description
    Default Group The sharing type of the Success Plan. It uses one of the following icons:
    • EXT: When the Success Plan is shared with an external user.
    • INT: When the Success plan is shared with the internal user.
    Owner Owner of the Objective CTA.
    Due Date End date of the Objective CTA.
    Priority Priority of the Objective CTA.
    Status Status of the Objective CTA.
    Success Criteria Description about the criteria of Success.
    Objective Category Category of the Objective CTA.
    Type Type of the Objective CTA.
    Company Associated company of the Objective CTA.
    Relationship Associated relationship of the Objective CTA.
    Created Date Date when the Objective CTA was created.
    Age Displays how long an Objective CTA has been open (Closed Date - Created Date) or (Today - Created Date).
    Comments Comments by the user.
    Associated Person Name of the associated person.
  • Tasks: Displays all the tasks of the Objective CTA.
  • Timeline: Each Objective CTA has its own timeline. Activities logged in the Objective CTA’s timeline are not displayed in the Success Plan’s timeline. For more information on how to log activities in timeline, refer to the Log Activities in Timeline in the Additional Resources section at the end of this article.
  • Company: Displays the following information of the associated company:
     
    Fields Description
    Stage Stage of the associated company.
    Status Status of the associated company.
    CSM Customer Success Manager (CSM) of the associated company.
    Renewal Date Date of renewal of the associated company.
    Industry Industry type of the associated company.
    ARR Annual revenue of the associated company.

Notes:

  • Playbooks must be set to work with All CTA types in order to be available to Objective CTAs.
  • You can create Objective CTAs only from Success Plans, but not directly from Cockpit.
  • If you close a Success Plan, all of the associated Objective CTAs and Tasks are closed. To make changes to the Success Plan, you must change the plan's status back to Active.
  • Admins can configure the CTA detail view for Objective CTA types. For more information, refer to the Federated Customer Management article in the Additional Resources section at the end of this article.

Context Menu of Objective CTA

The context menu of Objective CTAs in the Objective detail view has the following options:

Fields Description
Apply Playbook Apply Playbooks to add tasks to the Objective CTAs. For more information on how to apply Playbooks to Objective CTAs, refer to the Apply Playbooks to Objectives section in this article.
Copy Link Copy the Objective CTA link to the clipboard for sharing it with users.
Send Email Send an email to users and create an email task under the Objective CTA simultaneously. For more information on how to send emails from an Objective CTA directly, refer to the Send Email from Objective section in this article.
Disable sharing with People/Enable sharing with People Disable or enable sharing for the Objective CTA.
Delete Deletes the Objective CTA.

Apply Playbooks to Objective CTA

  1. Click the name of the Success Plan.
  2. Click the Objectives tab.
  3. Click the name of the Objective CTA. This displays the Objective CTA detail view.
  4. Click the Tasks tab.
  5. Click Apply Playbook. This displays the Apply Playbook page.
    Note: When the Objective CTA already has some tasks and you need to add another Playbook, then click the three dots menu in the Objective detail view and select Apply Playbook.
  6. Click the required Playbook on the left pane.
  7. Click Apply.

Send Email from Objective CTA

CSMs can simultaneously send an email to the required users and create an email task under the Objective CTA. The subject line of the email becomes the name of this new email task.

If the CSMs decides to not send the email and instead saves the email as a draft,a task is created with the same name as the email’s subject line. Users can go to the task and click Validate Email to send the saved draft email.

For more information on how to send an email from an ObjectiveCTA (similar to sending emails from a CTA), refer to the Send Emails from Cockpit (via Email Assist and Send Email Option) (Horizon Experience) in the Additional Resources section at the end of this article.

Gantt Chart

Gantt Chart is integrated with Success Plans. It provides a graphical view of how Objective CTAs and associated tasks are progressing compared to the schedule.

Note: By default, the start date of Objective CTAs and tasks is the respective created date. CSMs have the ability to modify the Start Date or Due Date of Objective CTAs from the Gantt Chart tab, based on their requirements.

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For more information on Gantt Chart integration, refer to the Success Plans: Gantt Chart View article in the Additional Resources section at the end of this article.

Timeline

CSMs can log activities, save drafts, and view all activities related to the Success Plan or Objective. Each Success Plan and Objective will have its own Timeline tab, but this tab is not available for external users with whom the Success Plan is shared.  For more information on how to log a Timeline activity, refer to the Log Activities to Timeline article in the Additional Resources section at the end of this article.

Example Business Use Case: For instance, CSMs may handle their customer onboarding tasks using Success Plans, and post the progress of the onboarding task to Timeline. Managers can see the full update at the Success Plan level, instead of going through the individual activities of the Objective CTAs.

Notes:

  • A timeline entry at the Success Plan level will not be displayed in the Objective CTA’s Timeline but it will be displayed in the C360 > Timeline tab of the company.
  • A timeline entry at the Objective CTA level will not be displayed in the Success Plan’s Timeline but it will be displayed in the C360 > Timeline tab of the company.
  • A timeline entry in C360 > Timeline tab will not be displayed either in the Success Plan’s Timeline or at the Objective CTA’s Timeline.

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IMPORTANT:

  • A draft created in the Objective CTA’s timeline is not displayed in the Success Plan’s timeline. Similarly, drafts created in the Success Plan’s timeline are not displayed in the Objective CTA’s timeline. However, drafts created in the Success Plan’s timeline and the Objective CTA’s timeline are displayed in the C360 timeline.
  • All Success Plans and Objective CTA activities can be seen on the 360 > Timeline tab.
  • On the 360 > Timeline tab, the label “SP” is used for all activities created at the Success Plan level. You can share the link of the activities created at the Success Plan level with other Gainsight users.

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  • When an in-line task is created from Timeline at the Success Plan level, it creates a new Objective CTA in the success plan, under which the newly created in-line task can be seen. The new Objective created in Success Plan has a Default Objective CTA Category, as set on Administration > Success Plan.

Notifications

  • If A Success Plan is assigned to me is selected, you will receive a notification when a success plan gets assigned to you.
  • If My Success Plan due date is changed is selected and the plan is in an Active status, the plan owner is notified by email, if Notifications are enabled for that user. The plan owner is notified if the overall plan due date is changed due to changes in its Objective due dates, task due dates, or when a playbook is applied.
  • If A CTA is assigned to me is selected, then users are notified if any CTA Objective CTAs are assigned to them.

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To enable notifications, navigate to Administration > Notification Settings for customizing/enabling the notification settings. For more information on how to modify Notification Settings, refer to the Subscribe to Notifications article in the Additional Resources section at the end of this article.

Sharing Success Plans

You can share a Success Plan as a link with an internal user( Full, Viewer, Viewer + Analytics license type) or with external contacts through email. Use the Share Plan option to share an individual Success Plan. The Success Plan must be configured for sharing by the admin, with optional security settings. In the C360 > Success Plan section, the Share Plan option enables you to share a Success Plan.

For more information on how an admin can configure a Success Plan for sharing, refer to the Configure Success Plan for Sharing article in the Additional Resources section at the end of this article.

For more information on how CSMs/Users can share a Success Plan, refer to the Share Success Plan article in the Additional Resources section at the end of this article.

Clone Success Plans

Customer Success Managers (CSMs) can clone Success Plans for same or different Company or Relationship with the following restrictions:

  • Success Plans can only be cloned for the same Plan Type as the configured fields differ for each Plan Type.
  • Success Plans created for a Company can be cloned for the same or another Company but not for a Relationship.
  • Success Plans created for a Relationship can be cloned for the same or another Relationship across Companies, provided that the Relationship Type remains the same. 

Users can choose to copy Plan Info, Objectives and Tasks. Objectives and Tasks to be copied can be shortlisted based on their Status. Owners for the respective objectives and tasks can either be copied or updated to the new owner while cloning. 

To clone a Success Plan:

  1. Navigate to the Success Plan section from the navigation pane or in C/R 360 > Success Plan section.
  2. In the Search bar, type and search for the plan you wish to clone.
  3. Click the three vertical dots of the respective plan and select Clone.
  4. In the Company/Relationship field, search and select the plan you wish to clone.
  5. In the Name field, modify the name for the new plan. By default, the plan would be labelled as ‘Copy of <existing plan name>’.
  6. From the Status dropdown menu, select the status of the plan.
  7. In the Owner field, type and search for the respective name.
    Note: Users with Internal Collaborator license type cannot be added as owners of Success Plans.
  8. In the Due Date field, set the due date for the plan.
    Note: The due date of the Success plan is automatically updated to the due date of the Objective CTA with the furthermost due date.
  9. (Optional) Select Copy Plan Information to copy the entire plan information.
  10. (Optional) Select Copy Objectives to include all or selected Objectives, as follows: 
    • In the Select objectives by status field, you can select All to copy all objectives or select Status(s) from the dropdown menu to copy only the objectives with the selected status. 
    • In the Copy or update owner field, you can assign a new owner by selecting Update owner to option and entering the name of the new owner. To retain the previous owner, select the Copy owner option.
      Note: Users with Internal Collaborator license type cannot be added as owners of Objectives.
  11. (Optional) Select Copy Tasks to include tasks associated with the selected Objectives, as follows:
    • In the Select tasks by status field, you can select All to copy all tasks from the selected objectives or select Status(s) from the dropdown menu. 
    • In the Copy or update owner field, you can assign a new owner by selecting Update owner to option and entering the name of the new owner. To retain the previous owner, select the Copy owner option.
  12. Click Clone.

Notes:

  • The status of Objectives and Tasks is set to the Default Open Status configured by admin for Objective-CTA and Task.
  • The start and due dates of Objectives and Tasks along with dependencies are copied while cloning.
  • Timeline activities added on Success Plan or Objectives are not copied.
  • Objectives and Tasks are copied as it is without reapplying Template or Playbook. However, the email template is applied when copying email tasks created through Playbook. The email is reset to validate state.
  • Adhoc email tasks are not copied.
  • Users with whom the Success Plan was shared are not copied. The cloned Success Plan can be re-shared with internal/external users.
  • If the owner of a Success Plan is inactive or unlicensed, then the logged in user becomes the owner of the plan. 
  • If the owner of an Objective or Task is inactive or unlicensed at the time of cloning, the owner of the cloned Success Plan becomes the owner of such Objectives and Tasks.
  • When cloning a Success Plan for a different Company or Relationship:
    • If the owner of an Objective or Task is an external user, the owner of the cloned Success Plan becomes the owner of such Objectives and Tasks. 
    • Associated persons are not copied. 
  • In objective CTA, the association with the record on the linked object is not copied.