Overview

This article will help you plan for a quick implementation of CustomerSuccessBox and unlock the value of CustomerSuccessBox for you and your team in the fastest possible way. 

We know that figuring out implementing CustomerSuccessBox, and deciding what data to track can feel a bit overwhelming. So, we have broken this down into simple steps. The aim of this Quick Implementation Guide is to get CustomerSuccessBox implemented for your CS team as fast as possible. 

While the full implementation will be the ultimate goal, you can go-live with CustomerSuccessBox with almost zero effort from your development team. 

How long will this take?

The implementation plan is designed to onboard your team in the fastest possible way. While this can be completed in a few hours, depending on your data readiness and clarity it typically takes upto 2 weeks. 

Who's this for?

If you are a Customer Success Leader/Manager and/or Data/CS Operations manager who is responsible for getting CustomerSuccessBox implemented for the Customer Success team, you are in the right place.

Role	Role Details	Is this Guide for you?
CSB Implementation Lead	Who is leading the CSB implementation from your side. Typically a CS Ops person who manages various business platforms, such as CRM, Support, etc. This could also be the function manager or a Sr. CSM if your organization does not have an operations manager who can play this role.	Yes. This is your go to document. You should print it (or soft copy equivalent) and follow it step by step.
Operations Manager (CS Ops / Data Ops)	Someone who manages various business platforms, such as CRM, Support Desk, Subscription Billing etc. Who understands various integrations and data flow between various tools. Usually has admin rights on multiple tools.	Yes, this will help you understand and finalize data attributes and flow to and from CSB.
CS Head	Head/Director/VP of Customer Success	Too much detail for you.
CSM	Customer Success Manager, Onboarding / Implementation Manager, Account Manager	Not applicable. Except for the select few of you who might be playing an active role implementing CSB.

Prerequisites before you start 

1. You understand what CustomerSuccessBox is. If not refer to Introduction to CustomerSuccessBox. 

2. You have seen at least a demo of CustomerSuccessBox and preferably played around with the demo instance as well. If not, request a demonstration on support@customersuccessbox.com & we will connect you with your CSM at CustomerSuccessBox.

3. You were involved in the purchase process or understand the reasons and objective for implementing CustomerSuccessBox at your organization.

When should I consider using this Simple Installation Guide?

In case the unique identifiers for Accounts and Users are not mapped to and are not available in all third party systems - CSV import is the fastest way to get data in and start using CustomerSuccessBox. The following guide will enable you to get data imported to CustomerSuccessBox as quickly as possible. 

If the unique account and user identifiers are already available in all internal systems - then we recommend that you refer to the Full CustomerSuccessBox Installation Guide as it will unlock more advanced use cases for you. 

What value can I unlock with a simple CustomerSuccessBox implementation?

You will be able to do the following with the first 2 weeks if all the steps mentioned in the article are followed:

1. Single system of Records/Source of Truth for all Accounts

   1. Get Basic Account data like Account Name, Stages, CSM, licences, Renewal date ect. User data like  First name, email address, Role (detailed in Step 2 Below) on CSB

   2. Get all billing and finance related info to CSB so as to set up Renewal process.

   3. Get customer lifecycle stages in CSB to map the customer journey.
      
      

2. Start Tracking Relationship, Service and Financial Health

   1. Add CSMs to CSB. Sync Gmail + Google Calendar to start tracking emails and meetings

   2. Integrate with Support tool or import the data via CSV

   3. Import financial data via CSV
      
      

3. Streamline Key Processes to be managed

   1. Start tracking key processes using Playbook: Onboarding, Renewal, Business Review

4. Action Planning via Tasks

   1. Start using the Task board to track your daily/weekly deliverables

Do I need developer/engineering support?

Your developers/engineering teams might be required to 

1. Finalize the unique identifiers for accounts and users

2. Downloading the required data from your internal systems/your backend system in csv format. 

Terminology

Term	Definition
Account	An ‘Account’ is usually the customer that your CSM / account manager is handling. Health, Alerts, Milestones, Playbooks are all managed at an Account level. Product Usage data, Support Tickets etc are all aggregated at the account level.  Any entity that can churn independently should be created as an ‘Account’ in CustomerSuccessBox.  In some special cases each customer instance or each individual subscription/deal can be created as an Account as well. As a thumb rule - only create the entity as an ‘Account’ in CSB if it can churn independently
User	An ‘User’ is the end-user of your software/SaaS application and contacts with whom your CSMs engage with on a frequent basis. They are users who adopt/use your SaaS application/software  Product Adoption, Engagement, and Support Conversations are tracked against an individual user and then rolled up to the ‘Account’.
Subscription	Subscription represents the recurring items to which a customer has subscribed. The recurring items can be - plan, product, add ons etc. This helps your CSMs with insights into when an Account’s term is ending, product/plan name to which the customer has purchased, identify new customers and also track all the active/cancelled subscriptions in their portfolio.
Invoice	Invoices are statements containing charges, adjustments and status of payment.  Invoices are usually created against every subscription and are used to track the payment status, total amount due etc for every Account.
Support Tickets	These are chat conversations/emails that your end-users are raising in the support channel.  This enables the CSMs to track if their (portfolio) customers are engaging via the support channel on a frequent basis and also monitor the ticket conversations, volumes, and statuses for timely interventions when required.
Issues	Issues are bugs, new feature requests, incidents that  your CSMs create for your engineering/product team in your issue tracking platform (eg: JIRA) This helps your CSMs monitor customer issues, new feature requests,  bugs, incidents, engineering tasks, product change requests that they have raise on behalf of the customer

How do I plan?

You should be prepared to invest a fair amount of time to decide which data to track and analyse; as well as which processes you want to set-up & measure in CustomerSuccessBox. The time you invest here will save you a lot of time and effort in the future when new use cases are identified. 

STEP 1: Define Business Objectives

How do I define my Business Objectives?

You start your implementation of CustomerSuccessBox by defining what Business Goals/Objectives you want to achieve in the next 3 to 6 months. Begin with what is the most pressing use-case/issue that you want to address first. Thinking about the the following points might help you in setting your objectives - 

1. Do I have Visibility into CSM’s activities and portfolio? 

2. Is Churn an Issue? How can I make my CSM be more proactive in reducing churn?

3. How can I increase the Net Retention Revenue (NRR)? 

4. How can I make processes / CSMs more Proactive? 

5. Do I have visibility into the customer journey / lifecycle? 

6. Which processes (eg: Onboarding, QBR, Renewal etc) should be standardized first? 

7. Am I able to seamlessly create management level reports on organization metrics? 

We recommend discussing with all the stakeholders to finalize your business objectives and then documenting them in this sheet. All the Best practice & how to navigation reference documents are attached with each tab

STEP 2: Prerequisites

Once you have access to your CustomerSuccessBox instance, here are some prerequisites that need to be defined before you can start adding Accounts, Users and Subscriptions.

Setup Customer Lifecycle Stages

CustomerSuccessBox allows you to create Customer Lifecycle Stages to track an account's progress through these stages. You can create custom stages if your business case needs a few - but they will always be classified under one of 4 Stage Types - 

1. Trial: When the account is Trying your Product

2. Onboarding: When a new customer is being on-boarded, usually for the first 90 days.

3. Live: Onboarding is complete and the account is now live. This stage can sometimes also be called the Retain or Retention stage.

4. Cancelled: This is the last stage when Customer Churns out and cancels the Product subscription. 

Refer to this support article on Configuring Customer Lifecycle Stages to know how to create your own stages.

Setup User Details

CustomerSuccessBox allows you to create User Roles and User Personas to help you in categorizing the users within each account who are using your platform. Before you add your Users to CustomerSuccessBox, you should define what your User Roles and User Personas should be.

1. User Roles: Are usually the access level of the user on your platform

2. User Personas: Are the fictional characters used to represent a specific behaviour of a user-type.

Refer to this support article on User Roles and User Personas to know more and also configure your own.

Setup Customer Subscription Status

CustomerSuccessBox allows you to create Subscription Statuses for all subscriptions for your accounts. You can create custom statues if your business case needs, however they will always be classified into - these four standard Subscription Status Types:

1. Active: Defines an active subscription that is currently in use by the account

2. Cancelled: A cancelled subscription once the same has been cancelled by the customer

3. Future: A subscription that is not currently active but will become active in future

4. Suspended: A subscription that has been temporarily paused with plans to activate in future.

Refer to this support article on Configuring Subscription Statuses to know more and also configure your own.

Setup Team Roles

Team Roles are custom roles defined for the Customer Success teams. If your organisation follows processes where more than one manager is assigned to a single account, Team Roles are the way to go. By default we have Customer Success Manager added as a team role but you can add more based on the processes you follow internally.

Refer to this support article on Leveraging Team Roles to know more and configure your own roles.

Setup Custom Attributes

CustomerSuccessBox allows you to capture your unique business data in cases where the standard fields provided by CustomerSuccessBox are not sufficient. When you create a custom field, you can control where you want it to appear and where you would populate information into the same. A custom attribute can be defined at an Account, User and Subscriptions level, depending upon the information you want that attribute to hold.

Refer to this support article on Custom Attributes to know more and create your own custom attributes.

Setup Primary Currency

On CustomerSuccessbox, you can define your primary currency which will ensure all details related to billing and subscription for your accounts are calculated in your native currency or the currency you use to bill your customers. 

Refer to this support article on Defining Primary Currency to set up your own currency on CustomerSuccessBox.

STEP 3: Finalize data that should be available in CustomerSuccessBox

How do I define what data needs to be tracked in CustomerSuccessBox?

With the business objectives defined, the next step is to define the data that should be tracked in CustomerSuccessBox. Here are some questions that you need to ask yourself to get started on finalizing the data 

1. On what basis should I Segment my customers (eg: MRR, region, plan, stage)? 

2. How should I Segment my Users? 

3. How will I know how many customers are coming up for renewal in the next 90 days? 

4. Should I standardize my internal processes like QBR, Onboarding, Renewals? 

5. What are the Service, Financial and Relationship parameters on the basis of which Healthy customers can be defined? 

6. How can I proactively identify customers at Risk? Think in terms of 

   1. Overdue Invoices Count/Amount

   2. No touch points / engagement with customer

   3. Support tickets metric

Needless to say, we recommend documenting the data that needs to be tracked in CustomerSuccessBox in this sheet. Once finalized, share this with your engineering/development teams so they know which data needs to be sent to CustomerSuccessBox.
Incase you have any questions, feel free to reach out to support@customersuccessbox.com

Which data should I log in CustomerSuccessBox?

data that can be added in CustomerSuccessBox can be categorized into the following objects:

1. Account data

2. User data

3. Subscription information

4. Invoice information

5. Support Tickets / Conversations

6. Emails / Meetings

Document all the data points required in CustomerSuccessBox in this onboarding template.

Table below details out the data that is mandatory, required, and good-to-have for Accounts, Users, Subscriptions, Invoices, and Support conversations. Once you have finalized this, update in sheet 2.1 of this document.

Object	Mandatory data	Required data	Good-to-Have data
Accounts	event_account_id	name created_on licenses	billing_state/ billing_country industry stage
Users	event_account_id event_user_id	First_name and last_name email, created_on role_name / persona_name	title Is_disabled
Subscription	event_account_id external_subscription_id	status amount mrr subscription_start_on subscription_ends_on plan_name product_name	billing_period billing_period_unit next_billing_on activated_on (YYYY-MM-DD)
Invoices	external_invoice_id External_subscription_id and /or event_account_id	total amount_paid status amount_due due_on (YYYY-MM-DD) created_on (YYYY-MM-DD)	paid_on (YYYY-MM-DD) updated_on (YYYY-MM-DD)
Email Conversations /  Meetings	mail (field in the Users template)
Support Tickets	email ( of user) (or) event_account_id and email

STEP 4: Identify Unique Identifiers for Accounts

What is an Account ID?

An account ID uniquely identifies an account in CustomerSuccessBox. This can either be the 

• domain of the account, 

OR 

• numeric/alphanumeric ID that is generated in your tenant/backend or any third party application. 

Why do you need a unique Account ID?

The unique Account ID acts as the primary key for the account, so data sent via any application (CRM, Subscription/Billing, Segment, Analytics) and/or method (API, JS library) can be mapped to the respective account already created in CustomerSuccessBox. This helps build a complete customer view with the data that is pulled from all the sources

What are the possible fields you can use as Account ID?

Source of ID	Which ID?	Recommended / Acceptable	Pros	Cons
Domain	Domain picked from the email addresses of the Account	Recommended	Mapping Account ID to other systems not necessary	Won’t work in case you want to maintain Parent-Child hierarchy in CustomerSuccessBox
Tenet / Backend	ID generated on new account creation	Recommended	Future proof - covers all use cases
CRM  (eg: Hubspot, SFDC)	ID field from the Companies / Account object	Acceptable		Not Future Proof -  In case you move to a new system you would need to re-engineer the ID mapping to all internal systems again
Subscription / Billing  (eg: Stripe, Chargebee, Quickbooks)	ID field from Customer/Account Object	Acceptable		Not Future Proof -  In case you move to a new system you would need to re-engineer the ID mapping to all internal systems again

STEP 5: Identify Unique Identifiers for Users

What is an User ID?

An User ID uniquely identifies an user in CustomerSuccessBox. The unique user ID can either be

• email address of the user 

OR 

• integer/alphanumeric ID that is generated either in your tenant/backend system or in any other third party application

Why do you need a unique User ID?

The unique User ID acts as the primary key for the user, so data sent via any application (CRM, Support, Analytics, Gmail) or method (eg: API, JS Library) can be mapped to the respective user already created in CustomerSuccessBox

This helps build a complete user view with the data that is pulled from any of the sources.

What are possible fields you can use as of unique User ID?

Source of ID	Which ID?	Recommended / Acceptable	Pros	Cons
Backend/ CRM/ Support/ Analytics/ Segment	Email address of the User	Recommended	Best source of User ID as it is available in all systems by default
Tenet / Backend	ID generated on new user creation	Acceptable	Automatically generated ID	Engineering effort required to map it to all internal systems

 

Completing a Simple CustomerSuccessBox Installation

Overview

This article will guide you to get started with using CustomerSuccessBox in the quickest way possible. We have broken this down into steps so that you will be able to get CustomerSuccessBox implemented as quickly as possible for your CS team. You should expect this installation process to have the following steps:

1. Adding Accounts

2. Adding Users

3. Adding Email conversations/meetings

4. Adding Support Tickets

5. Adding Subscriptions

6. Adding Invoices

Who's this for?

If you are a Customer Success Leader/Manager who is responsible for getting CustomerSuccessBox implemented for your team, you are in the right place.

How do I complete a Simple CustomerSuccessBox Installation

Following CustomerSuccessBox’s best practices listed below will enable you to start using the basic functionalities of CustomerSuccessBox within the first two weeks. It will also enable you to be prepared in the future - when more advanced use-cases need to be addressed with CustomerSuccessBox. 

STEP 1: Adding Accounts

Why should I add Accounts to CustomerSuccessBox? 

Accounts need to be created in CustomerSuccessBox so your CS / Account Management teams can measure and track the Health of every customer, and to proactively identify customers at risk to save them from churning by executing proactive actions and hence save MRR.

How can I quickly add Accounts to CustomerSuccessBox?

CSV import is the best way to get data into CustomerSuccessBox. Follow the steps below to get your existing account data into CustomerSuccessBox via CSV import

1. Make a copy of this Account Import Template

2. Fill the Account data along with any custom attributes that you want to manage in CustomerSuccessBox in the import template downloaded earlier. You can also export the data from your internal systems or CRM tool.

3. The table below has details on mandatory, required and good-to-have fields in the import template

Object	Mandatory data	Required Fields	Good to Have Fields
Accounts	event_account_id	name created_on licenses	billing_state/ billing_country industry stage

1. Import the data to CustomerSuccessBox from Settings > Import Data. Refer to this article on importing data to CustomerSuccessBox for more details. 

STEP 2: Adding Users

Why should I add users to CustomerSuccessBox?

Adding ‘Users’ enables your Customer Success team to track product adoption, and engagement with each and every user / individual using your SaaS Application / Software. WIth this data in CustomerSuccessBox they will be able to drive adoption at individual user level by targeting specific categories of users (eg: Admin Users, CEO, Champion). 

Also, Email conversations and support tickets will only be pulled if the users are created in CustomerSuccessBox with a valid email address.

How can I quickly add Users to CustomerSuccessBox?

CSV import is the best way to get data into CustomerSuccessBox. Follow the steps below to get your existing user data into CustomerSuccessBox via CSV import

1. Make a copy of this User Import Template

2. Fill the User data along with any custom attributes that you want to manage in CustomerSuccessBox in the import template downloaded earlier. You can also export the data from your internal systems or CRM tool.

3. Add the unique Account ID under the respective column in the template

4. The table below has details on mandatory, required and good-to-have fields in the import template

Object	Mandatory fields	Required Fields	Good to Have Fields
Users	event_account_id event_user_id	First_name and last_name email, created_on role_name / persona_name	title Is_disabled

1. Import the data to CustomerSuccessBox from Settings > Import Data. Refer to this article on importing data to CustomerSuccessBox for more details. 

STEP 3: Adding Email Conversations / Meetings

Why should I add Emails / Meetings to CustomerSuccessBox?

Adding Email / Meetings in CustomerSuccessBox, enables your CSMs to 

1. Set up Relationship Health

2. View email conversations in a timeline

3. Have a 360-degree view of your customers

4. Configure Risk Alerts when there are no touchpoints with a customer

5. Set alerts on specific meeting types eg: QBR, EBR, Weekly reviews etc. 

How can I pull in my email conversations / meetings to CustomerSuccessBox?

To pull in email conversations and meetings each of your CSMs need to individually authorize their gmail/outlook inbox and calendar from Profile > Sync Emails and Calendar. For more details refer to the Gmail / Outlook integration documents.

Note: If you are on G-suite. Make sure, you ask your admin to whitelist Gmail, before asking CSMs to sync the emails.

STEP 4: Adding Subscriptions

Why Should I add subscriptions in CustomerSuccessBox? 

Adding Subscriptions in CustomerSuccessBox, enables your CSMs to 

1. Set up Financial Health

2. Have a 360-degree view of your customers

3. Configure Risk Alerts on Invoice/Subscription status, Due/Paid Amount, Due/Paid Dates

4. Segment Accounts on MRR, Amount, Plan Quantity, Plan Names, Invoice Status, etc. 

How can I quickly add Subscriptions to CustomerSuccessBox?

CSV import is the best way to get subscription data into CustomerSuccessBox if 

• You are maintaining your subscription data in an excel sheet 

(OR) 

• The unique Account ID is mapped in your subscription tool. 

Follow the steps below to get your existing subscription data into CustomerSuccessBox via CSV import

1. Make a copy of this Subscription Import Template

2. Fill the subscription data in the import template downloaded earlier. You can also export the data from your internal systems or subscription tool.

3. Add the unique Account ID under the respective column in the template

4. The table below has details on mandatory, required and good-to-have fields in the import template

Object	Mandatory fields	Required Fields	Good to Have Fields
Subscription	event_account_id external_subscription_id	status amount mrr subscription_start_on subscription_ends_on plan_name product_name	billing_period billing_period_unit next_billing_on activated_on (YYYY-MM-DD)

1. Import the data to CustomerSuccessBox from Settings > Import Data. Refer to this article on importing data to CustomerSuccessBox for more details. 

STEP 5: Adding Invoices

Why should I add Invoices to CustomerSuccessBox? 

Adding Invoice data into CustomerSuccessBox, enables you to 

1. Set up Financial Health

2. View all Invoices for a particular Account in CustomerSuccessBox

3. Configure Risk Alerts on Invoice status, Due/Paid Amount, Due/Paid Dates

4. Segment Accounts on Due Amount, Invoice Status, Due Dates etc. 

How can I quickly add Invoices to CustomerSuccessBox?

CSV import is the best way to get invoice data into CustomerSuccessBox if 

• you are using a homegrown system to manage customer invoices and this data cannot be pushed to CSB via API

(OR) 

• the unique Account ID is mapped in your subscription/invoice tool. 

Follow the steps below to get your existing subscription data into CustomerSuccessBox via CSV import

1. Make a copy of this Invoices Import Template

2. Fill the invoice data in the import template downloaded earlier. You can also export the data from your internal systems or subscription/invoice tool.

3. Add the unique Account ID or the Subscription ID under the respective column in the template

4. The table below has details on mandatory, required and good-to-have fields in the import template

Object	Mandatory fields	Required Fields	Good to Have Fields
Invoices	external_invoice_id External_subscription_id and /or event_account_id	total amount_paid status amount_due due_on (YYYY-MM-DD) created_on (YYYY-MM-DD)	paid_on (YYYY-MM-DD) updated_on (YYYY-MM-DD)

1. Import the data to CustomerSuccessBox from Settings > Import Data. Refer to this article on importing data to CustomerSuccessBox for more details.

STEP 6: Adding Support Tickets

Why should I add Support Tickets to CustomerSuccessBox? 

Adding Support Tickets in CustomerSuccessBox enables you to 

1. View support conversations raised by each customer in one single place

2. View Service metrics

3. Configure Risk Alerts on Overdue Tickets, Total Tickets Raised, Critical Tickets

4. Set up  Service Health

5. Segment Accounts on Overdue Tickets, Total Tickets Raised, Critical Tickets

When should I add Support Tickets and How can I add them to CustomerSuccessBox 

Table below details out different sources for creating New Tickets in CustomerSuccessBox and when they should be created from the said source.

Creation Source	Creation Trigger	How?	When to Use?
Support Tool	New Ticket Created	One Click Integration	When your support team uses a support toll to manage support tickets
CSV import	Manual	CSV import Doc	When the required IDs are not available in Support tool

Contact Us

In most cases, you would have a dedicated Customer Success Manager who will be your point-of-contact for any queries or assistance. You may also,

1. Initiate a chat directly from within CustomerSuccessBox. Use Chat option from Chat icon in left side navigation bar

2. Create a conversation from here

3. Send an email to support@customersuccessbox.com