Every summer as a kid, my family went on a trip. Before we left, my dad would unfold his paper map, and show us the route; pointing out long stretches of highway driving, back-road shortcuts, and where we would stop for gas and ice cream. Of course, he couldn’t predict traffic or road closures, and that map would make more than one appearance as my mom tried to co-navigate during the ride. But we’d make it, even if it wasn’t exactly as planned.
Today, I have the convenience of entering my destination into my smart phone and jumping in the car, daughter, husband, and a box of Cheeze-Its in tow. I can choose the fastest route, avoid traffic, and find recommendations on places to stop along the way. . . have you seen the world’s largest paper cup?!
Just like I wouldn’t drive across country without a map, I wouldn’t expect partners to lead a customer through the lifecycle without a plan or strategy. However, our partner experience team has found some Cisco partners are still leading customers manually, with little or no customer success practices in place, when the opportunity is there to take a more digital approach with Cisco Lifecycle Advantage Success Program Insights (SPI).
Cisco Lifecycle Advantage Success Program Insights (SPI)
Lifecycle Advantage is a leading customer experience management program for partners that uses insights and automation to drive retention and growth. It centers on important milestones in the life of a customer and uses action-triggered email automation to provide partners with a simple, efficient customer engagement tool. With Lifecycle Advantage Success Program Insights, partners get even more information to lead customers while scaling their own customer success practices. SPI gives partners ways to better manage accounts, act on recommendations to progress stalled customers, connect data to customers, and in turn, help customers get the most from their investment. All this, at no cost to the partner.
What can I see in SPI?
When partners log in to Cisco Lifecycle Advantage, they can easily access Success Program Insights in the main navigation at the top of the page. The program gives partners access to an abundance of information including:
- Insights on where a customer is in the lifecycle and if or how they may be progressing.
- Easily accessible playbooks so partners can view exactly what their customers are receiving and use the information to have conversations around deployment and adoption.
- Identification of customers stalled in the lifecycle, and recommendations on how to help them move forward.
- Contact information and management to determine who should receive notifications.
This year, our team added enhanced telemetry to Success Program Insights, giving partners a deeper understanding of how customers are progressing in their deployment with direction on how to use the data to better support them. When permission is granted by the customer, more telemetry is visible. Enhancements include:
- Direction on how to use data to support customers.
- Recommended and required exit criteria for customer progression.
- Extra context around customer telemetry points at the customer/deployment ID.
- Clarity around when exit criteria is completed – standard and simple format.
- Availability for all offers in SPI.
The information in Success Program Insights has been a game changer for many of our partner organizations. Most have never had access to this type of data or been able to watch the movement of their customers so closely in the lifecycle. Our team continues to add new functions and features to improve efficiency and effectiveness of the data provided. Just recently, we added an intent flag, giving partners visibility into what their customer’s intentions are for a CX business unit/use case. Learn about the features added to SPI since its start in 2001.
Success Program Insights is the digital guide that helps lead customers from purchase to renewal. Through digital support capabilities, partners can predict and solve issues, and customers can reach their destinations faster, leading to increased satisfaction, loyalty, and ultimately renewal. It’s easy to use, it’s free, and it sure beats trying to fold a paper map!
Next steps
Not sure where to begin? To get the most out of Success Program Insights, here are some quick tips on what to do when you log in to the program.
- Look for customer alerts to decide which customers you need to focus on, and what recommendations are available to support them.
- Identify and update partner provided contacts that may be missing or inaccurate to ensure the right person is receiving email notifications.
- Identify and update partner customer success manager contacts to indicate if a partner is managing the customer.
- Ensure all digital consent forms for customers are signed and permission is granted to access telemetry data so that you can get the most from the data in the program.
- See where your customers are throughout their lifecycle and how you can help them progress and ultimately renew.
Resources
Learn more, access resources, read FAQs, and view demos on our newly redesigned Success program Insights website., or download the Success Program Insights User Guide (via Cisco SalesConnect).
Sign up for Cisco Lifecycle Advantage
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