Customer Programs creates communication paths using Gainsight to inform, educate, and learn from our customers.
You can see more information about what we do and our strategy in the following decks:
The Customer Programs team creates content for the wider GitLab community.
We support all customers with our digital motions but primarily serve our tech touch and scaled segments with time-based and/or data driven email programs to further enable them in their journey with GitLab.
Programs follow the lifecycle of the customer, from onboarding to enablement to retention.
Programs can be any of the following:
Each program we send is created by the CS Programs team in Gainsight. Once a program is created and designed, we can make changes to the content. Creating a new program can be a time-intensive task, especially if the send rules and other parameters are specialized.
For a new program, the workflow is as follows:
In general, at least 5 business days are required for a new program, and in most cases it may be closer to 10-15 business days, depending on the complexity of the request.
For program update requests, the workflow is as follows:
In general, at least 5 business days are required to update a program. Depending on the size of the change, it may take longer. For example, adding a paragraph or removing a bulleted list from an email is simple, but adding an entirely new email to a series requires a new program to be created due to Gainsight limitations.
The CS Programs team can provide copywriting and proofreading assistance.
To request assistance with existing copy, please allow 2-5 business days.
To request copywriting, please provide as much content as possible to begin. This may take between 3 and 10 business days, depending on the complexity of the request and the amount of additional research or SME review required to approve the content.
When an email program is sent, Gainsight collects data about the following points:
New programs typically take 30 to 60 days to show meaningful data.
If the information requested is already available in Gainsight, please expect 1-3 business days beyond 30 days to respond to the request.
If a new dashboard or report must be created, CS Ops will provide more accurate time expectations.
Customer programs are sent to our tech touch and scaled CSM customer segments where there is a GitLab Admin contact. If there is no GitLab Admin on the account the program will send to the sold to contact.
For these CSM segments we require a GitLab Admin contact to be added to the following deals at the time of the opportunity approval submission:
New - First Order
New - Connected
Growth
Learn more about the GitLab Admin contact role requirement on the Gainsight Go-To-Market Technical Documentation page.
You may add a GitLab Admin contact at any point in the customer lifecycle.
To add a contact using Gainsight:
...
icon.GitLab Role
field.GitLab Admin
from the picklist.To add a contact using Salesforce:
Role
field.GitLab Admin
from the picklist.See our GitLab Admin contact required page for more information.
Programs are available to specific customer types.
The programs below are available to our Tech Touch and Scale CSM customer segments. These are sent to our GitLab Admin contacts and sold to contacts when GitLab Admin = Null.
Program | Category | Content | Email Send Time | Program Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
Onboarding Enrollment | Onboarding | Copy doc | 0-2 days of contract date | Time-based trigger |
Onboarding Series | Onboarding | Copy doc | 2-5 days | Time-based trigger |
CI Enablement Series | Enablement | Copy doc | 15-20 days | Time-based trigger |
DevSecOps Enablement Series | Enablement | Copy doc | 35-40 days | Time-based trigger |
CD Enablement Series | Enablement | Copy doc | 55-60 days | Time-based trigger |
Agile Enablement Series | Enablement | Copy doc | 65-70 days | Time-based trigger |
Monthly Newsletters | Enablement | Epic | Sent Monthly on Fridays | Time-based trigger |
NPS Post-Onboarding Survey | Onboarding | Issue | First Value Date, or 90 days after contract date, whichever is first | Time- and usage-based trigger |
NPS Pre-Renewal Survey | Retention | Issue | ~ 120 days before Next renewal date | Time-based trigger |
NPS/CSAT Post-Renewal Survey | Retention | Issue | 60 days after Next renewal date | Time-based trigger |
Monthly Webinar Invitations | Enablement | Handbook | Sent monthly dependent on event date | Time-based trigger |
Post Churn Survey | Retention | Issue | Opportunity marked Closed-Lost, Active Subscription = 0 | Usage-based trigger |
Low License Utilization (SMB Only) | Retention | Issue | License Utilization less than 75%, customer between 90-150 days of contract | Usage-based trigger |
High PTC (value 1 or 2) | Retention | Epic | 6-9 months before next renewal date, PTC Value = 1 or 2 | Usage-based trigger |
The programs below are available to CSM-assigned accounts only and are sent to a GitLab Admin contact.
Program | Category | Content | Email Send Time |
---|---|---|---|
Intro to GitLab CS + Onboarding | Onboarding | Copy doc | When a customer is first assigned a CSM (GitLab Admin OR Sold to Contact) |
AE <> CSM Introduction | Onboarding | Copy doc | When a customer is first assigned a CSM (Sold to Contact) |
Monthly Newsletters* | Enablement | Epic | Sent monthly on Fridays to GitLab Admin contacts |
NPS/CSAT Post-Onboarding Survey* | Onboarding | Issue | Customer since = 60 days & GitLab Admin |
NPS/CSAT Pre-Renewal Survey* | Retention | Issue | ~ 120 days before Next renewal date |
NPS/CSAT Post-Renewal Survey | Retention | Issue | 60 days after Next renewal date |
CSM Enrolled Onboarding Enablement Campaigns | Onboarding | Copy doc Issue | CSM enrolled contact through multi-picklist Enablement Enrollment on the contact in Gainsight - see issue for instructions |
CSM Enrolled CI Enablement Campaigns | Enablement | Copy doc Issue | CSM enrolled contact through multi-picklist Enablement Enrollment on the contact in Gainsight - see issue for instructions |
CSM Enrolled CD Enablement Campaigns | Enablement | Copy doc Issue | CSM enrolled contact through multi-picklist Enablement Enrollment on the contact in Gainsight - see issue for instructions |
CSM Enrolled DevSecOps Enablement Campaigns | Enablement | Copy doc Issue | CSM enrolled contact through multi-picklist Enablement Enrollment on the contact in Gainsight - see issue for instructions |
CSM Enrolled Agile Enablement Campaigns | Enablement | Copy doc Issue | CSM enrolled contact through multi-picklist Enablement Enrollment on the contact in Gainsight - see issue for instructions |
* Monthly newsletters and NPS/CSAT surveys require a GitLab Admin contact
You may request new programs, such as an email series, contribute to existing programs, or update programs. We provide issue templates for ease of use.
To request a new program or update an existing program:
Open a new issue in the CS Ops Project.
Select the appropriate template from CS Programs.
Fill out as much of the template as possible. Missing information may cause delays.
CS Programs will assign the request. For urgent issues, or questions about the request, make an @mention
to a Gainsight administrator or ask in the #cs_ops_and_programs
Slack channel.
You may be asked to perform a review of current or new content. This review should not take more than an hour in most cases.
As a subject matter expert (SME) reviewer, you’ll be asked to review content for technical accuracy and completeness.
When reviewing, please keep the following in mind:
The Product teams may wish to request new tutorials and guides to be added to the GitLab Docs pages.
A tutorial is intended as a step-by-step instruction to perform a task or tasks. For example, we may want a tutorial for how to set up Two-Factor Authentication. A tutorial would go through the steps in order to complete the process.
A guide may link back to a tutorial, but is less instructional and works to provide guidance, recommendations, and troubleshooting help for a feature. For example, we may want to explain how to set up CI at a high level, then link to tutorials for each step of the process.
The Product team creates the framework of the tutorial or guide. This includes:
CSE/CSMs can use the Customer Programs Research Template to research new program oppportunities for different stages and use cases. This template provides suggestions for information we can use to create valuable programs for our customers.
To create a Program Research issue:
Program emails intended to be sent as a sequence have been added as playbooks in Gainsight. These need to be sent manually by the CSM. They are set up to facilitate reminders and make this process easy, while we learn how customers want to engage.
See the Customer Success Playbooks page for a list of current playbooks.
To use a playbook to send emails:
Type
, choose Digital Journey.New Customer Digital Onboarding - Self-Managed Email Series
, which will add a checklist for each email in the sequence.We sometimes apply A/B testing to digital program where we test different subject lines, calls to actions or the efficacy of the program itself. The Customer Success Operations team created a rule that puts each customer into either A or B.
See more about how we set up A/B testing on the issue page.
Control groups are also used for digital customers in order to measure the impact and effectiveness of our programs. We use the insights to make adjustments and validate the value provided. Once validated, we remove control groups for long term programs that improve our customers' experience. This can mean that a small percentage of customers may not receive onboarding or enablement content during pilot programs.
Customer email programs are updated when new content is added, existing content changes or existing content needs to be removed.
The program update tracker allows us to see what the general contents of each program contain so we can quickly determine which programs need to be updated.