AMA: Yext VP, Client Solutions Management, North America, Jessica Broderick on Product Adoption

The CSM is an internal and external advocate for the customers they support. Because of this, it is important for them to collaborate with internal teams to ensure clients have everything they need to be successful and adopt the product. As an example, customers will often make feature requests for an enhancement to the product that helps them improve a specific use case. By working with product development teams, CSMs can drive innovation to the product roadmap that directly aligns to how their customers want to be using it. There are many ways to enable this kind of collaboration but I find that creating a process around it helps streamline the efforts. This can be accomplished by creating a workflow to submit feedback/ideas/requests with various teams in Slack, JIRA, SFDC, CSP, etc in combination with a forum where the feedback can be openly discussed to identify deliverables.

These are some of the most common reasons why a customer isn't adopting your product: 1. They find it difficult to use. 2. They do not have the service and support they require to be successful. 3. They are not seeing and/or do not understand the value it provides to their business. 4. The product is not evolving to fit their needs.

The most successful way to gain momentum and create a sense of urgency for product adoption is to tie it to an immediate business need or strategic initiative for the client. Here are a couple of tactics I find helpful: * Repurpose a weekly or monthly touchpoint with the client and use it to discuss their initiatives * Identify a specific high impact pain point they're having and align your product as the solution * Provide examples of how other clients have successfully used the product * Expand to other teams within the clients organization and determine how they can benefit from your product

The biggest red flag for a customer not adopting the product is low user engagement in the platform. If no one is logging in to the product on a regular cadence it can mean that they don't see it as business critical. The best way to gameplan for this is to identify power users during the onboarding process and enable them early on. In the event that you still lack engagement, find other people or teams within the clients organization that could benefit from the product. More users = higher adoption.

The best type of content for a customer is dependent on their technical abilities, learning style, and end goal. Because of this, it is important to provide the right content for the right person at the right time. Here are some examples of the top content assets based on role: * Technical Users. If you have a client who is very technical with hands on keyboard, you want to provide them with technical specifications for how the product works and/or API documentation so they can be self-sufficient and customize the product to their needs. * Non-Technical Users. This role type covers a wide breadth which can include marketers, field users, or operational teams. I find that how-to guides with step by step instructions work really well for this audience in addition to video content walking them through various features or functionality. * Executives. While this persona is less likely to be in the product on a day to day basis, it is important that they understand the value it provides to their business through analytics and reporting.

Client onboarding plays a critical role in driving product adoption because it lays the foundation for their understanding of the technology and how to use it. The quicker they adopt the product, the sooner they will start seeing value. The following techniques are key to a successful onboarding: 1. Partnership Kickoff. Set up time with the client to understand who will be using the product and how they plan to measure success. 2. Product Training. Get the client familiar with the product early on. Set up a screen share and have them log-in while you help them navigate and gain confidence using the product. 3. Self-Serve Resources. Send the client a customized set of materials based on their use case where they can continue to learn about the product. This could be links to webinars, user guides, or even an online learning platform.