Proven Strategies for Cultivating Long-Term Adoption
How support teams are cutting costs without sacrificing quality — and the tools making it possible.
CS Unleashed Webinar Series
July 28, 2023
This session of the CS Unleashed Webinar Series covers proven strategies for cultivating long-term adoption. Host Cory Brown (CEO of Simplesat) is joined by Elliot Fox (Head of Customer Success at Simplesat) and Celine Doumar (Senior CSM at Vitally) to walk through the journey from implementation handoff to durable platform adoption, how to drive engagement and measure it, and how to empower CSMs as strategic partners rather than reactive support.
Key takeaways
- Reinforce platform adoption by having managers actively use the software in team rituals, like pulling up a renewal dashboard during the weekly renewal call.
- After implementation, give customers a clear "what's next" with templates, blueprints, and best practices so the blank-canvas effect doesn't cause analysis paralysis.
- Involve the CSM from the very first kickoff call and use handover templates so context carries cleanly from implementation into the ongoing relationship.
- Tie CSAT surveys tightly to a meaningful customer interaction; transactional surveys earn far higher response rates than ad hoc relationship surveys.
- Send the CSAT survey inside the same "ticket solved" email rather than a day later, so feedback is captured while the interaction is fresh.
- Free CSMs to be strategic by routing tactical how-to questions to a strong support team and great documentation, and define value per customer with regular value reviews.
What they covered
The conversation opened on the implementation-to-success transition, where Celine highlighted change management, tracking real adoption (not just logins), and setting expectations early. Vitally uses an onboarding plan and consistent note and handover templates so the customer experience stays seamless and goals are documented from day one.
On driving adoption, both companies track core feature usage and active usage trends over time, intervening when usage steadily declines. Elliot stressed that great UX, accessible help content, and proactive outreach prevent churn, and that low adoption should be diagnosed (education, change management, or product fit) before choosing a fix.
On empowering CSMs, the panel framed the shift from tactical to strategic as a structural one: clear role definition, multi-threaded stakeholder relationships to route around blockers, and strategic tasks like monthly value reviews baked into the process. Customer feedback should shape strategy with statistical resilience, acting on recurring themes rather than overcorrecting on a single comment.
The full recording and slides are available on request.
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Speakers
Cory is fueled by a passion for customer service and a dedication to helping his own clients achieve excellence in their service offerings. With 15 years of experience collaborating with MSPs, he has honed his skills in improving their marketing and customer success strategies.
Hi! I’m Elliot the head of Customer Success at Simplesat. Passionate about onboarding customers and finding simple solutions to complex use cases.
Celine is a Sr CSM at Vitally, a leading CSP. She embarked on her journey in Customer Success almost a decade ago (before it was called Customer Success) at a large organization, moving from Mid Market Customer Success to Enterprise Implementation. When she moved to New York five years ago, she transitioned into the dynamic world of startups, and has since worn many CS hats. She currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.
