Customer Success Manager

Nicole Ruchotzke

What brought you to Eagle Point Software?

The opportunity to work with global clients and the work environment. I have a background in training and online learning, and this role at Eagle Point has enabled me to combine my previous experiences and strengths with the people side of organizations. It was the perfect mixture.


What’s your favorite part of your job?

Working with clients from all over the world.


What do you like to do when you’re not at work?

I enjoy reading, traveling, and working on my parent’s farm when I am not at work.


What’s your favorite GIF?

 

 

 

 

 

 


What’s your favorite place in the world?

My parent’s farm.

Getting Started with your Customer Success Manager

What is a Customer Success Manager?

CSMs partner with our clients throughout the lifespan of their subscription to drive value and success by ensuring alignment between their goals and the Pinnacle Series platform. They are the main point of contact for our clients and assist with things like goalsetting and the platform’s rollout.

But we aren’t the only members of the Customer Success team you’ll interact with – learn more about the other Customer Success roles here.

Implementation Planning and Org Structure Conversation

During the initial Implementation Planning meeting, I’ll get acquainted with your organization and learn who will be impacted by the upcoming implementation of Pinnacle Series. Click through the questions below to prepare for this meeting.

What happens during the Implementation Planning conversation?

Leveraging the information our team learned during the sales process, I’ll use this conversation to get to know your organizational structure, culture, and values on a deeper level. The target of this conversation is to align the Pinnacle Series solution implementation with your company’s mission and initiatives to ensure it will be well received by the staff you expect to utilize the solution.

How should you prepare for the Implementation Planning conversation?

To prepare for this initial call, I recommend first considering who needs to be a part of this initial implementation planning meeting (see “Who should be involved with implementation planning?” below). Then invite them to join our implementation team.

The following questions will help you better prepare for the meeting by helping you think about how your organization wishes to get value from the Pinnacle Series.

  • How is your organization structured?
  • Who are the impacted staff members being provided access to the learning and productivity tools? Who leads these teams?
  • Who oversees your learning and development strategies?
  • What are effective ways to communicate change within your organization?
  • Do you have a change management strategy or team internally? If yes, what does this process look like?
  • Individuals to consider involving to build your implementation project team:
    • Who is sponsoring the change?
    • Who will be the face of change for learning and productivity?
    • Who is responsible for sharing the message through implementation and after go-live?
    • Who will be responsible for the technical configuration?
  • How do you define success with our solution, and how do we measure it?

What will implementation and utilization of Pinnacle Series produce?

Who should be involved with implementation planning?

First and foremost, your organizations’ main contact person or people (1-3 people) for the implementation of Pinnacle Series should be present on this initial call. In addition, I recommend that you invite individual(s) who understand your organization’s 2–5-year strategic plans and vision. This higher-level understanding will help ensure strategic alignment to drive long term value for your team. Lastly, we often encourage teams to engage with individuals leading your users.

Engaging with these team members as direct stakeholders will ensure cohesive messaging throughout your organization.

Implementation Goal-Setting Conversation

Setting clear and measurable goals gives me precise directions for your Pinnacle Series implementation project plans.

What happens during goal-setting conversations?

Setting clear and measurable goals will help us to articulate the exact value your team is wishing to obtain through implementing Pinnacle Series. During this call I will ask questions like: who will this implementation be impacting, how many users will you have, and where are they located? We will be working to generate alignment between the organizational mission and initiatives you have already shared with me to create specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time lined goals.

Who should be involved with goal setting?

For goal setting, I recommend you invite individuals who understand your organization’s 2-5 year strategic plans and vision; individuals who oversee the teams of employees that will be using Pinnacle Series; and the individuals or group of people in charge of implementation.

How should I prepare for a goal setting call?

I encourage you to think about the following questions prior to your goal setting call:

  • What lead to the purchase of Pinnacle Series?
  • What are the organizational benefits you wish to receive with the implementation of Pinnacle Series?
  • Why now?
  • At the highest levels of your company, what is the top priority for the next 12-24 months?
  • What are some of the pain points that you are facing with your existing situation?
  • What problems are you looking to solve using Pinnacle Series?
  • What is the mission of the goals for Pinnacle Series? Goal considerations:
    • What goals for learning and training are we working towards?
    • What goals for knowledge sharing are we working towards?
    • Is this a resource for support?
    • Is this a repository for standards?
  • What design and other technologies are we focusing on?
  • How many people are impacted by each goal?
  • Who is in charge of overseeing the execution and completion of goals?
  • When does a goal need to be achieved?
  • What needs to be true to consider this goal achieved?
  • Is this achievable with available resources and allotted time?

What does success look like utilizing Pinnacle Series?

 

Frequently asked questions

Is there anything else I should do before getting started?

Many of our most successful clients have taken the opportunity to meet internally before implementation gets underway to review some of the above processes and questions. This ensures your inactions with your Customer Success Manager are effective and efficient. Also, understand a CSM is a dedicated resource to help increase your success rates. If there are any questions or concerns throughout the life of your subscription, we are here every step of the way to make this an easy process for you and your team!

Why do we need to have so many conversations with our Customer Success Manager before actually implementing Pinnacle Series?

A CSM acts as a strategic partner who is dedicated to your overall success. To ensure I understand your organization’s definition of success, it is important that I fully understand your definition of success, how to strategically communicate with your users, and the key stakeholders we will want to engage with throughout this process.

From this understanding, I’ll draft a custom implementation plan to ensure we are continuously working in the same direction together. I also collaborate cross-functionally with additional resources to ensure the Pinnacle Series solution will continuously evolve to support your organization’s changing needs and initiatives.

Testimonials

“SA Power Networks chose Pinnacle Series out of a couple of other market contenders finding the platform’s ease-of-access (being remotely accessible through any web-browser) and off-the-shelf content far superior and friendlier than others.

The customizable content and online and offline searching features were both appealing to the user test group, as well as the dynamic and agile approach to the pinnacle teams onboarding Is delivered. The majority of users have been leveraging the AutoCAD content, brushing up on their skills and learning some new techniques whilst at home a little more. Whilst others have been exploring newer software’s and alternative ways of designing – keeping busy, occupied and current.”

“Those were the two big issues that we wanted to solve: how do you get good talent in and assess their skill set? And then how do you give technical training to our technical experts in a consumable fashion that’s high-impact but not long in length? We were already using Pinnacle but in a very limited fashion; I think we had four licenses. It really wasn’t robust, it really wasn’t being used to its capability. When Mike Lyons shared with me the enterprise solution, and all of the things that we can help us with, that’s what I said, ‘Listen, we’re done with the four seats – we’re going enterprise-wide.’ The implementation went great. [The customer success team] was really instrumental in getting us off the ground. Once they got us going, it’s been great ever since.”

“I’m contacting you to express my gratitude for the exceptional support I’ve received working with Tara Verdia. I’ve been the CAD Manager for GAI Consultants since the position was created in 2012. Serving in this capacity has been both an honor and a privilege but, as you can imagine, it hasn’t always been overly joyful or pleasant. However, it has not only been an honor and a privilege working with Tara but also a truly pleasurable experience as well. From the start, I was impressed with her knowledge of the Pinnacle Series platform and her exceptional communication skills. Tara is not only well spoken but she is also an outstanding listener. Tara’s poise conveys confidence and professionalism as one might expect, however, she’s also personable and unpretentious. From my perspective, you employ a very valuable asset equipped with unique characteristics and I hope you appreciate the efforts and skills of Tara Verdia as much as I do. You’re welcome to share this communication with others as appropriate.”

“More than anything, I believe in giving credit where credit is due. Our team launched Pinnacle today, and we are so grateful to Amanda for all of her support and guidance over the past year. She is an incredible brand ambassador for Pinnacle! One of the things that we always talk about with our employees is being a trusted advisor to our clients. That includes being responsive, providing helpful resources, and making things easy for our clients to understand so that they can make good decisions for their businesses. Amanda certainly checked all of those boxes in working with us and became a trusted advisor to our team! Amanda was also really pleasant to work with and easy going with our (at times) silly stories or questions. Anyway, as I said, just wanted to give credit where credit is due, so wanted to let you know how much we appreciated all of Amanda’s support.”

“With Pinnacle, I have a one-stop shop that I send people to for training. And I just love that I don’t have to think about it – I know this is good content, I know this is on brand for what we’re doing. And then from the leadership perspective, I think what leaders gain from it across our company is they’re getting better candidates with the assessment function, but also they know where their teams are, and that’s huge; that’s half the battle. So they get a new hire, they take the assessment, they know where they’re at, and they know where to work from.”