Traditional Customer Success techniques are becoming outdated as SaaS companies move toward outcome-driven partnerships. Rigid QBRs and static playbooks frequently fail in the dynamic, intricate account environments of today. In order to unlock shared value, Playrooms are transforming the way teams work with clients.
Customer Success is about driving value, not just adoption. If your customer isn't achieving their desired outcome, it doesn’t matter how often they log in.
By, Nick Mehra - CEO, Gainsight
Playrooms: Impactup Outcomes, along with the examples:
Let’s dive into the most important value outcomes, see how they play out in real scenarios, and learn how top SaaS companies are making them happen.
1. Playrooms help us shift from delivering value to customers, to building value with them.
Providing solutions, updates, and best practices is a common theme in traditional computer science motions. This model is reversed in playrooms, however. Through joint sessions, co-written success plans, and common goals, they involve their clients in the value creation process.
Example:
For instance, enterprise clients of cloud-native data platforms company may use Playrooms to jointly define data governance milestones. Instead of merely offering documentation, the CSM and the client work together to create a phased data migration plan that is specific to the client's architecture and compliance requirements.
Value Outcome:
Co-owned success plans that further integrate the SaaS provider into the client's long-term roadmap result in higher levels of account loyalty and retention.
2. They’ve turned our QBRs into conversations - not presentations.
Many SaaS organizations have retrospective, slide-heavy Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs). Playrooms turn these into working sessions—live dashboards and documents that change with the company, allowing clients to ask questions, participate, and work together in real time.
Example:
At a SaaS project management company, the CSM opens a Playroom that shows usage trends, blockers, feedback loops, and product roadmap conversations. This allows the client's PMO team to directly input goals or request feature alignment, rather than having to navigate a fixed QBR deck.
Value Outcome:
By transforming QBRs into a two-way, real-time strategic planning session, executive engagement and CSAT scores increase.
3. In Playrooms, we move faster, align better, and uncover opportunities we’d never find through a playbook alone.
Strategic accounts are not linear and predictable like playbooks are. Playrooms provide dynamic, contextual workspaces that encourage deeper exploration of growth levers and quicker alignment through real-time discussions.
Example:
As an illustration, a client of Salesforce's marketing automation suite discovers that their lead scoring is not in line with sales results. Rather than following strict procedures from a playbook, the CSM, the customer's operations team, and a Salesforce solution architect work together to test funnel enhancements and iterate on ideas using the Playroom.
Value Outcome:
As an illustration, a client of Salesforce's marketing automation suite discovers that their lead scoring is not in line with sales results. Rather than following strict procedures from a playbook, the CSM, the customer's operations team, and a Salesforce solution architect work together to test funnel enhancements and iterate on ideas using the Playroom.
4. It’s the closest thing to putting the customer inside our team.
Playrooms dissolve the boundary between "customer" and "vendor." By simulating a shared virtual war room, they involve the customer in product discussions, decision-making processes, and outcome delivery, resulting in stronger expansion signals and more enduring relationships.
Example:
For instance, in a company that provides revenue intelligence through video call recording platforms, CS teams set up playrooms where customer-side revenue leaders work together on pipeline health, rep adoption metrics, and messaging playbooks. This allows them to jointly create coaching plans and predict impact.
Value Outcome:
By viewing customers as strategic partners rather than external stakeholders, upsell velocity and win rates have increased.
5. They’ve improved cross-functional collaboration between CS, Sales, and Product.
Playrooms serve as a vital link between various internal teams because they are open, transparent, and dynamic. They assist CS in looping in Sales for signals of expansion, Product for alignment of the roadmap, and Support for persistent problems.
Example:
For instance, at a SaaS cybersecurity company, Playrooms allow CS to identify common integration problems so that Product can give connectors priority. Sales simultaneously monitors renewal signals and collaborates with CS to create packaged offers for procurement teams.
Value Outcome:
By lowering silos and centralizing customer intelligence, issues can be resolved and roadmaps can be aligned more quickly.
6. Our CS team is no longer just executing tasks - they’re building partnerships.
CS turns reactive when it is restricted to playbook execution or ticket resolution. CSMs can act as strategic advisors by coaching stakeholders, modifying success plans, and iterating with the client on a regular basis thanks to playrooms.
Example:
For instance, CSMs may collaborate with customer enablement leaders in a Playroom to develop customized onboarding modules for various teams at a market-leading collaboration platform company. To hasten internal adoption, they may also collaborate on the design of the workspace, documentation, and usage guidelines.
Value Outcome:
Stronger executive relationships and long-term growth as a result of increased customer success influence in strategic decisions.
7. Playrooms are the future of how we manage strategic accounts. They're not a tactic - they're a mindset.
Playrooms are a strategic change in engagement philosophy, not just a tool. They encourage agile iteration, continuous feedback, and shared ownership of results. This entails long-lasting connections based on mutual gains for strategic accounts.
Example:
For instance, enterprise CSMs at a company that provides project management platforms may oversee a Fortune 500 client's Playroom, which uses a variety of tools (Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket). During weekly syncs and live workshops, the Playroom serves as the only source of information for objectives, adoption plans, integration schedules, and executive alignment.
Value Outcome:
Through ongoing strategic alignment and co-managed success, improved account expansion and multi-year renewals were achieved.
Final Thoughts:
In conclusion, Playrooms symbolize a change from static, one-sided CS to a co-creative, adaptive, and embedded model across SaaS enterprises, from data platforms to collaboration tools. They raise CS from reactive support to strategic influence, promote collaboration over prescription, and accelerate alignment.
Playrooms represent the future of Customer Success - where outcomes take center stage.
