“What makes Vitally different is how you can parse all that data. The views are so powerful, [telling] me everything I need to know in one single click.”

Who is PartnerStack?

Star Hofer, Former Chief Customer Officer @ PartnerStack

PartnerStack provides a comprehensive platform to help partnership teams increase revenue through automated partner referral and sales processes. Vimeo, ZoomInfo, Webflow, and Aircall are just a handful of over 550 companies that trust PartnerStack to seamlessly handle partner onboarding and training, engagement, revenue, and commission tracking.

Check out PartnerStack’s Customer Story

Piecing Together the Data: The Challenges

• Gathering customer and partner data from two separate sources was tedious and time-consuming.
• Lacking a standardized form of communication to share customer and partner information across teams. 
• No visibility of accurate customer metrics. 

PartnerStack was on the market for a Customer Success Platform (CSP) that could handle the next chapter of its success strategy. 

“We were using Client Success for almost four years, and then we decided to add another dimension to how we were going to do success management. So we have our business, and we help SaaS businesses, but we also needed to help partners too,” says Star. “We needed to figure out how to do partner success, [and our existing platform wouldn’t] allow us to do it on the double dimensions. So we went out to the market to see…how we [could] conserve both.”

PartnerStack had an extensive existing tech stack, so their next CSP needed the ability to integrate seamlessly. 

“We have the traditional tech stack here at PartnerStack, so Zendesk for support tickets, we’re using Guide CX for onboarding and implementation,” says Star. “We also have more tools that make everyone more efficient, like Gong, Zoom, and our Gmail suite.”

Not having all customer data and customer metrics became a time-consuming pain point for the PartnerStack team. 

“For us, when we look at the customer, the customer is both the SaaS company but it's also the partner. It’s hard to get a true picture of what that looks like when all the information is from two different sources. So bringing the two sources into [one place] would allow us to have the whole picture.” Star adds, “We didn't have a lot of visibility into customer metrics, [for instance, we didn’t know] how our SaaS customers [were] driving adoption or actually achieving adoption [or] how the partner could help. We [didn’t have a] flow of information from one group to the other.”

PartnerStack was looking to streamline its cross-team communication and needed a better process to share customer information and data with one another. 

“Trying to get that flow [of communication across teams] to be efficient and align with the go-to-market was really important,” says Star. “But then also to get the content from the communications that we were having with our customers [accessible to the team] was essential.”

The breaking point came down to not having the ability to talk to their customers and partners simultaneously, and that was the next phase their CS organization needed to achieve. 

“We needed to figure out, ‘How do we have all success management under a single umbrella, and [still have the] same conversation with one group that you're having with the other.’ It’s hard when the systems are different,” says Star. “Now your CS operations team has to essentially do twice the amount of work because what you're doing for one team, you also have to do for the other. If not, you're not being kind to both groups.” 

Single Source of Truth: The Solution

• Unify partner and customer data in a single, accessible source.
• Streamline communication across teams that, in turn, enhance collaboration and productivity.
• Access to reliable data to empower data-driven decision-making for respective accounts. 

When it was time to gather a list of CSPs to look at for their organization, PartnerStack was looking for the answer to one specific question.

“During the decision-making process, our big questions were, ‘How do we find a tool that's going to allow us to do it on multiple dimensions? Who is doing this and who's not doing this?’ says Star. “We went to G2 [and] Google to find out who is out on the market, who is new, who's hot, who might just be trying to reinvent one different approach.”

After narrowing down their list of platforms, the first significant requirement was centered on communication. 

“The big one was communication, and this was key,” says Star. “How do we have all the communication come in without actually having somebody manually have to type it in there? So how do you pull the information from your calendar, from your email, so [having] that feed in and the calendar was a big piece of the decision-making process.”

The second requirement for the PartnerStack team was to have the ability to create a dashboard and have a clear view of customer metrics. 

“The ability to look at dashboards across the board but have one view that's more CSM focused, but then maybe another view that's more [relatable to] what I would want to look at versus what a manager would want to look at [was a requirement for the team, too],” says Star. 

At the end of the day, Vitally was the platform of choice and was set apart from its competitors, given its powerful views and central location for customer and partner data. 

“What makes Vitally different is how you can parse all that data. The views are one of my favorite features in Vitally, and I use the views all the time and I have multiple different views that I cycle through.” Star adds, “[I like] going right down to the weeds and looking at the data.” 

For the CSMs, Vitally is their one-stop-shop for reliable data that is readily available in seconds.

“Then from the CSMs perspective,” says Star, “they're loving that they can actually get all the content and parse out of all the content based on whether it's adoption metrics, whether it is metrics being pulled in from our partners or it's performance metrics that they're looking at. [This process has also created] ease on the renewal side of things as well.” 

Integrating with their existing tech stack was easier than ever with Vitally, which came as a shock to PartnerStack’s internal Salesforce and data teams. 

“When we were going through the onboarding, and the [Salesforce and data teams] saw how easy it was actually to do the Salesforce implementation, they were actually saying, ‘Why isn't Salesforce doing this on their side? They are behind the times, and Vitally is really doing it easily.’ says Star. “The [implementation teams] went from being a detractor to a huge promoter of [Vitally].”

With their data sources now in one central place, the team is able to access the latest customer information with a single click. 

When asked about a specific customer, “I instantly will go to Vitally and then bring up all the details,” says Star. “The views are so powerful, I have the view that tells me everything I need to know in one single click, which is one of my favorite things about Vitally. The second one is the email I get every day [summarizing] net new customers that came on and [customers] who we lost. Then I go into Vitally, and I look through all the details to understand why we lost them.”

A central location for all tasks, metrics, and data has helped the CSMs at Parnerstack be more productive and efficient with their time.

“From a CSM perspective, they use [Vitally] as a way of helping prioritize their time,” says Star. “They focus their time and energy by using the health scores that are there, but also the adoption score. [With] all the tasks and work that they need to do in a central place, that makes it a lot easier for them to go, ‘Okay, what do I need to tackle now?’”

All in all, having all of the customer data in one source was a game changer for the team.

“I recently asked the question, “How is Vitally helping with everything that you're working on today?’ The answer I got back was, ‘I didn't have to go talk to someone; the information was just there for me to consume,’ which was really powerful [to hear],” said Star. “Now the account management team and the CSMs could actually get straight to the nuts and bolts of the conversation instead of having to go digging.” 

Why PartnerStack Recommends Vitally to Other Customer Success Teams

• The flexibility of integration with existing tech stack. 
• Centralized customer data source for all teams.
• Enabled cross-team collaboration and communication. 

With Vitally now up and running at PartnerStack, what is the general consensus for how the Customer Success team is feeling?

“How do the CSMs feel about using a new tool? Well, the fact that they're not complaining about a new tool, [Vitally] is fabulous,” says Star. “It means they're in there, they're using it and they're loving it and it's helping them with their day-to-day.”

Vitally dramatically improved cross-team collaboration and productivity at PartnerStack, and they have plans to help other teams within their org instill a standardized flow of communication with the platform. 

“Vitally is mostly used by our success management team and our account management team,” says Star. “We will be expanding by bringing our onboarding and integrations team into Vitally which will allow that flow [of communication] to continue. We'll start to loop them in [our sales organization] as well so they can start to look at the data.”

Return on investment looks a little different at PartnerStack, and we loved their response.

“In my opinion, it's not about measuring the dollars and cents and the time savings, it's all about how are we driving the customers,” says Star. It’s also about if “it is easy for our CSMs to get their hands on that data so that we can continue to make that impact. As long as the CSMs are using [Vitally] and [its] making them more efficient, that's a win. If it is making the work easier so they can focus more on our customers? That's the win.”

Does PartnerStack recommend Vitally? They sure do, and here’s why!

“I would highly recommend Vitally to others, and I have recommended Vitally to others. It is a great tool for those that are looking for more of an off-the-shelf so they can get started right away,” says Star. “But it's also for those needing more of a highly configured solution, too. So if you're not using Vitally, please check them out.” 

See how CS teams use Vitally for their data-driven decision-making, plus how they are exceeding their customers' expectations and goals. Get an inside look at the Vitally platform with a free trial when you schedule a demo today.