Summary
This article helps Planhat admins set up and manage Conversations, which include emails, calls, tickets, and other customer interactions. You’ll learn how to configure key fields, organize them in Profile Templates, use Global Filters to segment interaction types, and track relevant conversation metrics.
Who is this article for?
Planhat builders/admins who configure their tenant for their team (e.g. CS Ops).
This article is part of the Data Models Course.
Article Contents
Introduction
Conversations in Planhat are any direct communication with customers, such as Emails, Phone Calls, Tickets or Chats. Data from tools like Gmail, Zendesk and Intercom show as Conversations in Planhat, but equally Conversation types can be manually created, for example 'Onboarding', 'Training' or 'Customer Consulting'.
Key System Fields
The basic System Conversation Fields include:
Conversation Types - e.g. Demo, Negotiation, Scoping, Kickoff, QBR, Renewal, etc.
Involved Contacts - meaning which End Users were involved in this conversation
Team Members - which people on your team were involved in this conversation
Subject - for example, the subject line of the email
External ID - a text field that contains the Conversation unique identifier, ensuring the Conversation data syncs properly with your ERP, database, manual import, etc.
Fore more information on setting up Conversation Types, see Help Center Article: Conversation Types.
Key Custom Fields
Some commonly used Custom Fields:
Conversation Rating (rating) - to indicate how well the conversation went
Escalation (toggle) - use this if escalation is needed
Escalation type (list) - e.g. Bug, Enhancement, Churn Risk, Training Required, etc.
Churn Risk Reason (rich text) - a rich text field used to provide insight into why this is a Churn risk.
PS Request (toggle) - to indicate if a Professional Services engagement is needed
PS Type (list) - type of Professional Services engagement needed
PS Request Details (rich text) - a rich text field used to provide additional details into the Professional Services request
CSQL? (toggle) - to indicate if this is a qualified lead coming from your CS team
Bug / Enhancement Details (rich text) - a rich text field used to provide additional details into Bug / Enhancement
Ticket Status (list) - e.g. Open, Closed, Escalated
For many of the fields listed above, you would typically make these fields conditional. e.g. if Escalation toggle is yes, then show Field Escalation Type (so you are able to then input that data), and so forth. For more on this - see Help Center Article: Conditional Fields
Field Groups
Now that you have an understanding of the Key Fields, let’s look at how to group them in a logical way. This will display those fields in Previews (as well as full page profiles) for Conversations. We recommend a set up as below.
For more information on Field Groups, take a look at Help Center Article: Field Groups.
Create Form
To ensure your data stays clean, it’s important you make fields mandatory for creation. We recommend the following at a minimum to enable you to manage your Conversations in the best way.
Common Global Filters
You may want to create some standard views for your Conversations, to ensure everyone has the same definition.
In the example below, I create a Data Table to get insight into all of my teams current Expansions as well as identify whether they have been qualified (using the Field "CSQL?").
Here’s a list of the most commonly used Global Filters:
High Value Accounts - e.g. 100K+ Customers
All Tickets - all tickets
Bugs - all bugs
Cancellations - all meetings re: cancellations
Escalations - all Conversations that have been escalated
Expansions - all expansion-related calls
Meetings - all meetings
Notes - all notes
Onboarding Calls - all onboarding-related calls
QBRs - all QBRs (or other key strategic meetings)
Support - all support-related Conversations
Training - all Training-related calls
Useful Metrics
Conversation metrics are typically rolled up to the Company or viewed in a Dashboard and include metrics such as:
How long since last “conversation type” - how long since last “conversation type” (e.g. since last QBR)
#of tickets - total # of tickets, can also trend this over time
# of tickets by status - total # of tickets by status, can also trend this over time
# of bugs - total # of bugs, can also trend this over time
# of calls by each type - total # of calls by each type, can also trend this over time
# of escalations - total # of escalations, can also trend this over time