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You’re the first CS hire. You have 10-30 customers. You respond to emails, fix issues, and hope everyone renews. You have no idea which customers are happy, which are at risk, or what’s causing problems until someone threatens to churn. This guide shows you how to go from reactive to proactive in 1 week—and prevent your first churn.

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The CS Reality

Your current state:
  • 📧 Reactive: Waiting for customers to email with problems
  • 🤷 Blindness: No idea who’s happy vs at-risk
  • 🔥 Firefighting: Every issue is a surprise
  • 📊 No data: Can’t prove your impact
  • 😰 Renewal anxiety: Will they renew? Who knows!
The problem: By the time a customer complains, they’ve been unhappy for weeks. You’re always playing catch-up.

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What You’ll Achieve

In your first week:
  • ✅ Visibility: Know which customers are happy vs at-risk
  • ✅ Early warning: Spot problems weeks before customers complain
  • ✅ Proactive outreach: Reach out before they have to email you
  • ✅ Data-driven: Track sentiment, not guesses
  • ✅ Churn prevention: Save your first at-risk customer
Time investment: 1 hour setup + 5 mins per customer call. ROI: Prevent 1-2 churns (potentially 50K−50K-500K saved).

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Prerequisites

BuildBetter account (buildbetter.ai)
Customer calls happening (onboarding, check-ins, support)
Email access to past support conversations (optional)

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Day 1: Capture Customer Conversations (30 minutes)

Start recording every customer interaction.
1

Set Up Auto-Recording

  1. Go to Settings → Integrations
  2. Connect Google Calendar or Outlook
  3. Authorize BuildBetter
[screenshot: Calendar integration settings]
2

Create Recording Rules for Customer Calls

Auto-record all external customer conversations:
  1. Settings → Organization → Bot Recording Rules
  2. Create rules:
Rule 1: Onboarding Calls
  • Event title contains “onboarding” OR “kickoff”
Rule 2: Check-ins
  • Event title contains “check-in” OR “QBR” OR “review”
Rule 3: Support Calls
  • Event title contains “support” OR “help” OR “issue”
Rule 4: All Customer Calls (catch-all)
  • Has external attendees + excludes sales/recruiting keywords
[screenshot: Recording rules configured for customer success calls]
Set your bot name to something friendly like “Sarah’s Notetaker” instead of “BuildBetter Bot” for better customer perception.
3

Upload Past Call Recordings

Have old recordings? Upload them now:
  1. Click Upload (top right)
  2. Drag and drop customer call recordings
  3. Tag each with customer name
[screenshot: Bulk upload interface with customer tags]Even 3-5 past calls give you baseline data.

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Day 2: Import Support Data (20 minutes)

Get all customer communications in one place.
1

Connect Support Platform (if you have one)

If using Zendesk, Intercom, or similar:
  1. Settings → Integrations
  2. Connect your support platform
  3. Import last 3 months of tickets
[screenshot: Zendesk integration settings]BuildBetter extracts signals from ticket text automatically.
2

Or Upload Support Emails as CSV

No support platform? Export emails:
  1. Export customer emails to CSV (Date, Customer, Subject, Body)
  2. Upload → Import Text Data → Choose CSV
  3. Map columns (Customer Name, Content, Date)
[screenshot: CSV upload mapping interface]
You don’t need perfect data. Even partial history helps establish baselines.
3

Create Collections per Customer

Organize everything by customer:
  1. Go to Collections
  2. Create folder for each of your top 10 customers
  3. Name format: “[Company Name] - Account”
[screenshot: Collections page with customer folders]Later you’ll automatically route calls to these folders.

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Day 3: First Health Check (30 minutes)

After you have 3-5 customer calls or support tickets processed, do your first health analysis.
1

Review Auto-Extracted Signals

  1. Go to Signals in left navigation
  2. You’ll see insights from all customer interactions
[screenshot: Signals page showing mix of problems, questions, praise from customers]Signals automatically categorized:
  • 😤 Complaint: Negative feedback
  • 🐛 Bug: Issues reported
  • ❓ Question: Areas of confusion
  • 🎉 Praise: Positive feedback
  • 💡 Feature Request: What they want
2

Filter for At-Risk Signals

Find warning signs:
  1. Click Filter in Signals
  2. Select:
    • Sentiment: Negative or Very Negative
    • Signal Type: Complaint or Bug
    • Severity: Critical or Urgent
[screenshot: Filtered signals showing high-severity negative feedback]
Red flags to watch for:
  • Multiple complaints from same customer
  • Mentions of “considering alternatives”
  • “Frustrated” or “disappointed” emotion tags
  • Critical bugs unresolved
3

Check Individual Customer Sentiment

For each of your top customers:
  1. Click Filter → Company: [Customer Name]
  2. Review all their signals
  3. Note overall sentiment trend
[screenshot: Signals filtered by specific customer showing sentiment distribution]Quick assessment:
  • Mostly 😊 positive = Healthy
  • Mix of 😊 😐 = Monitor
  • Mostly 😣 negative = At-Risk
4

Create Your First At-Risk List

Use Chat for instant analysis:Ask: “Which customers seem at-risk based on recent interactions? Show me the warning signals.”[screenshot: Chat response identifying 2-3 at-risk customers with specific signals]The AI will:
  • Analyze sentiment across customers
  • Identify negative patterns
  • Show exact concerning quotes
  • Prioritize by severity

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Day 4: Proactive Outreach (1 hour)

Now you know who’s at risk. Reach out before they churn.
1

Prepare for At-Risk Customer Call

For each at-risk customer, use BuildBetter to prepare:
  1. Go to their customer folder (or filter by company)
  2. Ask Chat: “Summarize all issues [Customer Name] has raised. What are their main frustrations?”
[screenshot: Chat providing summary of customer issues]
  1. Review specific signals/complaints
  2. Check what promises were made (action items from past calls)
2

Schedule Check-In Call

Reach out with specific context:Email template:
Hi [Name],

I was reviewing our recent conversations and noticed [specific issue they mentioned]. I wanted to schedule a quick call to make sure we're addressing this properly and see how things are going overall.

Does [time] work for a 30-minute check-in?
Mentioning the specific issue shows you’re paying attention. Customers appreciate proactive outreach.
3

During the Call

BuildBetter records automatically. Use your prep:
  1. Acknowledge specific issues they raised
  2. Show you’ve been listening (reference past conversations)
  3. Ask: “What else should I know about?”
  4. Create action plan
  5. Set next check-in date
[screenshot: Live call being recorded with real-time transcript]
4

After the Call

BuildBetter processes automatically:
  • Creates transcript
  • Extracts action items
  • Updates sentiment
  • Identifies new concerns
Review the Signals tab on the call to see what was extracted.[screenshot: Call detail page with signals extracted]
Real impact: One of our CS managers saved a $120K account this way. The customer said “No one from [other vendors] has ever been this proactive.”

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Day 5: Create Health Dashboard (30 minutes)

Visualize customer health so you can track it over time.
1

Build Customer Health Dashboard

  1. Go to Clustering in left navigation
  2. Click Customize Dashboard
[screenshot: Dashboard edit mode]
2

Add Key Health Metrics

Create these visualizations:Card 1: Sentiment Over Time (Line Chart)
  • Shows if customers are getting happier or unhappier
  • Data: Signals, grouped by week
  • Metric: Average sentiment
[screenshot: Line chart showing sentiment trend over 4 weeks]Card 2: Top Customer Issues (Bar Chart)
  • Most common problems across all customers
  • Data: Signals, type = “Problem” or “Complaint”
  • Group by: Topic/Theme
[screenshot: Bar chart of top 5 customer issues]Card 3: At-Risk Customers (Table)
  • List of customers with negative sentiment
  • Data: Signals with negative sentiment
  • Group by: Company
  • Sort by: Severity
[screenshot: Table showing at-risk customer list]Card 4: Support Issue Trends (Line Chart)
  • Are issues increasing or decreasing?
  • Data: Bug/Issue signals
  • Group by: Week
[screenshot: Support issue trend chart]
3

Save and Bookmark

  1. Click Save Dashboard
  2. Name it “Customer Health Monitor”
  3. Bookmark the URL
  4. Check it every Monday morning
This dashboard updates in real-time as new calls and support tickets come in. No manual data entry.

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Day 6-7: Establish Baseline & Routine (Ongoing)

Build habits that keep you proactive.

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Your Weekly CS Routine

Monday Morning (10 mins):
1

Check Health Dashboard

Review:
  • Sentiment trend (↗️ good, ↘️ bad)
  • New at-risk customers
  • Spike in support issues?
[screenshot: Monday dashboard review showing weekly changes]
2

Ask Chat for Weekly Summary

Query: “What are the top 3 customer issues from last week? Any customers showing concerning patterns?”[screenshot: Chat providing weekly summary]Takes 2 minutes. Better than reading 50 support tickets.
3

Prioritize Outreach

Based on insights:
  • At-risk customers: Schedule calls this week
  • Recurring issues: Escalate to product team
  • Happy customers: Ask for testimonial or referral
After Every Customer Call (5 mins):
1

Quick Review

  1. Check signals extracted from call
  2. Review action items
  3. Mark any red flags
[screenshot: Post-call signal review]
2

Update Customer Status

Tag the call with health indicator:
  • 🟢 Healthy
  • 🟡 Monitor
  • 🔴 At-Risk
[screenshot: Tagging interface with health status tags]
Friday Afternoon (15 mins):
1

Weekly Wrap-Up

Ask Chat:“Generate a summary of this week’s customer interactions. What went well? What needs attention?”[screenshot: End-of-week summary]
2

Share with Team

Click Generate → Generate Document → “Weekly CS Report”[screenshot: Weekly CS report document]Share with:
  • Product team (for feature requests/bugs)
  • Leadership (for account health updates)
  • Sales (for expansion opportunities)

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Set Up Automation (Bonus: 15 minutes)

Let BuildBetter do the monitoring for you.
1

Auto-Alert on Negative Sentiment

Create workflow to notify you of concerning signals:
  1. Workflows → Templates
  2. Select “Signal to Webhook” or “Signal to Slack”
  3. Configure:
    • Trigger: New signal created
    • Condition: “Customer signal with negative sentiment or critical severity”
    • Action: Send to Slack channel #customer-health
[screenshot: Workflow configuration for negative sentiment alerts]
You’ll get notified within minutes when a customer expresses frustration, instead of finding out days later.
2

Auto-Organize Calls by Customer

Route calls to customer folders automatically:
  1. Workflows → Templates → “Recording to Folder”
  2. Create workflow for each top customer:
    • Condition: Call includes “[Customer Name] attendee email”
    • Action: Add to “[Customer Name] - Account” folder
[screenshot: Workflow for auto-filing customer calls]
3

Weekly Auto-Summary

Get automatic weekly reports:
  1. Settings → Scheduled Tasks
  2. Create Task:
    • Name: Weekly CS Summary
    • Schedule: Every Friday at 4 PM
    • Instructions: “Analyze this week’s customer calls and support interactions. Identify: 1) At-risk accounts, 2) Top issues, 3) Positive wins, 4) Action items for next week.”
[screenshot: Scheduled task configuration]Every Friday, Chat will have a fresh summary waiting for you.

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Real Example: Maya’s First Churn Save

Background: Maya joined as first CS hire. 15 customers. No system. Just email and hope. Day 1: Set up BuildBetter, connected calendar, uploaded 6 old call recordings Day 2: Imported 3 months of support emails (CSV) Day 3: Reviewed signals. BuildBetter flagged “TechCorp” with 8 negative signals in 2 weeks:
  • “Export feature broken” (mentioned 3 times)
  • “No response from support” (2 times)
  • “Disappointed” sentiment
  • “Looking at alternatives” (🚨)
Maya checked—TechCorp hadn’t renewed their support contract yet. Renewal in 45 days. Day 4: Maya immediately reached out: “Hi Jessica, I was reviewing our recent conversations and noticed you’ve been having issues with the export feature. I also see we haven’t been responding fast enough. I want to schedule a call to fix this and make sure we’re meeting your needs.” The call:
  • Jessica was surprised: “No vendor has ever done this proactively”
  • Maya acknowledged every issue specifically (BuildBetter had the quotes ready)
  • Fixed export bug in 3 days
  • Set up weekly check-ins
  • Assigned dedicated support contact
Day 7: Maya’s dashboard showed TechCorp sentiment: -6 → +3 45 days later: TechCorp renewed, expanded by 50%, became reference customer Maya’s quote: “BuildBetter helped me save an account I didn’t even know was at risk. That one save paid for the tool for 10 years.”

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Common CS Questions

Be transparent:“I use a note-taking assistant so I can focus on our conversation instead of typing. It creates a transcript and action items for us. Is that okay?”Most say yes. If not: Take notes manually, upload text to BuildBetter after.
Segment by health tier:
  • Tier 1: Top 10 revenue customers (manual review weekly)
  • Tier 2: Medium customers (dashboard monitoring)
  • Tier 3: Small customers (automated alerts only)
BuildBetter scales with you. Dashboard shows all, you dive deep where it matters.
85-90% accurate in our testing.Pro tip: Always verify critical signals by reading the quote or listening to the clip. Don’t auto-respond to sentiment alone.[screenshot: Signal with quote verification]
Yes, but carefully:❌ “Our AI detected you’re unhappy” ✅ “I noticed you mentioned [specific issue] last week. Want to talk about it?”Frame it as attentive listening, not surveillance.
Manual export works fine:
  1. Export support tickets to CSV monthly
  2. Upload to BuildBetter
  3. AI extracts signals from ticket text
Not real-time, but better than nothing.

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Your 7-Day CS Transformation Checklist

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Day 1: Setup

Connect calendar
Create recording rules for customer calls
Upload past customer call recordings

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Day 2: Data Import

Connect support platform OR upload support emails (CSV)
Create collections for top 10 customers

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Day 3: First Analysis

Review auto-extracted signals
Filter for at-risk signals (negative sentiment, high severity)
Use Chat to identify at-risk customers
Create at-risk customer list

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Day 4: Proactive Outreach

Prepare for at-risk customer calls using Chat summaries
Schedule and conduct check-in calls
Document action items from calls

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Day 5: Dashboard

Build customer health dashboard (4 key charts)
Bookmark dashboard for weekly review

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Day 6-7: Establish Routine

Do Monday morning dashboard review
Set up Friday weekly summary
Create automation workflows (alerts, routing, summaries)

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What’s Next?

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After Your First Week

Comprehensive Health Scoring

Build advanced multi-dimensional health scores (for 30+ customers)

QBR Automation

Generate executive business reviews automatically

Renewal Intelligence

Predict renewal outcomes 90 days in advance

Support Ticket Analysis

Analyze patterns across hundreds of support tickets

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Make It a Habit

Daily (5 mins):
  • Quick glance at Signals
  • Star anything concerning
Weekly (20 mins):
  • Monday: Dashboard review
  • Friday: Generate weekly summary
  • Proactive outreach to 2-3 customers
Monthly (1 hour):
  • Deep dive on health trends
  • Update at-risk strategies
  • Celebrate saves and wins
Great CS isn’t about fixing problems faster—it’s about knowing about them sooner. BuildBetter gives you weeks of head start.

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Resources

Watch: CS Health Tracking

See this workflow in action (6 min)

Template: Check-In Agenda

Proven customer check-in frameworks

Book: CS Strategy Call

Get personalized CS setup help (free)

Community: CS Professionals

Join CS leaders using BuildBetter
Turn customer success from reactive firefighting into proactive relationship building.
The best CS teams don’t wait for customers to complain. They spot patterns, reach out early, and prevent issues before they become churn. Now you can too.
Based on data from 1,000+ CS teams using BuildBetter. Teams using proactive health monitoring have 12-15% higher retention than reactive teams.