SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - May 13, 2015) - Gainsight™, the Customer Success company, today announced the winners of its 2015 Most Innovative Companies in Customer Success Awards. The annual awards honor companies that have differentiated their brands through unique, bold approaches to Customer Success. Gainsight selected what it views as the industry's best in two categories -- Pureplay SaaS and Diversified Tech.
"This has been a breakout year for Customer Success, and each of the 2015 winners played a pivotal role in showcasing what CS can do for a business," said Dan Steinman, Chief Customer Officer at Gainsight. "These companies have established and maintained a strong competitive advantage, despite stiff competition within their respective sectors, because of the ways in which they stepped up for their customers. Additionally, this year's winners have championed the discussion of how to scale Customer Success teams in ways that benefit our entire community."
The prestigious list of winners in the Pureplay SaaS category, designated as companies who deliver their products online as a service, are: Box, BrightEdge, Clarizen, OpenDNS, and Workday.
"Clarizen has made a significant investment in delivering a white glove experience for our customers," said Chris Bates, Clarizen's Global Vice President of Customer Success, who accepted the award. "It's an honor to have our commitment to Customer Success recognized by our customer and partner, Gainsight."
The companies recognized in the Diversified Tech category have championed transformational change within their traditional businesses, delivering both on premise and cloud services. With Customer Success at the heart of the transformation, they are ushering in a new era of customer-centric operations at scale. The 2015 award recipients are: Adobe, BMC, CA Technologies, Infor, and Informatica.
"We're honored to receive the 2015 Innovators Award in Customer Success, which underscores CA's commitment to delivering a superior customer experience and driving customer loyalty," said Dayton Semerjian, General Manager, Global Customer Success, CA Technologies. "This achievement is an important milestone in our mission to deliver a world-class experience that helps our customers and partners get the most from their investment in CA."
Customer Success Goes Mainstream
The 2015 Most Innovative Companies in Customer Success Award recipients were honored in front of record crowds at Pulse Conference 2015 at Pier 48 in San Francisco this week. More than 2,000 Customer Success professionals across 20 countries attended Pulse this year, doubling the conference's size over 2014. Pulse Conference 2015 also marked the greatest mix of attendees as executives, managers, and individual contributors across startups, mid-market companies, and enterprises came together to discuss a broad set of topics from organizational structure and compensation to day-to-day best practices in interacting with customers.
Increased participation at Pulse Conference 2015 reflects a deeper commitment to Customer Success across the tech industry. Within the past year alone, the number of Customer Success job listings on Linkedin has increased by 300% according to Gainsight research. A study by Crimson Hexagon also indicated that social media conversations around Customer Success have increased over 500%. Gainsight anticipates that these numbers will continue to climb over the next several years.
Building Off Strong U.S. Presence, Pulse Conference Branches into Europe
This year's Pulse conference attracted attendees from across the globe, including companies from Brazil, Israel, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, and the United Kingdom, proving that the Customer Success movement extends beyond the U.S. To better serve the rapidly expanding European pipeline, Gainsight today announced that it will hold its inaugural Pulse Europe 2015 conference later this fall. Much like its U.S. counterpart, Pulse Europe 2015 will bring together leaders in Customer Success for lively talks, panels, and breakout sessions to help companies learn best practices and engage with their customers in new ways. Details on the host city and timing will be revealed this summer.
Gainsight Adds New Customer Success Learning and Networking Initiatives
Customer Success professionals worldwide continue to seek more information on how to strengthen and grow customer relationships. As such, Gainsight has expanded its Customer Success University (CSU) to include a new live workshop, hosted by renowned SaaS and Customer Success expert Lincoln Murphy for accelerated certification of prospective Customer Success Managers. The course debuted at this year's Pulse Conference, which proved to be incredibly valuable to the 150+ graduates from companies like Box, Cisco, HP, and others. Gainsight also announced a new partnership with ServiceRocket to provide the backend technology platform for Customer Success University.
In an effort to help perpetuate job creation and career growth in Customer Success, Gainsight disclosed plans to host its first ever Pulse Online Career Fair early this summer. The Career Fair aims to connect CSU graduates, college graduates, and other job seekers with companies hiring in Customer Success.
To learn more about all the ways Gainsight invests in Customer Success leaders, please visit www.gainsight.com.
About Gainsight
Gainsight, the first and only complete Customer Success solution, helps businesses grow faster by reducing churn, increasing upsell, and driving customer advocacy. Gainsight's product helps you touch customers effectively, track customer health consistently and transform the way your company orients around the customer. Gainsight provides a 360° view of customers and drives retention across Customer Success, sales, marketing, executive and product management. Learn how leading companies like Adobe, Box, Workday, Marketo and Informatica use Gainsight to help their customers succeed at www.gainsight.com.
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