Client Success Story Collage

By Dave Mullins

One startup that has already worked with Rebel Maven is the Denver-based, SaaS, DAM startup, Collage. Founded by Daniel Campbell and Ross Durbin, Collage is an early-stage, digital asset management platform focused on delivering an industry-leading, simple to use end-user experience that breaks down information silos and matches content to its users, allowing creators to focus on creating, not wasting their time managing content. In a conversation with me, Campbell and Durbin break down how Rebel Maven transformed their approach to post-sales operations and describe the added value Rebel Maven brought to their company after they engaged their services seven months into their initial sales cycle.

WE’RE HERE IF YOU NEED US IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH

Says Durbin: Before we brought in Rebel Maven, our CX was responsive but not strategic. We had an internal spreadsheet of customers with renewal dates and contact information, but there was no rhyme or reason to when we reached out. In turn, our customers only reached out with questions on how to use features they were already aware of, not what other possibilities existed. Meetings were scheduled with the mindset that “if we throw this on the calendar, maybe they’ll show up.” In the end, “We’re here if you need us” is not a good enough mantra for customer relations. This just led to our customers using a fraction of what Collage is capable of. With Rebel Maven, our customer engagement is much more intentional. Our time with our customers is more valuable for us and more valuable for them. Rebel Maven made us aware of things we should have been aware of the whole time BEFORE those knowledge gaps caused problems, allowing us to mitigate and avoid major mistakes in the onboarding and scoring of our customers. Understanding our customer’s business needs helps us find new use cases beyond even what we have already built and planned for. It helps us discover new clients and to decide what features and functions to build/enhance next. It expands our customer base and makes them more dedicated to the platform.

Rebel Maven made us aware of things we should have been aware of the whole time BEFORE those knowledge gaps caused problems, allowing us to mitigate and avoid major mistakes in the onboarding and scoring of our customers.

ROSS DURBIN, Founder

ONBOARDING ISN’T A CLIFF; IT’S A CLIMB

Says Campbell: it’s hard to give enough value to having a quality onboarding process. We didn’t have one before Rebel Maven and their impact is reflected throughout the lifecycle of the customer. They came in and implemented their new onboarding system exactly when we needed it; the before and after change was huge. Our original onboarding process consisted of moving assets in, explaining how to use Collage, and then being ready to answer any questions. Now, we’re asking questions like “why are we moving these assets?” and “what should we move first?”. Asking “why” instead of “how” has taught us that onboarding isn’t a cliff; it’s a climb. 

Having a well-regimented and strategic set of steps prior to onboarding allows us to understand our customers better and has exponentially increased the value our customers get from using Collage. Customers learn to make the software work for them, rather than fumbling through it on their own. If we hadn’t instituted Rebel Maven’s customer onboarding protocols when we did, customer relations would be messier, support worse, and we wouldn’t be learning in the same way. 

Customers value calls more when they have a clear understanding of what we’re trying to accomplish, and when they understand what we’ll be addressing on their next call, they come with good questions that allow us to optimize their experience using the software. This allows us to frame the value we provide in terms of outcomes rather than use-cases. We can start our customers on the right foot, and can better predict the problems they’ll have going forward and prepare solutions before they arise. It’s ideal for customers with a scaling portfolio.

If we hadn’t instituted Rebel Maven’s customer onboarding protocols when we did, customer relations would be messier, support worse, and we wouldn’t be learning in the same way.

DANIEL CAMPBELL, Founder

CUSTOMER RENEWAL, INVESTOR SATISFACTION, AND THE FUTURE

The elevated customer experience we now offer and the depth of our understanding of our customer’s needs pays off when it’s time for those customers to renew. Rebel Maven makes sure that we have a plan to get them renewed and to potentially sell them more Collage at renewal. Working with Rebel Maven also allows us to say we have a 3rd party expert that we can offer at an increased cost if the customer is so inclined. They provided us with a spreadsheet that allows us to track each customer’s lifecycle and lets us know which of them require more engagement, and which can wait until it's time for them to renew. In research interviews with our customers, we have not only universally received positive reviews, but our customers are excited to help make Collage better. Many feel a sense of ownership for our success and the direction we’re going, which makes them more willing to be name-dropped to potential new customers and quick to respond to our inquiries. Rebel Maven also helps us communicate with and impress our investors with great analytics that show them exactly how customer relations are proceeding. Altogether, we look more buttoned-up to our customers and investors alike.

Finally, the time-to-value ratio of our engagement with Rebel Maven has been excellent. They didn’t take anywhere near as much time as we expected. In the beginning, we gave them access to content and recorded videos to assess, then we met with them for an hour every other week while they learned our processes and customers, and put together our customized onboarding plan. Afterwards, we had five hour-long sessions to go through decks. Now we ask them a question here or there over Slack, and they reach out periodically to check in, but we don’t have standing meetings anymore. Rebel Maven managed this process and didn’t require handholding from us. As the company grows, we intend to offload some of the onboarding directly to Rebel Maven once we are too busy to handle the workload ourselves.

A FINAL WORD FROM ROSS

When you’re an overloaded, early-stage founder, it’s easy to hesitate when thinking about investing in something like Rebel Maven from a time and cost perspective. Think about it like the age-old advice to eat your vegetables. Investing in Rebel Maven’s CX solutions allows you, as a founder, to stay in front of your customers longer, which is what drives business for an early stage SaaS and is the most valuable use of your time. If you wait too long, you may find yourself needing to commit more of your time to your existing customers and less time pursuing new ones.