1. This Tech Stack Guide lives in the [GitLab Professional Education Services](/handbook/customer-success/professional-services-engineering/education-services) handbook because Professional Services are the business owners of the app
1. This Tech Stack Guide lives in the [GitLab Professional Education Services](/handbook/customer-experience/professional-services-engineering/education-services) handbook because Professional Services are the business owners of the app
2. The `handbook_link` key in the [Tech Stack YAML](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/www-gitlab-com/-/blob/master/data/tech_stack.yml) for Thought Industries Learning Management System references the Tech Stack Guide
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1.[Net New Business Pipeline Created ($s)](/handbook/marketing/performance-indicators/#net-new-business-pipeline-created) 🐔 (leading)
1.[Pipeline coverage start of quarter stage 3+](/handbook/marketing/performance-indicators/#pipeline-coverage) (leading)
1.[Percent of Ramped Reps at or Above Quota](https://internal.gitlab.com/handbook/company/performance-indicators/sales/#percent-of-ramped-reps-at-or-above-quota) (lagging)
1.[12 Month Team Member Voluntary Retention](https://10az.online.tableau.com/#/site/gitlab/workbooks/2147990?:origin=card_share_link) 🔗 (lagging)
1.[Unique Wider Community Contributors per Month](/handbook/marketing/developer-relations/performance-indicators/#unique-wider-community-contributors-per-month) (lagging)
@@ -123,8 +123,8 @@ We have the following abbreviation letter before SAT, please don't use SAT witho
Since we track retention in a lot of ways, we should never refer to just "Retention" without indicating what kind of retention.
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#### Using GitLab the DevSecOps platform
1.[Certifications](/handbook/customer-success/professional-services-engineering/gitlab-technical-certifications/) to demonstrate proficiency with GitLab
1.[Certifications](/handbook/customer-experience/professional-services-engineering/gitlab-technical-certifications/) to demonstrate proficiency with GitLab
1. Best practices in DevSecOps are [easy through GitLab](https://about.gitlab.com/platform/)
1. Best inclusive practices are easy through GitLab ([rename of the default branch](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2021/03/10/new-git-default-branch-name/), [pronouns in the product](https://twitter.com/gitlab/status/1402306208967561222))
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---
title:"CustomerExperience(CX)"
description:"HomespaceforCXteam"
title:Customer Experience
description:Customer Experience at GitLab
---
## **Customer Experience (CX)**
The Customer Experience department is part of the [GitLab Sales](/handbook/sales/) function who partners with our customers to deliver value and positive business outcomes throughout their journey with GitLab.
Welcome to the Customer Experience team page.
The team can be reached in [Slack channel](https://gitlab.slack.com/archives/customer-experience) (internal only).
## **About Customer Experience (CX)**
## Mission Statement
Customer Experience (CX) is a field that encompasses the entire end-to-end customer journey, from initial awareness, evaluation and purchase to post-sales adoption and expansion, focusing on creating positive, seamless, and meaningful interactions to build loyalty and customer satisfaction.
To deliver value to all customers by engaging in a consistent, repeatable, and scalable way across defined segments so that customers see the value in their investment with GitLab, and we retain and drive growth within our enterprise customers.
## **Goals of Customer Experience (CX)**
The mission of the Customer Experience Department is to provide these customers with experience in order to:
***Increase customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention** through delivering exceptional experiences and building strong customer relationships to drive repeat business
***Reduce customer effort and friction across touchpoints** by identifying top areas of friction to remediate cross-functionally.
***Build a positive brand.** Drive positive word-of-mouth and advocacy, and differentiate from competitors in crowded markets.
***Increase customer lifetime value** and reduce acquisition costs by retaining customers and encouraging repeat purchases to increase the long-term value for each customer.
***Align organizational processes and culture around customer needs**, creating customer-first organization and product.
- Maximize the total value of the customer to GitLab
Read more about [Customer Experience (CX) as a discipline](/handbook/customer-experience/about-cx/).
## North Star Metrics
## **Our Mission**
Our top-level metrics are:
To create exceptional value through deep customer understanding, enabling GitLab and our customers to achieve mutual success through meaningful engagement, actionable insights, and continuous innovation.
1. Renewal Rate of ATR (available to renew)
1. Growth ARR
1. Customer Outcomes Realized
## **Our Vision**
### Customer Experience Teams
We create meaningful connections with customers, transforming every interaction into an opportunity to build trust. By anticipating needs and delivering personalized experiences, we make customers feel valued and supported, turning them into passionate advocates who drive our shared success. (Powered by Claude)
| Drive Customer-Centric Decision Making|Enable Customer Success via Strategic Engagement| Champion Customer Innovation and Growth|
| :---- | :---- | :---- |
| Establish comprehensive Voice of Customer (VoC) programs for feedback loops, customer intelligence frameworks, and biannual customer satisfaction insights mechanism to provide actionable experience insights for the organization. | Drive customer engagement through strategic programs, executive relationships, peer learning platforms, and advisory boards to accelerate value realization. | Foster customer growth by identifying innovative use cases, targeted education opportunities, enabling customer influence on strategy, and demonstrating value via success stories and foundational metrics. |
-[Demo Systems documentation](/handbook/customer-experience/demo-systems/)
## **Current Priority Programs (FY26)**
### Customer Success Decision Tree
| Program | Objective | Why | Cadence |
| :---- | :---- | :---- | :---- |
| [Customer Experience Journey Research](/handbook/customer-experience/cx-journey/) | Map our customer’s journey in purchasing and adopting GitLab, and experience with our teams, to identify opportunities to accelerate value. | Improving customer experience, results in increased customer satisfaction, and driving revenue through stronger lands, renewals, and expansions. | Quarterly |
| [All Customer Satisfaction Survey](/handbook/sales/field-operations/customer-success-operations/cs-ops-programs/all-customer-csat-cs/) | Customer Satisfaction benchmark to provide insights and measures to the business to improve the value of GitLab for our customers. | By keeping a pulse on customer satisfaction and feedback themes, we can identify areas of improvement to improve customer satisfaction. | Biannually (May, Nov) |
| Customer Health Framework (page coming soon) | Instrument and baseline customer health metrics | Identify areas of opportunity to focus on improving customer health | TBD |
[CSMAE Decision Tree](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Ot-NwW-2LnZI2I38F9K6mj8SgZhCvrN97xxY1MUxLRw) - internal only
## **Meet Our Team**
## Account Team
Meet our small but mighty CX team\!
The account team is comprised of the Strategic Account Executive/Account Executive, Solutions Architect (Enterprise), and Customer Success Manager.
* Sarah Schuster \- CX Strategy
* Brandon Butterfield \- CX Strategy Analytics
[More information about the account team](/handbook/customer-experience/account-team/)
Learn more about [how we collaborate with our cross-functional partners](/handbook/customer-experience/raci/).
## Overlap Between Solution Architects and Customer Success Managers or Architects
## **Get in touch\!**
SA owns 1) pre-sales technical evaluation and relationships prior to the initial sale and 2) tier upgrades and new business units (i.e., connected new) within an existing customer. CSM owns 1) post-sales customer relationship and 2) license upgrades within an existing customer.
We are always seeking to talk to customers like you. While this team can’t help with technical support, billing or licensing issues, we can influence how our field teams can improve upon partnering with you to better understand your needs and help you realize value faster through GitLab. Reach out at [csfeedback@gitlab.com](mailto:csfeedback@gitlab.com).
[More information on the transition and ownership between Pre-Sales and Post-Sales](/handbook/customer-experience/pre-sales-post-sales-transition/)
## Other Resources
### Education and Enablement
As a Customer Experience team member, it is important to be continuously learning more about our product and related industry topics. The [education and enablement handbook page](/handbook/customer-experience/education-enablement/) provides a dashboard of aggregated resources that we encourage you to use to get up to speed.
### GitLab University
Visit the [GitLab University handbook page](/handbook/customer-experience/gitlab-university/) for an overview of our public-facing learning platform.
## Customer Experience Playbooks
See the [Playbooks Page](/handbook/customer-experience/playbooks/)
-[GitLab User Webinars and Labs](https://university.gitlab.com/pages/gitlab-user-webinars)
### Using Salesforce within Customer Success
Visit [this page](/handbook/customer-experience/using-salesforce-within-customer-success/) for more info on using Salesforce within Customer Success.
### Using Gainsight with Customer Success
Visit [this page](/handbook/customer-experience/csm/gainsight/) for more information on using Gainsight within Customer Success.
### Using the Customer Feedback Form
Visit [this page](/handbook/customer-experience/submitting-customer-feedback/) for more information on submitting Customer Feedback.
### Dogfooding
Outside of Engineering the Customer Experience team has the largest concentration of tooling development capability. The team has unique needs that can't always be solved by GitLab's single [DevOps platform](https://about.gitlab.com/solutions/devops-platform/). However, it is important to [dogfood](/handbook/values/#dogfooding) and avoid [dogfooding anti-patterns](/handbook/engineering/development/principles/#dogfooding-antipatterns). As a result the [Product organization heavily weights internal customers](/handbook/values/#dogfooding) when considering prioritization. If you are considering building tooling in support of Customer Experience priorities outside of GitLab, please follow the [dogfooding process](/handbook/values/#dogfooding).
### Customer Experience AWS Test Account
In an effort to keep AWS spend down, initiatives are being taken to automatically clean up our AWS account. This account is primarily used as a proof of concept for IaC and creating demos for GitLab customers. An automated cleanup script is currently being tested that will tag, shutdown and delete old resources as they are no longer needed. The automation will:
- Turn off and Tag Un-named resources. When resources are created a "Name" tag should be created with a value that's meaningful and indicates who deployed the resource. Example: {initials}-GitLabRunner
- New Resources will be automatically tagged with a Discovered and Expiration tag
- The Expiration tag is 14 days after the discovery. The script will only a tag an instance once. If you need additional time, please change the date to a reasonable date for cleanup (Add a month or two for prospective customers)
- If a resource needs to be permanent please set termination protection on the instance. This should also include tagging the instance with an explanation on why it's permanent and what its for
- On expiration the resource will be shut off and left for 7 days
- In 7 days if the instance is still off a snapshot will be taken and it will be terminated
- If the instance is still on but the expiration has not been changed it will be terminated
### Customer Experience Tools and Scripts
By customer or internal request, we sometimes develop tools to automate certain GitLab tasks using the API. The resulting tools and scripts are publicly available for everyone to use and contribute to in the [GitLab CS Tools group](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-cs-tools).
**Note:** Those tools are not supported by GitLab Support.
### Communities of Practice
[Community of Practice](initiatives/communities-of-practice.html) are cross-functional groups of SME's (or aspiring to be!) within the CX organization dedicated to a topic within GitLab or the broader DevOps space. The goal is to build assets, best practices, demonstrations, and share experiences we learn from prospects and customers. In turn, CoP will build broader technical depth within our CX organization to better advise our customers and influence our product roadmap.
## Customer Terrain Mapping Engagements
Terrain Mapping discovery engagements provide customers with the benefit of GitLab's experience with DevOps methodologies, Git, GitLab, CI, CD, and monitoring by brainstorming a high level, first draft discovery of the elements of a success plan to address various challenges. They are also mapped to professional services that can help with some of the elements identified in the engagement.
See the [Terrain Mapping Engagements Page](/handbook/customer-experience/customer-terrain-mapping/)
### Frequently Asked Questions
Customer Experience team members maintain a [FAQ](/handbook/customer-experience/faq/) to keep questions customers ask documented in a place where everyone can view and contribute to.
-[Sales Development Group Handbook](/handbook/sales/sales-development/)
-[With Whom to Talk to Ask Questions or Give Feedback on a GitLab feature](/handbook/product/categories/#devops-stages)
### Customer Experience Meetings
Customer Experience has a few standing meetings:
- CX Team Monthly All-Hands - Monthly on the second Wednesday
- Technical Skills Exchange (TSX) - Twice Monthly
The different groups within CX also have standing meetings, including meetings for the Customer Success teams and Renewal Managers, regional groups, and social calls.
