The Challenge
A mid-market healthcare customer had given us an NPS score of -40 (strong detractor) citing poor onboarding experience, low user adoption, and a feeling of being abandoned after the sale. They were using only 25% of the features they had purchased, and their renewal in nine months was highly unlikely at this trajectory.
The Approach
I treated this account like a new deployment, starting from scratch with a 90-day success plan. Week 1 was a full re-onboarding session with their IT team, walking through every feature and configuring settings that had been left at defaults. Weeks 2-4 were weekly office hours where their team could bring questions and get hands-on help. Months 2-3 focused on advanced feature enablement and custom workflow configuration.
Most importantly, I established a personal relationship with their IT Director, scheduling a standing biweekly call where we discussed not just our product but his broader IT challenges. This transformed me from a vendor rep into a trusted advisor who happened to also manage their authentication platform.
The Result
Feature adoption went from 25% to 88% in six months. Their NPS score improved from -40 to +60. The IT Director became a vocal advocate, providing a reference call for two prospects and speaking at a regional healthcare IT event about their authentication journey. The account renewed at the original value and expanded by $60K.
Key Takeaway
Detractors are not lost causes — they are customers who wanted to succeed and feel let down. The gap between a detractor and a promoter is often not the product but the level of human engagement. Investing intensive effort in turning detractors around has a higher ROI than acquiring new logos.
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