VitalSource provides digital learning platforms and content solutions for institutions, publishers, and learners worldwide, including Bookshelf, Verba, Intrepid, and Acrobatiq, with Akademos extending campus store and distribution capabilities. Offerings span content delivery, courseware, analytics, and more, serving millions of users globally.

The Challenge

Serve very different customers at scale while keeping engagement personal and insight-driven.

VitalSource’s platform supports multiple product lines, each with unique segments, workflows, and adoption needs. That breadth created specific challenges for the customer success team:

• Scale and complexity: no two segments shared the same journey
• Personalization at scale: high-touch for large partners while maintaining efficient digital-first engagement for smaller accounts
• Data visibility: activity spread across multiple solutions without a unified view of adoption and health
• Consistency across segments: too much manual work, leaving less time for proactive engagement
• No formal VoC program: hundreds of personas, but feedback capture and dissemination were not leading, consistent, or data driven

The Process

Blend automation and human touch—standardize where possible, personalize where it matters.

The team turned to ChurnZero as the hub for innovation, blending digital automation with targeted human engagement to create a scalable yet personal experience.

How we began using ChurnZero to tackle the unique challenges:

• Custom playbooks and journeys: standardized journeys across segments, with flexibility for CSMs to personalize by engagement model and persona
• Automated alerts and dashboards: segment dashboards that surface adoption dips and renewal risks for proactive outreach
• Lifecycle campaigns: digital series driving adoptions and best practices via personalized email, video training, and survey/feedback at critical milestones
• Cross-system integration: ChurnZero linked with Salesforce and Zendesk to unify health and support history
• Surveys and Notes templates: formalized VoC program with consistent CSAT and custom surveys; standardized product feedback with a custom Notes template

With this approach, the team set out to:

• Improve retention, predict churn earlier, and highlight risk for timely human intervention
• Increase adoptions, content saturation, and engagement
• Reduce manual CSM workload and standardize practices
• Provide leadership with accurate, real-time health reporting

The Impact

Measurable gains in satisfaction, adoption, efficiency, visibility, and scale.

• Customer satisfaction: tech-touch CSAT increased from 64% to 76% over two years, with no added support headcount
• Adoption: term-readiness campaigns boosted catalog activation by 12% year over year
• Efficiency: digital CS shifted 4+ hours per CSM per week from reactive work to strategy—a 10% increase in customer-facing time
• Visibility: leadership now uses real-time health dashboards for reviews and forecast planning