The Pros & Cons of PlanHat
Full disclosure. I’m current a user and customer of PlanHat, so my insights likely have some bias, but there’s clearly a reason why I selected PlanHat for my team!
Pros:
Comprehensive Customer Success Tools: PlanHat provides a wide range of customer success tools such as task management, account management, health scoring, etc., all in one platform. There were only a few select platforms that covered all of the requirements I had outlined in our RFP, and in the end it was between PlanHat and ChurnZero.
Customizable: PlanHat is a highly customizable platform that allows businesses to tailor the platform to their unique needs. Customizable dashboards, workflows, and reports are some of the features that make this platform highly flexible. They’re also super generous with their time to help you create all these customizations, so you’re not all alone in the implementation.
Integration: PlanHat integrates with other popular business tools such as Salesforce, Intercom, Mixpanel, and Slack, making it easier to manage customer relationships from a central platform. This full 360 view is so important as a Manager, and also as a CSM who might not have access to Intercom, but wants to see all the conversations happening with the support team.
Automation: PlanHat's automation features help businesses save time and improve efficiency by automating tasks such as onboarding, renewals, and upselling. I haven’t leaned in a lot here with this part of the product, but I’m excited to get more into it.
Data Analysis: PlanHat provides robust data analysis and reporting tools that enable businesses to identify trends and areas for improvement. Although, I’ll note that there are some limitations such as ingesting custom events from event-level data platforms such as Mixpanel, overall the functionality has met almost all of my expectations.
Cons:
Complexity: PlanHat's extensive feature set may be overwhelming for businesses that are new to using customer success platforms or have simpler needs. I have a data background, and a clear vision for what me and my team need from a CS Platform, and have multiple data points from different software I wanted to incorporate into my health score, not everyone is going to come with this background.
Cost: PlanHat's pricing may be prohibitive for smaller businesses, with plans starting at around $1,500 per month. However, the sales person I worked with was super flexible and we worked together on a contract that made us both happy, and in line with our business objectives. Also - Unlimited Seat model! Because churn is an everyone problem.
Learning Curve: PlanHat's extensive capabilities require a significant learning curve, making it challenging for some users to fully utilize the platform's features. There’s a lot of functionality, and candidly it’s taken awhile to get through even a portion of the platform, but that’s what we signed up for, and we expected it to be an extended roll-out.
Customer Support*: When doing my research during the RFP, I had read some complaints about the Customer Support team, so that’s why I listed this. However, my experience has been fantastic. Our CSM Bud could not be more helpful, and my team has regularly leaned on the in-app chat support team for quick technical requests. Hence, the asterisk.
Limited Mobile App: PlanHat's mobile app has limited functionality compared to the desktop version, which may be a drawback for users who need to access the platform on the go. I personally had no use for a mobile app, and it wasn’t on my list of requirements when evaluating platforms so I can’t speak to this need.
If you have more questions about how I’ve used PlanHat, or the process I went through in order to select a CS Platform, don’t hesitate to contact me.
