Open Library Series: Jennifer Burnett’s Power User Snippets

Jennifer Burnett, Customer Success Manager at TextExpander

Here’s where you might see Customer Success Manager (CSM) Jennifer Burnett: on a kickoff call to discuss the needs of your team; in your Path to Power User training; in one of our weekly live webinars; or bowling, if you live in Cleveland. When you do, there’s no need to worry about awkward silences. “I’m the filler. I’m the chatter. I’m the one you bring to the party to make sure people keep talking,” she says.

We caught up with her between her customer calls to chat about her job and the Snippets that help her do it well.

Tell us about what you do.

I train customers to use TextExpander with things they do on a daily basis. Every customer is different, so the way we work with them, and the information we provide, changes depending on their needs. We do always try to hit certain checkboxes, though — Did they learn this cool tool, this new feature? I primarily work with Sales and Recruiting teams. They use TextExpander way differently from other teams.

What’s good to keep in mind when training people?

You have to meet a customer where they’re at. If you speak their language, or the language of the industry that they’re a part of, they’ll grasp things a lot better.

How do you do that, speak their language?

Our account managers and account executives share information that they receive from real customers, including the types of Snippets they use to increase their efficiency. A lot of customers just really want to know how other people in their industry are using TextExpander—how they are putting TextExpander to work for them on a daily basis. Because of this, we have upped our onboarding game to provide specific training to different industries on how to use TextExpander and maybe in ways they never thought.

Learning software isn’t always fun. How do you keep people engaged?

As a CSM, you also have to be very creative in your thinking and very engaging in your delivery. You always have to be always on. It can be a very taxing and exhausting thing for someone who does not have the right personality. You have to have a very specific personality to be a CSM — or a flourishing CSM, I should say.

What type of personality is that?

I think it’s a very empathetic, open, and engaging personality. We’ve all been in those rooms or meetings where nobody is talking. We have meetings every Monday where we ask how the weekend was, and I’m always like, I’ll go first. Because I’m the filler. I’m the chatter. I’m the one you bring to the party to make sure people keep talking. Just don’t ask me to dance.

Sounds like you’re perfect for this job. What’s your favorite part about being a CSM?

Definitely working with customers. I’m for sure a people-person. I enjoy building relationships and connections with people. But the best part is also the hardest part. After you’ve spent all this time with someone, and you’ve built this relationship with them, you have to say goodbye. It’s not always a forever goodbye, because they might pop back to ask you more questions, or come back during renewal time so you can train more of their people, but you do build that rapport, and then you stop seeing them frequently.

Aw, let’s change the subject. What was your path to becoming a power user?

There are a lot of things I taught myself by going into TextExpander and creating Snippets, but Justine [Director of Customer Success] was my original trainer. A lot [of what I know] came from Justine, who was the first CSM. A lot came from our onboarding process, too, which was super helpful.

Is there anything you still need to learn?

There are so many things inside of TextExpander to learn! Scripting, for instance. I know TextExpander can do it. Do I have the time to learn it right now? No, absolutely not. But it doesn’t mean that it won’t be there in the future. And that’s the nice thing — I can always continue to grow in my TextExpander knowledge. I love it when a customer shows me a way that they’re using TextExpander that I never thought of. Having this universe, this TextExpander universe, where we’re all learning from each other, is so helpful.

When did you know that you weren’t just a basic user of TextExpander anymore?

Probably when I learned optional sections and “Show at top”. (“Show at top” displays the fields at the top of the fill-in window to make filling them out easier.) Also: creating a Snippet from your clipboard and editing your last Snippet — those hotkeys that are built into TextExpander but not set up for you, those are big deals.

Let’s see if we can learn a thing or two from looking into your Snippets…

What is the Snippet you use the most?

I for sure use my email Snippet and the Snippet to expand the TextExpander name the most. And then when I have to type these out it is a real pain point.

The one you’re most proud of?

I have a pretty extensively built-out Snippet that I use to follow up with customers when they need to schedule a session with me. It has tons of Fill-ins including Optional Sections and Pop-up Menus.

The most life-changing?

All Snippets are life-changing; I really can’t imagine typing or working without the use of TextExpander. But the most helpful Snippets for me are my links to my different calendars. I ask customers to book with me all the time and use these every day.

The one that most sparks joy?

Any Snippet that saves me time and having to type something out sparks tons of joy for me! But the ones that spark the most joy are the ones I get to see that customers I have trained have created.

What’s an easy tip for instantly upping your TextExpander game?

Use Inline Search. Now, I don’t think Inline Search is an advanced thing or above basics, but it’s a game-changer. Inline Search allows you to search your TextExpander library. There is no way that we can remember all of our abbreviations and all our labels. Now, if you have one of those photographic memories and you can, kudos to you — I cannot! So Inline Search is invaluable to me. And also why it’s so important to have prefixes in your abbreviations. So, for instance, if I have emails that I send out, and “em.” is my group prefix, if I search for “em.”, Inline Search pulls all of my Snippets that begin with “em.” Then I can just look and find the one that I’m looking for.

Great tip! Final question: what do you do for fun?

Our whole family is a bowling family, my husband and I bowl in a league, a casino league. I’m not the best bowler, but I have fun. As with TextExpander, the more you practice, the better you get.

To learn from Jennifer and the rest of our Customer Success Team, check out our upcoming webinars.