How SpotOn lifted customer satisfaction 13% by tailoring every release to every audience
SpotOn is a restaurant technology and financial services company that helps restaurants and local businesses run more profitable, efficient operations through point-of-sale, payments, online ordering, reservations, labor management, marketing, and business insights.
The right update, to the right person, the moment it ships
SpotOn doesn't send one release note to everyone. Support gets the technical detail. Sales gets the value story. Dealers get every change down to the smallest bug fix, because they're on the front line with restaurants. And internal teams see pre-release notes before anything ships, so nobody is caught off guard.
The results: a 13% lift in customer satisfaction, deals closing 2x faster, and weekly update emails that nearly half of readers open.
Sales and support love the visibility. We can tell the story behind every release together, and everyone finally knows what’s going on.
Bri Milker, Product Marketing Manager, SpotOn
Before: dozens of product managers, no shared process
Dozens of SpotOn product managers sent out release notes on their own schedules, at their own level of technical detail, through hand-maintained email lists and Google Drive folders.
The teams facing customers, from sales to support and implementation, couldn't keep track of what was shipping to whom, when or why. Support worked from delayed or inconsistent information. Sales missed upsell and expansion opportunities.
My job is making product delivery efficient and the customer experience great. Before LaunchNotes, release communication was manual, ad hoc and not serving anyone.
Melissa Edmonds, VP, Product Operations, SpotOn
Product marketing felt it too.
Our internal release notes were so technical that no one read them. Then things would ship and users would write into support asking: What’s this change? Why did you do it? When did that happen? Those aren’t questions we want users asking.
Bri Milker, Product Marketing Manager, SpotOn
The solution: segmented updates for four audiences
Each audience needed different detail, at a different time, in a different format. So SpotOn's Product Operations team built a separate LaunchNotes page for each one:
- Technical teams, including support and operations, on an internal page
- The sales org, on an internal enablement page
- SpotOn's dealer network, on a private page
- Every SpotOn customer, on a public page
Categories let each person subscribe only to the products that matter to their job or clients. Email and Slack integrations reach people where they already work, and custom announcement templates save product managers hours every week while making sure no detail gets left out. The team also sends pre-release notes, so internal teams know what's coming and can raise questions before anything ships.
Product marketing runs it all on a weekly rhythm that ties every release, from bug fixes to new features, to customer value:
- Monday: Bri creates three draft announcements, one per audience, each from a custom template, and shares them in Slack.
- Through Thursday noon: product managers add what they're shipping that week. With the templates it's mostly copy and paste, and publishing permissions keep anything from going out before review.
- Thursday afternoon: a product marketing manager reviews each draft for its audience and adds the value story. The updates go out Friday morning.
The results: happier customers, faster deals, better-equipped dealers
- 13% lift in customer satisfaction year over year after standardizing release communication on LaunchNotes
- 2x faster deal cycles on new business, with sales working from a current view of everything shipping
- 48% average open rate on the weekly update emails
- Fewer meetings: product, product marketing and product ops work in one platform, with far less back and forth
The impact reaches beyond SpotOn's walls. Dealers and resellers are central to how SpotOn sells, and they need every detail of every release because they're on the front line with restaurants.
LaunchNotes is ridiculously important to our dealers. They need to know the product inside and out to sell it, down to the tiniest bug fix, because they’re on the front line with our clients. Them being out of the loop on anything is unacceptable.
Mike Collins, SVP, Strategic Partnerships, SpotOn
Melissa and Mike built the dealer page together and turned on LaunchNotes feedback, so dealers can send what they hear from restaurants straight to the product team. Dealers get feedback from clients multiple times a day, and now it has a direct path back.
There’s no question LaunchNotes helps our dealers accelerate revenue growth. Not just on new deals, but on expansion and retention too.
Mike Collins, SVP, Strategic Partnerships, SpotOn
Mission-critical, from product to the front line
Today every release at SpotOn, from the smallest fix to the biggest launch, reaches each audience in the format it needs, when it needs it. Product teams spend less time chasing updates, and the people closest to customers walk into every conversation prepared.
Information is power, and LaunchNotes gives every stakeholder the information they need to feel comfortable and prepared. It’s mission-critical for SpotOn.
Melissa Edmonds, VP, Product Operations, SpotOn
