Why Your Customer Collaboration is Broken
Why Your Customer Collaboration is Broken
Why Your Customer Collaboration is Broken
Why Your Customer Collaboration is Broken
Every tool in your stack was chosen to make collaboration easier. Better docs, faster communication, clearer project tracking. But easier for who? Not your customers.
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Every tool in your stack was chosen to make collaboration easier. Better docs, faster communication, clearer project tracking. But easier for who? Not your customers.
Share
Every tool in your stack was chosen to make collaboration easier. Better docs, faster communication, clearer project tracking. But easier for who? Not your customers.
I've worked with many customer-facing teams across industries ranging from Engineering tooling to long-haul trucking hardware, and hear a common thread across Sales leaders, CS directors and customer experience teams: everyone is trying to figure out how to collaborate more effectively with their customers. And one specific pattern keeps surfacing again and again: they're drowning their customers in tools.
It's not intentional. These teams have built sophisticated stacks of specialized tools, each one perfectly suited to its job. Slack for quick questions, Google Docs for collaboration, Dropbox for files, and Email for feature requests.
But here’s what I keep hearing: "Where did you share that roadmap again?" "Which link do I use to see the onboarding plan?" "Did you send that in Slack or Email?"
These aren't technology problems. They're the unintended consequence of how we’ve chosen to work, and the unspoken burden we’ve pushed onto our customers. What follows is first about acknowledging the impact detrimental impact this approach has on the customer relationship—and what unified collaboration looks like when you get it right.
“If your customer has to ask "Where do I find that?" it's a sign the system isn't working.”
Natalie Kwong
Product Manager
Planhat
I've worked with many customer-facing teams across industries ranging from Engineering tooling to long-haul trucking hardware, and hear a common thread across Sales leaders, CS directors and customer experience teams: everyone is trying to figure out how to collaborate more effectively with their customers. And one specific pattern keeps surfacing again and again: they're drowning their customers in tools.
It's not intentional. These teams have built sophisticated stacks of specialized tools, each one perfectly suited to its job. Slack for quick questions, Google Docs for collaboration, Dropbox for files, and Email for feature requests.
But here’s what I keep hearing: "Where did you share that roadmap again?" "Which link do I use to see the onboarding plan?" "Did you send that in Slack or Email?"
These aren't technology problems. They're the unintended consequence of how we’ve chosen to work, and the unspoken burden we’ve pushed onto our customers. What follows is first about acknowledging the impact detrimental impact this approach has on the customer relationship—and what unified collaboration looks like when you get it right.
“If your customer has to ask "Where do I find that?" it's a sign the system isn't working.”
Natalie Kwong
Product Manager
Planhat
I've worked with many customer-facing teams across industries ranging from Engineering tooling to long-haul trucking hardware, and hear a common thread across Sales leaders, CS directors and customer experience teams: everyone is trying to figure out how to collaborate more effectively with their customers. And one specific pattern keeps surfacing again and again: they're drowning their customers in tools.
It's not intentional. These teams have built sophisticated stacks of specialized tools, each one perfectly suited to its job. Slack for quick questions, Google Docs for collaboration, Dropbox for files, and Email for feature requests.
But here’s what I keep hearing: "Where did you share that roadmap again?" "Which link do I use to see the onboarding plan?" "Did you send that in Slack or Email?"
These aren't technology problems. They're the unintended consequence of how we’ve chosen to work, and the unspoken burden we’ve pushed onto our customers. What follows is first about acknowledging the impact detrimental impact this approach has on the customer relationship—and what unified collaboration looks like when you get it right.
“If your customer has to ask "Where do I find that?" it's a sign the system isn't working.”
Natalie Kwong
Product Manager
Planhat
I. The Problem
The situation is the same across so many companies. Communication and information is spread across docs, project planners, forms, and product training tools—all designed to be best-in-breed, but each adding incrementally to the customer’s mental load through, for example:
Another login (how do I access this again?)
A learning curve (where's the button I need?)
Context switching (wait, what was I looking for again?)
Mental overhead (which tool has what information?)
If your customer has to ask "Where do I find that?" it's a sign the system isn't working. By outsourcing your complexity to your customer, they’re left to juggle the information sprawl themselves—and forced to manage the burden themselves, too.
I see this play out most clearly in onboarding programs. Teams are often frustrated about low engagement: customers aren't completing tasks, aren't showing up prepared to calls, or aren't adopting the product. When digging in to understand why, here’s what I typically find: customers are asked to check the Notion doc for the project timeline, watch a series of Loom videos shared via email, fill out the intake form from Typeform, and join Slack to post questions.
From the customer's perspective, here’s what’s actually happening:
They're spending time hunting down documents shared three weeks ago
They're burning mental energy remembering which platform has the most up-to-date plan
They're checking four different places just to make sure they haven't missed something
Inevitably, when they can't find something, they don't go searching—they simply reach out and ask. This means customer teams often spend their time answering "Where is that file?" instead of driving strategic value. The fix isn't teaching customers where to look. It's giving them one place to look—and that's exactly what customer collaboration platforms like Planhat Portals are designed to solve.
“The fix isn't teaching customers where to look. It's giving them one place to look.”
Natalie Kwong
Product Manager
Planhat
I. The Problem
The situation is the same across so many companies. Communication and information is spread across docs, project planners, forms, and product training tools—all designed to be best-in-breed, but each adding incrementally to the customer’s mental load through, for example:
Another login (how do I access this again?)
A learning curve (where's the button I need?)
Context switching (wait, what was I looking for again?)
Mental overhead (which tool has what information?)
If your customer has to ask "Where do I find that?" it's a sign the system isn't working. By outsourcing your complexity to your customer, they’re left to juggle the information sprawl themselves—and forced to manage the burden themselves, too.
I see this play out most clearly in onboarding programs. Teams are often frustrated about low engagement: customers aren't completing tasks, aren't showing up prepared to calls, or aren't adopting the product. When digging in to understand why, here’s what I typically find: customers are asked to check the Notion doc for the project timeline, watch a series of Loom videos shared via email, fill out the intake form from Typeform, and join Slack to post questions.
From the customer's perspective, here’s what’s actually happening:
They're spending time hunting down documents shared three weeks ago
They're burning mental energy remembering which platform has the most up-to-date plan
They're checking four different places just to make sure they haven't missed something
Inevitably, when they can't find something, they don't go searching—they simply reach out and ask. This means customer teams often spend their time answering "Where is that file?" instead of driving strategic value. The fix isn't teaching customers where to look. It's giving them one place to look—and that's exactly what customer collaboration platforms like Planhat Portals are designed to solve.
“The fix isn't teaching customers where to look. It's giving them one place to look.”
Natalie Kwong
Product Manager
Planhat
I. The Problem
The situation is the same across so many companies. Communication and information is spread across docs, project planners, forms, and product training tools—all designed to be best-in-breed, but each adding incrementally to the customer’s mental load through, for example:
Another login (how do I access this again?)
A learning curve (where's the button I need?)
Context switching (wait, what was I looking for again?)
Mental overhead (which tool has what information?)
If your customer has to ask "Where do I find that?" it's a sign the system isn't working. By outsourcing your complexity to your customer, they’re left to juggle the information sprawl themselves—and forced to manage the burden themselves, too.
I see this play out most clearly in onboarding programs. Teams are often frustrated about low engagement: customers aren't completing tasks, aren't showing up prepared to calls, or aren't adopting the product. When digging in to understand why, here’s what I typically find: customers are asked to check the Notion doc for the project timeline, watch a series of Loom videos shared via email, fill out the intake form from Typeform, and join Slack to post questions.
From the customer's perspective, here’s what’s actually happening:
They're spending time hunting down documents shared three weeks ago
They're burning mental energy remembering which platform has the most up-to-date plan
They're checking four different places just to make sure they haven't missed something
Inevitably, when they can't find something, they don't go searching—they simply reach out and ask. This means customer teams often spend their time answering "Where is that file?" instead of driving strategic value. The fix isn't teaching customers where to look. It's giving them one place to look—and that's exactly what customer collaboration platforms like Planhat Portals are designed to solve.
“The fix isn't teaching customers where to look. It's giving them one place to look.”
Natalie Kwong
Product Manager
Planhat
II. What Collaboration Actually Means
When it comes to customer relationships, collaboration doesn't just mean "we use the same tools." It means "we work in a shared space." When collaboration happens in your siloed tools—Slack, Google Drive, Notion, wherever—you're simply repurposing your existing channels, not carving out a dedicated space for collaboration. If your customer is a visitor in your workspace, I guarantee they’re spending at least half their time trying to figure out your systems, following your processes and adapting to your workflow—not driving value. That isn’t partnership: that's compliance.
Real collaboration means a shared space exists that both sides own, rather than a scavenger hunt across your tools. And for that to happen, all the ways you work together—from documents to project tracking, file sharing to daily updates—need to live in the same place.
But unifying the space is just the start. To avoid either you or your customer experiencing the same pains—just in a different forum—the platform you choose also needs to adapt to each of your needs. This is where platform choice becomes vital to the customer experience.
The relationship between you and your customer is constantly evolving—from initial deal discussions, all the way through to onboarding and expansion—and inevitably your collaboration space needs to evolve with it.
What does this actually look like? A deal room that evolves into an onboarding workspace without losing context. Success plan frameworks that adapt to different company sizes and maturity levels. Dashboards that surface relevant metrics for each stage, not every metric all at once. These capabilities aren’t nice-to-haves—they’re the foundation of best-in-class collaboration tools: without them, your unified space inevitably becomes unified noise. Planhat’s new Portals solve this by creating spaces that evolve alongside your customer relationships, surfacing what's relevant at each stage instead of everything all at once.
“The relationship between you and your customer is constantly evolving, and inevitably your collaboration space needs to evolve with it.”
Natalie Kwong
Product Manager
Planhat
II. What Collaboration Actually Means
When it comes to customer relationships, collaboration doesn't just mean "we use the same tools." It means "we work in a shared space." When collaboration happens in your siloed tools—Slack, Google Drive, Notion, wherever—you're simply repurposing your existing channels, not carving out a dedicated space for collaboration. If your customer is a visitor in your workspace, I guarantee they’re spending at least half their time trying to figure out your systems, following your processes and adapting to your workflow—not driving value. That isn’t partnership: that's compliance.
Real collaboration means a shared space exists that both sides own, rather than a scavenger hunt across your tools. And for that to happen, all the ways you work together—from documents to project tracking, file sharing to daily updates—need to live in the same place.
But unifying the space is just the start. To avoid either you or your customer experiencing the same pains—just in a different forum—the platform you choose also needs to adapt to each of your needs. This is where platform choice becomes vital to the customer experience.
The relationship between you and your customer is constantly evolving—from initial deal discussions, all the way through to onboarding and expansion—and inevitably your collaboration space needs to evolve with it.
What does this actually look like? A deal room that evolves into an onboarding workspace without losing context. Success plan frameworks that adapt to different company sizes and maturity levels. Dashboards that surface relevant metrics for each stage, not every metric all at once. These capabilities aren’t nice-to-haves—they’re the foundation of best-in-class collaboration tools: without them, your unified space inevitably becomes unified noise. Planhat’s new Portals solve this by creating spaces that evolve alongside your customer relationships, surfacing what's relevant at each stage instead of everything all at once.
“The relationship between you and your customer is constantly evolving, and inevitably your collaboration space needs to evolve with it.”
Natalie Kwong
Product Manager
Planhat
II. What Collaboration Actually Means
When it comes to customer relationships, collaboration doesn't just mean "we use the same tools." It means "we work in a shared space." When collaboration happens in your siloed tools—Slack, Google Drive, Notion, wherever—you're simply repurposing your existing channels, not carving out a dedicated space for collaboration. If your customer is a visitor in your workspace, I guarantee they’re spending at least half their time trying to figure out your systems, following your processes and adapting to your workflow—not driving value. That isn’t partnership: that's compliance.
Real collaboration means a shared space exists that both sides own, rather than a scavenger hunt across your tools. And for that to happen, all the ways you work together—from documents to project tracking, file sharing to daily updates—need to live in the same place.
But unifying the space is just the start. To avoid either you or your customer experiencing the same pains—just in a different forum—the platform you choose also needs to adapt to each of your needs. This is where platform choice becomes vital to the customer experience.
The relationship between you and your customer is constantly evolving—from initial deal discussions, all the way through to onboarding and expansion—and inevitably your collaboration space needs to evolve with it.
What does this actually look like? A deal room that evolves into an onboarding workspace without losing context. Success plan frameworks that adapt to different company sizes and maturity levels. Dashboards that surface relevant metrics for each stage, not every metric all at once. These capabilities aren’t nice-to-haves—they’re the foundation of best-in-class collaboration tools: without them, your unified space inevitably becomes unified noise. Planhat’s new Portals solve this by creating spaces that evolve alongside your customer relationships, surfacing what's relevant at each stage instead of everything all at once.
“The relationship between you and your customer is constantly evolving, and inevitably your collaboration space needs to evolve with it.”
Natalie Kwong
Product Manager
Planhat
III. Built on Data, Not Separate From It
You might build a beautiful shared Asana board to track onboarding tasks together, or a Notion workspace for documentation. Comments flow, tasks get checked off, documents get updated. But when your customer asks "how's our usage trending?" you have to leave that space, pull a report from your internal system, and share it back as a static screenshot. When they need to see their account details or health metrics, you send a PDF.
This breaks the unified experience. You've consolidated the conversation, but not the context.
When the shared space is built directly on top of your customer data, both sides work from a single pane of glass—the same live view accessible to everyone. Usage trends, feature adoption, and outcome tracking aren’t static reports—they’re embedded into the shared workspace.
When collaboration sits on top of your data, not alongside it, both sides can be proactive instead of reactive. You're not sharing updates about what's happening. You're seeing what's happening together and jointly deciding what to do about it.
“When collaboration sits on top of your data, not alongside it, both sides can be proactive instead of reactive. ”
Natalie Kwong
Product Manager
Planhat
III. Built on Data, Not Separate From It
You might build a beautiful shared Asana board to track onboarding tasks together, or a Notion workspace for documentation. Comments flow, tasks get checked off, documents get updated. But when your customer asks "how's our usage trending?" you have to leave that space, pull a report from your internal system, and share it back as a static screenshot. When they need to see their account details or health metrics, you send a PDF.
This breaks the unified experience. You've consolidated the conversation, but not the context.
When the shared space is built directly on top of your customer data, both sides work from a single pane of glass—the same live view accessible to everyone. Usage trends, feature adoption, and outcome tracking aren’t static reports—they’re embedded into the shared workspace.
When collaboration sits on top of your data, not alongside it, both sides can be proactive instead of reactive. You're not sharing updates about what's happening. You're seeing what's happening together and jointly deciding what to do about it.
“When collaboration sits on top of your data, not alongside it, both sides can be proactive instead of reactive. ”
Natalie Kwong
Product Manager
Planhat
III. Built on Data, Not Separate From It
You might build a beautiful shared Asana board to track onboarding tasks together, or a Notion workspace for documentation. Comments flow, tasks get checked off, documents get updated. But when your customer asks "how's our usage trending?" you have to leave that space, pull a report from your internal system, and share it back as a static screenshot. When they need to see their account details or health metrics, you send a PDF.
This breaks the unified experience. You've consolidated the conversation, but not the context.
When the shared space is built directly on top of your customer data, both sides work from a single pane of glass—the same live view accessible to everyone. Usage trends, feature adoption, and outcome tracking aren’t static reports—they’re embedded into the shared workspace.
When collaboration sits on top of your data, not alongside it, both sides can be proactive instead of reactive. You're not sharing updates about what's happening. You're seeing what's happening together and jointly deciding what to do about it.
“When collaboration sits on top of your data, not alongside it, both sides can be proactive instead of reactive. ”
Natalie Kwong
Product Manager
Planhat
IV. Starting Where You Are
So what now? You probably can't replace every tool tomorrow. But you can start reducing the information sprawl today:
Audit from the customer's perspective. List every tool your customers have to touch to work with you. Be honest about what that experience feels like. Where are the biggest points of friction?
Consolidate where you can. Even if you can't unify everything, you can reduce. Can onboarding materials live in one place instead of three?
Create clear wayfinding. If you must use multiple tools, have a single place that points to where things are. A source of truth that says "project plans are always here, training is always there, support is always here." Not perfect, but better than making customers guess.
Start with one stage. Pick the part of the customer journey that's most fractured and fix that first. Maybe it's onboarding or the deal process. Prove the value of unified collaboration in one area, then expand.
With every incremental step taken, you’ll be able to start reducing their friction, allowing you both to focus on outcomes—not admin. That said, Planhat Portals already does all of this (and more) by design—no audit required, no piecemeal consolidation, no makeshift way-finding. Just unified collaboration built into your CS platform from day one.
“The fact is, your customer didn't sign up to manage your tool sprawl. They signed up to achieve an outcome. ”
Natalie Kwong
Product Manager
Planhat
IV. Starting Where You Are
So what now? You probably can't replace every tool tomorrow. But you can start reducing the information sprawl today:
Audit from the customer's perspective. List every tool your customers have to touch to work with you. Be honest about what that experience feels like. Where are the biggest points of friction?
Consolidate where you can. Even if you can't unify everything, you can reduce. Can onboarding materials live in one place instead of three?
Create clear wayfinding. If you must use multiple tools, have a single place that points to where things are. A source of truth that says "project plans are always here, training is always there, support is always here." Not perfect, but better than making customers guess.
Start with one stage. Pick the part of the customer journey that's most fractured and fix that first. Maybe it's onboarding or the deal process. Prove the value of unified collaboration in one area, then expand.
With every incremental step taken, you’ll be able to start reducing their friction, allowing you both to focus on outcomes—not admin. That said, Planhat Portals already does all of this (and more) by design—no audit required, no piecemeal consolidation, no makeshift way-finding. Just unified collaboration built into your CS platform from day one.
“The fact is, your customer didn't sign up to manage your tool sprawl. They signed up to achieve an outcome. ”
Natalie Kwong
Product Manager
Planhat
IV. Starting Where You Are
So what now? You probably can't replace every tool tomorrow. But you can start reducing the information sprawl today:
Audit from the customer's perspective. List every tool your customers have to touch to work with you. Be honest about what that experience feels like. Where are the biggest points of friction?
Consolidate where you can. Even if you can't unify everything, you can reduce. Can onboarding materials live in one place instead of three?
Create clear wayfinding. If you must use multiple tools, have a single place that points to where things are. A source of truth that says "project plans are always here, training is always there, support is always here." Not perfect, but better than making customers guess.
Start with one stage. Pick the part of the customer journey that's most fractured and fix that first. Maybe it's onboarding or the deal process. Prove the value of unified collaboration in one area, then expand.
With every incremental step taken, you’ll be able to start reducing their friction, allowing you both to focus on outcomes—not admin. That said, Planhat Portals already does all of this (and more) by design—no audit required, no piecemeal consolidation, no makeshift way-finding. Just unified collaboration built into your CS platform from day one.
“The fact is, your customer didn't sign up to manage your tool sprawl. They signed up to achieve an outcome. ”
Natalie Kwong
Product Manager
Planhat
Your Stack Is Your Problem, Not Theirs
The best customer collaboration tool is the one your customer never has to think about—one that feels like a natural extension of your product experience.
If your customers can name three different tools you use together, information is likely getting lost. If they ask "Where did you share that?" regularly, you’re likely stuck in a reactive state. If working with you requires them to learn your systems, you've optimized for the wrong side of the relationship—and are sure to be suffering the consequences.
This is why forward-thinking GTM teams are moving to unified collaboration platforms like Planhat’s Portals. The internal complexity of your systems—your CRM, your data warehouse, your project management tools—stays where it belongs. But the customer-facing experience? That becomes singular, branded, and built around their needs, not your stack.
Modern collaboration platforms like Portals act as that clean interface layer: your team works in the tools they love, but customers experience a unified collaboration space that feels native to them. The fact is, your customer didn't sign up to manage your tool sprawl. They signed up to achieve an outcome. And every minute they spend navigating your infrastructure is a minute they're not spending on what you both actually care about—creating value.
Your Stack Is Your Problem, Not Theirs
The best customer collaboration tool is the one your customer never has to think about—one that feels like a natural extension of your product experience.
If your customers can name three different tools you use together, information is likely getting lost. If they ask "Where did you share that?" regularly, you’re likely stuck in a reactive state. If working with you requires them to learn your systems, you've optimized for the wrong side of the relationship—and are sure to be suffering the consequences.
This is why forward-thinking GTM teams are moving to unified collaboration platforms like Planhat’s Portals. The internal complexity of your systems—your CRM, your data warehouse, your project management tools—stays where it belongs. But the customer-facing experience? That becomes singular, branded, and built around their needs, not your stack.
Modern collaboration platforms like Portals act as that clean interface layer: your team works in the tools they love, but customers experience a unified collaboration space that feels native to them. The fact is, your customer didn't sign up to manage your tool sprawl. They signed up to achieve an outcome. And every minute they spend navigating your infrastructure is a minute they're not spending on what you both actually care about—creating value.
Your Stack Is Your Problem, Not Theirs
The best customer collaboration tool is the one your customer never has to think about—one that feels like a natural extension of your product experience.
If your customers can name three different tools you use together, information is likely getting lost. If they ask "Where did you share that?" regularly, you’re likely stuck in a reactive state. If working with you requires them to learn your systems, you've optimized for the wrong side of the relationship—and are sure to be suffering the consequences.
This is why forward-thinking GTM teams are moving to unified collaboration platforms like Planhat’s Portals. The internal complexity of your systems—your CRM, your data warehouse, your project management tools—stays where it belongs. But the customer-facing experience? That becomes singular, branded, and built around their needs, not your stack.
Modern collaboration platforms like Portals act as that clean interface layer: your team works in the tools they love, but customers experience a unified collaboration space that feels native to them. The fact is, your customer didn't sign up to manage your tool sprawl. They signed up to achieve an outcome. And every minute they spend navigating your infrastructure is a minute they're not spending on what you both actually care about—creating value.
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