If you manage customer relationships or run sales in a SaaS company, you already know the pain: missing a renewal signal, not noticing when a champion leaves, or finding out too late that your biggest account just got a new decision-maker. Good alerts can save you a ton of grief—but only if you set them up well. This guide will walk you through setting up automated alerts for key account activities in Getcabal, help you avoid common pitfalls, and show you how to actually get useful signal—without drowning in noise.
Who should read this?
This is for customer success managers, account execs, RevOps folks, and honestly, anyone who’s tired of surprises with big accounts. If you want quick, real-time heads-ups when something important happens in your book of business (and not just another “monthly summary” that nobody reads), this is for you.
What “key account activities” actually matter?
Before getting into the how-to, let’s be clear: not every activity is worth an alert. Here are the ones most teams care about:
- Renewal or upsell dates approaching
- Champions or key contacts changing jobs
- Unusual drop in usage or engagement
- New stakeholders added to an account
- Support tickets spiking
- Negative feedback or NPS scores
- Contract changes or cancellations
If you alert on everything, you’ll end up ignoring all of it. Focus on what moves the needle.
Step 1: Make a list of what you really want to know
Don’t start with the tool. Start with your business. Write down the 3–5 events that, if you knew about them instantly, would actually help you take action. For most teams, it’s a mix of:
- Risk signs (champion leaves, usage drops, big support issues)
- Opportunity signs (renewal coming up, new exec joins, positive NPS)
Pro tip: If you can’t imagine yourself or your team acting on an alert, don’t set one up. You’ll just end up ignoring it, and the important stuff will get lost.
Step 2: Map those events to what Getcabal can actually alert you about
Getcabal isn’t magic. It’s great at tracking relationships, signals from email/calendar, and some product usage patterns (if you’ve hooked up your data). Here’s what it does well:
- People movement: Getcabal can track when a contact changes jobs, gets promoted, or leaves an account.
- Stakeholder mapping: Alerts when new contacts are added or removed.
- Engagement signals: It can notify you about periods of inactivity, or sudden drops in communication.
- Custom triggers: If you’ve integrated product or support data, you can sometimes set up alerts for usage drops or support tickets.
What doesn’t it do well? Don’t expect it to magically catch contract changes unless you’ve wired in your CRM or contract source. And “sentiment analysis” alerts tend to be hit-or-miss—take those with a grain of salt.
Step 3: Connect your data sources
You’ll get better alerts if Getcabal can actually see what’s happening. This means connecting the right tools:
- Email and calendar: This is usually where Getcabal shines. Connect your Google or Outlook accounts so it can see who’s communicating with whom.
- CRM: Pipe in account and contact records. This lets Getcabal tie signals to real accounts.
- Support and product tools: If possible, integrate platforms like Zendesk, Intercom, or your product analytics tool. Not always straightforward—but worth it if you want usage or support alerts.
Gotchas: - Watch out for permission issues. If you don’t have admin access, you’ll get stuck. - Some integrations only pull in “admin-level” data, so you may not see every user’s activity. - If you’re worried about privacy, double-check what data is being shared. You don’t want to be surprised later.
Step 4: Set up your first alerts
Now the actual setup. Here’s how to do it in Getcabal (as of early 2024):
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Go to the Alerts or Signals section
This is usually found in your dashboard sidebar. If you don’t see it, your admin might need to enable it. -
Choose the type of activity you want to monitor
You’ll see options like “Contact leaves company,” “No contact for X days,” “New stakeholder added,” or custom ones if you’ve got integrations. -
Define the trigger
For example: - “Alert me if any champion-level contact leaves”
- “Alert me if there’s been no customer meeting for 30+ days”
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“Notify me if support tickets from this account double in a week”
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Pick who should get the alert
You can usually send alerts to yourself, your team channel (like Slack), or even email a group. Choose what you’ll actually check. -
(Optional) Set conditions or filters
If you only care about certain accounts (like enterprise vs. SMB), filter accordingly. Otherwise, you’ll get swamped. -
Save and test
Most platforms let you preview alerts or trigger a test. Do it. Better to get a fake alert now than miss a real one later.
Pro tip: Start with just one or two alerts. See what you get, then adjust. You can always add more.
Step 5: Tune your alerts to avoid noise (and mutiny)
The fastest way to kill trust in alerts? Too many, too often, about stuff nobody cares about. Here’s how to avoid that:
- Set thresholds carefully. “No contact for 7 days” is probably too aggressive for most B2B accounts; “30 days” is more realistic.
- Stay focused. Only alert for the roles or accounts that matter. If your SMB CSM is getting pinged every time a free user goes quiet, they’ll turn it off.
- Review every month. Log in, look at which alerts were triggered, and turn off the ones nobody acted on. If an alert didn’t drive a real follow-up, kill it.
- Resist alert creep. It’s tempting to add more alerts (“What if we also got notified when...?”) but less is more. Only add when you’re missing real stuff.
Step 6: Decide how you’ll act on alerts—before you need to
An alert is only useful if it prompts action. For each alert, decide:
- Who’s responsible for following up?
- What’s the playbook (do you call, email, check in with your champion)?
- How will you track what you did and what happened next?
If you don’t have a plan, alerts become background noise. Even a simple shared doc or CRM field (“Alert triggered—followed up by Bob, outcome XYZ”) can help keep you accountable.
Step 7: Keep it simple and iterate
Don’t try to automate your way out of relationship management. Alerts are a tool, not a substitute for knowing your accounts. Here’s what actually works:
- Start with the basics (champion leaves, renewal coming up, usage drop).
- Review what’s actually useful every month or quarter.
- Involve your team—if nobody is acting on alerts, change them.
- Ignore the fancy “AI-powered” stuff unless you see real value.
A good alert is one you’d be annoyed to miss, not one that just fills your inbox.
What to ignore (for now)
- Generic “engagement score” alerts. These try to boil everything into one number. They rarely tell you anything you didn’t already know.
- Overly broad signals. “Someone at Account X clicked a link.” So what?
- Alerts you can’t act on right away. If you’re not prepared to follow up, don’t set it.
Don’t fall for the “set it and forget it” pitch. Good alerts take tuning.
Wrapping up: Keep it human
Automated alerts in Getcabal can genuinely make your life easier—if you keep them sharp and actionable. Start with just a couple, tune them until they’re actually useful, and ignore the urge to automate everything. The goal isn’t more notifications; it’s fewer surprises.
Keep it simple, iterate, and trust your gut. The best alert system is the one you’ll actually use.