It's a good problem to have—customers adopting fast and using more than their plan includes.

But because we hadn’t always gated features strictly, some teams went over without even realizing it. When we tightened things up, we needed a way to help those customers get back within plan.

Handling that one-by-one would've overwhelmed our small (but mighty) AM team.

So we built a proactive system to flag overages and guide customers to the right next step—automatically.

Here’s how we used Appcues (plus a few handy automations) to streamline overage communication and make life easier for our team.

1. Sent the right message, right in the product

We created in-app Slideouts tailored to each plan and overage type. Each one clearly explained:

• What limit had been exceeded
• When the upgrade would go into effect
• What it would cost
• What to do next (review usage, talk to someone, or just acknowledge the change)

Buttons let users take action right away—no digging or guesswork required.

💡 Pro Tip: Upgrade moments can be sensitive, and we didn’t want this to feel like a surprise or a gotcha. We kept the language clear and gave users a few paths forward—including a grace period to give folks time to get back within limits. If you’re building something similar, think about how the message will land. Can you give people time to react? Offer transparency around usage? Add a way to talk to someone? Just a few things worth thinking about if you're building something similar.

2. Backed it up with email

To make sure the message landed, we paired each in-app alert with a Workflow email series:

• Initial alert
• Reminder
• Final confirmation (if needed)

This gave us both in-product and inbox coverage—without sending duplicate messages.

3. Made it easy to talk to a human

Every message included a “Talk to us” button that let customers book time with their assigned AM.

Behind the scenes, we used some clever routing to make sure each user landed on the right calendar—without having to build custom logic for every message.

Want the step-by-step setup? Watch Bill’s quick video explainer for the full walkthrough. 👇

4. Logged everything automatically

We set up a few quick Zaps to auto-create Salesforce opportunities whenever a customer:

• Viewed an overage message
• Received an alert email
  

That gave the AM team full visibility—without the need for manual data entry.

Upgrade alerts are now timely, personalized, and fully automated. Our AMs can spend less time coordinating and more time having the right conversations.

Next up: we’re expanding this system to notify customers before they hit a limit. Fewer surprises and more time to plan.