Nathan Harrison – Page 2 – Jefferson Technology

8 Quotes to Help You Build an Amazing Company Culture

Posted on March 4, 2017November 19, 2020 by Nathan Harrison

1. “Be cognizant of your culture”

Karlgaard urges organizations to stop thinking about the size of their companies, or the number of people on their payrolls. “If companies today have to org chart every little decision, they’re not moving fast enough,” said Karlgaard. “Instead, be cognizant of your culture. Write it down and set a precedent. Rally your company around that.”

2. “Be cognizant regardless of your company size”

Karlgaard discussed the impact of today’s global economy, and urges businesses to be mindfully aware of the circumstances in which they live, where there are problems, and where there are opportunities. “Don’t panic or get stressed about it, but come together as a team to be able to pursue these opportunities or solve these problems,” said Karlgaard. The good news is that organizations can be “cognizant regardless of your company size.”

3. “Immune system things”

“My thesis is that the best model is living organisms. We have immune systems,” noted Karlgaard. “You have this immune system that takes care of you, but imagine what it would look like for an organization to have a really good immune system.” For Karlgaard, that gets to the culture of an organization. Companies with an immune system will have a high level of trust, great teamwork, great appreciation for diversity, and unique talents that their employees bring to the organization.

4. “Hope-balance characteristics”

Business to business is truly person to person. We work with human beings in business. If the goal is to obtain a customer, hold onto a customer, and satisfy a customer, then the rational and emotional side is crucial. “Customers think rationally, and they also think emotionally. So you better bring that into your product or service,” advised Karlgaard. The people delivering your product or service must have those “hope balance-characteristics.”

5. “Build whole-brain teams”

In order to create high levels of trust and personal empowerment within an organization, Karlgaard recommends developing teams that spontaneously form to solve a problem or to pursue an opportunity on a day-to-day basis. “Establish steering teams to create whole-brain teams, which means cognitive diversity, introverts, extroverts, left-brain thinkers, right-brain thinkers who can see the big picture. Analytical people, highly analytical people, and highly intuitive people,” Karlgaard recommended.

6. “Have a highly adaptive culture”

In today’s global economy, Karlgaard feels it’s crucial to have a “highly adaptive culture based around small autonomous teams where people love and respect each other and can therefore rise spontaneously to solve problems or pursue opportunities.” He goes on to share, “People who are happy and feel good about what they’re doing is going to matter. It improves how companies impact their customers.”

7. “A degree of paranoia is appropriate”

According to Karlgaard, it’s appropriate to be fearful, but it’s not appropriate to be paralyzed with fear. “Andy Grove of Intel, said ‘Only the paranoid survive,’ and I think that’s good,” said Karlgaard. “A useful amount of paranoia and fear is needed to think about the future, but also look at it in an optimistic way. ” Good managers will make sure that there is that balance, because according to Karlgaard, that’s the creative spur.

8. “Mobilize around trends”

Many companies are doing a great job of preparing for the short-term, but might not be looking five years ahead, according to Karlgaard. ‘The two-to-five year time frame is really critical,” said Karlgaard. “The global integrated economy has offered great opportunity for organizations to mobilize their companies around technology and other trends.” Focus on how to stay competitive as a company in an era where technology is evolving as fast as it is. “There are trillion dollar opportunities out there for companies to figure out based on these trends,” advised Karlgaard.

Happy Support Team, Happy Customers

Posted on March 3, 2017November 19, 2020 by Nathan Harrison

The recipe for remarkable and effective customer service is simple: The customer always comes first. But turning frowns upside down is just one half of the equation… Of equal importance is the happiness of your customer support staff. As a Senior Customer Hero at SpotHero, I’ve seen the benefits of this first-hand. Not only are we passionate about delighting our customers, we’re also dedicated to creating an environment that is positive, nurturing, and fulfilling for our staff as well.

Here are four tips on how to provide amazing customer service by maintaining happiness on both sides of the telephone.

1) Side with your customers (and each other).

When I have to make a customer service call to the internet provider or cellphone company du jour, I stand in front of the mirror and apply my war paint. As a customer, I expect a fight and robotic, empty apologies. I expect to be told that nothing can be done, until I insist that yes, something must be done.

When someone calls SpotHero ready to go to battle, I feel sad when I hear that forced bravado in the voice. We shouldn’t have to *expect* a fight in order to be treated with decency. I love the moment when surprise sets in and they realize that they don’t have to fight with us: we’re all on the same team.

We’ve been able to achieve this by making SpotHero a drama-free zone. It starts simply: do not talk negatively about each other or your customers. If you need a breather, walk it off, make a cup of tea, or lie face-down in a bean bag chair. We do this knowing our teammates have our backs — and that negativity only breeds more negativity.

2) Empower your support staff.

When I started at SpotHero and asked how I should answer calls, I was encouraged to “Listen, do your utmost to help, and let your personality shine through.” If you call us, you’ll see what I mean. We’re as real as it gets.

So rather than laying on the scripts and strict call guidelines, let intuition, empathy, and good judgment take the lead. — why reduce them to robotic automatrons? Embrace your support staff’s individuality and give them the tools to do as much as they can for the customer on their own. Just like negativity feeds on itself, positivity gives way to more positivity. An empowered staff will ultimately lead to happy customers.

3) Go above and beyond.

We aim to go above-and-beyond to make the customer happy in every single interaction, whether it be a refund, extra credit towards their next reservation, or a gift card towards their next cup of coffee.

Imbue your staff with a sense of duty to advocate for the customer on all levels. Encourage them to constantly look for opportunities to go that one step further. As a customer, it’s a refreshing surprise when a support person does more than what’s needed, especially in a climate when expectations already run so low. Stand out by exceeding people’s expectations.

4) Be a part of the bigger picture.

Our support team is located in SpotHero headquarters, which means that we’re not a siloed call center. We chat with the sales team over a cup of coffee in the kitchen, spend lunch breaks with the tech team, and bounce our ideas off the marketing team. The atmosphere is both relaxed and energized, the perfect environment to foster creativity and collaboration.

Your support team should have a voice and an identity, and also feel its place within the bigger picture. Strive to create an environment that encourages communication and realize the importance of fostering good relationships. Ensure your team members take breaks and eat lunch with the rest of the company. It’s a small effort, but makes all the difference in building those connections.

At the end of the day, when we’re happy, so are our customers. We’re happiest when we feel connected, inspired, a part of something bigger, and empowered to spread the love. We’re driven and passionate in what we do because we also understand the importance of enjoying the ride.

Give it a try. Your customers will thank you for it.

How One Company Achieves a 99% Retention Rate with Its Customers

Posted on March 3, 2017November 19, 2020 by Nathan Harrison

No one knows the value of ease and efficiency like DUFL, which was founded to make life simpler for business travelers. The company cleans and stores the garments customers need for trips, and then ships a suitcase directly to specific destinations throughout Europe, Canada, and Asia. Busy customers have high expectations and meeting them is critical.

That’s why the company started using the Salesforce Customer Platform from the beginning. Unlike many other startups, DUFL didn’t jump from one fire to the next, winding up with a collection of disconnected point solutions, each designed to solve a specific problem. Founder and CEO Bill Rinehart knew Salesforce from a previous company and had experienced firsthand the value of a connected, scalable platform for a growing business.

“Delivering an amazing customer experience is our mantra,” Rinehart explains. “Salesforce lets us keep a complete record of each individual’s unique needs, so we can provide a customized experience and exceptional support at every touchpoint.”

DUFL customers register and create an account within the DUFL app and the company’s back-end systems. Account information is imported to Salesforce so externally-facing teams can access customer information quickly, in a user-friendly format. Rinehart says, “The ease of use, flexibility and transparency of Salesforce lets us focus on our core competencies and growing our business.”

The company uses Sales Cloud to manage accounts and track activity so it can win more customers. Fully integrated Service Cloud is the primary support interface for support agents who also take advantage of plug-ins like CTI and translation to keep customers happy. And Desk.com is used for internal trouble tickets and service operations.

Rinehart shares the story of a customer who ruined the heel of an expensive dress shoe and asked the company for help. DUFL’s Concierge Desk created a ticket and had her heel repaired by a local cobbler and the shoes were back in her DUFL closet and ready for the next trip within 48 hours. And, since the case was managed via Service Cloud, the company has a solution that can be referenced the next time a customer needs shoe repair (which has already happened).

Just as DUFL enables customers to travel more, and more easily, Salesforce has enabled the company grow without growing pains. With just 25 employees the company can easily handle 10% month on month growth while maintaining a retention rate of 99.89%.

Rinehart says, “We pride ourselves on providing our customers with an exceptional experience, a white-glove service without the luxury price tag. Not only do we expect our trips to go off without a hitch, we also expect the customer service experience to be above par. We will always go the extra mile for our customers and Salesforce makes it possible for us to give our customers the excellent care and service they deserve.”

There’s A New Customer Service Metric on the Block

Posted on February 28, 2017November 19, 2020 by Nathan Harrison

As a customer service leader, you’re constantly looking for ways to improve the customer experience. Much of this comes down to choosing the right metrics so you can track your effectiveness. After all, if you’re not measuring the right thing, you won’t know where to improve. Support teams have relied on customer satisfaction (CSAT) as their guiding light for decades. However, there are three issues with it:

First, what happens when your CSAT score surpasses 95%? You begin to get less feedback about where you can improve. Customers may be “satisfied,” but you’re not able to pinpoint areas of opportunity.
Second, support teams are finding the information they get through surveys isn’t directly applicable to the support experience. Customers often use the survey to complain about product issues or feature requests that haven’t been implemented. Not helpful!
Finally, even with a high CSAT score, you might still experience cancellations. That’s because satisfaction doesn’t directly correlate with customer loyalty. Think about it: Even if your customers have phenomenal service experiences, they might still be frustrated they had to contact customer service in the first place.

The new metric on the block
The Corporate Executive Board (CEB) wanted to fix this dilemma once and for all. So they surveyed 75,000+ customers who had interactions with customer service through various channels (phone, email, chat, and more) and conducted hundreds of structured interviews with customer service leaders around the world. Through these studies, they created a new metric: Customer Effort Score (CES). They found that CES is 1.8x more predictive of customer loyalty than CSAT and 2x more predictive than the Net Promoter Score (NPS). But what does it mean?

Think about the last time you interacted with a service department. Let’s say you had to report a product defect; perhaps you had to pick up the phone and call, and then ship the broken item back. Even if you were happy with the customer service experience and marked the resolution as satisfactory, you’re still much less likely to do business with the company again. Remember all that hassle the purchase caused?

Instead of trying to make a customer support experience satisfying, we should be making issue resolution easy. More companies are recognizing this: being “easy to do business with” means customer defections are rare. Customers will stick with you long-term when you make it easy — and effortless — for them to do so.

What does CES actually measure?
To measure customer effort effectively, the CEB designed this brand new Customer Effort Score (CES) metric. A single question defined the first version of CES: “How much effort did you personally have to put forth to handle your service request?” The rating scale starts from 1 (very low effort) to 5 (very high effort).