The Key to Creating Customers for Life
 A good customer service experience is just the tip of the iceberg. Below the surface is what you don’t see—the work that makes it all happen. However, getting good customer service right consistently is the key to creating customers for life.
Figuring out the right customer service formula is essential to what we do at SMART. It’s part science, part art and part common sense. More than 80% of SMART’s business comes from education, so the back-to-school and post-school periods are very important to my group. We always strive to have the right resources and number of people ready and available to answer questions, provide information and offer assistance.
Our planning for back-to-school 2009 began in November 2008. We looked at all the products and services we wanted to offer and defined what we’d need to make this the best back-to-school yet. Our plans included new systems, tools, people, processes and training, as well as self-serve improvements, new ideas (SupportLink being one) and much, much more. In total, we completed more than 25 improvement projects, investing multiple person-years, at significant cost, to guarantee a great customer service experience.
One of the additional benefits of our new systems and tools is that we’re now equipped to have webchat sessions with our customers. This service went live in August, and we’ve seen a steady increase in webchat ever since. We encourage you to try it out when you have a chance. Just visit the SMART Support page and click Support chat.
As expected, everything is going well this school year and we’re effectively responding to all your questions and requests for support. Behind the scenes, it’s been a lot of work to make this happen. Working out the right customer service formula involves regular monitoring and quality control to ensure we’re on the right track.
Of course, no matter how well you use the technology at your disposal, sometimes making a phone call is the best thing you can do. For example, I recently took a call from a customer who commented on a lack of response and service. A quick investigation revealed that we had in fact tried to follow up three times, but the customer’s spam filters had prevented the follow-up e-mails from getting through. Not having a phone number for this customer, all we could do was hope they would eventually call or e-mail us back. The lesson here is that certain technologies and lines of communication are effective only if we have the right contact information and aren’t hindered by protocols such as spam filters and e-mail rules.
The outcome in this particular case was that we were able to respond to the customer—albeit later than we would’ve liked—and provide the required assistance for them to happily continue using their SMART Board interactive whiteboard.
Whatever it takes, your needs remain our focus.
Sandra
Sandra Coates
VP, Services
SMART Technologies
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