Company: Articulate, New York, NY
Company Description: Articulate is the market leader in rapid e-learning software. Articulate products are used by more than 15,000 corporate, government, and academic organizations in 115 countries to quickly create rich and interactive learning content. Articulate products give learning professionals an easy-to-use toolset to create e-learning courses, presentations, quizzes, and surveys.
Nomination Category: Customer Service Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Customer Service Department of the Year

Nomination Title: Articulate and its "Dynamite" Customer Support Team

Tell the story about what this nominated organization/department achieved since January 1 2008 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Articulate is the market leader in rapid e-learning software. Articulate
products are used by more than 15,000 corporate, government, and academic
organizations in 115 countries to quickly create rich and interactive learning
content.
               
The Articulate Customer Support department aims to provide a level of support
that matches the exceptional experience customers receive in our award-winning
products. We also strive to continuously scale and expand our online resources
while maintaining the quick and quality support case responses that our
customers expect. Our support Web site was named one of the Ten Best Web Support
Sites by the Association of Support Professionals in 2007 and 2008.
 
In order to successfully support an ever-growing worldwide customer base, the
Articulate Customer Support team nearly doubled the volume of online support
resources in 2008 – an ongoing effort applauded daily by our customers.

Articulate is committed to providing stellar customer support, and in 2008
published a support manifesto about the 7 ways we support customer success,
which include providing relevant online support resources that help customers
complete elearning projects; helping customers resolve technical issues to their
satisfaction in a timely and comprehensive fashion; and more. The full version
of the manifesto is available here: http://www.articulate.com/support/success.

Members of the team work 24 hours per day, 7 days per week in 3 countries and 4
time zones around the world to provide exceptional support to every customer,
regardless of whether that customer owns one or 500 licenses of Articulate software.

“You have the best customer support of any software product!” said Articulate
customer Jean Blickenstaff in March 2009.

Articulate Support prides itself on responsiveness and thoroughness. From the
moment a customer submits a new technical support case, she is assigned a unique
case number for tracking purposes. All cases receive a prompt response, often
within 30 minutes of submission. Those that are more complex are escalated to
the Tier 2 team and assigned to a dedicated support engineer, who works with the
customer until the issue is resolved to satisfaction.

“Thanks for a great partnership,” said Articulate customer Steve Heinen in March
2009. “I meant what I said: Your company gives better customer support than
partners I have had that I pay a hundred times more! As you continue to grow you
have maintained (and improved) your commitment to customer service.”

For a team its size – 5 Tier 1 representatives, 4 Tier 2 engineers, and 1
manager – Articulate Customer Support handles an extraordinary volume of unique
cases: 4,000 per month, a number that has doubled in the past year, thanks to
tremendous growth in the Articulate customer base.

Daily, the team proactively assists customers in our thriving Community Forums –
44,000 members strong – and continues to expand our vast online resources, which
offer more than 10,000 pages of forum discussions and support content, including
documentation, searchable Knowledge Bases, and blogs.

Helping customers conquer technical roadblocks and achieve success in developing
elearning projects is what the Articulate Customer Support team is all about.

List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

http://www.articulate.com/market-share
http://www.articulate.com/support/success
http://www.articulate.com/best-support-site/
http://www.articulate.com/support/policy.php
http://www.flickr.com/photos/articulategabe/3343963819/in/set-72157614998316319/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/articulategabe/3344849536/in/set-72157614998316319/
http://www.articulate.com/blog/whats-new-in-articulate-support/

Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated organization/department:

Gabe Anderson is Director of Customer Support for Articulate, where he has
worked since 2004, helping the company grow to more than 15,000 customers in
115+ countries. Award-winning products and market share have made Articulate the
#1 privately-held rapid elearning tools company.

Gabe led the creation of the Articulate Support site, named one of the 10 Best
Support Sites of 2007 & 2008 by the Association of Support Professionals. He is
passionate about technology and learning, and has more than a decade of Web
publishing and software support experience.