Company: Dimension One Spas, Vista, CA
Company Description: Dimension One Spas (D1™), http://www.d1.com/, is the industry leader in designing and manufacturing luxury home hydrotherapy and aquatic fitness products. Since 1977, this award winning, global, and performance spa manufacturing company has set the standard in designing the world's finest personal spas.
Nomination Category: Team Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Customer Service Team

Nomination Title: The "WOW" Factor - A Dimension One Experience

   1. Tell the story about what this nominated team achieved in 2004 (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:

Dimension One Spas (D1) is the world leader in hot tub innovation and design. A
family-owned company, D1, has been providing the best product for 28 years. As
the company has grown in size, D1 has recognized the need to keep ahead of the
trend- never settling for anything but the best.

With over 300 dealers in the United States and Canada, D1 wanted to find a way
to give every dealer the best- and in 2003 a new department was formed, the DSR
department (Dealer Support Representatives). 

Since the company is innovative, the program was developed to make customer
service more innovative. D1 felt that although the service was working, something
new could be developed to make it even better. So, they combined the parts,
aftermarket, and spa order departments to make one comprehensive department-
The DSR department. They wanted the dealers to have a higher level of customer
service: One person who they could talk to, someone that they could establish a
relationship with. Someone that could do more than one job, or three jobs, but go
even go beyond to help dealers with anything they needed.

It was a lot more work than we thought it would be.

The change for D1 dealers meant transitioning from speaking with three different
contacts to one main contact.  While seemingly a win-win from a strategic level,
people responded in a way that we didn’t expect: Dealers had become used to
speaking with the different contacts and had established a rapport with each.
DSR’s didn’t like it because the change required the DSR to learn all aspects of
the 3 previous departments - just the parts knowledge alone came from 28 years
of spas! 

To overcome these obstacles, a series of customer satisfaction measures were
put into place to create an award winning team focused on the WOW factor.
 
The results for 2004 were dramatic. All the goals that had once been thought lofty
were met, and exceeded. For example, the goal of Return Call Times was to return
80% of calls in under 4 hours. The result?  93% return call time under 4 hours.

Order Entry.  In 2003, spa entry order errors were high and very costly. The
goal of zero was ambitious but essential. DSRs achieved this goal and continuously
maintain their accuracy.

Product Training: Goal: Test Result Average of 90%.  DSR’s attended over 26
training sessions in 2004 alone and took tests on the subject material. The
average test score: above 95%.

Customer Satisfaction Surveys: Rating of over 4 out of 5
Dealers were contacted monthly to rate their satisfaction with individual DSRs.
 
This resulted in a department going from a group of individuals coming to work
each day, to a highly functioning, focused and team-oriented group with the daily
mantra of WOWing their customers. Response from dealers improved
spectacularly over the year, dealers becoming big proponents of a program once
thought disastrous.

Now, that seemingly impossible goal that they thought they couldn’t achieve? In
the dust.

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

http://www.d1.com

   3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of this nominated team:

Laura Porter was hired at Dimension One Spas in October 2003. With over eight
years of customer service and operations experience, her main priority has been
to foster a dynamic DSR team with a focus on the WOW factor for each and
every customer interaction. Her leadership to date has created a cohesive team
that contributes to overall customer satisfaction and ultimately drives the bottom
line. Through trust, hard work, and respect, she has been the major influence in
helping the team reach their goals. She is an integral part of not only the DSR
team, but the D1 family.