Bronto Software

Company: Bronto Software, Durham, North Carolina
Company Description: Bronto Software provides successful email solutions to more than 800 online retailers, agencies and marketing departments around the world including Trek Bicycle, Duke Alumni Association, Lake Champlain Chocolates, JP MorganChase. Founded in 2002,Bronto Software remains dedicated to helping customers become better email marketers by delivering proactive customer support and education.
Nomination Category: Customer Service Department Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Customer Service Department of the Year - IT & Telecommunications

Nomination Title: Bronto Client Services changes it's service paradigm

1. Tell the story about what this nominated department achieved since the beginning of July last year (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:

This past year marked a dramatically different service paradigm for Bronto.
Our Client Service team shifted from a predominately reactive to proactive
support delivery model. We made this radical change to our service delivery
model in 2007 to respond to one of our biggest challenges; improving our
customer renewal rates. After investigating the root causes impacting customer
renewals, we determined that clients were not leaving Bronto due to product or
services issues, but simply due to a lack of use. We had clients who did not
have enough email marketing knowledge to effectively manage an email campaign
and use our application. Low usage resulted in clients not getting the return
on their investment. We had to find innovative ways to help our clients become
more active and productive using our software.

We decided that we had to become email marketing guides, or advisors, for our
clients. As guides, we could advise them on how to improve the results of their
email marketing campaigns, thus increasing the "stickiness" with Bronto. The
new approach was simple: each Client Services Associate was responsible for
reaching out to their clients on a regular basis to review their marketing goals
and provide advice on how to improve their results. During a call we review the
client's current goals & objectives and drill into specific recommendations to
improve results. Each call ends with a scheduled time for the next call. For
larger clients, the calls were more frequent and consultative. This was a
significant investment of resources and we had to grow the team to enable every
member to have the time in their schedule for the advisory calls. Since July
2007, the Client Service team has completed 960 consultative calls. Given that
we have 825 clients, this number is significant and has resulted in a measurable
impact on our renewal rate.

Specific results from our clients:

Max & Irma's, a restaurant client of Bronto's, stated that the best practices
email marketing advice resulted in a 300% increase in opts-ins to their Summer
Rewards Program BeauTies, a online retail client of Bronto's, saw a 75% in
their email marketing revenue through collaboration on list hygiene techniques
Wofford College, a university client of Bronto's, showed a 15% increase in
alumni event participation and an 89% increase in website traffic after
implementing the advice of the Client Service Associate.

Overall, as a result in the change in our service model, customer renewal rates
have increased to 96% over the last three quarters. This is a 5% increase over
the prior three quarters and approximately 10% higher than our peers in the
industry.

2. 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://bronto.com/customers/story/max-erma

http://bronto.com/customers/story/beauties

http://bronto.com/customers/story/wofford-college

3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated customer service organization:

Carolyn Sparano
Vice President of Client Services

As Vice President of Client Services, Carolyn has over 20 years of global
operations experience, spanning multi-functional disciplines including services
support, education, consulting, international support and business management.
Prior to joining Bronto, Carolyn was Vice President of Worldwide Product Support
for Red Hat. Carolyn also has a background in education and training as the
Vice President of Worldwide Training at Merant along with roles in professional
services; consulting and technical support. Carolyn received a Bachelor of
Finance from Syracuse University. She has also received certifications from the
Dale Carnegie Leadership Training Program, the Harvard Program on Negotiation,
and the Duke Leadership Development Program.