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Guidebook

How to EnterCompany: Guidebook, San Francisco, CA
Company Description: Guidebook gives businesses and schools an easy, inexpensive way to create mobile guides for conferences, locations, meetings and events, no matter how small or large.
Nomination Category: Customer Service & Call Center Awards Achievement Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Use of Technology in Customer Service

Nomination Title: Guidebook Customer Success: Technology Means Happiness

Tell the story about how technology has improved your customer service initiatives since the beginning of July 2012 (up to 525 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:

We are in the business of mobile technology, and as mobile users ourselves, we know how frustrating it can be when encountering technical difficulties. At Guidebook Inc., one of the chief concerns of our Customer Success Team is making sure our product is easy to use, regardless of a client's comfort level with technology.

From late 2012 we have been using different technology tools to make sure we meet all their needs. Our first choice was to set up an account with Zendesk, the leader in help desk ticketing, so that we could better respond to client concerns sent via email and our web forms. It was an improvement to answering emails through gmail and the integrated dashboard we set up helped us prioritize urgent issues, assign tickets to the appropriate Associate, and keep communication streamlined and organized.

Zendesk also allows us to keep track of our metrics and satisfaction ratings, helping us keep tabs not only on agent performance, but also on support load, so that no single team member has too heavy a burden. We have also set up a searchable support forum, which includes dynamic videos that allow users to get quick overviews of our best features.

In addition to the email support and forums, we have strived to give clients the option to contact us in whatever way works best for them. Besides regular phone support, we have a weekend/early morning support rotation, so that urgent client requests are addressed even outside of office hours. Our chat client also went live at the start of the year. We have found that offering different support channels allows us to provide the most flexibility in dealing with clients, thereby increasing their satisfaction.

Another initiative of our team is ensuring that clients are using all the features they have paid for. We do this in two ways: by checking on their guide before it goes live; and by reaching out to users whose events are coming up in two weeks. If we feel like there is a great feature included in their plan that they have not yet added, we reach out with some handy tips for how to include it. In order to streamline what would be an otherwise tedious process, our system is set up to include quick checks on features and filled-in information.

Of course, all of these technological innovations would mean nothing if they weren't adding up to measurable improvements in customer satisfaction. We have compiled metrics across different systems and all of them show how our support efforts have translated to happy customers. Among our more recent results, we can boast of a 98.74% Satisfied or Highly Satisfied rating on our Customer Happiness Survey, a 100% Satisfaction rating on Zendesk for the last four weeks, a Net Promoter Score of 100%, and over 830 guides created – that means new users, downloads, and product applications – over the last three months.

Our company is only two years old but has already seen immense growth and adoption in its field, and the Customer Success team is leading the charge for retention across all verticals.

 

Provide a brief (up to 125 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated customer service organization:

At Guidebook, the Customer Success Team members report directly to the CEO, Jeff Lewis. However, Jeff is hands-off enough that we really lead ourselves – and of course, hold each other accountable to deliver great service! The CSA team is truly a joint effort between members, and we make sure to keep each other cheerful and motivated to work hard. The customer success team is composed of Nolan Wilson, Lauren Kennedy, Jacob Wittenberg, Christian Stump, and Isabel Yap. Although we have very different backgrounds, our passion for service – as well as great food, animated gifs, and silly puns – keeps us united.