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ShopKeep POS

How to EnterCompany: ShopKeep POS, New York, NY
Company Description: ShopKeep POS, a rapidly expanding company based in New York City, provides cloud based point-of-sale software for managing retail shops and restaurants. Founded and designed by a retailer, we pride ourselves on understanding the challenges of growing a retail business.
Nomination Category: Customer Service Awards Department Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Customer Service Department of the Year – Computer Software - Up to 100 Employees

Nomination Title: ShopKeep POS

Tell the story about what this nominated department achieved 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:  TEXT REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION

Few business founders have walked a mile in their customer’s shoes. Jason Richelson has walked many. He founded ShopKeep based on his experience as a retailer; frustrated with a product and service he thought should be better. He built the business the way a customer would want to experience it, founded on a deep understanding of what brick and mortar retailers go through everyday. ShopKeep was founded with Customer Care at the core.

One year ago ShopKeep faced a challenge – how to grow the business rapidly without compromising the customer experience. At that time the Customer Care team was eight and serving 3,000 happy customers.

Mr. Richelson and his Customer Care Director, Matt Palmer, did several things:

-Gave Customer Care a seat at the boardroom table as an important stakeholder in decision making.
-Sat the Customer Care, Product and Engineering teams together so that customer feedback drove product development.
-Tracked metrics including email ratings, App Store reviews, response times and incoming support cases.
-Invested in a Community Forum and Help Site to give customers easy access to resources and an open forum for feedback.

Today, ShopKeep serves more than 10,000 customers. The Customer Care team, now 17 strong, increased by more than 100% while customer volume tripled. Mr. Palmer started by hiring ahead of growth, and then found that by investing in easy-to-use online resources like the Community Forum and Help Site, the team were able to reduce the number of daily incoming support cases by almost 50%.

ShopKeep has continued to invest in resources for customers, including:

-Dedicated team members to manage the Forum and Help Site.
-Regular posts from the CEO and CTO on the Community Forum and company blog.
-A dedicated business resource center - TheLeanRetailer.com - full of practical advice to help retailers start, mangage and grow their businesses.

The Customer Care team also:

-Increased customer email response ratings by 500%, and maintained an average rating of 9.4 out of 10 based on customer feedback.
-Cut email response time in half to one hour on a weekday and three hours on the weekend.
-Created a bespoke, one-click ‘happiness tracker’ to make it easy for customers to rate interactions with Customer Care. Response rates jumped a further 14% after launch, and live ratings are displayed around the office.
-In addition, more than 60% of positive App Store reviews now relate specifically to Customer Care.

As an investment in his leadership development, Mr. Palmer recently spent a week with renowned customer service brand Zappos to see what ShopKeep could learn from their success. On his return, he led the company to produce a ‘core values’ charter including promises like ‘delight customers everyday’ and ‘foster open and honest dialogue’. The charter was signed by each employee and hangs on the walls as a daily reminder of ShopKeep’s commitment.

ShopKeep’s absolute mission is to make retailers successful; to make their days happier and to make the service we provide unintimidating and friendly.

Our approach is best summed up by this customer:

“Any dealings have been like dealing with friends. Very personal, prompt, one-on-one support.” Pat Clancey, By Invitation Only

 

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

Matt Palmer brings an unorthodox background to ShopKeep POS. He has spent his career working in retail stores and as an ameteur actor and director, both of which have gifted him a unique perspective and skill-set. Mr. Palmer has stood behind the counter, so he understands what his customers go through every day. His experience on and off the stage has also given him excellent communication, people and leadership skills. Mr. Palmer started as a part-time ShopKeep employee and quickly rose through the ranks as his talents and extremely high standards were recognized and rewarded. He was recently promoted to VP of Customer Care and Culture, charged with ensuring ShopKeep’s core values are lived and breathed by the whole business everyday.