Devoted to customer service and the principles of exceptional customer services

If you're a business owner and have a database of customers you keep in touch with via email, you've probably heard about the company, Constant Contact.  Keeping in touch with your customers on a consistent basis is important and Constant Contact has many types of services to help business owners including email marketing, newsletter templates and customer surveys.  I have personally used Constant Contact and was pleased with the ease of use. 

Recently I had the chance to interview Larry Streeter, the Vice President of Customer Support at Constant Contact.  This is part 1 of 2 of the interview…

MP: How long have you worked for the company and what is your main role as VP of Customer Contact?

LS: I've been with Constant Contact for just over two years which has just flown by!  As leader of the support organization, I have responsibilities for the contact center that provides phone, live chat, and email support, our eServices group which is responsible for delivering relevant and easy-to-use online self help options, and our Compliance team who help customers understand and adopt best practices in email list management.

MP:  What keeps you motivated?

LS:  What really drives all of our Support staff on a daily basis is the growth of the company resulting from a great product and the awe-inspiring service we provide our customers. Customers often go out of their way to send us an email praising the Support associate that just answered their question, and it reminds all of us how much impact we have on fueling that continual growth!

MP:  In your position, what is the biggest challenge you face and what are you doing to overcome it?

LS:  What motivates us is also the biggest challenge: Growth!  Staying ahead of that growth is always a challenge from a headcount and facilities point of view.   The great thing about Constant Contact is that we always want to "ride the wave" and proactively manage to that growth.  It's always better to have the wave under your feet than over your head!

MP: What is the customer service "mission statement" of Constant Contact?

Delight the Customer.  That plain and simple statement is one of the Core Values of the company and everything we do is centered around delivering against that principle.  Do your best to completely satisfy the customer on every call, chat, or email.  Do this well and your customers will reward you handsomely.

MP:  What kind of training process does your customer service support go through?

I'm proud to say that we have a very rigorous training process for new Support associates at Constant Contact.  Investing in the onboarding of new hires into the Support organization is the cornerstone of providing that "awe-inspiring" service interaction.  A full three weeks is spent learning our products, internal systems, and customer service principles through classroom, self study, and many hours listening to calls with experienced reps.   It's a very interactive process, designed to have them experience things through the eyes of our customer, enabling them to understand the customer's perspective.

But it doesn't end there.  Ongoing training and development is a regular part of each Support associate's life here at Constant Contact and our management team focuses the majority of their efforts leading that effort.  The knowledge and skills that associates learn in the classroom are reinforced daily through interactions with their managers during team meetings, refresher training, call quality sessions, "interning" in other departments, and one on one developmental meetings. 

Stay tuned tomorrow for part 2 of the interview!