Today we continue the interview with Larry Streeter of Constant Contact...
MP: Walk us through a typical day in "your world"...
LS: Ha! A "typical" day would be atypical! But it's one of the things I love about Constant Contact. Every day is different. Meetings, developmental sessions with my direct reports, and feeding the communication channels across the organization consumes a lot of my time. But despite that, I'm still able to carve out time on a regular basis to listen to customer calls with my associates. Hearing the questions and concerns expressed by the customers keeps me grounded and always brings me back to that guiding principle: What can I do today to delight our customers?
MP: Through what channel or method do you receive most of your customer feedback and how do you handle it?
LS: Customer surveys are the single largest source of feedback we receive. We have company goals around customer satisfaction and the quantitative data from our surveys is rolled up and presented to the entire company monthly. It's highly motivating to see those scores each month! Free form comments provided by surveyed customers are read and rolled up into feedback provided to specific departments. For example, I can see a single report of all survey respondents who made comments specifically about the service provided by our teams. From that information, we can assess staff training needs, review policies that might be hindering our ability to delight the customer, and provide feedback to managers on associate performance.
MP: If you could give just one piece of advice to your customer support team, what would it be?
LS: Customer support jobs are among the toughest and most important in any company. Our associates are the "voice of Constant Contact" and it is not an easy job! Taking call after call can be a challenge and sometimes it's hard to keep that "delight the customer" smile in your voice!
I tell my associates to think about the last time they received really poor service from someone. Maybe it was at a restaurant or over the phone talking with your utility company. Remember how it felt to have someone gloss over a legitimate question or concern you expressed? To be talked down to in a condescending way? To have your concerns answered with a "Well, that's just the way it is" type of attitude? Remembering one of those "moments that matter" brings you back to that core value: delight the customer and leave them completely satisfied.MP: I like that Constant Contact has a Learning Center and a Blog. Does the company have plans to become more involved with other social media or social networking channels?
LS: We do have a social networking component of our site, called ConnectUp!. ConnectUp! is an online community where small businesses and organizations can connect to share their experiences, get ideas, ask questions, and help each other in all aspects related to email marketing, online surveys, and growing a successful business or organization. This is also a place where our customers can share their feedback with us, whether it’s product suggestions or ideas - which we love to receive.
Find out more about Constant Contact by visiting: www.constantcontact.com
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