Customer Care Policy Statement

We will support sales by demonstrably accepting the importance of all customers and by continuously exceeding individuals' expectations of us without losing sight of the fundamental requirements of our business.

Charter Elements

We will focus our organisation’s energy and attention on our customers to reflect the fact that each customer is of paramount importance to us.

Because we want to completely satisfy all our customers, we will regularly visit users to investigate their needs, so that we can do a better job.

We will treat communications from customers as being potentially business critical information.

We will try to be clear about everything we say or do, so as not to cause our customers any confusion.

We recognise how even the smallest detail can contribute to developing customer perceptions and the values that they associate with the e-Advantage Solutions brand.

Within e-Advantage Solutions we will treat each other with the same high level of consideration that we offer our customers to maximise efficiency, develop harmony, and stay practised in the skills associated with Customer Care.

In the beginning

e-Advantage Solutions was set up in 2000 as a profitable business to help other small businesses perform more efficiently with the aid of IT systems. We recognised that small businesses need reliability and assistance in using IT to innovate and improve efficiency. Our mainstay was that our business should be centred on the provision of a very high standard of customer service. The managing director, Peter Jenkins, explains:

My previous experience in the complaints department of a large organisation taught me that sometimes the best customers in the long run were ones where something had gone wrong but you sorted it out for them. People want to know that the service is provided by people who care about their individual circumstances’.

Commitment

We support sales by demonstrably accepting the importance of all customers and by continuously exceeding individuals' expectations of us without losing sight of the fundamental requirements of our business.

Innovation

Primarily, we do this by innovative use of our own IT systems. When a customer contacts us with a query, our database provides us with detailed background information such as records of all the previous phone calls and correspondence so we get a fuller picture of the customer’s business situation. At a glance, we can view all the current projects being worked on with the customer, links to all the parties involved, internal team members, contractors and other suppliers. This enables us to give them quicker and more relevant answers. There is also an easily searchable knowledgebase for our staff to use to find previous answers that we have given thus improving our efficiency. We estimate that 80% of our calls are answered in full by the first person the customer speaks to. In fact, a phone call to our office will also be put through to all staff mobiles and laptops but will be flagged so that the most relevant person answers it.

In the case of technical queries which need to be researched, we have a customer helpdesk extranet. The customer is automatically notified of their case number and any changes to the status of their case. Customers can log in to the extranet to check the progress of their case. Upon completion, customer feedback is requested as to the speed, courtesy, availability and efficiency of our service. We use this information to improve our systems or provide extra training where it is needed, and so we hope to create a ‘virtuous circle’ of ever improving customer service.

After attending a recent two-day innovation workshop we launched an online forum for our re-seller channel to communicate and share best practices. The techniques learnt also involve ongoing reassessment of the improved processes too.

The majority of our customers get a visit in person every other month but for those working further afield, we bought phone and internet conferencing services to give them this dedicated time too.

Furthermore, we offer these systems to our customers, so that they too can provide excellent customer service.

Consideration

We treat every phone call and email as if it were of potentially critical importance to our customer’s business. A phone call at 5:25pm would not be ignored just because it was at the end of the working day. Many of our clients are heavily reliant on our IT systems and it could mean that the customer wouldn’t be able to work the next day. For example, a customer recently had problems accessing their e-mails. We made helping them out of this a priority and had their emails rescued while the enquiries were still hot.

Being efficient is about getting things right the first time so we try to be clear about everything we say or do, so as not to cause our customers any confusion. Often initial contact queries will be followed up with a phone call for clarification of the problem. Also, if our products or services are not the best fit for a customer’s needs we will try and point them in the direction of something more relevant rather than sell something that may be nearly but not quite right.

Confirmation

Our customer care charter helped us achieve Investors in People Accreditation in 2002. Since then we have built upon our successes but have always kept excellent customer focus at the core of our business, as any of our customers would confirm. In fact, many believe we have gone far beyond their customer service expectations.