One key success factor has been collecting customer feedback and ratings of our service in a systematic, rigorous, and actionable way throughout the customer lifecycle. Using Medallia, our service platform for gathering customer feedback, we have made a significant investment in a “voice of the customer” program infused into the company DNA. We’re always actively listening to what our customers say, whether in surveys, our online community, or through service and support.
The most critical element to our voice of the customer program is that it is a closed-loop process: Whenever a customer satisfaction rating falls short of our goal, automated alerts go to supervisors all the way up the chain to my office. We address both the immediate customer issue and the root cause, working within the support organization to identify personnel, process, or training issues and resolve. We also work with peers in product management, engineering, or sales to prevent other customers from having the same issues. We know the customer experience reflects the sum of the experiences we deliver from across the organization.
As a result, our overall customer satisfaction scores have steadily improved. Independent benchmark studies indicate our strategy is working well. We recently received a Bronze Stevie® Award in the “Customer Service Team of the Year” category. That’s a nice recognition, but what thrills us is the feedback that we hear from our customers every day.
Many customers make RingCentral services central to their strategy for delivering exceptional service to their own customers. Because we play such an important role in their day-to-day operations, we are passionate and dedicated to our customer’s long term success.
On the other hand, great service can be disarming. Even the most critical customers are pleasantly surprised when we contact them after a report of a poor experience – offering help within minutes after they have recorded their complaint. When we show our responsiveness, we can turn detractors into promoters. Even when we don’t have an instant solution, it makes an incredible difference when people know we are not only listening to their feedback but acting on it.
Of course, delivering the best service up front is much better than rescuing a customer relationship on the brink. We particularly focus on the first 90 days of customer experience. This is where people form lasting impressions of our products and our company that we want to translate into long-term loyalty.
Our free basic implementation service, offered to most customers, includes help with configuration, knowledge transfer and employee training — designed to ensure our customers can use our solution effectively and with long-term success. We offer enterprise customers free migration services for switching from an older PBX phone system or another hosted service. From experience, we can spare them many of the challenges of moving to a new platform.
When I joined the organization two years ago, we provided almost all customer service over the phone. Today we provide multiple channels. These include customer service and technical support chat, self-service knowledge base, and online community where customers can help each other (or discover that their question has already been asked and answered). This allows all customers to select their communication preference with RingCentral.
Here are some principles that we live by in my customer success organization. See if they can apply to you in your organization:
- Proactively ensure customer satisfaction from the beginning.
- Communicate aggressively and frequently: Customers today are impatient and competitors are just a click away.
- Listen to your customers and then follow up relentlessly.
- Treat new customers like gold and recognize their value forever.
A great product with great customer service is a winning combination – well worth the effort it takes.
Originally published Jul 09, 2015, updated Dec 30, 2022
