The executives and managers at VoIP Supply all have and advertise an open door policy to our employees. Remarkably many staff do not take advantage of this opportunity, even though it is encouraged and the outcome is nearly always better than expected.

Regardless of the reason for making the initial visit, the outcome and direction of the conversation generally goes somewhere completely different, with greater-than-expected results. Typical open door uses are when there is an issue or opportunity outside of the authorization level for the individual employee to approve. Certainly an excellent reason to walk in and engage your manager, but managers and directors should seize that opportunity to address that issue and pry into more detail with that specific employee.

Rather than extinguish the fire, dive in and find out more details so you can address it at that time, and prevent it from reoccurring in the future for that employee or customer or others.

With the rapid pace of growth and change within our organization, it is easy to lose touch with the philosophy and overall direction of the company. It is also simple enough to change old habits or intra- department myths and beliefs. It is just as easy to uncover when someone, who has been using their best judgment to address a process or problem in a particular manner, is not using an ideal or practical approach for the best interests of the customer and the company.

With as many rules, processes, and procedures as we and most companies have, it requires interaction with your employees to review the best practices, while working with them to improve their environment and efficiency. This is also done while working towards the common goal of providing the best possible customer experience.

Everyone is busy these days, myself included, but that does not mean that it makes sense to ignore the time needed by my staff, or that my needs are more important than theirs. Taking time to hear staff concerns and to ask questions about their day, their needs, and their wish lists always opens the door to improving the customer experience, company efficiency and workplace attitude.

In that respect, I highly encourage my staff to take time from their day as often as possible and come to see me, talk about something, and dig into ways to improve. I also encourage my management staff to adopt the same attitude when it comes to what many could consider an interruption to their day or a staff member not doing what they should be.

Speak up.

Typical Guarantee line of Questioning

“May I ask, what is your back-up plan?”

Have you ever been asked this question by a salesperson? I’m asking you now. Don’t look at this as “pushy” sales guy Phil looking to boost his sale. I’m imperfect in a lot of ways, but I’m not pushy. But just answer the question.

Okay forget about me asking this question. What if your manager asks you this question? I know what your first word will be.

“Uhhhhhhhhhhhh….”

A typical scenario may play out as follows:

PHIL: Well thank you again “Percy” for your order for two phones. Those will ship Fed Ex two-day, and you will receive them Monday. I’ll call you later with the tracking.

PERCY: Thanks Phil, I look forward to hearing from you.

PHIL: Percy, before you go, what is your back-up plan?

PERCY: Back-up plan for what, Phil?

PHIL: For the phones.

PERCY: Oh. Well they’re covered under the manufacturer warranty correct?

PHIL: Yes. There is a one-year limited manufacturer’s warranty covering defects.

PERCY: I’m all set then, PHILIP.

PHIL: Percy, what if the phone breaks, is damaged or fails to work 366 days from now? What if it breaks or is damaged within 365 days? I know the manufacturer is not going to cover you in these cases. You do plan on using these phones a year from tomorrow right?

PERCY: Well I guess I’ll order some new phones.

PHIL: That will work. At $100 each you could spend $200 for the phones on this order and $400 total for two phones to use now and two for back-up to leave in the supplies closet.

PERCY: We cannot be without phones, but $400? I guess I’ll talk to our manager and get approval for a couple more. Thanks Phil.

PHIL: Hold everything Percy! What if I told you for $120 per phone I’ll cover any defect, damage, breakage or failure for three years or 1095 days of coverage? Your cost for a back-up plan drops 40 percent. You’re not spending $400, you’re spending $240. Not to mention it supersedes the manufacturer’s warranty and there are no questions asked, no standing in a call queue waiting for an answer. No time explaining what went wrong. Just call me and make me aware, ship the phone back to me in one or a thousand pieces, and….

PERCY: and….

PHIL: and…POOF! New phone, Percy!

PERCY: Phil, tell me more about the VoIP Supply Warranty.

PHIL: Check this link out Percy, and we’ll go over it together.

I send Percy the link: go3 warranty

Percy signs up for the warranty that day and looks like a hero to his manager.

Call a specialist at VoIP Supply today and find 1001 more reasons to consider the go³ Warranty as a secure and viable back-up plan that will cover all your telephony hardware! Follow us!

Our customers are our most valuable asset, and are a group of people that we strive to impress all day, every day. With more than 57,000 customers since August 2004, growing the company from 5 employees to 65 employees, more than 100,000 shipments and over $65,000,000 in gross VoIP equipment sales, I can safely say that we have had some hurdles to overcome, but have always placed the customer first and done our best to over-deliver.

Over the years there have been a few instances where we just plain got it all wrong. Like any growing business, we have made decisions that started with good intentions but ended up with poor results. Some customers have been nice enough to point out these issues to others; other customers have taken part in our customer satisfaction surveys and brought to light many areas where we can improve. The purpose of this post and others to follow is to highlight some areas of need and our plans to improve.

Returns: One area that has been a thorn in our side (and the side of many retailers) is the handling of product returns. No one likes to have to return a product and most are upset to begin with since the device is not working. Once upon a time our process for returns was slow and inconsistent with poor communication throughout the process. I am happy to say that this has been addressed and has improved, and that we have plans to continue improving the process even further. With dedicated staff, refined returns criteria, additional returns details/options printed on the packing slip and invoice, automated communications with each customer through various stages of the process and transparency, and expectations each customer should have make the end result far more positive.

Since we are not a manufacturer, we are not able to ensure that the products work, only that they can be replaced efficiently, if and when they break. From our experience and customer feedback, one common theme has been not knowing what status of the return is. We now communicate with each customer when a request for a Return Merchandise Authorization has been received, when an RMA number is granted or declined, when an RMA expires, when the return is received in our warehouse, when it has been tested, when the tested return is approved or declined and when the final credit is processed. This entire procedure now has service level assurances included where the testing and processing must be completed within 48 hours, and initial RMA requests are all handled within one business day or sooner.

There are dozens of other customer service projects and initiatives going on; I will detail them in future posts. Most are related to communications in one manner or another. With effective, consistent and proactive communications, our customers are always informed and able to focus on their needs without the distraction of tracking down their products.