Protection 1 Prospers by Making People Priority One
SSI’s 2014 Installer of the Year (Large Company) is obsessed with taking care of customers. Protection 1 accomplishes this mission by aligning the entire organization around the customer experience and gby investing in its employees.
Personalizing Customer Service
Protection 1’s commitment to customer service is based on an executive team that shares a common background in Six Sigma and a passion for data, analysis and striving toward excellence. The company’s emphasis on individual experiences rather than averages has led to an internal employee campaign called “Every 1 Counts” that stresses the critical importance of every call, every interaction, and every customer.
“This kind of philosophy keeps us focused on improving the experience by looking at every employee’s metrics to determine where there is an opportunity for improvement, and looking into centers of success for repeatability,” says Whall. “Our mission drives us to exceed customer expectations at all points of interaction while constantly looking for ways to promote customer loyalty.”
Metrics for employees and leaders revolve around the customer whereby a technician receives compensation on customer quality scores, call center agents are scored according to customer quality ratings and general managers have a significant portion of their compensation based on customer experience. To those associates’ great credit, customers have expressed a 97.3% satisfaction rating (based on monthly results incorporating nearly 100,000 surveys at various points of interaction).
As part of P1’s robust customer service quality assurance (QA) program, on a monthly basis four to six calls from each representative are reviewed and scored against the QA team’s published metrics. The rep’s performance metrics also include being graded for the ability to provide a personal experience and go ‘above and beyond’ by reviewing the account to ensure no other actions or recent activity requests are open on the account. Reps are coached weekly in one-on-one sessions with supervisors who have completed Protection 1’s Five Star Coaching certification program.
RELATED: How P1 Performs at a 97% Customer Satisfaction Level
All calls are answered in less than 60 seconds, fewer than 10% of calls are transferred and no one waits for more than 30 seconds. Similar measures are in place across the organization, from sales to installation, technical service and everything in between.
“In all areas of this customer-impacting data, we are very trans-parent with our employees so they know exactly what is going on,” says P1 Senior Vice President of Sales Bob Dale. “This helps tremendously with our overall customer experience because everyone is on the same page. Our report card is also shared with customers to show how we measure each customer experience. Our visible service levels make it critical we achieve and maintain our goals, ensuring a great customer experience day in and day out.”
Employees Encouraged, Empowered
That kind of close scrutiny of employees only works if the human resources side of the business is in order. That means recruiting the right people, placing them in roles that match abilities and interests, adequate training and ensuring they have the proper skillsets, communicating effectively to crystalize the corporate vision and getting buy-in, supporting their efforts and chances for success,
and guiding and motivating them with incentives and a fulfilling career path.
“One of the best approaches to hiring is to take the approach of having our best employees recommend friends and family,” says Chief Marketing & Customer Experience Officer Jamie Haenggi. “Our employees understand our culture, the expectations, the accountability, the workload and they know whether this is an environment for a friend or family member. We feel if a candidate is hard-working, believes in the company and wants to deliver outstanding customer service, then Protection 1 is the place to be.”
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About the Author
Scott Goldfine
Scott Goldfine is the marketing director for Elite Interactive Solutions. He is the former editor-in-chief and associate publisher of Security Sales & Integration. He can be reached at [email protected].
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