We hear from a lot of people at trade shows or through social media about how they like our product, but rarely do I get to see firsthand how our product works and makes a difference in a customer’s workday. I recently had an opportunity to build a relationship with a key advocate of our product and it proved the old adage that if you do right by your customers that they’ll do right by you.
Earlier this year, we sent out a satisfaction survey to our customers. The feedback in the survey was very positive, but the response from Ron Rivet, the Network Operations Section Manager for Amica, stood out for its support. I wanted to thank him for participating and also see if he’d be willing to collaborate on a case study, so I gave him a call. Ron was very pleasant and happy with the product and told the story about how he originally decided to acquire sound masking for Amica. More details can be found here, but the long and short of it is that way back in 2006 Amica’s branch locations (which function as call centers/customer service hubs for incoming claims and payments) were experiencing common office noise problems – distracting crosstalk in the open office area, and some conversations in private offices being overheard in the open office area. Ron did some research about sound masking and came up to our office for a live demo. Impressed, he tested it at a couple branch locations. It solved their problems, so now our sound masking is part of every Amica branch renovation or relocation.
I asked Ron if he’d mind saying a few things on camera about the product and he graciously accepted. We also filmed some general office footage of the Westborough, MA office (one of the first to install sound masking back in 2006) for a brand video we were shooting. It was cool to see the product in action and you could tell that it was helping make the call center environment more acoustically comfortable. For his part, Ron mentioned he liked the product because a) it works and b) as a systems manager it was easy to manage the system and ensure it was working properly at all of the branch locations. He also mentioned that on the few occasions he’d worked with CSM staff directly that we were friendly and easy to work with and that goes a long way with him.
As if Ron hadn’t done enough for us he also recently agreed to be interviewed by Information Week for a story they were doing on speech privacy in the workplace. The article discussed how Amica finds sound masking useful for ensuring the sensitive data discussed on claims calls isn’t overheard.
Every time I thank Ron for all he’s done for us in terms of being an advocate and promoting our product, he simply says it’s no problem – he likes the product so he doesn’t mind talking about it. As an employee, and as a marketer, that’s always encouraging and reminds you that every customer is a potential megaphone for your company so you better make sure you do your part to make sure they’re satisfied with your products and service.