Managing Multiple Team Members

The majority of BOLD’s Client Service team members have worked in the restaurant industry. In working in the restaurant we’ve all been taught different skill sets that would apply in the payment processing industry.

When working in a restaurant, we are taught to perform constant “check backs”, communicate when there’s a delay or an issue, and take care of our guests as we would like to be. That concept is transferable to most industries involving customer service. We have adopted this method to place customers first and want to ensure that all of our partners’ needs are met, no matter the issue. From the onboarding process through their time as our partner, follow-up and constant communication are key. Our ISV and VAR partners should feel comfortable and confident in knowing that BOLD team members are available to see their issues through resolution. 

How We Keep Our Partners “In the Loop”

Communication with our partners while resolving their issues is key. We communicate the progress of their Cases and how we are working to resolve the issue. The constant communication with our partner shows transparency, provides a timeline of when a resolution is expected and lets them know once the issue is resolved and the request has been completed. 

Applying Multiple Skill Sets Throughout the Team

Like the typical company, our team has a lot of different personalities. What makes our teamwork so well with each other is we delegate responsibilities and allow each person to grow within their role while here at BOLD. Everyone is willing to put our partners first. This is what continues our success as a team. Our amazing leadership is what helps us respect all team members.

There are a number of sub-departments within our Client Services team, and we use our strengths to uplift each other as well as help our partners. This in itself allows our team to stay focused on what we are doing correctly as a whole and look for ways to improve our customer service experience for our partners. Reputation precedes itself: we’ve been referred to work with new partners because they’ve heard about the work we can do. 

Taking Advantage of Customer Feedback Tools

Customer feedback tools have become essential for BOLD and is something you can quickly adopt with your team. If you’d like to see a change within your team and gain a better understanding of your client’s satisfaction, using feedback tools will help you with continued success. 

Feedback Tool #1

Perhaps the most valuable way for BOLD to gauge our partners’ satisfaction is by using our Case Closure Feedback Tool. When a case is closed, an email notification goes out to our partners providing an update, resolution, and request for feedback. The survey consists of a simple 1-5 rating and we generally receive feedback for around 5% of the Cases we close. The Survey Results are then attached to the Case and are then associated with the Representative/Case Owner.

Tell Us How We Did

Please Click on the Star Rating Below to Provide Feedback on Your Recently Closed Case

The surveys allow us to see what ways we need to improve as well as ways we are succeeding. The reporting breaks down each response by team rep. We also have internal notification systems that alert management when a low score comes in. When receiving the alert it allows us to know what issues were experienced from the partner so it can be addressed immediately. 

The survey has helped our Client Services teams’ continued growth and allowed learning experiences for those who have just joined our BOLD team. This allows our veteran team members to be able to collaborate and help each other as well as our partners. This feedback is vital and a way we measure our growth throughout the CS and Partner relationship.

Tools
Salesforce Cases
Salesforce Surveys

Feedback Tool #2

Internal Messaging Systems (Slack) has become a vital part of sharing updates when a partner offers positive feedback for our reps. The representative is immediately acknowledged in a Core_Values Slack Channel and the post is celebrated as a team. 

Slack has drastically streamlined communication within our Client Services Team as well as all departments of the organization. It offers immediate access to multiple team members who have knowledge towards a particular question without the clunkiness of email. Plus, answers are cataloged and can be searched by all members of the team if/when the question comes up again. 

If they know there is an issue with a partner and they are on the phone, it is easy for them to be able to instant message a team member and ask a question.This allows team members a chance to gain an understanding of the situation and limit the back and forth. If the team member does not have an answer, we escalate the question to the rest of the Client Services team through certain Slack channels, allowing even team members busy on a call to answer if they can. This allows the issue at hand to be resolved. 

Are you an ISV or VAR looking for ways to organize your support team? 

Contact us below for more information

Last week we covered what makes BOLD’s Client Services Team so successful. This week’s topic discusses how BOLD manages and categorizes the Case types that come in and the vast amounts of information we use for troubleshooting.

How BOLD Categorizes Incoming Cases and Distributes Among the Team

Organizing Cases

BOLD’s approach to categorizing our Cases is a four-tiered process. Each tier is the method we use to keep our incoming cases organized and pull reporting based on support’s workload.

Tier 1- Customer Type: Our system automatically assigns Cases to either the PRM or Client Services Queue based on the Customer Type field. 

Tier 2- Case Type: A general grouping of Cases that can be used to assign these cases to a specific team within the PRM or CS team. For example, BOLD’s Case Type for “Setup/Terminal Builds” can automatically be designated to the team or member who specializes in file builds.

Tier 3- Case Category: Case Category adds more detail to the Case Type. In the example listed above, a file build might pertain to a specific gateway or terminal (i.e.- setting up an Auth.net account or building a Pax file for a partner). This allows us to choose a Case Owner who is more familiar with different boarding systems. 

Tier 4- Stage/Category: This tier allows us to track the progression of these Cases. A Case Stage may start at “Awaiting on VAR Information” but can be moved to “Awaiting File Build” once the VAR information comes in. 

It is important to note that there are a number of triggers/notifications built into our CRM system that might assign tasks to a team member or send an email to a group based on the selected Case Type or Category. 

Distributing Case Categories to Team Members

BOLD’s Case Types and Categories are primarily handled by designated Customer Service Reps who specialize in that topic/field.  This allows us to distribute Cases based on current workload and expertise/experience. This also ensures we are not offloading more labor-intensive Cases onto someone who is already at capacity or requires more training. 

For example, when we handle more straightforward Cases, such as bank or fee changes,  these are distributed to the entire team so every team member gains experience with these types of cases. We do this to give everyone an opportunity to grow into their position. We are a team and work as a team.

The simpler Cases are designated to new team members so they can understand and acclimate themselves with internal systems and day-to-day communication with partners. This provides new reps real-time experience in Case management and builds their confidence as harder Case Categories are assigned to them as they gain more knowledge and experience with cases.

Managing Vast Amounts of Information

There is no doubt that one can drown in the overwhelming information when it comes to point-of-sale and merchant processing. The industry is constantly evolving and so are the regulations. No two cases are alike and that is what makes each partner unique. One approach BOLD has taken to organize this information in order to stay ahead is to rely heavily on a Knowledge Base that we have made available to our internal team and partners. 

Internal Knowledge Base Documentation

BOLD isn’t shy when it comes to the upkeep of our internal Knowledge Base. One important rule we have is Document Everything. Whenever someone learns something new, it’s important to document and save it to the Knowledge Base so everyone has a reference if that issue were to come up again. This has cut down the number of internal questions dramatically as our internal rule is always “check the Internal KB”. 

Using the Knowledge Base to Cross-Train

BOLD designates one member from the PRM and CS team to manage the articles available for the Knowledge Base. While one person may be in charge for the organization, the entire team is responsible for the information. This allows us to familiarize certain team members with topics by giving them the opportunity to research and write up an article further developing their training. 

External Knowledge Base Documentation

Perhaps the biggest benefit our knowledge base provides our partners is that they have access to our research. The knowledge base is readily available with information to help our partners. When creating a knowledge base article, BOLD selects whether to designate the article for internal use only (i.e.- Standard Operating Procedures) or give external partners access (i.e.- steps for troubleshooting error codes). 

For example, assuming a partner needs to perform an OS update for a PAX terminal, our partners can simply search our knowledge base or our internal reps can email a link from the Case covering a step-by-step guide to do so (found here). Furthermore, Salesforce can identify similar cases based on history and recommend articles to future reps if the issue were to arise again.

All of the information above is the process we chose to adopt to continue our success with our partners as well as how we manage our cases and information here at BOLD. 

Next week we will share our final Blog – Managing Multiple Team members and how to take advantage of our customer feedback tools. 

(Coming soon)
Part 3 of 3:
Managing Multiple team members 
Taking advantage of the customer feedback tools

Are you an ISV or VAR looking for ways to organize your support team? 

Contact us below for more information