Pandemic Customer Service … It still matters
How many times have you heard, “Thanks for your patience during COVID 19”… or “Due to COVID 19 we can no longer do…” what you were counting on them to do. Clearly, the scope of business disruption caused by the pandemic, and the inconsistent, ever-changing government responses to it, has been catastrophic. Anyone waiting for things to get “back to normal”, is in for an indefinite wait and a rude awakening. But at W W Payment Systems we found a silver lining… an elevated commitment to customer service.
When the “shelter in place” orders came down, and friends and colleagues started contracting the virus, we asked ourselves one simple question… What will it take to sustain our customer service levels? Can we even do it?
We started by telling our customers it would be “business as usual”. We told them they can count on us to be here for them, just like always. Then we scrambled to deliver on that promise. We knew our larger competitors would have trouble manning their call center phone lines, and their responses in “day to day” business transactions would be slower. We staffed up to be sure that was not the case with us. We added a “swing shift” to give our team physical distancing in our offices. The result of that move was expedited “same day” invoice delivery. Some of our team were already working remotely, so they stayed on that course. Thankfully we had a head start on that.
We reached out to our bank partners and other key vendors to make sure we understood what challenges they were facing… and what steps we needed to take to backstop them. The “contingency plans” that evolved are great new alternatives for us, that we would never have explored if not for COVID.
In short, it’s totally understandable that businesses won’t be able to do things as they always have. What we are learning, is that’s a good thing. The survivors will be those who can adapt, and even excel in these times. To my mind, COVID was a kick in the butt we needed.
Be safe, and Roll on. M C W
W W Payment Systems is an invoice factor for trucking companies.