Company: Accero, Lake Oswego, OR
Entry Submitted By: Charisma Communications
Company Description: Accero is a trusted Payroll, Human Resources and Human Capital Management software and service provider with over 35 years of success in the industry. The company provides Software-as-a Service (SaaS) and licensed solutions that are scalable, flexible and designed to securely manage mission-critical HR and payroll functions.
Nomination Category: Customer Service & Call Center Team Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Customer Service Team of the Year - Recovery Situation

Nomination Title: Accero Turns Underappreciated Customers Into Raving Fans

Tell the story about what this nominated team achieved since the beginning of July last year (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Summary:

Tom Malone, President and CEO of Accero (formerly Cyborg) had a simple
objective – make every one of Accero’s customers a raving fan. Prior to Accero
acquiring the assets of Cyborg, many of Accero’s 200+customers had not
received a visit in years and felt undervalued and under-appreciated. Malone
broke the campaign into four steps in order to win them back: executive
visits, a comprehensive CRM system, innovative product enhancements and a pro-
active and engaged customer service team.

Executive Visits – Malone wanted customers to hear Accero’s message directly
from the top: the company valued the customer relationship, welcomed feedback
and would soon be responding to current customer feedback with new technology
and improved services. To get that message across, he segmented Accero’s
customer list and gave each executive on his team a portion of the list.
Accero’s entire executive team, lead by Malone, took the next two months to
visit, in-person, every single Accero customer. The directive was simple, let
the customer know every individual at the company was there to listen to their
needs and committed to their long-term success with Accero’s HCM product
suite.

Comprehensive CRM – Malone focused on the “R’ in CRM – “relationship” - and
instructed his team to create an on-line customer service portal.; Malone
wanted to provide a central resource where Accero’s customers could search a
knowledge base, see answers to common questions and be alerted to news about
regulatory updates and new releases. The team also strengthened the 24/7
customer support structure and promised a higher level of service than the
customer base had experienced in a decade, keeping a maximum one hour response
time for critical production issues.

Innovative Product Enhancements – Under prior ownership, the frequency and
scale of product enhancements was relatively minimal, often little more than
regulatory updates.; Malone hired new leadership for the development, put in a
seasoned product management team and built a product roadmap to share with the
customers during the executive visits.; Within one year of acquiring the
Cyborg customers and product assets, Accero delivered the most feature- rich
product release in over 10 years.

Engaged and Pro-active Support Team – The customer support team was taken off
the phones for three days to participate in intensive training. To make sure
customers still received service during the Customer Support Summit, former
customer support team members working within other areas of Accero provided
coverage. During the training, the team was asked to brainstorm ways to add
value to each customer interaction and look for ways to elicit delight from
customers in order to create the “raving fans” Malone envisioned. In addition,
a “critical care” room was created where support and development resources
could work together to quickly resolve complex support issues.

Results:
The executive visits were a hit. Often an Accero VP would walk into a
customer’s office facing frosty stares and crossed arms and walk out to claps
on the back and warm handshakes from the customer.

With a “big R” CRM system and 24/7 support, one Accero support team member was
able to work with a customer to prevent a production stop that would have
jeopardized on-time delivery of every employee’s pay. This issue involved the
client’s primary technical employee being away on vacation, so the Accero
support consultant worked more than 27 hours over a weekend and through the
week to get their issues resolved; essentially serving as an outsourced IT
resource to ensure the customer’s success.

Through the engaged support team, Accero was able to set up an “emergency
preparation procedure” for another customer who was moving their entire IT
operations over to a new data center over Labor Day weekend. The scope of
support needed was outside of Accero’s regular payroll services, but through
an emergency support plan, beeper notification system and call chain, Accero
was able to provide the customer the support they needed to successfully make
the move.

These are just a few examples of ways Accero is making each and every customer
a raving fan. The company recently sent out customer satisfaction surveys and
the results coming in are clear – Accero is getting “rave” reviews.

Team:
Tom Malone, President
Rose Fealy, Vice President and General Manager
Grace Van Til, Director of NA Customer Operations
Sherry Sutphen, Customer Support Manager
Tim Hicklin, Help Desk Manager

List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

Article in HR Executive: Includes quote from Accero's CEO Tom Malone that
supports their raving fan initiative. "Job #1 is making existing clients
happy."
http://www.hreonline.com/HRE/story.jsp?storyId=236798821

Accero's e-newsletter: A vehicle to share information as well as gain
feedback from clients. It was designed to help facilite relationship building
with their customers. It includes an "Ask the President"
feature, "Conversations" section where an Accero expert answers customer
questions, information and link to the new Customer Service Portal and
Resource Center, as well as "Tips and Tricks" for users.
http://www.accero.com/newsletter/feb2009/accero_newsletter_february.pdf

Accero-Cyborg Annual User Conference: Accero (formerly Cyborg) hosts an annual
user conference to bring users together for educational sessions and one-on-
one consulting with Accero experts. It also serves as a forum for customers to
share ideas and provide valuable feedback to Accero executives and the product
management team.
http://www.accero.com/AnnouncementRetrieve.aspx?ID=28639

Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated team:

Rose Fealy,; Vice President and General Manager

Rose joined Accero, previously Cyborg, in 2002.; She has held various
operational, financial and client service roles for the HR/Payroll business.;
Rose successfully led both the licensed software and BPO businesses for
Cyborg. Rose has had leadership roles in corporate finance and divisional
controllerships in several different heavy manufacturing firms.;;

For the bulk of Rose’s career she has been focused on operational
effectiveness for clients.; She has helped clients achieve this effectiveness
by finding more efficient ways to delivery high quality HR services through
process improvement, implementation of better software and judicious use of
outsourcing.;