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Education

The need to act with changes they made (some changes, in
hindsight, were either unnecessary or
urgency and purpose only provided short term relief). Still,
there was a clear difference between
those who succeeded and those who
By Jeff Fortney did not.
TouchSuite LLC Two revelatory support calls

018 has been another year of change in the payments biz. There were I had been struggling to clearly de-
changes in ownerships, changes in philosophies and changes in fine that difference until recently
product offerings. There was attrition, leading to expanded retention experiencing two distinctly different
2 efforts. And, as always, there was the inevitable fear of change. Cries customer support calls that were not
that the sky was falling in the payments world were also part of the mix. connected with the payment indus-
try. These experiences made it clear
Now, with the clarity of hindsight, we can see that the changes that occurred to me that to succeed with change
were not with a capital "C". We did not see an overhaul of the industry that requires you move with urgency, a
required us to completely alter how we operate if we wish to survive. Yet, as sense of purpose, and a commitment
with every year since I started in the business, there was transformation. And to the change.
it impacted many.
In the first call, I phoned customer
Now, as 2018 draws to a close, we all need to plan for 2019. And this starts by support representatives about a prod-
examining what those who handled change well did to succeed this year. uct needing repair. The representative
was professional but responded in a
The difference between celebration and disappointment was not necessarily monotone. When he paused to look
determined by how or what the winners changed. It wasn't found solely in the up the answer (which was obviously
what was happening) he said nothing
(leaving dead air, making me wonder
if I was disconnected.) Finally, he
provided a scripted response. His in-
structions did work (thankfully). He
closed the call by "thanking me for
calling" in that same monotone. The
call took 30 minutes.

The second example may rate as the
best experience I've had on a sup-
port call. I had ordered a cabinet and
found it was short one small piece of
metal. The deficit wasn't critical, but it
did keep the door from staying shut.
I called the support line provided,
expecting a similar experience as the
previous call. I was wrong.
The call was answered by a person
who sounded interested and willing
to help, even before knowing the situ-
ation. As I explained my need, her
tone changed into one of concern.
She was genuine when saying, "So
sorry. I know this is can be so frus-
trating." She immediately said she
would make it right and post a credit
immediately. She even suggested I
could possibly get the piece from a lo-
cal hardware store, but she said she
would get the part out as well. After
I thanked her, she again apologized

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