Strategy to Revenue, a global sales performance company, won a Gold Stevie® Award in the Sales Awards categories of the 2014 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service, the world's top sales and customer service awards program. The 2015 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service are currently accepting entries. 

GET THE ENTRY KIT HERE.  

Strategy to Revenue’s Stevie Award winning nomination outlines how they worked with DHL Global Forwarding to achieve sales excellence. We talked with Matt Downes, Executive Vice President of Global Sales & Marketing, about what his company is doing to help its clients, and what he brought back from his experience at the Sales & Customer Service Awards in Las Vegas last February.

To provide some background on his company’s mission and vision, Matt explained that the company was established in 2008 and named Strategy to Revenue (STR) in order to telegraph that sales training should be deployed both to support the implementation of a company’s go-to-market strategy and to deliver revenue in line with the business plan. Said Matt: “We believe sales training is important only if it improves aligned sales performance and accelerates revenue.”

The founders of STR had many years of experience in leading premier sales training companies that provided sales effectiveness solutions to global organizations in transformation. “Our collective experiences have directly informed our point of view and our approach,” Matt told us.

A True Partnership

We asked Matt what winning a Gold Stevie® Award had meant to his company.  He told us that it had been a tremendous accolade for STR.  “The award is recognition that our innovative thinking and our approach to tackling the sales performance challenge head on is working,” he said. “What makes it extra special is winning this award in collaboration with our client DHL, as we have managed to develop a true partnership in supporting their growth strategy where the sales organization is at the heart of this success.”

He added: “Without doubt, the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service is one of the most respected and well known awards in the sales training and performance industry, so to be ranked up alongside other leading companies is fantastic for STR.”

Innovative Thinking

We asked Matt for some insight into his company’s innovative thinking. “We think few sales enablement or training programs have delivered the intended business impact because most training providers have failed to address obstacles in sales performance improvement,” he told us.  The examples he cited include:

- a lack of individual and team motivation to learn;

- inability to transfer learning into behavioral change in the field;

- difficulty in integrating new marketing collateral and product/service information into sales activity;

- poorly implemented tools supporting misaligned processes;

- inability to adapt to different customer requirements and situations; and

- lack of sales organizational/cultural alignment. 

Collaboration is Key

Continued Matt: “We also recognize the changing role of the Salesperson and, perhaps more importantly, the Sales Manager, as well as the increasing contribution that technology makes to learning. These obstacles present challenges to be resolved. This is our mission: to accelerate revenue by addressing these issues head on and resolving them. We can only do this in collaboration with our clients and other suppliers, so collaboration is key.”

A Source of Competitive Advantage

“Our continued focus is to work with our global clients to create sales performance programs that are motivating, embrace the culture of the organization, and are seen by the Sales team as a source of competitive advantage,” Matt explained. “In the right circumstances, we believe that Salespeople will take responsibility for improving their performance and see learning as a formidable tool to help them.”

Improving Sales Performance

We asked Matt for some tips on how companies can improve their sales performance.  Following are some of his suggestions:

“Making a shift in sales behavior and productivity in the sales organization continues to be one of the hottest topics for every company out there.” suggested Matt. “What has become absolutely evident over recent years is that without sales leadership and first-line sales management alignment and com-mitment to any sales training initiative, the chances of a successful impact on sales performance are slim. 

“We have seen this happen all too often at companies that invest in high profile programs such as value-selling methodologies, value-proposition messaging, sales skills, or business acumen.  When they review the impact 12 months later, they recognize that it didn’t move the needle.”

Pipeline Management

According to Matt, there are two things that STR is absolutely focused on and which the company believes will help tackle this: 

“Firstly, investment into the sales management to ensure a consistent cadence and approach to pipeline management, and performance coaching aligned to the business metrics driving revenue and margin.  Sales Managers need to be able to anticipate potential issues in the pipeline before it’s too late, and then translate that into positive action through coaching. 

“Secondly, a ‘Certification’ approach to any sales training program that hits the field and a focus on evi-dence and observation that a change in sales behavior is taking place.”

Comments Matt: “I would argue that for every training dollar you spend, 30% should be focused on ensuring it is adopted in the field, otherwise the other 70% is being wasted. If companies can get these two things right–and at the same time ensure they have a solid customer-aligned Sales Process, sales tools automated inside the CRM, skills curriculum and effective proposition messaging, and collateral from marketing–then the chances of success are significantly improved.”

A Perspective on Sales Performance

We asked Matt if there were any online tools he found particularly useful in his work. “There are so many blogs out there right now covering thought leadership, insights, and opinions on the sales performance challenge,” Matt told us.  “I find the Top Sales World website very good as it brings together a number of thought leaders and blogging sites that all have good perspectives.  We also have our own STR Google+ site, where we comment on interesting blogs and post our own insights.  Check it out!”

Making A Difference

Finally, we asked Matt what personally motivated and inspired him about his work. “What keeps us all inspired is constantly looking to push the envelope when it comes to motivating sales organizations to improve their performance,” he told us. “The combination of talent inside STR–including our sales best practice experts, our content and creative designers, and our multimedia and learning technologies team–means we have all the ingredients to bring new thinking to market quickly and to execute these solutions with our clients to make a difference.  Not many companies can do that!”

About Matt Downes

Matt is one of the founders of STR and leads Global Sales & Marketing for the company.  Prior to STR, Matt spent eight years working for other global sales training and performance companies engaging with Fortune 500 companies.  During that time, Matt lived in the US and led a sales transformation practice before returning to the UK to launch STR in 2008. 

Outside of work, Matt is passionate about sport and is kept busy enjoying life with his wife Rosie and their three children Joe, Olly, and Bella.  Matt holds a BSc in Business Information Technology Manage-ment.

About Strategy to Revenue

Strategy to Revenue designates itself the 'Revenue Acceleration' company, delivering strategic consultation and sales execution programs that help businesses transform the way their sales forces sell. STR has created a unique position in the sales training industry by combining sales and management best practice, instructional and creative design expertise, and technology and broadcast media to make sales performance programs engaging and motivational for the sales force. For more information, go to: www.strategytorevenue.com

The Stevie® Awards, organizer of the world’s premier business awards programs, has issued a call for entries for the 2015 (9th annual) Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. 

GET THE ENTRY KIT HERE.   

All customer service, contact center, business development, and sales departments, teams and professionals worldwide are eligible to be nominated, in addition to new products and services used by those professionals. The 2015 awards will recognize achievements since July 1, 2013.

The entry deadline is November 19, but late entries will be accepted through January 13 with payment of a late fee. Winners of the ninth annual competition will be announced at a gala awards banquet on February 27 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

The 2015 program offers new categories for business development professionals including Business Development Executive of the Year, Business Development Professional of the Year (for non-executive professionals), and Business Development Achievement of the Year.

The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service feature more than 135 sales awards, customer service awards, business development awards, new product awards, and call center awards categories. Entrants may submit any number of nominations to any number of categories, which include:

•     Sales Individual categories such as Senior Sales Executive of the Year and Sales Operations Professional of the Year
•     Sales Team categories like Global Sales Team of the Year and Field Sales Team of the Year
•     Sales Achievement categories such as Sales Turnaround of the Year and Outbound Marketing Program of the Year
•     Sales Department of the Year categories in 13 industry groupings
•     Customer Service and Contact Center Individual categories such as Front-Line Customer Service Professional of the Year and Customer Service Leader of the Year
•     Customer Service and Contact Center Team categories like Contact Center of the Year and Customer Service Management Team of the Year
•     Customer Service and Contact Center Achievement categories such as e-Commerce Customer Service Award and Award for Innovation in Customer Service
•     Customer Service Department categories in 11 industry groupings
•     New Product and Service categories like Best New Business Intelligence Solution and Best New Relationship Management Solution
•     Solution Provider categories such as Sales Consulting Practice of the Year and Incentive, Rewards, or Recognition Provider of the Year

2015 will see the return of a popular feature of the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. All Finalists in the Customer Service Department of the Year categories will be included in the People’s Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite Customer Service voting.

Winners of the 2014 edition of the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service include Cars.com, Comcast, CubeSmart, Delta Air Lines, Etiya, eZCom Software, FedEx, HubSpot, Kohl’s Department Stores – Credit Division, OfficeDepot, SAVO, ShopKeep POS, Vestmark, and VIZIO, Inc., among others.

The 2015 competition will be judged by more than 200 professionals around the world.

The 2015 entry kit and a complete history of the awards program are available at http://www.StevieAwards.com/Sales.

About The Stevie Awards:
The Stevie Awards are conferred in six programs: The American Business Awards, the German Stevie Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service, and the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at http://www.StevieAwards.com, and follow the Stevie Awards on Twitter @TheStevieAwards.

Sponsors of the 2015 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service include ValueSelling Associates.

The Delta Air Lines Customer Engagement and Sales Support Center won a Gold Stevie® Award in the Customer Service Awards categories in the 2014 Asia-Pacific Stevie® Awards.  Delta Air Lines also received a Grand Stevie® for having one of the five highest-scoring entries in the competition.

The 2015 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards is now accepting entries.
GET THE ENTRY KIT HERE.

There are even more customer service awards categories featured in the 2015 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. The deadline for entries is November 19. GET THAT ENTRY KIT HERE.

We talked with David Clayton, Customer Engagement Center Director – Asia Pacific, in Singapore for Delta Air Lines. He told us what winning the Stevie Award meant to his team.

“Our team takes great pride in this type of honor,” David explained. “It further validates Delta as a great place to work, motivating us to continue achieving and living our goals and celebrating successes. Building professional relationships between colleagues and customers with diverse backgrounds is a big part of our success. Affirmation of these achievements spurs us on to keep climbing, which would not be possible without the commitment of a truly dedicated and professional team.”

Broadening Awareness

David outlined the importance of winning in the Asia-Pacific Stevie® Awards and its significance in broadening awareness of Delta’s Customer Engagement and Sales Support Center in the region. “The Stevie® Awards organization is well known in the customer service industry and the trophy is a symbol of excellence to those honored by the award,” he told us. “Winning the Grand Stevie® in Asia and the Gold Stevie® for Customer Service Leader of the Year in Singapore gave us the opportunity to meet many business partners at the awards ceremony and enabled us to build on our relationships.”

David is also aware of the added-value of the extensive social media network utilized by the Stevie® Awards. “The English-language Stevie® Awards Update newsletter, which I understand is distributed worldwide to some 25,000 subscribers, combined with a further 17,000 views on the Stevie’s social media outlets, provides us with a great opportunity to deliver updates on Delta’s leadership position in customer experience,” David said.

Multinational Team

A unit of Delta’s Global Sales Division, the Asia Pacific Customer Engagement and Sales Support Center, is a multinational team that provides support via phone, email, delta.com, and Twitter. The team supports both direct and commercial Delta customers throughout the Asia-Pacific region using various mediums in Mandarin, Cantonese, Thai, Japanese, Korean, and English.

Since July 2012, Delta has focused on improving the customer experience in Asia, employing a variety of strategies to drive satisfaction and establish a reputation of differentiated service.

A Better Experience for the Business Traveler
David gave us details of areas in which Delta was working to improve the business traveler’s experience in the Asia Pacific region. “Our focus is on continuous improvement,” he told us.  “We have introduced a number of enhancements to the travel experience:

-   our long-haul, wide-body aircraft are equipped with 180° full flat-bed seats in Business-Elite, which come with the Westin Heavenly in-flight bedding and Tumi amenity kit;

-   we've refreshed in-flight menus, offering more food and beverage selections with a regional flair on both Business-Elite and Economy class;

-   Economy Comfort seats now provide up to 4 more inches of extra legroom, up to 50% more recline, and priority boarding;

-   and our in-flight entertainment, Delta Studio, offers an extensive selection of the latest new-release movies in international languages, popular TV shows, music and games, as well as streaming content through in-flight Wi-Fi.” 

Delta appreciates that staying connected is a priority for business travelers. “In-flight Wi-Fi is available on all US domestic and certain international aircraft,” he told us. “And it will be available on all aircraft by the end of 2015.”

Redefining the Customer Experience

By building on its divisional brand–“Listen. Care. Connect”–Delta has refreshed its incentives program, tying in behaviors that promote customer satisfaction.

The Asia Sales Support Center (SSC) serves as a Business-to-Business customer service center handling phone and email requests from travel agents and corporate travel managers representing Delta’s high-value agency and corporate accounts in China, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

People
Delta has expanded its workforce in the Asia-Pacific region, and ramped up training for its customer engagement specialists. The company partnered with the Singapore Workforce Development Agency to develop an in-house training program which results in employees obtaining their Workforce Skills Qualification (WSQ) Certificate in Tour and Travel Services upon completion. The company’s accomplishments were recognized by the agency when, in 2012 and again in 2013, Delta was awarded the WSQ Training Excellence Award for the Tour and Travel Category. 

Results

The company’s quality assurance data from 2012 to 2013 shows average favorable scores have significantly increased. Additionally, the Asia Pacific SSC has developed a great partnership with the company’s business-to-business partners. In spite of call volume for the Engagement Center trending upward between July 2012 and November 2013, overall Average Speed of Answer improved year over year—meaning customers get through and receive the service they need much faster.

Best of all, 96% of Delta’s Asia Pacific Engagement team employees responded positively to the internal employee satisfaction question “I am Proud to work for Delta.”

Outstanding Achievements
We asked David what inspired him and made him excited about the future.”I believe we have the best employees, not only in the airline business but also in the customer engagement business,” he told us. “We are a diverse team engaging our customers in six languages from all over the world. We handle customer interactions on phone calls, emails, and even on Facebook and Twitter.”

“I am absolutely inspired by the frontline Customer Engagement Specialists for their tremendous capacity for outstanding achievements,” David continued. “I celebrate the successes of my team through all levels and encourage a positive and friendly work environment.  I believe we stand on the shoulders of the great Delta employees who came before us and consider it an honor and duty to uphold only the best in customer service delivery.”

About David Clayton
David Clayton is Delta's Customer Engagement Director for Asia Pacific and is based in Singapore. In this role, he is responsible for approximately 550 employees who support the entire Asia Pacific region in over six different languages, and fulfill backend requests supporting customers across the globe. David’s team works closely with Vivien Khong, the Performance Manager of the Sales Support Center within the Singapore office, to ensure that Delta delivers the highest level of customer service across the Asia Pacific region.

A 28 year airline veteran, David began his career as a flight attendant and has held roles of increasing responsibilities during his tenure. He also serves his community as a member of the board for the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) Tour and Travel Industry Skills and Training Council (ISTC). Under his leadership, the Singapore-based operation has not only increased in size and scope, but successfully partnered with the WDA to support and deliver a developmental program, both for the benefit of employees and customers, and as a means of giving back to the communities they support.

About Delta Air Lines
Delta Air Lines serves nearly 165 million customers each year. This year, Delta was named the 2014 Airline of the Year by Air Transport World magazine and was named to FORTUNE magazine’s 50 Most Admired Companies, in addition to being named the most admired airline for the third time in four years. With an industry-leading global network, Delta and the Delta Connection carriers offer service to 318 destinations in 57 countries on six continents. Headquartered in Atlanta, Delta employs nearly 80,000 employees worldwide and operates a mainline fleet of more than 700 aircraft. The airline is a founding member of the SkyTeam global alliance and participates in the industry’s leading trans-Atlantic joint venture with Air France-KLM and Alitalia as well as a newly formed joint venture with Virgin Atlantic. Including its worldwide alliance partners, Delta offers customers more than 15,000 daily flights, with key hubs and markets including Amsterdam, Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York-JFK, New York-LaGuardia, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Salt Lake City, Seattle and Tokyo-Narita. Delta has invested billions of dollars in airport facilities, global products, services, and technology to enhance the customer experience in the air and on the ground. Additional information is available on delta.com, Twitter @Delta, Google.com/+Delta, Facebook.com/delta and Delta’s blog takingoff.delta.com.

ValueSelling Associates, in Rancho Santa Fe, California, USA, is a sponsor of the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service, the world’s top sales awards and customer service awards. Find out how to enter the 2015 competition here.

The following article by Julie Thomas, CEO of ValueSelling, was first featured on the ValueSelling Associates Blog in Jul. (You can also read about this year’s successful salespeople in the Sales Individual Awards categories on the Stevie Awards Sales & Customer Service website.)

It’s a commonly accepted notion that buyers often don’t like salespeople. It’s your job to overcome that initial barrier by recognizing that a successful sales relationship hinges on your personal relationship with the customer.

Trust and rapport are essential in encouraging potential buyers to share their challenges and allow you to explore different solutions. People buy from people, so a sales relationship becomes more difficult if two people can’t communicate effectively.

The greater the trust and rapport, the easier it is to get the client to share their perspective, including their personal motivations, and to listen to how your products can create value for them.

Selling Is a Multilevel Communication Process

We trust people who appear to have the same model of the world as we do. We trust people who understand our problems. Whether you are building trust and rapport, persuading, or negotiating, selling is a multilevel communication process.

But active listening is a difficult skill to practice. We are often more comfortable talking and tend to believe that the best way to sell is to make a perfect presentation. Even when we aren’t talking, we are thinking about what we’re going to say next. Every moment spent thinking is one spent not listening. We run the risk of missing buying clues or critical information. We are in danger of missing lost opportunities.

Active listeners always ask themselves these questions:

• Did I hear what they said?
• Do I understand what they said?

5 tips for honing your active listening skills:

• Give your full and undivided attention to the person who is speaking and, whenever possible, make eye contact.

• If you are speaking with someone on the phone or VoIP, avoid distractions and the temptation to multi-task by emailing or texting. The person on the other end of the line can always tell!

• Don’t interrupt the speaker.  No one appreciates being interrupted; when you interrupt someone, you are sending the following message:  “What I have to say is more important than what you are already saying.”  Pause to gather your thoughts and respond thoughtfully. Pay attention to any lag time or delay if you’re using Skype and time your responses accordingly.

• Clarify and confirm. Use breaks in the conversation to confirm what you heard and clarify what you understood. Trust and rapport are built through this process. Confirmation is critical to demonstrate your listening skills and abilities.  Asking follow-up questions and testing your understanding are very powerful and simple ways to prove you are listening.

• Provide nonverbal feedback. If you are having a conversation in person, then nodding, appropriate facial expressions, and occasional verbal affirmations reassure the person you’re speaking with that you are actively listening.

While speaking well is important, our ability to listen, learn, and understand is essential. Active listening can be practiced on anyone, anywhere in an organization. It’s really about the quality of the conversations you have. The better the questions you ask, the better the answers. The more you listen to the answers, the better the conversation, and the more effective you will be as a sales professional.

About Julie Thomas

Julie Thomas, President and CEO of ValueSelling Associates, is a noted speaker, author, and consultant. In a career spanning more than 24 years, she credits her mastery of the ValueSelling Framework® for her own meteoric rise through the ranks of sales, sales management, and corporate leadership positions.

Julie began her career at Gartner Group. In 1999, she became Vice President of Gartner’s Sales Training for the Americas, which included successfully managing the training of new hires in the ValueSelling process.  In 2003, Julie acquired ValueSelling Associates with the support of ValueSelling CEO and co-founder Lloyd Sappington. Since then, Julie has led the company to become an industry leader in competency- and process-based training for escalating sales performance.

Julie is a sought-after speaker at industry events such as the Selling Power Sales Leadership Conferences. She is a guest lecturer at both Babson University and the University of Michigan. In addition, Julie is on the advisory board of the eWomenNetwork Foundation Advisory Council and is heavily involved in her local public schools as well as the San Diego Children’s Hospital Auxiliary.

She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

About ValueSelling Associates

ValueSelling Associates, based in Rancho Santa Fe, CA, is the creator of the Value Selling Framework®, the sales methodology preferred by sales executives around the globe. Since 1991, ValueSelling Associates has helped thousands of sales professionals increase their sales productivity. Offering customized training to FORTUNE 1000 companies, mid-sized businesses, to early stage startup organizations, ValueSelling Associates’ proprietary sales training tools and consulting services deliver measurable results. Clients turn to the experts at ValueSelling Associates for classroom and online training and consulting services that yield immediate impact, repeatable strategies, and sustainable results to sales productivity.  For more information, go to www.valueselling.com

We have published the full-text of the Gold Stevie Award-winning entries from the 2014 (8th Annual) Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service, the world's premier sales awards and customer service awards.

READ THEM HERE.

Here’s a preview of some of the Gold Stevie-winning entries you'll find online now:

Company: Strategy to Revenue, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom
Category: Sales Training or Coaching Program of the Year
Nomination Title: DHL Global Forwarding - Quest for Sales Excellence

Strategy to Revenue (STR) was engaged by DHL Global Forwarding (DGF) in September 2012 to transform the global sales force to become the number one in the logistics industry as part of their 'Good to Great' business strategy.

In order to fully understand the current situation, STR worked in collaboration with the DHL Global Sales Training team to analyze the sales process, existing selling models and concepts used in the field, and identify the gaps to drive high performance...

Company: Kohl's Department Stores - Credit Divison, Menomonee Falls, WI
Category: Contact Center of the Year (Over 100 Seats) - All Other Industries
Nomination Title: The Kohl's Charge Contact CenterThe Kohl's Charge Contact Center

The Kohl’s Charge Contact Center, a 900+ seat environment with four locations, provides Retail & Customer Service and Operational Support to 25+ million Kohl’s Charge Card customers and 1,158 retail store locations. 3 balanced elements define the Kohl’s unique Contact Center Strategy…

Company: PostNet, Denver, CO
Category: Sales Growth Achievement of the Year
Nomination Title: PostNet

PostNet CEO Steve Greenbaum, and co-founder Brian Spindel led PostNet’s re-imagined franchise model from its origins as a mail and parcel store to a full-on Neighborhood Business Center. When consumer sales declined in the recession, PostNet seized an opportunity in a new breed of customers: laid-off workers who decided to go into small business ownership. Validation of this new target customer came from extensive market research and an analysis of the top-performing franchises that were already mainly focused on servicing the needs of small businesses in their communities...

Company: Delta Air Lines, Atlanta, GA
Category: Front-Line Customer Service Professional of the Year
Nomination Title: Rachel Bible, Dallas/Ft. Worth Customer Engagement Specialist

Chris Kyle, a United States Navy SEAL, known as the most lethal sniper in American military history, was tragically shot and killed on February 2, 2013 at a shooting range in Texas. To honor this war veteran, Mr. Greg Marra, known as America’s Sculptor, completed a life-size sculpted image of Chris Kyle and was raising funds to have it transported from Sarasota to Dallas/Ft. Worth, where it would be cast in bronze and eventually presented to Mr. Kyle’s family.

Business partners of Mr. Marra contacted Delta to make flight reservations to attend a ceremony where the statue would be viewed. When Dallas/Ft. Worth Specialist Rachel Bible heard the story, she inquired if Mr. Marra also needed reservations. Rachel offered to conference in Mr. Marra to assist him but was told he wasn’t ready to make his reservation due to lack of funds. Rachel realized quickly that the flight had a limited number of seats left on it, and overwhelmed with compassion for the situation, elected to pay for Mr. Marra’s ticket herself...

Company: Turkish Economy Bank, Istanbul, Turkey
Category: Best Use of Technology in Customer Service
Nomination Title: TEB SME TV

TEB SME TV is the first internet television of the banking sector in Turkey. The objectives are to help development and growth of SMEs in Turkey, to offer suggestions to expand their visions, to share success stories and growing trends in business. It presents these facilities by providing hot news on many topics including marketing & sales, foreign trade, information about industry, R & D incentives, meeting the SME’s needs of information and training focusing on the latest developments...

Company: CGS, New York, NY
Category: Contact Center Leader of the Year
Nomination Title: Tom Walsh, Executive Directory

Tom Walsh is an outstanding call center site director for CGS’s Edison, NJ call center, where he is responsible for the 170 person technical support help desk for a multinational photography and imaging company. Through thick and thin, he manages his people with enthusiasm and care while managing the business with attention to results. He thinks creatively and works within the constraints of a call center operation to constantly re-invent and improve...

Company: FreshBooks, Toronto, ON Canada
Category: Customer Service Management Team of the Year
Nomination Title: FreshBooks Management Team

FreshBooks’ customer service management team consists of Senior Support Manager, Steve Bujouves and Support Managers, Grace Antonio and Tim Chan (lovingly known 'round these parts as Chim).

This past year presented a difficult challenge for the team. To meet the needs of a growing user base, the Support Team needed to double (yes, double!) its size this year to 22 people. The hardest thing to keep intact when growing the team so quickly is ensuring customers *consistently* receive extraordinary experiences every time they contact FreshBooks. The focus for 2013 was consistency...

Entries for the 2015 edition of the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service will open in July.  Join the mailing list now and you'll be emailed the entry kit as soon as it's available.