Our company uses the Enterprise version of Office 365. We also use Skype for Business for our phones. I love the product. There are so many features that are amazing and so many others we have not had the time to even figure out yet. The system is very simple to use as well.
Last month, I had an issue that came up with my billing for the service. I received emails from Microsoft and went online to attempt to fix the problem. Whatever I did, I must have done wrong since, I continued to receive emails. Finally, the issue elevated to a level of critical in my mind and this coincided with just enough free time to fix the issue. So I attempted to go online to address the billing problem, but ended unsure if it was corrected.
At this point, I had to contact Microsoft in some way. The most arduous part of the process was figuring out how to contact them in the first place. I spent an hour rooting around the administration side of 365 trying to figure out how to contact them of fix the problem. When I finally figured out how to turn in a support ticket, the actions from Microsoft were like those of runners after the starting pistol fires.
I received an email in response to my ticket within 10 minutes. In another 10 I had info on the person who was assigned the task with contact information. In another 5 minutes I had a call from Washington from Microsoft, which of course I missed because I was on the other line.
So I called Microsoft and first spoke to a representative who triaged the problem and sent me to the correct department. I was transferred to the next rep who corrected the problem in a matter of minutes. Everyone I spoke to at Microsoft was gracious and kind. I left for home that evening thinking that my problem was over and the email and phones at Pactola were safe and able to continue operation without interruptions.
But that was not the end of my time with Microsoft. I received a confirmation email that evening, then another email the next day with a survey telling the problem was fixed and that they would call me in a few days to make sure everything was taken care of to my satisfaction. Two days later, I took a call from a Microsoft gent who conversed with me about the problem and if all was taken care of to my satisfaction. He ended the call thanking me for my patronage and explaining that another email would follow in a few days where I could make further comments and rate their service.
This event is not uncommon with my experiences with Microsoft. I had issues back in December when I was trying to port our phone numbers from another carrier to go to their phone system. They were wonderful to work with at that time. I probably will be a Microsoft customer for life.
So how many of your members can you say that of? Do you have not only members who come back to do their next account with you, but who are raving fans of your CU? Heck, if you can get a large army of people like that, it is better advertising than anything that comes out of your marketing department!
The only negative I had was how to get ahold of Microsoft in the first place. That is something we all need to think about. What is the experience like for an outsider who is doing business with us? This position I am in has given me the opportunity to talk to folks in credit unions all around the country. You would be amazed at how many have phone systems that make you believe there is a better chance of talking to an individual when you are stranded in a Dakota snowstorm out on a back country road than you have with trying to visit with the right person at the credit union.
We dealt with the access issue a few months back with one of our computer systems. We made it a lot easier for loan investors to get into and access their loan files and reports on loans we manage for them. This has been quite successful and we have a lot of happy folks with the new PacPortal.
It is important to be able to step outside of your institution and see how it is to do business with you. Work through the entire experience if there is a problem that must be resolved. How happy would you be? Would you be frustrated or would you end up being not only a loyal customer, but a raving fan?