At OxBlue we know we offer a high-quality, proven product to our clients. We also know that no matter how good our product is technically, it comes down to creating a culture that delivers value and a great customer experience to clients.
Unfortunately, it seems it’s all too common for companies to disregard this kind of opportunity to maximize value, and they take an opposite approach. They create cost control policies and performance metrics intended to limit cost and boost profits in order to be competitive, but they end up doing more to throttle value and miss opportunities for creating great customer experiences.
Empower Employees
Making a profit is just as important to OxBlue. It has to be. But instead of limiting service to control costs, we work together to discuss how to create a great experience every day and take action by giving everyone in our organization the autonomy, authority and tools needed to create an exceptional customer experience. For us, the customer experience is not separate from our product – it’s not an “extra.” Together, our product and service, delivered by a team of empowered employees, create what we really want to offer clients and what they deserve: total value and a great experience every time.
Live It Every Day
Great customer service is an integral part of our company culture. Delivering it takes creativity, effort, empathy, and engagement. It becomes part of what we do and extends to every possible customer touch point: from how we answer the phone to fine details of our product packaging. It’s such a part of what we do, it extends to everyone we come into contact with: When you have a culture of creating value and an exceptional customer experience, you don’t do it for some and not others. It becomes a way of thinking and acting that extends to co-workers, vendors, prospects, and clients. It’s the kind of service-oriented culture that strives to offer the driver making a delivery to our dock the same exceptional experience afforded to a client coming to pick something up. And we constantly ask ourselves and each other how we can do it even better.
Don’t Make It Optional
There are many elements that go into excellent service, but I’d say that accountability and responsiveness lie at the heart of it. When we founded OxBlue, back in 2001, we created a pricing model that keeps us walking the talk by being truly accountable and responsive. We bill clients only for the actual days their camera is in use. If something goes wrong or a client stops service, there is no charge. Over the years, and in response to the needs of our clients, we have added optional contracts to our pricing, but that core pricing model, which demands a culture focused on creating value and a great customer experience, still stands to this day.
As I said before, we’re in business to make a profit, and, of course, we want to minimize the times we don’t charge. So you can bet that this pricing model fosters an enduring sense of accountability and responsiveness – one that keeps us listening to our clients, anticipating their needs, and always striving to do better. Every day, we focus on creating value and an exceptional customer experience, and that makes all the difference to customers.
It is a win for them and a win for us.
