Made2Manage Offers Support/Education Liaison Program

Customer service initiative has support liaison proactively working with clients to ensure education needs are met during implementations

Customer service initiative has support liaison proactively working with clients to ensure education needs are met during implementations

Indianapolis — March 29, 2005 — Enterprise solution provider Made2Manage Systems this week said that it is seeing increased levels of customer satisfaction following the introduction of the company's new support/education liaison program.

"The support/education liaison program is designed to shift Made2Manage Systems' communication with new customers to a more proactive model and provide heightened support when customers need it most, during the implementation and go-live phases," said Todd Schulte, director of support and education for Made2Manage. "Our support and education liaison, Ronda Bowling, contacts companies within their first week as a Made2Manage customer to offer the program, which is available to customers at no additional cost."

Bowling began her role as support/education liaison for Made2Manage Systems in March 2004 and has since involved more than 100 customers in the program. Program participants are mostly new customers; however, some participants are existing customers in the process of implementing an optional module of the Made2Manage Enterprise Business System, such as M2M Supply Chain Management, or have an unusually high number of support cases.

Reaching out to New Customers

The program's standard operating procedures begin with Bowling walking new customers through the tools and resources available to them on M2M Expert, Made2Manage Systems' customer portal that offers knowledgebase support, user-to-user networking tools, online support case management, education offerings and product feedback channels. Bowling then pulls from Made2Manage Systems' more than 1,300 hours of course offerings to design a customized education plan for the customer.

"A key aspect of this program is follow-up," said Bowling. "I'm like a university advisor. I'm monitoring the number of courses companies are taking relative to the plans I helped them design, and I'm calling them to ensure that they are prepared for various implementation milestones, such as conference room modeling sessions. As for existing customers, I'm monitoring their support cases and making suggestions on how education and training might alleviate some of the issues."

"Education has always been the proactive arm of support, and our education and support departments are managed under the same person for this very reason," said Jeff Tognoni, CEO of Made2Manage. "In fact, the entire support/education liaison program is based on the idea of education and support working together. Educated customers are satisfied customers; they require less support."

Tognoni suggested that the new service could be particularly beneficial for small and mid-market enterprises, and Susan Joy, chief operating officer for 21c Retail Arts, an East Bend, N.C.-based manufacturer of wood partitions and fixtures, agreed. "It is rare for a company like ours to receive such consideration," she said. "The support/education liaison program definitely supports the total customer care concept that our Made2Manage account executive illustrated in his sales effort. We are very happy with our decision to purchase the Made2Manage system."


Additional Articles of Interest

For more information on solutions for mid-market enterprises, see "Stuck in the Middle" in the April/May 2004 issue of Supply & Demand Chain Executive.


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