For the past year, everyone in our office has been trying to solve a difficult, but important problem our business is facing. How do we educate and engage with our clients so that they are armed with the tools and understanding necessary to use our software effectively with their clients? Catchy phrases like engagement and customer success were tossed around, we have simplified the software and adjusted our on-boarding process. Nothing was working.
One of our engineers was listening to our problem at lunch and said that we should treat our clients like a franchise, much like opening up a McDonald's or Subway. Everybody at the table went silent for a few seconds, then we realized that was the perfect way to frame our problem. When someone opens up a McDonald's they are given exactly what they need to run a successful operation. Everything from what vendors they work with and how to cook the food to how to talk to customers and take orders. I'm sure the exact level of detail McDonald's goes into to ensure a consistent experience for all customers around the world is astounding, but you get the point. And while the franchisee is given all of the tools needed to run a successful operation the new owner still has to hire the right people, treat their customers fairly and execute a business strategy. The stores are given a recipe for success, but some follow it better than others. What's beautiful about the franchise model is that it is also very repeatable and we love repeatable.
We have to go into the same amount of detail, educating our clients and giving them the resources necessary for them to succeed. Unfortunately, our industry is incredibly complex there is no looking for a silver bullet is a waste of time. We have to go well beyond the traditional support and training that we are accustomed to providing. Ultimately we're going to have to teach them how to train their clients on the software, what to say, who to work with, etc. If done successfully then we will not only have solved our initial set of problems but will have also created a small army of evangelists who are able to speak to the strengths of our software like they were one of our employees. And just like MsDonalds some of our clients will execute better than others, leading to a better experience for their clients.
For me, this was also a case study in collaboration. It was not the sales or support team who framed the problem correctly, it was an engineer who looked at it from a different perspective.