Teamwork Athletic Apparel
Company: Teamwork Athletic Apparel, San Marcos, California
Company Description: Founded in 1988, Teamwork Athletic Apparel is one of America's largest and fastest-growing manufacturers and distributors of team athletic uniforms. In spite of enormous competition from overseas supply chains and larger venture-backed competitors, Teamwork continues to grow at a desirable pace. The company currently employs 239 people.
Nomination Category: Team Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Customer Service Team
Nomination Title: Teamwork Athletic Apparel Customer Service Team
1. Tell the story about what this nominated team achieved in the past year (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:
“We once had an employee board a plane with a uniform order to get it to the
customer on time.”
While Teamwork offers great product at competitive prices, we’re best known for
top service and delivery. We ship the same day the order is placed. Our
competition uses sales reps—we found that sales reps actually slowed service to
the customer, so we strictly use phone customer-service representatives. And we
are still successful, by the way!
We provide great service because we have a great team leaders: Cathy Chavez
trains and develops our new-hires. This allows us to deliver the best-quality
product on-time with customer-service goals met. And Cathy notes, “We listen to
customer feedback.” Anything negative that appears can be addressed and
remedied, and new procedures put quickly into place.
Penny Swaney runs the employee-recognition program. Both accomplishment and employee satisfaction is regularly measured via feedback. Employee recognition is an effective morale-booster proven industry-wide. High employee morale translates into customer satisfaction.
Lynn Sharp supervises Web support for our customers, in particular regarding
custom-order image proofing. She makes sure the customers get what they want.
Lynn once caught a uniform-number error when she noticed the order had two of
the same numbers. It was a customer error, and they were pleased and surprised
to get her call for correction!
Customer returns are run by Parrish Franklin. Around 75% of returns are simply
product the customer no longer wants. When Parrish is contacted about an
incorrect order, regardless of whose fault it is, he reorders and makes sure the
correct product is overnighted to the customer. They receive a $0 invoice and
have fourteen days to return the incorrect order with a provided shipping call tag.
International business is overseen by Fran Meza, who researches international
postal rules and options as well as the expectations of various international
customers, and them trains her international service representatives. Customs,
etiquette, and language concerns are all covered by Fran and her team of experts.
Vincent Arroyo oversees the entire customer-service team, meeting regularly and assessing key performance indicators. He is directly responsible for the nerve center of Teamwork’s customer service, the call center. Answer rates, on-hold times, and customer satisfaction are all monitored and assessed for improvement. “We all know each other’s jobs and can fill in for each other’s absences,” Vincent says, “ensuring that our customers will never get less than the best service possible.”
About those uniforms that went on the plane: the customer had misordered and the team’s first game was that Saturday—the next day. He had called Teamwork on Friday in a state of panic. That’s when we put our employee on a plane headed to Albuquerque, uniforms in a carry-on box. When the customer met her plane at the airport, he was nearly in tears. He was so impressed and grateful; this was customer service beyond what any customer has learned to expect. This is what Teamwork aims to offer.
2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:
http://www.teamworkathletic.com
3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated team:
Team Leader Vincent Arroyo—Customer Service Supervisor
In customer service since 1988. Call center background. With Teamwork for five years Member of CCPN (Call Center Professionals Network)
Five direct reports/team leaders:
Cathy Chavez—with Teamwork five years, also first-level training representative and direct lead for new hires.
Penny Swaney—with Teamwork 12 years, created and leads employee recognition program.
Lynn Sharp—with Teamwork 8 years, specific lead for e-commerce and web support.
Parrish Franklin—with Teamwork 4 years, oversees returns process, product quality.
Fran Meza—14 years with Teamwork, in charge of international business, trains and supervises international service reps.