Ultimate Software

Company: Ultimate Software, Weston, Florida
Company Description: Ultimate Software is a leading provider of payroll and workforce management solutions. Founded in 1990 by CEO, Scott Scherr, Ultimate Software employs approximately 500 professionals who are focused on developing the highest quality products and services.
Nomination Category: Organization Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Customer Service Organization

Nomination Title: Overhauling Customer Services: From Great to Greater, With Big Business Impact

   1. Tell the story about what this nominated organization/department 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:

Challenges/Obstacles:

       As a leading provider of payroll and workforce management solutions,  Ultimate has maintained a 95% customer retention rating for 10 years.  Sustaining that rating is difficult enough.  Given that some customer loss is unavoidable with mergers and acquisitions or bankruptcy, how  does a vendor that's already established an impressive customer  retention track record outperform itself—go beyond 95% retention?

       With Ultimate’s financial objectives to sustain profitability, how do  you increase customer satisfaction/retention with minimal increased    investment?

Our Customer Service Initiative:

We took our customer support organization to the next level with an initiative called the Passion for Perfection service program.

       We reorganized to provide premium-level service at no extra charge to  ALL customers, giving them direct-dial phone numbers and e-mail addresses of a service representative assigned specifically to them. This way, service representatives have repetitive experience with and   more intimate knowledge of each customer they service and can build  long-term, meaningful relationships. It also means that  representatives can more easily be held accountable for their  customers’ satisfaction levels. Customer service representatives receive bonuses and other awards based on their customer retention and satisfaction metrics.

       To ensure customer access to broad, in-depth technical knowledge, every assigned representative is part of a broader team that includes  technical support specialists and a customer relationship manager, who can help a customer leverage the system to its full potential and can  travel to the customer site to evaluate the system in person.

       We built a new case management system based on customer feedback. The result was a 50% increase in customer use of Web self-service and a  decrease in call volume by more than 10%.

       We introduced a powerful new online knowledge management tool that  enables our customers to search numerous databases for answers. Search  time has been reduced by 70%, and accuracy of information has reached  85% without the intervention of a support representative. 

       We implemented an online remote diagnostic tool so our support team  can shorten call duration by diagnosing problems faster. The result  was a 30% reduction in the average call time length in 2005.

       We enhanced our management practices to include a formal program of  coaching, building relationships, accountability, and recognition (see  PowerPoint in Web links section for more detail).

2005 Overall Results:

       We achieved our highest customer retention rating ever -- 97%

       We increased the percentage of customers who said they would recommend  Ultimate from 90% in 2004 to 95% in 2005.

Impact on Financial Success of our Company:

Increasing our customer satisfaction has had a tangible impact on Ultimate’s overall financial success. With happy customers, Ultimate Software has many references from businesses of all sizes (from 500 employees to 20,000+ employees) that facilitate our acquisition of new customers.

2005 financial results included:

       an increase in total revenues of 23% to $88.6 million

       a 29% increase in recurring revenues to $50 million

       an increase in gross margins to 59.5% compared with 56.4% in 2004

   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.ultimatesoftware.com/stevies-2006/index.htm

   3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated organization/department:

J.C. Gonzalez, vice president, Customer Support, has more than 20 years of HRMS/payroll experience. His Ultimate career began in 1994 as a customer support representative that was preceded by 10 years of industry experience in customer support.

Gonzalez’s commitment to and passion for customer support has assisted Ultimate in steadily increasing its customer retention rate to achieve an all-time high of 97%.  He believes that employee satisfaction is crucial to helping Ultimate Software provide the highest-quality services possible to best meet customer needs.

Gonzalez holds a Certified Payroll Professional (CPP) certification from the American Payroll Association (APA).