Company: Diligent Board Member Services, New York, New York
Entry Submitted By: RF Binder
Company Description: Over 2,300 boards and 46,000 individual directors, executives and board teams worldwide rely on Diligent Board Member Services, Inc. to speed and simplify how board materials are produced, delivered and reviewed. Providing the world's most widely used secure board portal, Diligent has pioneered ease of use, stringent security, and superior training and support since 2001.
Nomination Category: Customer Service Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Customer Service Team of the Year

Nomination Title: Diligent Board Member Services Delivers Five-Star, Concierge-Level Customer Service

Tell the story about what this nominated team achieved since January 1 2012 year (up to 525 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:

Former Supreme Court justices, billionaire CEOs and world-renowned academics, accustomed to five-star hotel levels of service, expect the same level of attention from every service provider, especially when carrying out their professional responsibilities. These are some of the clients of Diligent Board Member Services, the world’s largest provider of board portals. Diligent’s solution – called Boardbooks® – is used by more than 2,500 boards and 50,000 individual directors, executives and administrators worldwide (as of December 31, 2012) to simplify how board materials are produced, communicated and viewed. Directors use Diligent Boardbooks ® to ensure timely delivery and access to materials needed for regular board meetings, especially if travel is required. Because Diligent is committed to providing “concierge-level” support that Boardbooks users expect, the company has made unlimited, 24x7 customer support a standard feature of all service agreements.

Diligent has implemented a “follow the sun” model with support staff located on three continents – North America, Europe and New Zealand – as an effort to provide 24/7/365 service and support to its customers. It’s the only board portal provider to answer every incoming call live and, on average, 98 percent of calls are answered directly by support engineers who solve the customer’s question. The remaining two percent receives a call back within five minutes.

When Hurricane Sandy devastated the company’s New York City headquarters, leaving 80 percent of its support staff without electricity and 100 percent without transportation, a remarkable 97 percent of all customer service calls were answered by Diligent’s global team, with support engineers abroad putting in 13-hour days to cover for their displaced U.S. colleagues. The remaining 3 percent of callers were helped within the next five minutes.

Diligent’s customer service is a clear differentiator in its industry, and has been a critical contributor to the company’s 97.0 percent annual customer retention rate.  Diligent believes it is not just a product company, in fact, it is in the business of providing exemplary customer service. Its rapidly expanding service and support team, growing to match its 100 percent growth rate last year, embraces each client from the relationship’s beginning.

Instead of one manager for each customer, Diligent assigns each client a complete support team, which lasts for the duration of the relationship. Staff members provide one-on-one personal training for every single director who uses the board portal solution, regardless of if training requires a series of in-person meetings or a phone tutorial. Diligent senior management created a performance metric to measure how many of its support staff have trained every director who uses the solution. No other board portal provider offers this level of hands-on training.

Customer service is ingrained in Diligent’s culture. The company’s clients praise the peace of mind that comes with knowing Diligent’s support staff is on call all day, every day. Diligent employees have personally driven iPads and laptops to directors’ homes in time for crucial board meetings and top CEOs have repeatedly wished their own company’s customer service matched the support received from Diligent. When considering the unrivaled customer service Diligent delivers to each client, it’s no surprise so few customers look elsewhere for a board portal once they’ve used Diligent Boardbooks.

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Provide a brief (up to 125 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated team:

Jeff Hilk is the Director of Client Services for Diligent Board Member Services, Inc. In this role, he has global responsibility for account management and client support. Jeff’s team is responsible for all Diligent Boardbooks client implementations, as well as day-to-day client management and 24/7/365 worldwide support.

Jeff has more than 20 years of experience in the technology industry, having led teams in account management, sales, product management and engineering during his career. He has held various positions in large multi-national companies such as NCR, AT&T, and McDonnell-Douglas Aerospace, as well as smaller technology firms such as Boundless Corporation and BlueShark Technologies.

Jeff graduated with a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Bucknell University in 1986.