SAVVIS Communications

Company: SAVVIS Communications
Company Description: SAVVIS Communications Corp. (NASDAQ: SVVS) is a global managed service provider that delivers private and public IP VPNs, and managed hosting services to businesses. SAVVIS targets enterprises in the financial services, legal, media, retail, professional services, and healthcare industries. SAVVIS connects 4,700+ financial institutions worldwide.
Nomination Category: Organization Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Customer Service Organization

Nomination Title: SAVVIS Communications Customer Service Organization

1. Tell the story of what this functional organization has achieved in 2002 (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:

   2002 was a defining year for SAVVIS Communications’ Client Services organization. SAVVIS' largest customer and parent company -- Bridge Information Systems -- was purchased out of bankruptcy in September 2001. As SAVVIS entered 2002, its major objective was to separate its services organization from the Bridge’s new owners. SAVVIS successfully continued to provide global customers with a high service standard while detaching systems, hiring new staff, and moving location.

   The new SAVVIS Client Services organization was positioned under EVP and GM of the Americas, Jim Mori. Jim hired Lou Grabow (previously with Reuters and Bridge) to build a reliable, capable, customer-centric organization in a short period of time. SAVVIS' goal has always been to provide a level of support much higher than the telecom industry standard. Lou's experience supporting customers in the financial data industry (who generally demand excellent support) made him the perfect fit for the job. SAVVIS had to: hire and train a management team, TSR's (Technical Support Representatives), Edge Managers (proactive customer network and hosting environment monitors), and TAMs (Technical Account Managers); build a diagnostic tool suite and; have a reliable, proactive monitoring/CRM system before Q2 2002.

   The company met its objectives and had a working organization by April 2002. Customer service can be complex but SAVVIS believes in 3 basic principles: * Individuals who support customers should belong to the same organization, * All support staff should be in close proximity to one another, and, * You are only as good as your tools and systems.

   TSR's, EM's and TAM's sit in shared pods in the SAVVIS support center. They look and work as a team proactively and reactively on issues as they occur. Pods have customer-facing individuals (TSR's), proactive individuals (EM's) and escalation managers (TAM's) all working together.

   From a systems perspective, SAVVIS has developed the software SAVVISStation -- a customer database, CRM system, implementation system, software distribution system and configuration database. Every SAVVIS employee can view a logical representation of a customer's configuration in SAVVISStation. Staff can understand and troubleshoot an issue instead of wasting customer time asking for information that a well-run service provider should already have.

   SAVVIS emphasizes a proactive business model. Customers are updated hourly until their case is resolved. Internal escalations from 1st level technicians take place within thirty minutes or less. Client Services boasts world-class telephone response, 24 hours a day. The average answer speed of is 7 seconds and call abandoned rates regularly are below 1%. From a proactive standpoint, SAVVIS requires that customers be notified proactively within 15 minutes of an outage. Customers are eligible for credits if they fail.

   SAVVIS uses a 3rd-party customer satisfaction survey to measure success. Statistics from this survey include: * 91% overall service ranking * 97% courteous and professional * 92%being available when needed * 92% keep customer informed of ticket status * 95% would recommend SAVVIS

   Recently, the U.S. Client Services design has been rolled out globally. Current sites include St. Louis, MO, Reading, UK, Singapore and Tokyo, Japan.