SurePayroll

Company: SurePayroll, Glenview, IL
Company Description: In 2000, SurePayroll revolutionized payroll with the first full-service online payroll solution exclusively dedicated to small businesses. SurePayroll is now the country’s largest full-service online provider, allowing businesses to quickly, easily and affordably process their payroll and handle payroll taxes in a matter of minutes.
Nomination Category: Customer Service Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Customer Service Department of the Year

Nomination Title: SurePayroll Customer Care Team

Tell the story about what this nominated organization/department achieved since January 1 2008 (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:

SurePayroll runs on the premise that payroll is not merely a
software-as-a-service product for running calculations, but an emotional aspect
of life that can cause worry for small business employers — whether they wonder
how to pay employees correctly or how to handle IRS notices. SurePayroll’s
mantra, “Your payroll. Our passion.” states its mission to eliminate their
customers’ worries. It makes a promise that customers can call in six days a
week and speak to a payroll expert who will own their payroll worries, even
working directly with the IRS on the customer’s behalf.

Simple rules SurePayroll lives by to keep customers happy:

1. Keep customers for generations: They encourage customer care representatives
to think about goals that will serve the business in the long-term and not to
worry about “issues of the moment.” The only requirement of representatives is
that they can say, “I did right by the customer.”

2. Hire for passion: Employees can be trained on payroll, but passion can’t be
taught. So SurePayroll employs “The Passion Test” – an assessment used during
the interview process to ensure a candidate has the right level of dedication to
customer care.

3. Apply the golden rule: SurePayroll believes in treating employees how you
want them to treat customers. They empower representatives, and in turn
representatives go above and beyond to keep customers happy.

Case in point: SurePayroll Customer Care Representative Elizabeth Nash was
working with a customer who noticed he entered incorrect payroll data that could
have resulted in erroneous year-end filings. When he caught the mistake, he
called SurePayroll, requesting the information be amended. Elizabeth worked with
him late in the evening to make corrections, but needed supervisor approval the
next day to implement the changes. The customer requested she call him the next
day with an update, which happened to be her day off. When Elizabeth’s manager
said that someone else could call him back, Elizabeth replied, “I gave the
client my word and he will be waiting for me.” Elizabeth drove 110 miles round
trip into the office with her granddaughter whom she was babysitting, so she
could contact the customer to confirm the information was corrected.

Results SurePayroll’s gotten by staying committed to excellent customer care:

• High customer satisfaction rating: SurePayroll receives consistent monthly Net
Promoter Scores of 60% or greater – even reaching 63% during the busiest month.
Results in the 50 percentile are considered world-class.
 
• Increasing number of new customers referred by existing customers: During the
first three quarters of 2008, SurePayroll acquired nearly 50 percent more
customers from client referrals than the same timeframe in 2007.

• High telephone service factor (TSF): From June 2007 to June 2008,
SurePayroll’s customer care team met its TSF goal, answering, on average, 90% of
calls in 20 seconds or fewer.

• High employee satisfaction level: In June 2008, SurePayroll was named one of
Chicago's 101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For based on above-average
programs, services and solutions for employees.

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.surepayroll.com/spsite/press/releases/2008/release061208.asp

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

Sean Harkleroad is the head of SurePayroll’s customer care department. With more
than 18 years in the payroll service industry, his main passion is driving the
company’s unwavering commitment to unbeatable customer service. His vision for
customer service excellence has been fueled by his experiences as a customer
service representative, technical support representative, business analyst for
product, and internal service tools and director of customer care. He has been
with SurePayroll since 2003 and holds a Bachelors’ in Accounting from the
University of Arizona.