Company: WePay, Inc., Palo Alto, CA
Company Description: WePay is a payment company that is turning the traditional payment industry on its head. Our mission is to level the playing field for small businesses, starting with payments. Founded in 2008 and launched in 2010, WePay is a surprisingly simple way for small business to accept credit cards through its invoice, virtual terminal, mobile and online payment tools
Nomination Category: Customer Service Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Customer Service Department of the Year

Nomination Title: Values Drive Awesome Customer Experience

Tell the story about what this nominated organization/department achieved since January 1 2012 (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:

WePay was officially launched in 2010, we now have served over 250,000 merchants in less than 2.5 years. However, the real challenge began this last year when we grew 500% and the support team was faced with the daunting task of delivering their awesome experience while growing rapidly.

One of the first things the team did was to solidify the values that had always informally existed. Then, the team examined how they could change their processes, behaviors and tools to scale but always stay true to those values.

WePay Customer Support’s Values:

Our Secret Sauce - we celebrate the quirks and unique qualities of each individual.

Ownership - we constantly look for ways to elevate the support experience for our customers. Going above and beyond is the status quo.

Courage - we’re bold and creative heroes that turn uncertainty into change.

Positivity - a sense of humor is a pre-requisite. We laugh a lot together.

Teamwork - our mission is bigger than any individual on the team. We trust and care for one another. We’re more than co-workers, we are WePay.

What We Changed:

1. Full empowerment – support agents now totally “own” the experience and do whatever it takes to go above and beyond, without asking a supervisor

2. Access on the customer’s terms – we knew we needed to think on their terms vs. ours – so we implemented chat, email, phone, twitter and FB . Plus, for all chats, we always email the full conversation to the customer after.

3. WOW response times – we make it a MUST to answer every call in under 5 mins, every chat in 30 seconds and every email in 2 hours – high standards in the customer service arena.

4. Follow me homes – we wanted to get our teams living the customer's experience, so we started follow me homes where every agent would physically visit one customer at their business every quarter.

5. Product collaboration –the support team has instituted weekly meetings with product where we all read through support chats together and come up with improvements.

6. Knowledgebase – this year we instituted a knowledgebase that provides step-by-step instructions on how to use WePay, detailed information about the payments industry and tips and tricks for merchants. The knowledgebase is visited by thousands of customers every month.

7. Plus, just plain fun – the support team continued its role as the place to be for fun by having champagne + sushi lunches on holidays, monthly team dinners, champagne staff meetings and generating viral videos.

Results: As a result we’ve seen

• Consistent 90% satisfaction scores (100% on phone, 95% on chat, 85% on email)!
• 98% of inquiries have a first call resolution

But the real gems are in what customers say about us

• “I’d kiss you but you aren’t here and it probably wouldn’t be appropriate”
• “Shehryar provided the best customer support I’ve ever encountered!”
• “Susan is one of the best customer service people I’ve ever talked with, anywhere!”
• Our support leader even got a marriage proposal!

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

Sophie Monroe started as the first person on our support team as a summer intern. She quickly realized how much she loved her job and quit Boston College to build the support team full time. She has carefully and strategically built the team, tools, processes herself – all without any prior experience. The team is a magical place to be and since then she has not only gotten promoted to be Director of Support but also leads our Risk department as well.