Nextiva - Customer Service Department of the Year

Company: Nextiva, Scottsdale, AZ
Company Description: Nextiva is a business communications company dedicated to empowering organizations to manage their communications, productivity, and customer relationships on a truly unified platform.
Nomination Category: Customer Service Department Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Customer Service Department of the Year - Telecommunications

Nomination Title: Nextiva

Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, explaining the achievement since July 1, 2018 of the nominated customer service organization, OR a written essay of up to 650 words describing the same? (Choose one): An essay/case study of up to 650 words

Nextiva, a leading business communications company based in Scottsdale, Arizona, is the ideal candidate for the 2020 Stevie Award for Customer Service Department of the Year – Telecommunications. The company is so passionate about customer service that it trademarked the term “Amazing Service” and lives by that mantra every single day, across all levels of its organization both internally and externally.

Tomas Gorny (www.nextiva.com/tomas-gorny/ ), a serial entrepreneur originally from Poland, founded Nextiva with the mission of simplifying business communications across the world. He and his management team welcomed their first customer in spring 2008 by offering best-in-class VoIP solutions.

In 2018, right as the company was celebrating its 10th anniversary in business, Nextiva officially expanded beyond VoIP with the introduction of NextOS (www.nextiva.com/nextos ), a customer experience management software with a level of innovation never before seen in the market. Since then, the company has transformed into a business communications giant, incorporating VoIP with several all-in-one tools to help businesses communicate more effectively. The introduction of NextOS has solidified Nextiva’s dedication to Amazing Service - not only in its actions, but also in its products.

One of Gorny’s core principles when starting the company was to give customers a level of service they had never before experienced, especially from a telecommunications company. He was determined to do away with lengthy call wait times, rude responses, and forgotten follow-ups. Instead, Gorny made it his mission to re-define customer service. His plan is working beautifully. Nextiva’s dedication to Amazing Service is evident in every customer touch point, from personalized system walk-throughs for new customers to instant troubleshooting for any issue that comes up.

Numbers support Nextiva’s Amazing Service promise: 95 percent of sales and support calls are answered by the second ring and the company prides itself on having little to no hold times during calls.

Nextiva conveys its dedication to Amazing Service in part by giving autonomy to its customer service representatives. The company subscribes to a “whatever it takes” mantra in making customers happy and, as such, has been known to utilize some above-and-beyond follow-up techniques. Those techniques revolve around building lasting relationships with customers. When, for example, a customer off-handedly said he was having a rough day and wished he had some Red Bull on hand, the Nextiva customer service representative he was speaking with ordered a case of the energy drink and had it overnighted to the customer’s house.

Another time, when a customer called in with a request and got to talking with one of Nextiva’s employees, he expressed how much he loved the Chicago Bears NFL team. As a follow-up to make sure the customer’s needs were taken care of, the employee sent a signed Brian Urlacher helmet to the client’s home.

In addition, Nextiva sends out satisfaction surveys to customers after every interaction. Employees review these surveys on a daily basis to see what is working and the areas in which they can improve.

For these reasons, Nextiva would like to be considered for the Stevie Award for Customer Service Department of the Year – Telecommunications. Nextiva hopes its story of Amazing Service, and supporting products/platforms, inspire other companies to be just as attentive to the needs of their clients.