Confero, Inc.
Company: Confero, Inc., Cary, NC
Entry Submitted by: MMI Public Relations
Company Description: Confero, Inc. is a national customer experience measurement firm dedicated to helping clients provide outstanding service to their customers. The firm offers customer service mystery shopping evaluations, customer brand support services, customer satisfaction research, and employee incentive and recognition programs.
Nomination Category: Solution Provider Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Customer Service or Call Center Consulting Practice of the Year
Nomination Title: Confero, Inc.
Tell the story about what this nominated organization has achieved since the beginning of July last year (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:
Confero, Inc. is a national customer experience measurement firm dedicated to
helping clients provide outstanding service to their customers. Serving all of
the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, the firm offers customer
service mystery shopping evaluations, customer brand support services,
customer satisfaction research, and employee incentive and recognition
programs.
Much of what we do involves turn-on-a-dime projects that are unusual in our
industry. Most companies want 30 to 60 days notice, a substantial setup fee
and multiple meetings. However, the Confero team can place a finished project
in the field in 30 days or less—often in only three to four days—which is
quite an accomplishment in the industry.
Since July 2009 in this time of recession, we have adopted a policy of never
saying “no” to our clients. People have come to us with some very short
deadlines and seemingly impossible logistics, but we knew that they had a need
that absolutely had to be addressed. Because of the economic climate,
companies did not receive funding for many these projects until the last
minute, but they were still important. So the Confero team used its ability to
get a project into the field quickly as a way of really helping clients out.
For example, with only 10 days’ notice, the team was able to put a year-end
program for 8,000 visits into the field last December, managing mystery shop
visits to 8,000 locations in eight weeks, with pre-shipped and prepared on-the-
spot prizes, which is completely unheard of in the industry. This project was
accomplished all over the country in the middle of winter.
In another example, back in February, just before the U.S. Census started, the
government had contracted with an agency that was trying to market the census
to under-represented populations. They called us and we had three weeks’
notice to go into independent Hispanic- and Asian-American-owned-and-operated
grocery stores to educate the owners about the census and to place marketing
materials in the stores to encourage their customers’ census participation.
The agency came to us after using two other providers who could not get the
project done. Confero finished it for them in three weeks.
Confero makes its clients look good by ensuring access to the resources needed
to scale up or down, depending on the project. Our “Don’t Say No” attitude
avoids thinking that something is impossible, but rather to think in terms of
if we did do a project, how exactly would we accomplish it? The team’s can-do
thinking considers business on the table, a client that needs our services,
and they figure out a way to make the project happen. Instead of
saying, “Here’s a client with a project need, so can we fit it into the bucket
of what we do?” we say, “Here’s a client with a project need, and if it’s
anywhere near the bucket of what we do, we’ll figure out how to get it done.”
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.inc.com/guides/2010/10/how-to-set-up-a-mystery-shopping-program.html
http://www.wral.com/5onyourside/story/8216703/
http://www.wral.com/5onyourside/story/8218403/
http://www.carycitizen.com/2010/09/01/family-friendly-companies-in-cary-honored/
http://blogs.wsj.com/numbersguy/the-waiting-game-782/
http://triangle.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2009/10/05/smallb1.html?jst=pn_pn_lk
http://living.health.com/2009/11/20/meet-our-healthy-shopping-experts/
Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader of this nominated company:
President Elaine Buxton earned a B.S. from UNC-Chapel Hill and an MBA from
Meredith College, which named her one of its top 100 graduates. She has been
recognized among the top 25 businesswomen by Triangle Business Journal, named
as a Woman Extraordinaire honoree, and honored by Enterprising Women magazine.
Elaine and the Confero team ranked on Inc. magazine’s Inc. 5000 list and as
No. 51 on the Top 100 N.C. Small Businesses list. Elaine is a founding member
of the Mystery Shopping Providers Association and serves on the Better
Business Bureau of Eastern North Carolina board of directors.