Jake Weatherly, Vice President of Customer Experience

Jake Weatherly, our Vice President of Customer Experience, has asked his team to share some of their experiences using Email Center Pro to improve customer service at Palo Alto Software. Here’s what they had to say:

Casi Deatherage: It’s about customer service

On a daily basis, Email Center Pro plays a huge role in boosting my level of customer service expertise. Our first duty is to answer each customer professionally and ensure they have a pleasant experience with our company. Read more…

Shawnie Gartman: Accountability and transparency built in

Email Center Pro certainly makes my job a lot easier. I arrive an hour before any of my coworkers. Because I am first in the office, I am the first to jump into ECP. My job is to equally distribute the incoming mail to my fellow team members. ECP makes this a seamless task. Read more…

Desiree Norton: Teamwork with a click of the mouse

The collaboration tools in Email Center Pro are what I appreciate and use the most. My team and I are in Email Center Pro every day answering inbound messages. We are able to easily collaborate with the features of Email Center Pro. Read more…

Steve Weersing: If only we’d had this before!

While Email Center Pro cannot solve all of the institutional challenges in such a textbook case of a company mired in its own indecision and lack of direction, it can help greatly to reduce many of the incremental delays that can accumulate at each step in the cycle of communication. This in itself can make a critical difference in nailing down pending deals that are “on the fence.” Read more…

Jay Snider: So easy to get started

The best thing about learning to use Email Center Pro was how easy it was. Not only was the training time really just a matter of minutes, but once up to speed in ECP, it made training for my job much easier. Our extensive collection of templates allowed me to start responding to customers much more quickly than I might have otherwise. With common questions coming in all the time, quick keyword searches of the templates allowed me to respond with confidence. And when I was ready to start answering the phones as well, I could handle those same questions because I was familiar with the answers from having used the templates. Read more…

Tags: collaborative email, ECP Power Users, ecp update, Email Center Pro
Posted on March 12th, 2009 | 1 Comment »

I’m living a frequently-interrupted, very distracted life, in which ideas and todo items come up and, unless I catch them, get lost, and way too quickly.

I’m enjoying my Email Center Pro solution, which gives me some email addresses I can use to load my lists and brainstorm ideas from whatever email address is most convenient. That includes my iPhone’s email, so I can get to it from almost wherever I am.

You can see that best from this screen shot:

So, for example,

• when it occurred to me — I was waiting for an appointment — that this would be a good blog post, I emailed it to my blog@sample.emailcenterpro.com address (and that’s a fake address, doh).
• And when I remembered, at lunch, that I need to get an appointment for getting the car fixed, I emailed a list to my email at todo@sample.emailcenterpro.com.
• And when I’m working at the computer, take a call, and need to remind myself to call somebody else, I send that one to the calls@ emailcenterpro address.

Each of these special emails is very easy to set up. I don’t have to ask our IT person for a new mailbox on the company server. I just do it in about one minute from the mailboxes tab of the account manager.

So when I want to refer back to these lists, they’re right there in the dashboard of my Email Center Pro email account.

Simple and easy.

– Tim

Tags: calls list, ECP Power Users, Email Center Pro, emailcenterpro, ideas list, tasks list, toto list
Posted on March 10th, 2009 | No Comments »

The best thing about learning to use Email Center Pro was how easy it was. Not only was the training time really just a matter of minutes, but once up to speed in ECP, it made training for my job much easier. Our extensive collection of templates allowed me to start responding to customers much more quickly than I might have otherwise. With common questions coming in all the time, quick keyword searches of the templates allowed me to respond with confidence. And when I was ready to start answering the phones as well, I could handle those same questions because I was familiar with the answers from having used the templates.

When there was an email in our Sales Inbox that I didn’t know how to answer, I had several ways to learn the right responses. I could add a note to the email, asking a co-worker how it should be handled. Or I could check my coworkers’ responses through Saved Searches, Tags, or searching the Archive. Then I could follow the thread to see how the issue was resolved.

I continue to use the Saved Searches in this manner. For instance, sometimes emails come to the Customer Service Inbox that really should be routed to Technical Support. I could just assign those emails to a Tech Support person or move it to the Tech Support Inbox and know it will be taken care of. But often I follow it, to learn the correct answers. This way in the future, I can take care of similar emails myself. The end result is that we can respond to customers much faster.

Being able to quickly search for an email in ECP is invaluable. Customers frequently send an email and then call in right away, or follow up on an email conversation with a call a week or two later. Sometimes they even email several weeks after an initial email, and don’t provide enough information to assist them. By searching for other emails sent from that customer, we can see a whole history of communication with them, which allows us to provide the customer with a higher level of service than they expect.

Finally, I really like the way ECP automatically assigns emails once a conversation has been started. If I answer an email from a customer in the morning and they respond later in the day, that email is assigned to me. This lets the customer know that they are dealing with a real person who is following up on their needs, not an impersonal department where random people are responding to their emails. I like my customers to know that I’m here to help them and will continue to help them until their questions are answered.

Tags: collaborative email, ECP Power Users, Email Center Pro
Posted on February 1st, 2009 | No Comments »

Before joining Palo Alto Software, I worked at a company that had offices in five different areas of the continental U.S. — as well as in Mexico, England, India, and China. Functions such as administration, accounting, order entry, customer service, manufacturing, quality control, and shipping and receiving were distributed in various combinations that were, quite literally, all over the map! The company administered its websites from the American Midwest. Messages to the main “info@” address were read and assigned there, and then forwarded to the appropriate offices around the world.

The repeated delays that are implicit in this process only increased the problems caused by the differences in time zones between the various offices. If — as so often happened in the custom manufacturing business in which my division was engaged — a message required detailed internal discussion before we could frame a response, the delays became interminable (not to mention intolerable).

We had a mandate to respond to new sales inquiries within three days. However, because the decision-making process involved sourcing, logistics, accounting, technical considerations, and discussions of financial and manufacturing feasibility, input was often required from people in several divisions. By the time meetings had occurred, and decisions were tabled pending input from traveling executives, it was uncommon for us to respond to new sales inquiries in less than a week. The delay was frequently much longer than that — a completely unacceptable situation in today’s world of “instant” communication!

While Email Center Pro cannot solve all of the institutional challenges in such a textbook case of a company mired in its own indecision and lack of direction, it can help greatly to reduce many of the incremental delays that can accumulate at each step in the cycle of communication. This in itself can make a critical difference in nailing down pending deals that are “on the fence.”

Having incoming messages automatically routed to an appropriate Inbox means that managers can spend less time on functional details, and that employees can more quickly see and respond to incoming action items. Internal discussions can proceed with potentially fewer delays across working schedules in different time zones, and multiple viewpoints can be communicated via Notes on emails. The customer receives a faster, more transparent response that does not show the earmarks of having been passed several times around the globe (even if the discussion over it actually has).

In my daily workflow, the Templates function is particularly valuable. Being able to attach files to templates, tag templates, search templates by tags or text, and filter sent emails by tags or text is a very valuable set of abilities. The templates are a real life-saver for me. Being prevented from sending duplicate responses to the same message when someone else is drafting a reply is also an enormous benefit. It really makes you look dumb when different people send different answers to the same question (even worse, at different times!).

I found learning to use Email Center Pro to be a straightforward and largely intuitive process. I printed out a page or two about searching from the Help file, and haven’t had to use the Help since then.

Overall, the sense of being able to think more about the work at hand with Email Center Pro (and less about the mechanics of communication) is truly a win for everyone.

Tags: collaborative email, ECP Power Users, Email Center Pro
Posted on February 1st, 2009 | 1 Comment »

I am a Senior Customer Care team member at Palo Alto Software and am a power user of Email Center Pro.

In the beginning, I found getting started in Email Center Pro was very simple. The switch from the previous email system to Email Center Pro was a smooth one.

The collaboration tools in Email Center Pro are what I appreciate and use the most. My team and I are in Email Center Pro every day answering inbound messages. We are able to easily collaborate with the features of Email Center Pro:

1. We share the workload for email messages every morning by using the assign function to delegate messages to each team member.
2. Reply messages come in automatically assigned to the original person, ensuring the customer continues to work with the original associate who is familiar with their situation.
3. For new emails that have not yet been assigned, there is no risk of double answering. We are easily able to see when an email is being responded to and by whom. If there were an attempt to reply, Email Center Pro pops up a message and prevents the double answer from occurring.
4. We use the Notes feature often to ask colleagues questions and provide additional information in respect to a particular email that needs follow-up.
5. If emails need to be re-routed, we move them to the correct box with just a mouse click.

At Palo Alto Software we have several Inboxes. I manage two different Inboxes and am easily able to move between these boxes without the need to sign in and out between them both.

Email Center Pro is Web-based, allowing the ability to answer emails from the road or home.

Email Center Pro allows me to provide quick, efficient and excellent customer service and I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Tags: collaborative email, ECP Power Users, Email Center Pro
Posted on February 1st, 2009 | 2 Comments »

An online collaborative email center designed to handle all company emails, ease workflow, maintain excellent efficiency and keep our customers happy.

This was our idea when Palo Alto Software created Email Center Pro. As the senior member of the Customer Care Team I have seen this program begin as an internal tool and turn into a dynamic application with all the bells and whistles you could ever need, yet the simplicity to understand and implement immediately.

Email Center Pro certainly makes my job a lot easier. I arrive an hour before any of my coworkers. Because I am first in the office, I am the first to jump into ECP. My job is to equally distribute the incoming mail to my fellow team members. ECP makes this a seamless task. I can easily see how many total emails are in each Inbox, as well as how many I have assigned to each person. With a simple mouse click I am able to redirect any emails that should have been sent to a different department. By the time the rest of the team arrives, I have been able to organize all the email in the Sales Inbox, as well as answer many of the emails assigned to myself.

My favorite feature of Email Center Pro has got to be the clearness of it all. Anyone can see what everyone has done or is doing! This feature not only holds you accountable, but can be used as a learning tool. For example, say I have an email that I don’t know how to answer. I can put an internal Note on it explaining I can’t find the answer and re-assign it to someone who does. Then it is as easy as going into the ‘Sent’ folder to review the final reply. Presto – now I know how to answer that question!

The templates are another one of my favorite tools. As a writer, they make those frequently asked questions a breeze to answer. As a trainer, they are a great way to have a new employee up and running in no time.

So, what does this all boil down to? Fast and accurate email responses and that means happy customers!

Tags: collaborative email, ECP Power Users, Email Center Pro
Posted on February 1st, 2009 | 1 Comment »

Email Center Pro has helped simplify my job in many ways. Within just a few days of starting to work at Palo Alto Software, Email Center Pro allowed me to respond to emails with ease. The email templates make it a smooth process to answer incoming emails promptly and with an intelligent response. In past jobs , learning this process could have taken a few weeks, or maybe even a few months. Email Center Pro relieved pressure  on me, and also on my trainer and supervisor, by saving time and money on my overall training.

Answering high-volume emails can be hard to track and manage, but Email Center Pro is a very manageable approach. You can assign emails to each team member, ensuring that you answer your customers more efficiently and in a timely manner. This allows my teammates and me to answer over 100 emails per day. Customers are ecstatic about our response time and we often receive feedback thanking us for our rapid-fire replies.

On a daily basis, Email Center Pro plays a huge role in boosting my level of customer service expertise. Our first duty is to answer each customer professionally and ensure they have a pleasant experience with our company. Email Center Pro reassures me every day that I’m meeting our customers’ needs and our company’s mission. I have complete confidence that Email Center Pro helps me take customer service to new heights.

Tags: collaborative email, ECP Power Users, Email Center Pro
Posted on February 1st, 2009 | 1 Comment »