Whenever technology breaks down, be it a laptop, cable service or an expense management system, what feelings are evoked by the thought of having to call a support line?
"In America, we are predisposed to believe that 'support' by definition will be painful," said Bob Neveu, CEO of expense management provider Certify.
In many users' experience, it is. Navigating an automated call center with long wait times and non-native-language service representatives, along with expensive service charges and issues not solved in a timely manner are common frustrations with customer service departments.
Some expense management firms charge customers for every call or issue raised, but Certify's help service is included in the overall price, so customers can call for help as often as needed without racking up additional service fees or letting problems persist because of a desire to avoid the helpline, Neveu said. Certify, according to its CEO, is the "Zappos" of the expense management industry.
Zappos, the Amazon-owned online shoe and clothing store headquartered in Las Vegas, often is cited for its customer service, as well as its "free returns" policy if customers are not satisfied.
In many ways, Certify operates a similar business model, Neveu said. "My employees are all about keeping the client happy," Neveu said.
Much as Zappos takes the risk out of online shopping—for example, not penalizing its customers for returning items or forcing them to be stuck with items that don't fit—Certify takes the risk out of long-term contracts if customers aren't satisfied, Neveu claimed. Certify offers a "convenience clause" by which clients can cancel at any time with 90 days' written notice. While Certify's multinational customers tend to have long-term negotiated contracts based on their requirements, they too can exercise the convenience clause. Small businesses pay $8 per user per month and are required to give 30 days' cancellation notice.
"If customers are happy, they'll stay. If they're not happy, we'll make them happy. If we can't make them happy, they'll leave," Neveu said. "It's better to keep them happy, but they have a right to cancel. We don't have to prove it, argue over service agreements or whether we answered the call in 20 seconds.
"Concur locks [clients] into long-term contracts and when you do that, you don't have to be attentive to their needs," he continued.
Less than 1 percent of customers annually leave Certify, according to Neveu. He also claimed that 100 Concur customers have switched to Certify since the company's inception in 2008.
For Certify, customer service is not an additional source of revenue. In fact, Neveu said maintaining its current service model may add additional costs, but it's worth it to keep customers happy and retain them in the long term.
And it seems to be working. The company in May opened a new office in San Diego to sustain growth. It also has configurations for 64 languages and provides support for more than 140 currencies.
Expense Management 2.0
While more than half of Certify's new clients are first-time adopters, having migrated from such manual processes as Excel spreadsheets or even pen and paper, Neveu said Certify also attracts what he refers to as "version 2.0 expense reporting" clients. These are companies that have automated expense systems but want an upgrade to platforms with more capabilities, including mobile applications.
"Customers are saying, 'We're on a product, it's kind of clunky, we've been with it for a while, we think we can do more than what we're currently doing with it, and we're hearing about other companies with better functionality that we don't have,' and they're going to the market and looking to upgrade," Neveu said. "It's opening up opportunities to us before that we haven't had in the past."
Customers that plan to switch from ERP expense tools constitute about 20 percent to 30 percent of Certify's sales pipeline, Neveu claimed. Recently, three former IBM Global Expense Reporting Solutions clients—which Neveu declined to name—switched to Certify following IBM's exit from the expense management sector in May, he claimed.
While most expense management firms with standard offerings claim they can configure and tailor their products to suit clients' specific needs, Neveu said few providers actually want to do custom software development.
"The IBM GERS product is highly customizable, but it creates a situation where, when you go to leave from custom to standard software, it then has limitations—and GERS customers are starting to see and understand those challenges," Neveu said. "But they also see huge benefits from moving away from product. There's a reason why people move to the cloud."