In an age of online shopping, finding a company that holds customer service as a core value is becoming rare. BoonDocker, however, has taken on an impressive focus on customer service centered around tech support. We decided to sit down with Steven Marlenee at BoonDocker and ask why the company has such a successful program.
SnoWest: What spurred you guys to embrace tech support like you do?
BoonDocker: This whole thing really started with Rocky. He came to us with an outright challenge to do a better job of tech support. It really hit home for me when I started diving into our sales analysis, and when you look at it, a huge portion of our sales are word-of-mouth. As a company, we had to make this commitment if we wanted to continue to be the premiere turbo system on the market. In the end, we sell fun. If our customers aren’t having fun, we’re not doing our jobs.
SW: What’s the key to the success of your tech support program?
BD: Two things: the right people and the right solution. We built a custom app to facilitate the whole system. It has complete functionality, from tracking the progress of each tech support call, through completion, and also monitors the follow-up and close-out process. But that’s just half the battle. The biggest challenge was getting someone hired to manage it. We wanted to find someone who was knowledgeable, but also upbeat and pleasant to talk with. We actually found the perfect person within our own ranks, Joel Tingey. He’s stepped up to the plate and has this system 100 percent dialed.
SW: How does the app work?
BD: It tracks everything from shipping issues, technical sales questions, all the way to troubleshooting and part replacement. The app is what makes sure we’re answering questions, whether they come in on social media, e-mail or a customer visit. On top of making sure we’re taking care of customers’ immediate needs, we’re also using this data to look for trendlines, which helps us to identify what improvements we might make to our products, and how we can better communicate with our customers on a large scale.
SW: So, what can a customer expect when he needs support from BoonDocker?
BD: Well, they’re going to ask for your contact info, and make sure we’re able to continue to reach you. Next, our phone system allows us to see if we have an available tech. If we don’t, the system schedules a call-back and helps make sure the ticket is being assigned to the correct technician. Next, we’ll log the information about your machine, and categorize the support needs. If possible, we try to get every support issue resolved on the initial phone call. However, sometimes we need to bring a couple of heads together, and the app helps manage all of that. Once your issue is resolved, the system sends a message to our customer to ensure their needs were met. If someone needs a follow-up, a simple reply to that e-mail will re-open the ticket, and it will be immediately in-cue for resolution.
SW: How do you measure the success of your focus on tech support?
BD: We start by reading the reports from the app. Watching resolution times, current open-ticket counts, resolution counts and trendlines are key metrics. However, we’re seeing a huge increase in the number of happy customers sending in comments and leaving positive feedback on review sites. Our sales are up because if it. We maintain an almost 5-star review on FaceBook, and we’re pretty dang proud of that.
So while the digital age has pushed a lot of shopping—as was pointed out earlier—to online sales, many people, especially snowmobilers, appreciate companies that offer good customer support and timely response. And those companies are usually rewarded with return customers, as BoonDocker is proving.
For more information about BoonDocker, visit www.boondockers.com.