Building Relationships Between CSRs, Sales and Techs, With Tim Gilford

The relationships between staff on the front line of your operation are critical — and sometimes difficult. Tim Gilford shares ideas on formal and informal ways to build strong connections among CSRs/MSRs, techs, marketing and sales team members.

What is The StoryConnect Podcast?

StoryConnect features interviews with marketers, communicators, CEOs and other leaders at cooperative and independent broadband companies, electric cooperatives and municipal power providers. The goal of the podcast is to help listeners discover ideas to shape their stories and connect with their customers. It is produced by Pioneer Utility Resources.

Intro:
A production of Pioneer Utility Resources.

StoryConnect, helping communicators discover ideas to shape their
stories and connect with their customers.

Andy Johns:
What can you do to promote the relationship between CSRs, techs
and your sales team?

That's what we'll be talking about on this episode of
StoryConnect: The Podcast.

My name is Andy Johns with Pioneer, and I'm joined on this
episode by Tim Gilford, who is the director of marketing and

sales for LightStream in Buffalo, Indiana.

Tim, thanks for joining me.

Tim Gilford:
Thank you. I'm glad to be here in Austin.

Andy Johns:
So this is the second time on the podcast that Tim has joined us.

He was on the live episode we did at StoryConnect, and so your
second time on, you're no longer a guest.

You're a friend of the podcast, so congratulations on that.

Tim Gilford:
Friend, expert, guru.

Those are your words, not mine.

Andy Johns:
We'll take it all. Yep. There you go.

So we are here, as Tim mentioned, in Austin, Texas, at the NTCA
Sales and Marketing Conference, the epicenter of the rural

broadband marketing world this week.

And Tim just got off a panel where it was called "Sales: What
CSRs and Techs Need to Know to Support Sales."

Tim, what was the main idea for the session?

What were y'all hoping to kind of get across to folks in the
audience?

Tim Gilford:
Yeah, the idea of the session was a lot of different topics that
you could probably spend a week on.

Weeks, months, who knows?

You know, all you have to say is, you know, this is what you do
to have a successful company, right?

Except we really needed to dial it down.

So we had a list of things to know and a list of things to
share.

And we took a few bullet points from that and what we thought
was the most important of it and tried to relay some of our

experiences, and then pull in some client engagement as well on
what they've done to be successful and to really try to help each

other out.

Andy Johns:
Yeah, it was interactive. There were folks involved.

I think it went very well.

In my mind, the way that this kind of breaks out and what you and
the other panelists were saying, there's kind of a group of

formal things that is done to kind of get the teams working
together.

And then there's informal things to be done to get the teams to
work together.

Let's start first talking about the formal things, the things
that y'all were really intentional about or any systems put in

place or any pieces there.

So what were some of the things that y'all did, you know, kind
of formally to bring those groups together?

Tim Gilford:
Yeah. One of the first topics we talked about was Wi-Fi.

And I remember when I got into this industry, I wanted to make a
really good impression on all the people I worked with.

Andy Johns:
Of course.

Tim Gilford:
So I asked them, straight faced, what's Wi-Fi?

They didn't think it was as funny as what I thought it was.

But nonetheless, we got a really good conversation about, you
know, some of the finer details of Wi-Fi.

If you talk with your IT department, they have one perspective
of it.

Andy Johns:
Right.

Tim Gilford:
If you talk to your techs, they might have another.

And CSR has another as well.

In all fun and games, but we talk about internally what Wi-Fi is.

You know, we'll say it's 802.11.

Right? Nobody needs to know really what that is.

Andy Johns:
Right.

Tim Gilford:
But what they need to know is how it impacts the customer.

And our CSRs and our technicians are very versed in this, but so
is the rest of our company.

So we take an initiative every month to educate and train our
employees on a variety of different topics, including

what's happening in the company, some educational topics that we
want them to know, and then some safety measures to keep

everybody in their best form.

And we have taken a lot of those monthly meetings to discuss
Wi-Fi and what it means specifically for the entire company.

So whether it's our bookkeeper or if it's our CSR or if it's
anybody else on staff, we want them to know at least

the basics of Wi-Fi and how it impacts the customer.

If they get stopped at the football game, the grocery store, we
see these people in town.

We are your neighbors. There's no doubt about it.

We want to try to educate you on it so that they understand what
Wi-Fi can do for them and in the end, provide a better

customer experience.

Andy Johns:
Anytime you deal with people, things can get complicated.

What was the initial reaction when you kind of start getting
everybody together and these two teams, I don't know how much you

want to go into where it was at the beginning and where it is
now.

But what was the initial reaction to folks?

Did folks buy in? Did folks get it?

Or was there a little bit of skepticism from folks?

Tim Gilford:
All right. We've all been in that situation.

Andy Johns:
And please don't name names.

Tim Gilford:
We've all been in that situation where we walk out of a meeting,
you're like, "Hey, that could have been an email." So we had some

very specific conversation on how we were going to structure
this monthly meeting so that no one walked out of there saying

that could have been put in an email.

So we try to make it interactive.

We ask different departments to present some material, and it's
not always, hey, the technician should probably report on this

and educate.

So we're going to not have a technician do that.

We're going to ask somebody from, you know, the finance team to
discuss this.

So they have to learn some of that information.

And they're not left on an island.

You know, they're coached throughout everything.

So whether it's our outside plant or whether it's our IT
department, they've been great coaches and get everybody in tune

with that. It wasn't that long ago that our technicians maybe
weren't seeing eye to eye with the rest of the company.

So we've taken a specific role on it to make sure that they are
engaged.

They're not always in the office.

They've got their own office. It's their truck, their van.

So they're out doing their things, and we try to make it as easy
as possible for them to make sure that they're engaged with the

company. There's a variety of tools that you can do that, but
we've definitely taken a stance to make sure that our technicians

are a very critical part of our team and that we love our techs.

Andy Johns:
There you go. And that gets over into kind of the informal side
of things, because I know this relationship is important.

I was reading a book recently by Howard Thurman, and in there he
said, this is getting a little deep for us here for a minute.

But he said "Hate starts when there is contact without
fellowship." And this really just stuck in my head that it's the

same for interpersonal relationships and all that when there's
contact with somebody, but there's no relationship, no

fellowship, that's when I mean, hate may be a strong word for
office, but, you know, that's when you don't see the other person

and understand what they're going through, it's a lot easier to
be annoyed or not want to help them out.

But you guys, you have taken, I know you personally, and then
there's been some other efforts made to just to kind of

informally just get to know each other, and it sounds so simple.

Tim Gilford:
It is. And, you know, everybody lives in different directions, so
it's always difficult to get everybody together.

Maybe call it team building, if you will.

But one of my favorite parts of my day is when a technician will
come by.

They'll say, "Hey." You might even sit in a chair in my office
and talk a little bit.

You know, we talk kids.

You know, we talk community stuff.

We might talk a little bit of work, but there's a lot going on
there.

Andy Johns:
Probably talk Cubs baseball, I would imagine.

Tim Gilford:
You know, occasionally there's some conversation about Cubs
baseball, if you're into that kind of thing.

I happen to be, you know, my kids play softball.

That's where I said, there's always these pieces of who we are
outside of our company walls.

But the other part of it, you know is well is the you know,
again, you talk informal and formal processes.

We try to give a bunch of positive feedback to our team and not
just in that monthly meeting that we have each month.

It's more to it than that.

They don't hear from us, but besides that monthly meeting, then
we've lost our focus.

So we'll get contacted by a customer sometimes and say, "Hey,
Reggie and Caleb knocked it out of the park at this install.

They cleaned up after themselves.

They were so nice. They walked us through the app that we
provide.

So they did a great job, and we feel so much better about your
service now.

Thank you so much." That gets a huge shout out into our internal
communication.

Everybody sees it.

I love those moments.

It's really where I feel like we're doing it right.

Andy Johns:
Awesome. So that leads to the next question.

Obviously, if you're going to put this much time and effort into
something you want it to make a difference.

You want it to matter.

I don't know if it translates to the bottom line, but where have
you seen some of the benefits of taking these efforts, whether

it's efficiency or satisfaction at work or whatever?

What have been some of the benefits of putting this effort in?

Tim Gilford:
There are several, and some of them are measurable and some of
them are not.

Andy Johns:
Sure.

Tim Gilford:
We had a recent survey that we asked about Net Promoter Score.

So the question becomes, you know, how willing are you to
suggest your company to a friend or colleague?

This last round of everything, we scored an 80.

Our industry is not known for high Net Promoter Scores.

Andy Johns:
That's true.

Tim Gilford:
So we've seen the last couple of years that it's increased.

We don't think it's coincidence.

We have been putting much more fiber in the ground.

The customer experience and the services that we offer is
different than what it was a couple of years ago.

So we're really proud of that matter.

Andy Johns:
As you should be.

Tim Gilford:
You know, but the other part of it becomes, you know, we monitor
churn.

So again, we talk about our CSR and our technicians and what
kind of role they have.

We evaluate our churn.

We look at the reasons every single month we look at the reasons
of why we lost a customer.

We hope it's only for, let's say, two reasons that are outside
of our control.

Perhaps if someone were deceased or maybe if someone moved.

Very unfortunate either way.

Other than that, we try to think that we can try to contribute
to that and keep everybody happy and not just about having our

customers, but having happy customers.

Andy Johns:
For sure.

Last question for you.

As you're thinking, you know, thinking through this, or if
there's somebody listening who feels like kind of where you guys

were, that, yeah, we got some friction.

We don't have a lot of communication between these groups.

What's some advice you would give them?

Where would you if they were wanting to take some positive steps
in that direction, what advice would you have for them?

Tim Gilford:
Start somewhere. I think the first one is, you know, maybe
admitting that you don't always knock it out of the park.

That's definitely something.

As much as I may say, Hey, we do some things well, there's
always some things that maybe we don't.

And it comes down to listening to your team.

Listen to your CSRs.

Listen to your technicians.

Listen to your bookkeeper.

Listen to the IT department.

I mean, let's take into account their feedback when they're out
in the field doing fill in the blank, that they have some

perspective. Specifically, though, your CSR and technicians are
who I focus on or try to at minimum, they're the ones

speaking with the customer.

So if they're getting feedback from the customer and something
maybe isn't clear, then let's make it more clear for them.

Let's make it easier. Let's be more transparent and empowering
our CSRs and our technicians is one of the biggest things

I think any customer can do, any company can do.

Andy Johns:
I know I said that was the last question, but you brought up
something interesting there.

So it's always a struggle, a lot of organizations to get that
feedback from the customer, from the member, back to other folks.

Is that a formal system that you guys have there for any kind of
feedback loop, or is that just folks knowing each other now to

pass that information back and forth?

Tim Gilford:
Yeah, it's a lot more informal in our company.

We also have a small company, so it may be a little bit easier
for that.

We're 23 employees strong.

It's easy to get everybody in a room within our organization.

It's going to be more difficult for other companies to do that.

But creating an avenue for them to have some feedback though,
and have a voice in it, is a starting point.

Andy Johns:
Fantastic. Tim, thanks for being on.

Tim Gilford:
Thank you, Andy. Appreciate it.

Andy Johns:
He is Tim Gilford with Lightstream in Buffalo, Indiana.

I'm Andy Johns with Pioneer.

Until we talk again, keep telling your story.

Outro:
StoryConnect is produced by Pioneer Utility Resources, a
communications cooperative that is built to share your story.

StoryConnect is engineered by Lucas Smith of Lucky Sound Studio.