When Penny and I first met, everyone wondered how we would turn out – her degree in Agriculture, mine in Information Technology & Business. The question was answered during our senior year at Texas A&M University when we combined our skills and created a cattle database for her family to manage their cattle. Cattle and technology – it just made sense to us even though it didn’t to many others. Even to this day when I attend conferences outside of agriculture, people are surprised when I say “cattle software”.
As Cattlesoft grew, our customer service volume increased to where we needed to hire more help. There aren’t too many people out there who understand cattle production and also can troubleshoot computer software, so this makes finding and training customer service representatives challenging, especially for a company that touts its exceptional customer service.
Last Summer, we had a predicament on our hands – most of our customer service reps were graduating from Texas A&M and moving on. We asked ourselves “How are we going to find several customer service reps and have them trained on CattleMax for the Fall?”
It was one evening when we were out checking cows that we came up with the idea of mentioning the job listings in our customer newsletter. Within one week had over 50 applicants for 3 positions.
After many great interviews, we hired Ken, Nathan, and Lana. Not only were they familiar with CattleMax having used it for years, but they also understand what it’s like to be on the other end of the phone.
That’s not the kind of thing you can train for, it has to be experienced.
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At Helpstream we hear stories like this all the time. Often the issue will not just be hiring, but equipping the service team to drive scale and real improvements in service levels. It sounds like you’ve addressed a key need by reaching into a community familiar with your business. Odds are, there’s a lot more value that community could contribute to your business. Helpstream has integrated modern social web technology with customer service to do just this. Visit our website to check us out. There’s no commitment to try out the service for free.