Customer Support Week at Billtrust

In honor of Customer Support Week I recently sat down with Ron Resavy, Vice President of Customer Support at Billtrust, to get more acquainted with his department.

It’s our annual Customer Support Week! What does that mean to you, and how do we celebrate at Billtrust?

As part of national Customer Service Week, this is an annual celebration focused on customer service recognition and customer-focused reflection. Our customers demand a lot of us, every day, and we spend a lot of collective energy continually meeting their needs. While this week at Billtrust focuses and celebrates our Customer Support (CS) teams, we believe that everyone at our company contributes to a positive customer experience. We’ll typically have breakfast one day, we bring in donuts, we recognize different teams or departments that are especially essential to customer success, and we also have our Billtrust Workhorse Badge, which is given to nominated representatives from each department who embody what it means to be customer-focused on a consistent basis.

Customer Support can mean different things to different people - What’s it like at Billtrust and how is it different from other companies or industries?

We’re not so much a generic call center as we are a genuine support partner. An advocate, a consultant - We are technical and urgent. Our goal is to deliver the best experience possible for the customer without taxing them in the process. Lots of companies say the right things about how much they care about the customer but a good many don’t back it up. Their support ends up feeling like a commodity which we are certainly not. We act as an extension of our customer’s teams and we’re also not on an island with every interaction a siloed event. It’s a series of events that add up to a relationship over time and every time someone contacts us it’s an opportunity to make that relationship stronger or detract from it. A customer isn’t typically seeking to scream at us but they will typically have an elevated need that is urgent and in many cases impacting their ability to be efficient in the AR process. And in a highly-competitive SaaS space with a lot of competitors that may strive to look like us or have a similar product offering, exceeding customer expectations is one of our most critical differentiators.

You joined the CS team here over six years ago - What has changed since then and what's the same?

Over my six years, Billtrust and the product lines have expanded significantly. With that comes the challenge of how we continually evolve to support it all. Back then it was essentially just our Billing application but now we have Billing, Payments, Cash Application, Collections, Credit, and so on. Our organization has grown from nine employees to 62 during that time as well. We have also added other ancillary functions like our Customer Champion, PayOps and Match Rate Optimization teams. We are more mature than we have ever been, though even with a larger headcount we need to remain nimble with how we respond to new products and scale when necessary. 

What’s the same is that at Billtrust you can still “put your stamp” on something no matter where you are in your career. Each employee possesses a great opportunity to socialize fresh ideas and attain a higher degree of success. We also still consistently invest in our employees. New team members get a mentor from day one, we have employee engagement programs to get people training they want or need, we make sure they have access to professional resources, and we’re also active with industry conferences. Judging from our high employee tenure within CS and that CS “alumni” are now in six different departments at Billtrust today, we believe we’ve been successful.

With a distributed staff, what are some of the things CS leadership does to build team “togetherness?”

We have team members in Lawrenceville (NJ), Woodbridge (NJ) and Denver (CO) so it is no easy task. While we have a few virtual team members across the country, we find it important to have as much face-to-face interaction as possible. We send leaders and trainers out to different locations so we can distribute knowledge the best we can. Though we are conscious of budget, we want to put faces in different spaces to make sure people are getting exposed to each other, at least a few times per year.

Last year we started our “Trust Trails” program to bring together CS employees who may not interact as much with each other on a daily basis. The goal is to get small groups out on hiking trails to spend time with each other, conquer something, learn about one another, then break bread; it all helps build trust and closeness. We’ve hiked in Denver, in Northern New Jersey and even one of the Channel Islands in California.

What are some traits you look for when hiring to your team?

There are a few areas which we find particularly important. We look for someone who is technical, and by that I mean an ability to look under the hood of a product, understand the workflows and logic and how the data flows, then articulate details to both customers and internal teams. An ability to speak both “languages” is important because for every customer issue you could be dealing with a range of people – It could our customer’s IT staff, a Developer, a Credit Manager or CFO, or someone offshore perhaps. You need to be able break down what they’re saying and put it into Billtrust terms. Another important trait is “old school” direct communication. The art of talking through an issue with someone is valuable and each CS employee needs to have the ability to make a customer feel comfortable and that, even if we don’t know something, that we will figure it out. Lastly, leadership is a trait we seek for all levels of hires. How do you lead by example? How are you influencing others by what you say and what you do? Are you making excuses or taking accountability when something happens?

I’m very proud of the work our team does and the people we have on it. I thank our team routinely, and there’s a certain level of appreciation from team member to team member.

CS by the Numbers

   62 | Current employee count in our CS organization

   3.12 | Years of average tenure in CS department

   50,000+ | Annual inbound customer interactions fielded by Billtrust CS team

   98% | Current Billtrust customer retention rate

   9.4 | Current Billtrust Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) score (0-10 range)

   +55 | Current Billtrust NPS score

Happy Customer Support Week from Billtrust!

#Billtrust #LifeAtBilltrust #CustomerServiceWeek