Well, like every other Internet-savvy individual, I Googled for “company culture.”  There are many ways of saying it, but here is the gist … company culture is the “character” of the organization that makes it unique.  Okay, hold on, “character”… Wikipedia, don’t fail me now … “Character:  a psychological system of personal traits.”  Huh? So I continued exploring the other terms including character structure, which really led me nowhere for understanding.

Now, I like to think of myself as a notch above average intelligence so I certainly should have no problem understanding what I just read…NOT! And if it’s so difficult to grasp even when the definition is spelled out right there on the screen, imagine how difficult it is to describe when I’m asked about our culture here at Infusionsoft.

Here’s what I do know.

Each individual comes with a personality and their inherent and learned strengths (in my book, no one has weaknesses, just strengths they haven’t honed yet). Celebrating each person’s individuality and giving them opportunities to be creative and grow enables each person to shine in their own way. Take that energy and channel it towards a common goal and you create enough “shine” to light up the planet.

Infusionsoft creates an environment of people focused on one common goal … empowering entrepreneurs to grow their businesses. But in order for that to truly happen in our company culture, we have to empower the employees to want to make that happen. And that is where “culture” fits in.

Soda now costs $0.25 to keep the benefit for all employees.

One common mistake is to confuse “culture” with “benefits.” Recently, we made the move to begin charging 25 cents for soda instead of affording to subsidize it as a company benefit. A few employees viewed this as a disruption to our culture.  Did we really change our culture?  Our employees can still be empowered and thrive in our corporate environment despite a significant change to the status-quo of free soda. Is free soda our culture? It’s so much more than that!

Making a change to a norm can potentially affect the culture and could inflict harm on the behavior or attitude of employees. Inside and outside influences can change a culture and if not careful, can destroy it.  We all work hard to build it, nurture it and protect it whenever possible.

The one ingredient in any good culture is communications. It’s imperative to create an environment where information is easily communicated and everyone’s voice is heard. How we “feel” about our environment and how we perceive our importance in the environment is what ultimately creates company culture.

Let’s take the pretty picture I illustrated above a step deeper.

I didn’t share with you that a majority of our employees wanted us to begin to charge a quarter to help curb expenses.  In this economy, everyone is looking for ways to become lean and this was the employee’s way of helping out their family. Does knowing this new information change how those employees above felt about the soda no longer being free? Did it improve or take away from the culture?

It’s not the soda that represents our culture; it was the employees coming forth and offering their assistance and help – the spirit of company culture — that represents our culture and our great employees. Their intuitive sense of community helped preserve this benefit for everyone.

Do you have an interesting company culture story to share?

[Photo of Jared Kimball on our football field on Flickr]

You might also like these blog entries:

• Infusionsoft Voted in ‘Best Places to Work’ for 2009
• Entrepreneurship & Talent Makes a Winning Culture
• Tricks & Treats at Infusionsoft (Halloween)

But why all the buzz around social media when it comes to Technical Support?  Before I answer this question, let me take you back to what Technical Support used to be like (be advised this could be painful).

Many years ago, you called into Support and waited on hold, listening to the worst elevator music you could imagine. Sometimes I pondered if it was just a ploy to get people to hang up.  But we were tough and stayed on the line, most of the time for 15 minutes or more. How could companies make you wait that long? Don’t they know you have a job to do?  Of course they do, but remember this … you paid a fee for entitlement to call support and wait. Amazing that customers had to deal with this type of service and even more amazing is that customers began to accept this type of service.  The old caveat applies, expect less and accept less. Oh but it didn’t stop there. You finally get through and you are all ready to explain the issue when the person answering the phone informs you that they are only here to validate your support entitlement. Okay, you are entitled so now you will get right through to the support rep right?  Wrong! You are placed on hold again, same music, same wait. It pains me to say that in my 23 years in building out Technical Support organizations, these were exactly the type of centers that were considered top-notch. *hangs my head* It’s just shameful.

But in today’s world, with today’s economy and more companies vying to stay in the game and cross the chasm of success, the Support centers of yester-year are no longer acceptable. The rules of the game have changed from “bring in revenue” to “WOWing customers” which in turn will bring in revenue and create the customer loyalty needed to gain market share. Today’s customers are pragmatic. They want to know that they will see their return on their investment through, in our case, doubling their sales. But once they make the investment, they want to know that the company will partner with them to make it happen. That they won’t be lost in the proverbial black-hole of nothingness known as “Support.”  And how do you ensure that this won’t happen? I introduce my new buzz word, Social Support!

Now I could go into all the great reasons why this is the new wave of today and the future. Starting with the fact it is driven and created by the customer for the customer; or the great ROI any company wanting to “get lean” in today’s economy will receive, but I will let our case study from Forrester speak for itself.

Soon, Infusionsoft will be launching a new networking portal that is industry specific so guru’s and/or the guy down the street can help each other by sharing idea’s about how they have grown their business with Infusionsoft, known to us as Double Your Sales. You will be able to share ideas, content or even follow someone on the site.  At InfusionCon last year, we asked what was most beneficial to you about the conference and we heard loud and clear, “networking with others in my industry.” Well hold on to your seat, because very soon, you will be socializing in our Fusebox, meeting others in your industry and getting help from our company using, yep there’s that word again, Social Support.

If you have any suggestions or comments, let me know. I’m interested to learn how we can improve your experience with Infusionsoft and deliver top-notch support to all customers and empower them to double their sales.

[Photo: InfusionCon, taken by Jerry Garns]

–JoAnne

You might also like these blog entries:

• Thoughts on Social CRM, Hype and Usefulness
• 11 Unforgettable Marketing Moments from 2009
• Social Media is Not (Just) Twitter & Facebook

One day, a guy in Hawaii happened to visit my Website, azcoati.org. He entered his contact information in and viola! A connection was made.  Soon he asked me how to donate to my cause. In addition, he operates a zoo and would love to add a couple Coatis to his exhibit.

Donations?! I have run this rescue for the last six years and have never had any financial help and trust me, it’s expensive.  Between food, vet bills, repairs to the enclosures … well you get the picture.

After I hung up the phone with this wonderful man in Hawaii, I got this tingling, warm, exciting feeling that can only be described as infused!

Many of you have similar stories of struggling before you got ‘Infused,’ but once your automatic money growth engine named “Infusionsoft” started working for you, it happened — I hear you loud and clear. It works and that’s why we stand behind our promise without hesitation… fix your follow-up, Double Your Sales, Guaranteed.

We actually have a ton of employee ‘Infusionsoft Moments’ stories to share besides mine, but I’d love to hear yours. Share them in the comments for all to see how you overcame adversity with Infusionsoft.

You might also like these blog entries:

• Five Question Friday: Corban Tenney
• Happy New Year from Infusionsoft!
• Giving Our ‘Thanks’ & Happy Thanksgiving

Sure, I put it on my calendar to get it done, but something always came up. I am sure that many of you can relate to trying to get something accomplished and there just doesn’t seem to be enough time. It’s that never-ending to-do list that never actually gets done. I know, we all have one.

The other day, Joe popped into my office to remind me that “(I) haven’t blogged in a while and I really need to.” And to be honest, I really want to.  So, I look at my calendar and there is no white space to be had to even carve out 30 minutes.  That’s when it happened!  Epiphany!

The issue isn’t to try to carve out more time, but to ask myself, “Why am I going to so many meetings?”

I printed out my calendar and met with my leadership team.  And guess what, they are having the same issue. We went down the list and questioned whether every meeting was necessary, the length of them or could someone else attend on our behalf? We spent no more than 30 minutes and managed to clear at least 12 hours a week.  When I analyzed my meetings, most of them were to gather data about what we are doing in my department, how were we doing meeting our goals and what were we stuck on.  Believe it or not, that was 3 separate meetings each lasting 45 minutes.  Why?  There had to be an easier way.  And there was.

Here is a snapshot of what my calendar looks like today:

Believe it or not, this is when it’s “free.”

If you called my office at 4:04pm during the week, I won’t answer. It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s that the management team and I huddle for no more than 15 minutes. We start off with “What’s Up?”, which is the quick highlights of the day, followed by “Stats,” which includes listing the important numbers that let the team know we are on track to meet our monthly goals, and lastly, “Where are you stuck?” That can be something that needs escalation to executive level or simply just an awareness that we are stuck but working through the issue.

Wow, what a difference this made in freeing up time! Also, since the whole management team is there, it breeds a cohesiveness and shared responsibility between the teams. More than once, my Support Director offered to help with an issue on the Services side and visa versus.

Now the challenge is out to you — I bet that if you take just 30 minutes to explore your calendar and change from meetings to huddles, you’ll find you have much more time to spend on building your business. Wanna bet?

–JoAnne

You might also like these blog entries:

• Are You Neglecting Your Repeat Customers?
• 5 Lessons from the Airline Industry for Entrepreneurs
• Social Media is Not (Just) Twitter & Facebook

You aren’t alone in your conclusions. The support industry agrees with you.

Not too long ago, call centers were moving away from phone support to reduce costs. Larger corporations invested millions in email management solutions to drive customers to the Web. You might say, “Well, there’s nothing wrong with that,” but as these companies soon found out, some customers actually want to talk to someone.

Money talks, too. Not having the option to reach a live human dramatically reduced customer’s satisfaction and many lost business to competitors that had live support. Evidently, providing these options is important; companies are often caught in a challenge to provide superior service at an affordable price to remain competitive. I’m glad to say that we’ve made significant advances in customer service for our clients.

Speaking of customer satisfaction, we implemented a new survey that you will find a notification from time to time when you log into your application. Please take a moment to respond. It’s just two quick questions and an area for comments and shouldn’t take longer than 20 seconds. We really would like your feedback. Pictured below is what users should expect to see when we poll them for feedback:

This is a screenshot of the Infusionsoft Customer Survey.

Speaking of feedback, it’s been four months since we launched the new Fusebox and I would love to hear how  it’s working out for everyone. Drop me a line and let me know. Also, if there is anything you would like for me to blog about, I sure could use some ideas otherwise I’m liable to bore you with blogs about all kinds of data.  If you don’t already know this about me, I am quite the data-head.

You might also like these blog entries:

• Giving Us Feedback is a Click Away
• ‘Don’t Judge By Issues, Judge by Resolution’
• Customer Help: Phone vs. Online Support