USEF Develops New Customer Care Center
Thursday, February 7, 2008
By Stacey Meier
Lexington, KY – As the United States Equestrian Federation’s (USEF) membership base continues to grow and the equestrian community relies more on information from the USEF, focus on customer service becomes increasingly important. To address this need, the USEF recently launched a Customer Care Center to better serve members, customers and other requests for information that the USEF receives on a daily basis. On Monday, February 4, five full-time employees along with several auxiliary staff members began taking calls to answer questions and provide information as quickly and effectively as possible. Soon, the Customer Care Center will be adding positions to ensure that the volume of calls can be well handled.
Located on the second floor of the USEF, the Customer Care Center is comprised of existing employees of the USEF who have demonstrated exceptional customer service skills combined with energy and enthusiasm. Leading the efforts of the Customer Care Center falls under the charge of Teresa Stephens-Carroll, who has been with the Federation for nearly ten years and most recently worked as Director of Finance. Leadership and improving customer service is not new to Carroll—previously she worked in various positions in customer service and always enjoyed her role in helping people.
“This is where my spirit is—customer service and I was ready for this position and excited about it,” said Stephens-Carroll. “Our location within the USEF is also key to our success. We have the experts at our fingertips.”
Having a “live body” answering calls and addressing the majority of the customer questions with an emphasis on the accuracy of information and response time is the mission of the USEF Customer Care Center. Key to the Customer Care Center’s success is the use of new technology, which allows access to the membership database, the American Horse Sports Database (AHSD). This helps the Customer Care Center representative handle calls in a more efficient manner by allowing them to identify the member who is calling and the information they are seeking. Now, when someone calls the USEF, they are asked to select one of five areas so that the call can be better handled— membership, horses, points and awards, competition questions, Licensed Officials questions and a prompt for All Other Calls.
Through AHSD, a “customer care issues log” has been created to allow for notes to be added to each member profile so that other departments within the USEF will be aware of issues brought to the attention of the Customer Care Agent.
“Using these new tools and technology is what will allow us to be the most successful at serving our customers,” said Stephens-Carroll.
The vision statement of the Customer Care Center is: Customer care supports the entire equestrian community by responding in a professional manner with accurate information while building trusting relationships. The Customer Care Center will take calls from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
For more information on the Customer Care Center, contact Teresa Stephens-Carroll at (859) 225-2027 or via email at tstephens@usef.org.
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