Every salesperson in the Health IT industry can put together a good PowerPoint deck. They can talk a good talk, and many times close the deal based on ads, marketing budgets, or VC dollars. But, what factors determine a vendor’s long-term success?
Culture
We’ve all heard the phrase, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” This means that no matter how strong your strategic plan is, your success is always held back by members of your team if they don’t share the same culture. Company culture is one of the main ingredients of a vendor’s long-term success. The culture at your organization sets expectations for how well people work together and function as a team. Having a great company culture means living by a set of robust values and goals each day and encouraging every team member to follow the same paradigm. Company culture has a direct impact on the most important KPIs in HR departments, such as employee attraction and retention. At Boston Software Systems, most of our employees have been employed for over a decade, half of them for nearly two decades. We are a “people first” organization that embraces passion and purpose and values the voice of every employee. Our shared mission to state our truths, keep our promises, and support our customers has been the basis for our continued success over thirty plus years.
Trust
What you say may get your foot in the door, and slick marketing materials may “ink” the contract. But, stating false promises, and not being able to deliver on them, sets both the vendor and the customer up for failure. Set clear expectations and follow through on these expectations so that actions and results are transparent. Many vendors over-promise during a demo, or in marketing materials. This may look good at the moment, but it doesn’t work for the long-term. It’s the vendors who collaborate in action planning and performance improvement who create loyal customers. Those who only “say what they do,” but fail to deliver on the actions, just create a bad reputation in the industry that may never be able to be reversed. Now more than ever, companies want to do business with people they trust. No trust equals no loyalty. Because once trust is lost, whether by inaction or through a failure to deliver, it can rarely be repaired.
Support
A good product may get a customer engaged, but after-sales support is what keeps them loyal. Providing new customers with the educational resources they need through training, support, and education determines the success of every project. Make sure first-time buyers remain loyal to your brand by thinking outside the box of sales. It’s what happens after the ink is dry that ensures brand loyalty. Far too often, businesses pay more attention to prospective customers than to existing ones, and they drop the ball when it comes to support. Our customer support scores receive 5-stars, because we offer all US-based support, fast response times, and expert problem-solving skills. We send customer feedback forms out immediately after support calls, to ensure the problem was thoroughly addressed and completed. Being proactive in support helps you find the pain points in the customer journey, and address them before they become potholes, negatively affecting your customer retention scores.
Leave Nothing to Chance
Acquiring new customers is exciting, but your commitment should be in providing a great customer experience. Converting customers into loyal fans requires dedication to task, repeat business processes, and leaving nothing to chance. It’s one thing to sell a service or a product, but without the data or the people to back up the promises, deep relationships cannot be sustained. After-sales support can include onboarding advice, letting new customers know you’re there to answer their questions, setting up a dedicated support line for new customers for the first 120 days, or doing something as elementary as just reaching out to see if customers are happy. A report by Gartner found that customers who received a high-quality customer service interaction were 82% more likely to re-purchase or renew when offered the chance to switch to a competitor.
Why Boston Software Systems?
Boston WorkStation has been successfully improving healthcare processes for over 30 years. Boston WorkStation surpassed competitor rankings in the “Best in KLAS 2022” report, with a final total score of 93.8. 100% of customers interviewed gave Boston WorkStation a solid 100% rating in product value, delivering a money’s worth return on investment, and driving tangible outcomes. Boston WorkStation outperformed industry giant, UiPath, and hundreds of other vendors in most categories. We are experts on streamlining workflows, reducing costs, and improving usability for hospitals, health systems, provider organizations, and technology partners. We’d love to share our successes with you and add you to our growing list of loyal customers. With 95% of our projects completed in < 45 days, savings in time and money are right around the corner.