Customer Service and
Complaint Management System

Complaint Management Software
is designed to...

Track and resolve customer concerns
Build sustainable customer relationships
Handle complex complaint procedures
Implement corrective and preventive actions
Support Internal and Exernal Audits
Achieve continuous improvement
Analyze customer service and quality trends

Industries across the globe are using Everest

Financial Services Complaint Management System for banks, credit unions and other financial services
Everest is used in many Health Care Environments; hospitals, doctor groups, managed health care and more
Complaint Management and Quality Assurance (CAPA) across all Manufacturing
Manage complaints for all segments of Food Products industries
Many others including government, logistics and more

Whether it's CFPB compliance, HIPAA requirements, FDA regulations or some other objective specific to your industry, EVEREST has you covered. Select your industry above to learn how EVEREST is designed to meet today's complaint management challenges.

Everest - Where customer service meets quality

The Everest solution is centered on enhancing customer relationships while improving service and product quality. Everest will help you improve communication and business processes throughout your organization.

Every customer interaction provides an opportunity to capture feedback about your performance. The feedback can range from great things to legitimate complaints. In the case of complaints, the challenge becomes how to get the information into the right hands, share it with key parties and track the progress toward complete resolution. Everest is an intuitive software solution that takes customer feedback directly to the heart of the organization and keeps it in the spotlight until it's resolved. When your organization is synchronized with the voice of the customer, elevated quality ensues. We can help you take your organization to the highest level of customer service and quality.


• Manage customer complaints
  Use Everest to manage customer requests and complaints from any type of customer. Close the loop from problem through corrective action to provide excellent customer service while achieving real continuous improvement.
  
  
• Improve communications
  The heart of effective business lies with communications with customers and between staff members.
  
  
• Proven solution
  Everest is used successfully by leading organizations throughout the US and around the world. As a global enterprise or stand-alone solution, Everest provides the performance and functionality you need to build customer relationships and improve quality.
  
  
• Expect success
  Lynk Software uses a highly effective implementation approach that includes expert configuration, training and on-going support.
  

Good customer service essentials

Providing good customer service is often a matter of common sense, but that doesn't mean it comes naturally to everyone. The pages that follow are a guide to providing excellent customer service.

Caring for Customers

1. Great Customer Service Begins With Management
The most inspiring leadership is top down. If management shows indifference to your customers, employees will mimic it. If management is enthusiastic and courteous, the troops are more likely to be so as well.

2. A Culture of Customer Service Must Be Codified
Start by documenting a set of core values, 10 or fewer principles that include customer service ideals. "Share them during the training, have employees sign them, and evaluate employees based on the values,". "But don't call them rules." Employee training on customer service precepts should be intensive: written materials, verbal instruction, mentors, and on-the-job demonstrations all ought to be part of the coursework.

3. Employees Are Customers
Companies renowned for their customer service, treat employees as they would have their employees treat their customers." Not every business can afford to shower staff with generous pay and benefits, but not every business has to. Companies, can show "intense interest" in employees, in their welfare, their families, and their future -- what McCartney calls the family model. It's also important to recognize an employee -- publicly -- for a job well done. Some companies also offer incentives for exceptional customer service, but if you can't spare the cash, you might throw an office party or offer another token of appreciation. When he was a manager at cable provider Tele-Communications Inc., for instance, Proffer personally washed the cars of notable employees.

4. Emphasize the Long Term
Short-term sales incentives can sometimes undermine long-term customer satisfaction. Prevent that by building short-term programs atop an ongoing program that rewards broader improvements, says Paula Godar, brands strategy director for Maritz, a sales and marketing consulting firm based in St. Louis. Moreover, winner-take-all incentives "can drive a lot of unhealthy competition and disengage the rest of the sales force," says Godar. "We've improved sales performance by much greater percentages when we've improved the performance of the large group in the middle of the bell curve."

5. Build Trust
Use your customer's name whenever you can. And sometimes you have to give to get. In his book The Knack, Inc. columnist Norm Brodsky relates how he won a sale against long odds by venturing his time and expertise to help a prospect cut costs.

6. Listen
"The best salespeople spend 80 percent of their time listening, not talking," says Marc Willson, a retail and restaurant consultant for the Virginia SBDC network. Ask open-ended questions to elicit a customer's needs and wants. If the prospect is "just looking," don't press further. But be discreetly nearby. "Straighten the racks, or dust something," says Willson. "You need to be within earshot or eyeshot, because every retail sale involves a re-approach."

7. Show Your Appreciation
One important element of retaining customers is communication. Willson suggests a personalized thank-you note after a deal or sale -- "If Nordstrom's can do it, everybody can do it" -- and even a follow-up phone call a month or so later. In a retail business, loyalty programs or rewards cards drive repeat business (as well as help you collect information about what your customers are buying). Many businesses send out birthday and holiday cards; Proffer prefers marking the anniversary of a client's or customer's first purchase.

8. Resolving Customer Disputes
It's bad enough when a customer is unhappy with your product or service. But if the attempt to redress the problem is frustrating or fruitless, it makes matters much worse. A satisfied customer may tell one or two friends about your company, says Richard Proffer, but "an angry customer might tell a dozen." Some aggrieved customers can never be placated, but, more often, successful dispute resolution lies in a business owner's hands. Solve the problem when it occurs. It's always best when people on the floor or in the field are the first line of response, say Proffer and Marc Willson. Vest them with authority to resolve certain types of problems themselves.

The Five A's. Proffer says it's helpful to think of resolving a dispute as a five-step process called the Five A's: Acknowledge the problem. Apologize, even if you think you're right. Accept responsibility. Adjust the situation with a negotiation to fix the problem. Assure the customer that you will follow through. Don't forget salesmanship. The skills and techniques of good selling discussed earlier are even more valuable in difficult situations. Address customers by name, and repeat what they've said. "Whether you resolve the issue or not," says Willson, "they'll see that you have their best interest in mind."