Newsletter April 2008
CEO Corner
by Dave Murray
Spring time is here. Finally! I’m not sure if everyone felt the same way that I did, but I thought that the Winter of 2008 was a long one here in Portland. It seems like it started last September and ended just last week. Who ever heard of snow on the last day of March? Let us hope for a pleasant Spring and a very nice and long Summer. All those in favor? Please hoot, holler, or clap. (But, please, don’t kick your computer).
As I began preparing this message it became obviously clear to me that many of you might not even know who I am. I have been working for Convergence for over 4 ½ years and I started as the Business Development Manager. In that job, I visited over 90% of our customer sites and I have spoken with most of the owners, business managers, or decision makers who decided to hire Convergence. Now, let me explain how I got the job of CEO – I’m the oldest guy in the company, so they picked me! There’s actually some humor laced in that sentence that would be obvious if you could see my crooked smile. But, in all seriousness; early last year Lance Pederson decided that he was going to pursue some educational goals as well as some other entrepreneurial interests. Lance and his partner Eric Gray got together and they decided that my prior business background made me a good candidate for the position. After a full year as CEO I have been able to keep this job. Hooray! Now let’s see if I can make it through year two as the economy takes this more than crazy ride up and down and every which way that could be imagined.
Here is where you come in….It is imperative that we keep the machines on your network patched. Last month, our newsletter talked about “spa time” for your PC, and we gave some general information about patching, maintenance, and updates. This article was designed to give you even more specific information, as well as enlist your assistance. You can help by leaving your PC powered on when you head home for the night. Be sure to log off or, better yet, give your PC a reboot. To reduce the power consumption, you can turn off the monitor (this is the real power draw anyway). Then, you can walk away and have a fresh, snappy, happy, and patched PC in the morning.
Now that I have introduced myself, that’s enough about me. Let’s talk about you. Everyone that works at Convergence loves the challenge of technology and we definitely love all the new stuff that is constantly coming out. But, one of the things that makes us different from other tech companies is that we really like talking to our customers. We also like helping our customers. Frankly, we like you. Last year some of our employees came up with a winning idea for you. They suggested that we create individual service pods and we assign a limited number of specific customers to those pods. The reasoning for doing this was to create an environment where you would always end up speaking with one of four people. (Instead of a room full of 16 people as in the past.) We are about 8 months into that transition now and the benefits have been enormous! Some of you may not have consciously noticed that we made this transition. But, we know you like the new experience. Your responses reflect it and there has not been one single comment to go back to the old way. Our employees also found that they were speaking to the same customers from time to time. The result is that you are actually developing co‐working relationships with our employees. We think that is an awesome outcome!
Now, right on the heels of developing service pods our employees have come with another great idea for you. What they want to do now is assign a unique, individual telephone number to each one of the companies that you work for. That means when you call you will dial a telephone number that is strictly reserved for the company you work for. And, what that will mean is no more telephone queues! You will dial directly into the service pod that you have been assigned to and one of the familiar voices you are used to talking with will answer. So, keep your eyes open. In the very near future you will be receiving new bookmarks that will tell you what your number is. Our hope is that you will love this new service.
Those are the short term goals for you. We have a lot more ideas in store for you this year that have all been designed specifically for you. But, suspense helps build excitement. So, we are going to stop there for now. In closing, some of you may have been invited to respond to a random electronic survey after you call in. I want you to know that I personally review every survey and read any comments that you might make. Thank you for taking the time to respond. Our technicians happen to love the surveys as well, because for every perfect score they receive their name is entered into a drawing for very cool prizes.
Again, thank you. If you ever need to contact me, please feel free to email me at: dmurray@cnwi.net.
The Seven Cycles of Network Health and Evolution
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What People Are Saying
- “I can’t tell you how many times a member of my staff has stood in my door and exclaimed, ‘Have I told you how much I love Convergence?'”
- Bob Strader, Associated General Contractors