Hello from Endeavor!

Autumn is here, and despite the calmness of the cool breeze and changing leaves outside the office, Endeavor TAC is bustling with activity thanks to some exciting new customer deployments that have recently rolled into production. The staff is pumped up and keenly focused to make sure that both new and ongoing deployments are executed with 110% effort and result in nothing but extremely happy customers and end-users. After all, a customer-centric approach is what has made Endeavor so successful over the years.

Speaking of customer-centrism, this month's Spotlight article features an insightful tale of Endeavor's culture from the unique perspective of our CEO, Justin McLain. Maintaining a customer-centric company culture isn't always easy, and as McLain found out, sometimes requires a CEO to roll up his sleeves and get his hands dirty. Read the entire article to get the scoop!

Until next time!

Your Team at Endeavor
editor@endeavortelecom.com

Endeavor has always prided itself in putting the customer first. This customer-centric approach has been a major factor in Endeavor's success over the years, as every new project deployment is planned and executed with the intent of delivering best-of-class customer satisfaction. With the remarkable growth over the past couple of years, it is important that the "customer first" culture that made Endeavor so successful is not diluted with different visions of operations priorities. Earlier this year, Endeavor's CEO was surprised to hear about a seemingly minor example of a customer experience not in keeping with that culture while visiting their office in Boston.

The customer's negative experience was related to their previous visit to Endeavor's Atlanta-based TAC, during which they parked in one of the reserved spots, which are often used by board members, executives, and sales representatives who are visiting the TAC. During their visit, the customer parked in one of these reserved spots but was promptly told to move because, "the space was reserved for the CEO," who would be arriving later for a meeting. The customer ended up having to park on the other end of the lot and walk to TAC during an ill-timed torrential downpour. Here is the full story relayed to McLain about that customer's experience:

I've never met you before, but it's good to finally meet you. I hear your name all the time, but let me tell you about my only experience with you. One time, I was visiting your operations office and parked in a spot right out front. Before I got out of my car, two people ran out to tell me that I was in your spot and that I had to move. I had to park way down the lot, far away…and it was raining. That's all I know about you.

Upon his return from the customer visit, McLain engaged various management and staff members in an effort to determine how a company that traditionally focused on the customer first could allow such an easily-preventable bad experience to happen on its watch. After doing considerable digging, he soon understood the cause: recent changes in the company – namely the increasing presence of new hires with previous experience at much larger companies – were negatively impacting Endeavor's culture of customer-centrism in subtle ways that don't show up in performance metrics or company financials.

McLain realized that the culture was shifting from customer-centric to Endeavor-centric, in large part, due to the introduction of new ways of thinking from individuals with experience at huge companies that focused considerably less on one-on-one customer care and building meaningful and supportive customer relationships. Understanding that establishing a well-defined and sustainable customer-centric company culture must start at the top of an entrepreneurial service organization like Endeavor, McLain took matters into his own hands, quite literally.

Following the aforementioned business trip and consequent investigation, McLain promptly proceeded to roll up his sleeves, get his hands dirty and his brow sweaty in order to set the tone for the company regarding the importance of our customers and of getting back to a customer-centric culture. He had parking signs printed and spent several hours on a sweltering Saturday afternoon drilling through concrete to install them in front of the TAC. The labor itself was intended as a statement - making it clear to everyone entering the Endeavor TAC where our priorities lie: in taking care of our customers. Regardless of position or rank, customer service is the core of each employee's job. Following the CEO's example, the Endeavor team has renewed its focus on what helped make Endeavor so successful: a customer-centric culture in which the greatest measures of success are happy, excited customers

NRF 102nd Annual Convention and Expo
January 13-15, 2013
Jacob K. Javits Convention Center; New York, NY; Booth 2713
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