In its search for the very best customer service, 4CornerNetworks has hired Cisco sales expert Steven Wood as UK Channel Partner Manager. In this latest update from the senior team, Steven shares his thoughts on why he chose 4CornerNetworks to progress his career, and discusses the plans the company has to ensure its service remains the best:
— UK Channel Partner Manager
People change jobs for all kinds of reasons, but in my experience the most common are money, boredom, and the need to get away from people they don’t get on with. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with any of those reasons. However, I was lucky enough to be in a position to seek out an employer that fitted with my own values in the sphere of Cisco support.
For me, one of the keys to being both productive and happy in a job is to share the goals of your employer, and I wanted to join an organisation that was truly driven by service. I looked at the 4CornerNetworks website and saw a company that talked about what it did and how it could help, rather than what things cost. That was a good sign.
When I met the MD, Kevin, I knew I would fit in. His views were very much like mine in terms of what can be achieved for the customer.
I have been working with Cisco networks for more than a decade, both here in the UK and further afield in Europe and Asia, and I have found that many companies that started out as small, nimble players with motivated staff willing to go the extra mile for their customers have long since lost their way. It is sad that, despite the market for network solutions and support being larger than ever, there are fewer firms operating in it with their customers’ needs at heart.
When I started work, there was further confirmation that I had made the right choice: calls are taken by senior staff out of hours, and actioned immediately so that customers don’t suffer unnecessary downtime due to network issues. I saw this on one of my first days, when a customer got in touch at 10pm needing a Cisco engineer at a relatively remote location.
Nobody wants to be stressing about work at 10pm, so if our customer is doing just that, then they really need our support. That seems obvious to me, but surprisingly, many within our industry seem to view things differently. Needless to say, 4CornerNetworks’ customer had an engineer on-site the following morning.
The good practice extends to 4CornerNetworks’ extensive engineer base, who are well treated and remunerated. In exchange they give our customers top quality technical service and professionalism. This is crucial, as too many times over the last ten years I have found myself in the position of providing a good engineer to sort out the problems caused by a bad one, clearly false economies.
Through these simple-sounding measures, 4CornerNetworks has become a market leader in providing Cisco technical support, whether on-site or remotely. Despite the huge global market we are involved in, we are actually finding that the UK remains a fertile ground for picking up customers, as there is simply so much dissatisfaction with network support providers.
What 4CornerNetworks is doing is nothing short of revolutionising the market from a service point of view, and I am delighted to say I will be continuing that revolution, by constantly talking to our customers and listening to what they say.
I am delighted to reveal that there are very significant plans afoot. 4CornerNetworks is about to go live with a service delivery model that will shake up the marketplace once and for all. I can hardly wait to tell our customers, but for now the announcement will have to wait.
