Failure is NOT Inevitable!

[Today’s blog is written by Matthew Heinz, EnergyCAP’s Vice President of Customer Service. His topic is our Customer Success program.]

It’s challenging and intimidating to implement a new enterprise-level software application, especially one as full-featured as EnergyCAP. But failure is NOT inevitable!

At EnergyCAP, we want you to be successful in understanding our software’s functionality and with using it to meet your energy efficiency goals. We have an exciting service offering specifically aimed at this, and it’s called Customer Success.

Before I tell you what Customer Success is, let me tell you what it is not.

What It’s Not

Customer Success is not your standard customer support, which is typically issue-based and time-sensitive. You deserve a quick fix for an immediate problem! If you’re an EnergyCAP customer, you already get that for free with your annual License Agreement.

It’s not retro commissioning, which is a broad-based assessment and redirection of your energy management program and/or utility bill workflows.

And it is most definitely not a one-size-fits-all solution.

What It Is

At EnergyCAP, Customer Success is personal, empowering, enabling, and is all about your success.

Specifically, Customer Success is a fixed term of service in which you are assigned a dedicated Customer Success Manager (CSM) whose job is to work with you on mutually agreed EnergyCAP topics. The average term of service is between one and three months, and you can renew at any time. Think of it as putting your EnergyCAP professional on retainer. You’ll have unlimited access, at least during business hours!

What It Offers

EnergyCAP clients have derived a lot of value from our Customer Success service. Examples of actual projects include:

A city government that needed assistance with transitioning from Enterprise to Online software versions
A health care provider that required specialized training for a new employee
A consulting firm that has purchased an open-ended Customer Success contract with us to secure training in general best practices in energy management using EnergyCAP
A university that wanted assistance with implementing and understanding chargebacks

As you can see, our Customer Success program is individual, flexible, and responsive. But if the client does not have a comprehensive agenda, we also have developed a standard set of tasks which we believe will translate to success:

Review current client practices for conformity with established best practices in EnergyCAP. We often collaborate with fellow CSMs and Project Managers to tailor custom best practices as necessary.
Identify opportunities to leverage the latest software capabilities
- Ensure the client is aware of processes in the software that would benefit them
- Keep client aware of the release notes and demonstrate new functionality
- Work to convert the client fully to EnergyCAP Online
(Re-)Configure EnergyCAP as the organization expands and changes
- Change hierarchy or naming conventions
- Recommend functionality adoption and/or upgrades if value is there
Serve as a collaborator in project development. While the CSM will not assume sole responsibility for a task, he/she will be available to help ensure success.
Provide ongoing online training to help the client self-perform
- Our goal is to ensure you understand how to use EnergyCAP to perform your job responsibilities successfully
- We use GoToMeeting screen sharing to conduct online training for agreed-upon topics
Understand the client’s EnergyCAP objectives and explain how the objectives can most easily be met
- Identify the organization’s energy management objectives and goals
- Provide insight as to how EnergyCAP software can track progress and help meet objectives and goals
Encourage organization-wide adoption of EnergyCAP
- Identify barriers to company-wide adoption with client and look for solutions to break down barriers
- Encourage and facilitate report distribution or Dashboard sharing
Monitor software usage and alert the client to any troublesome patterns or trends
- If we host your database, we will proactively review software use and provide observations and suggestions for enhancing the value of your EnergyCAP software
- Manage escalations and urgent issues
- Ensure clear communication with the client in regard to problem resolution and workarounds
Raise level of importance of software issues with the EnergyCAP Development Team
Conduct Customer Value Reviews in order to understand and evaluate the value the client is receiving from EnergyCAP
- We want the organization to receive a great return on its EnergyCAP investment
- The CSM will work with you to ensure you are receiving maximum value

If any of these are areas where you see potential for you and/or your organization to grow and, well, succeed, then perhaps you should take a closer look at EnergyCAP’s Customer Success program.

Failure is not inevitable! Many of our clients have already found success using EnergyCAP. You can too. Contact our sales staff to request more information.