Talking about customers as partners is a concept just as trendy as lean thinking, change management and empathy in the business world. It is so easy to write on your website that you are a sincere and trustworthy partner for your customers – truth be told, we have done it too. But for a good reason, since 98 % of our customers are still on the same path with us.

The intensive honing of our brand that we took on last year made us dig deep to find the true roots behind our operating methods. After a thorough search, we were happy to discover that a partner-centred customer concept has been at the core of our operations right from the start. Declaring it also to everyone else seemed a natural way of moving forward, as we felt that our operations had truly won us our spurs. Our customer churn rate, ie the proportion of our customers who have stopped using our services throughout our 15-year history, is less than 2 %. This is why we decided to highlight our promise on our web pages: we are your partner for delivering excellence now and in the future.

In order to reflect on why our customers come to stay, we wanted to ask about the deeper essence of our partnership concept and our operations from people working where the concept should be most visible – the everyday work of our team of professionals. So let’s hear from Teemu who leads our Customer Success team and Mikko, our Sales Director.

Stepping into our customers shoes

Both Mikko and Teemu see our long-term customer relationships starting from an understanding of the customer’s business. 

“We can’t build a partnership, if we don’t understand what our customers are all about. That’s why it is always so important to become familiar with the customer’s business and use that for building added value.“

Teemu Kortelainen

Customer Success Manager

Viewing sales and customer relationships as a one-way operation is an approach that we hope no sales personnel is following anymore. Good sales starts from the idea that the customer’s operational environment and problems need to be first examined thoroughly, and only then should decisions be made as to what the best solutions are for them. 

“Together we uncover the customer's challenges and find out how we can help in resolving them. The customers themselves don’t always know straight away what types of solutions they need, but with constructive discussions, we may end up with brilliant insights.“

Mikko Martikainen

Sales Director

Delicate ear for changes

The most important thing is that the relationship is not only about sales. True partnership generates value at every step of the shared path from planning the solutions to implementing, supporting and developing them. Handling projects with designated project managers, a smooth delivery and implementation (of which 100% we have completed within the agreed time), as well as personalised support services (where our response time on the phone is less than 20 seconds and the resolution time is about 3 hours) form the basis of our operations. The open dialogue that follows and the active interaction frequency that the customer finds suitable make sure that the partnership continues to evolve. 

Good service and high-quality solutions are, however, something that today’s demanding customers are already accustomed to. Differentiating from others and the forming of a partnership require something extra. Something that the customer feels will bring genuine benefits for them. With regard to our strategy; we focus on being the expert that provides assistance and a single point of contact for the customers, as Teemu points it out.

“Being a partner is also about the principle of being a one stop shop, in which we act as the expert in our field to support the customer. If we can’t provide a finished solution, we will not just say ‘Sorry, we do not offer this’, but rather that we go to work and find the solution. Our strong co-operation network comes handy in these situations.”

We take responsibility

Although a partnership works both ways, the purpose is not to burden the customer. Functioning in the role of a service provider places the responsibility for operations with us. At its best, the partnership is visible to the customer in their everyday operations as the simple fact that matters just keep taken care of.

”For customers, the partnership can also feel a bit like we would be working for them. We take care of things at our end without straining the customer. And we also keep providing insights as to how things could work even better and more efficiently.”

Partnership is not a decision but the result of long-term and humble work. We genuinely take responsibility that our customers are satisfied. No ifs and buts, only a genuine wish to work together in finding methods to achieve a functioning end result. Sometimes, however, the paths can diverge and that’s ok too. No one is perfect, but at least we have done something right with the rest 98 %.

If you are looking for a partner for smarter workplaces; we believe that we have already given you plenty of reasons to be convinced. Let’s talk and find out how we can be of assistance to you.

Read our customers’ stories about our partnership

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