Byerly: Total transparency elevates performance all along the way

NAPERVILLE, Ill.—Stanley CSS is laying its cards on the table for all to see—customers and employees alike—with its new initiative, announced Sept. 29, called Performance Scorecard for Commercial Customers.

The scorecard measures Stanley's performance on a number of metrics and is automatically issued monthly to each of Stanley's commercial customers in North America and to the account executive responsible for the account.

“This gives the customers a sense of how well we're doing on their account,” said Tony Byerly, president of Stanley CSS North America and United Kingdom Direct. He said the goal is “total transparency.”

This initiative expands upon a similar service, a performance scorecard for its national accounts customers, launched by HSM Security (which was acquired by Stanley) five years ago.

Both measure Stanley's performance in what Byerly calls “five customer touch points”: accounts management, installation, service, monitoring and billing.

It includes 60 metrics for individual accounts, including detailed ratings on the timeliness, quality and compliance-level of installations, service calls, fire inspections, monitoring actions, invoices and billing.

The scorecard is great for the customer and the account rep, Byerly said. It provides the reps with detailed, up-to-the-minute information on everything that's happened with that account so they can ensure “their security needs are met and that they're happy” because “retention is just as important as creating a new customer.”

Stanley has issued hand-held devices, similar to a touchscreen PDA, to all of its technicians, Byerly said. Technicians enter account information into the handheld during the visit and customers use the device to fill out a customer satisfaction survey. “They hit send and all of the data is sent back and uploaded to Stanley CSS's database,” Byerly said.

The technical information and customer satisfaction information is all captured instantly by Stanley's IT platform, so the account information is always up to date and available.

The technician can issue the standard paper service ticket if the customer chooses, but the system also automatically sends a ticket, via email, to the customer, so that person has a permanent record.

Capturing, categorizing and reporting the data in a smart way “is all intertwined with improving the customer experience,” Byerly said.

Next up for Stanley will be apps to enable customers to track where their service technician is. Byerly said that is “like when you go online to see where a package is. You'll be able to do that with your technician” so you'll have an accurate ETA for the technician's arrival.

Also, in the works are similar tracking devices for customer proposals. They'll be able to see “where my proposal is, what stage it's in and when I'll have it,” Byerly explained.

The goal, Byerly said is a transparency all along the way, from the proposal stage through installation and ongoing through the service and maintenance calls. Providing this transparency will “elevate the performance of everyone in the field, and in the back office,” Byerly said. “We think this will take the security industry and customer experience to a whole new level.”