The first thing our leadership team did this year was to take a day to get off-site and spend some time planning for 2019, setting goals, and defining where we are headed as a company. As the new CEO, I was excited for this time and excited to hear everyone’s thoughts. The time was better than I could have hoped for and out of it came six statements that we felt defined who Marketing Support Network is. We’ve taken to calling them our “we believe” statements and as a company we are spending a few weeks focused on each statement so that every employee from me to our part-time college students understand what we’re all about. The second statement on our list is “We believe in standing shoulder to shoulder with our clients” and it is one I get the honor of doing day in and day out.

A few weeks ago, we were at one of our biggest trade shows for the year. We had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with current clients this year and we asked all of them to take pictures with us, standing shoulder to shoulder, so we could have those as a visual in the office. They all loved the idea and as I stood for those photos I thought about all the ways I see my team figuratively stand with our clients every day.

It would be easy for a contact center agent to get on the phone, do the basic requirements, and hang up, but every day I hear people on the phone with genuine care and compassion. They serve these callers with kindness even when the caller isn’t kind in return. I’ve watched them go above and beyond to make sure a situation gets handled or that the client gets the best result possible. I’ve watched and been a part of days when managers from all departments or digital specialists have come in at 6:00 in the morning because they know we need extra hands for a special project and serving the client in that way is the right thing to do.

Standing shoulder to shoulder means that we aren’t just another vendor. It means that we commit to being a partner, someone they can trust. It means that we work hard in training and scripting to make sure that someone on the phone never thinks they are talking to “just the call center”. It means making sure we send cards signed by the whole team when we know a client has had a health challenge or a loss, so that they know we care. It means taking the time to build relationships with their internal team so that we all work together well. To me, standing shoulder to shoulder is a commitment we make to our clients and it’s a lifestyle of service we chose to live out every day. Watching our whole team embody that idea and carry it out is exciting and it’s one of the reasons I am proud to be a part of MSN.