This is part of our series “Movin & Groovin” which profiles our amazing customers and how they use Groove. Below is some Q&A with Michael Ferguson of Loclly. 

What does your business do? How many people are working there?

We partner with local businesses to bring amazing introductory offers.  Sort of like Groupon, but our target audience is a bit more high-end.  Loclly features offers for Botox, massages, laser tag and everything in between.  Right now, we’re a team of five but we’re bringing new employees on board consistently. 

How many email inquiries do you get on average per day for your business?

An average deal usually sees somewhere between 80-100 emails.  When we feature an extremely popular deal, this number can double.  Emails are usually from customers with questions and businesses who want to run a promotion with us. 

What did you use to manage customer support before Groove?

In the very beginning we used Gmail, which we quickly outgrew.  From there, we tried both Assitly and Tenderapp and wern’t thrilled with either.  We had a particularly high number of issues with Tenderapp and were glad to see it go!

How do you use Groove?

Our team is on the small side, so we all wear a couple different hats. Groove allows anyone on the team to pitch in and help with customer service, and to see exactly where the conversation was left if another team member had previously been working with a customer, and to assign it to a specific department if necessary.

Why did you choose Groove?

It was easy to integrate Groove into our business and very simple to learn the ropes.  We needed something simple, efficient and, most importantly, reliable.  With past systems, we have had issues with customers not receiving our replies to their inquiries.  It does no good to have an awesome team dedicated to customer satisfaction if they never get the message!

How has Groove helped change the way you manage customer support?

Again, its 100x more reliable than other systems we’ve tried in the past.  Since it flags any aging emails, customers are never left waiting for a response.  When helping a customer, Groove displays a log of all prior communication with them making it super easy to research customer cases and provide them with the answer or help they’re seeking in a matter of seconds.  My team also finds it much easier to understand from a workflow perspective.  

What do you love most about Groove?

I know I sound like a broken record, but I love that it simply works. Its reliable and I know I can bring on a new employee and they’ll know their way around Groove on day one.  I also like the ratings feature; so far we haven’t had numbers to worry about, but its great to know I can keep tabs on the grade of service being provided so we can make any necessary adjustments if the satisfaction level were to ever dip.   

What features would you like to see in the future?

Overall, I think less is more when it comes to things like this.  It needs to be streamlined and straightforward.  Although, it would be nice to have the option to sort tickets by date rather than simply newest to oldest or vice versa.  

What’s the best tip you have for delivering awesome customer support?

Delivering a speedy, helpful and thoughtful response.  We also keep communication with our customers professional, but friendly- think emoticons and none of that corporate “we” speak.  Most importantly, its key to know when to bend your policies and make exceptions in certain situations.  Groove takes care of the speed and efficiency, and my team adds the magic touch.