Creating a company ethic that accepts nothing less than excellence in customer service can be a compelling core value to create a unique and successful niche.

How many times over the past five years have we read or heard something about finding a business niche as a means to maintain and grow sales? It seems as if we have been in search of these illusive niches for almost as many years as our companies have been in business. It has become our quest to discover what sets us apart from other companies who offer similar products and services so that we can exploit our newfound special position.

Most often, we think of these niches in the realm of some technical specialty, a collection of product types or advanced processes in which we particularly excel. How many of us have considered our niche could be something as simple, yet empowering, as our people?

Two years ago, a handful of enthusiastic employees and a visionary leader embarked on a mission to reinvent themselves. They all worked for a small PCB company in Oregon that had had a long 30-year history and survived the bad years in the early 2000s. The problem was the company wasn’t growing. Enter Terry Heilman. He had a vision and a plan to re-energize the company.

According to Heilman, president and CEO of Sunstone Circuits, the business model he envisioned was one that would serve the PCB design engineer by providing a total solution for all of his PCB requirements. He wanted the PCB quotation and ordering experience to be one that was easy to navigate, available 24/7/365 and consistently provided high quality, personalized service.

And on the anniversary of Sunstone’s second year in business, under a new name and ownership, this plan really seems to be paying off.

In June, the Portland Business Journal named Sunstone as one of the 100 fastest-growing private companies in the state. Revenues have been up 25% year-on-year for the past few years. Customer satisfaction is at an all-time high. The employees are engaged and contributing to the success story on a daily basis.

The customer service model is nothing new. There are numerous examples of how to establish stellar customer-focused business plans. But often the goals established for an enterprise as it embarks on the path toward customer service excellence get lost to the employees and the business once production starts.

So how do you keep it real? How can an entrepreneurial company walk-the-walk needed to deliver day-in and day-out customer service excellence?

It sounds too easy, but from my observations (supported by many experts in the field of business management I might add) the answer is actually very simple. It begins with the people, and it ends with the people. When you set out to deliver customer service excellence, your people need to all be high achievers. You also need to make customer satisfaction a core company value so that it is the first thing each employee thinks about as he or she sets out to do his or her particular job.
Heilman commented that it’s critical to hire people that have the right attitude. They have to be customer centric and have the desire to be an advocate for the customer. Yes, they do need an aptitude for learning but the intangibles like passion, desire and a customer-focused vision really can’t be taught. They need to bring those with them.

According to Nancy Viter, customer satisfaction manager at Sunstone, employees are encouraged to take charge of their positions. They all have a high level of personal accountability. Each employee takes pride in her contribution to the process, and all employees are keenly aware that customer satisfaction is a key deliverable.

Feedback is a critical component to continued success. You need to know what the customer thinks of your service and if there are things about the experience they think could be improved. Part of the Sunstone methodology is an integrated customer feedback loop that includes an end-of-order survey form. Every order gets a report card, and Sunstone works diligently to integrate the improvements suggested by its customers.

You might think that listening to customers and being responsive is fundamental. It certainly should be. But when you consider that Sunstone has over 20,000 customers, up from a base of 9,000 in 2005, you can understand this is no small task.

What I found to be most interesting is that the Sunstone customer satisfaction team doesn’t make a distinction between its customers. Every order, regardless of value, is handled in the same manner, stressing complete satisfaction.
Sunstone offers free PCBs to students for projects that have ranged from lunar robotics competitions to auto racing projects.

Through the use of the Sunstone developed CAD software, PCB 123, customers have a complete CAD solution from schematic to layout and design through order entry for free at their fingertips. There are currently 110,000 registered users of PCB 123.

Tom Peters, author of “In Search of Excellence,” said that 70% of customers that change vendors do so because they aren’t satisfied with the human side of doing business with a particular company. For the majority of customers, it has less to do with the cost per part and more to do with the service. If we are willing to work with our customers and demonstrate that we care about their concerns, that we are willing to listen to them and make changes when needed, we are well on our way toward customer service excellence.

Being a market leader today in the PCB arena is not an easy task. The cost pressures are tremendous. The technology is constantly changing, and the customers are as demanding as they have ever been. One company has embarked on a mission to achieve its own unique leadership position. The tools it has taken to accomplish the task come in the form of human resources. The differentiation factor resides in the people, and the mission the company has undertaken to deliver consistent customer service excellence. PCD&M

Kathy Nargi-Toth is editor of PCD&M.