Feb 11

Written by: Matt Abar
2/11/2009 8:56 AM

Techfi support had some deeply ingrained bad habits, and we never got to the point where service was one of our strengths. For the first few years, we didn't have systems in place to track our support calls and didn't have any way of knowing if we were doing a good job. About two years in, our press took on a negative quality, where any article about Techfi had comments about our horrible support.

The bad press was a wakeup call for me and, I like to think that it launched a turnaround. Over the next year we installed a CRM system, started doing client surveys on support quality, added numerous quality control checks to our service bureau, created a professional services department, and much more. We never got to the point where service was a strength but we did improve.

My one regret with the Techfi turnaround was that I had to drive most of that change myself. With FinFolio, I thought it was important early on to have somebody building the support department with the systems and structure in place to allow for painless growth. Last week I hired Tom Van Horn to create these systems and generally build out our operations capability.

Tom comes from the advisor side of the business, and has a great vision of what our support capabilities should look like in a couple years. This time around, I expect our support and service capabilities to be a core strength of the company.

Tom will be blogging so he'll fill in the details on our support plans. He's also responsible for managing the beta group so he'll be sifting through our large group of interested testers and contacting the candidates. You can read more about him here.

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