VIP treatment

When Twinsburg-based PartsSource LLC was first established, its executives knew that without a commitment to customer service, they would quickly lose customers to the competition.

Ray Dalton, founder, president and CEO, and Don Hubbard, senior vice president sales and marketing, take pride in their company — a provider of replacement parts for medical equipment — and its ability to deliver on the customer service promise.

PartsSource doesn’t treat customers differently based on their size.

Hubbard says all large companies started out as small customers, and small customers deserve the same level of service as large ones.

Each new customer is assigned its own customer service representative, who is backed up by a permanent support team. Every call to PartsSource is answered by one of five receptionists, and customers aren’t transferred into voicemail unless they specifically request it.

Customers are guaranteed a callback within two hours of their initial request, and every order is followed up with a personalized thank-you card and a phone call to ensure that the part arrived on time and worked properly.

New hires get a week of customer service training. Then, they are placed in a designated area of the call center, with the training and development manager nearby to answer questions and intervene with customers as necessary.

New hires meet with Dalton near the end of their first week, and he explains their ownership of the customer experience. They must tackle any situation or problem first because “the people closest to the problem have the most power to rectify the situation.” Before customer service reps go solo, they must understand the company’s expectations of consistently excellent customer service.

HOW TO REACH: PartsSource LLC, (330) 963-7030 or www.partssource.com