SimplePay: Your Partners in Success

Author: Shirlynn Koh and Jamie Bezuidenhout

    3 minute read    

Some of our clients may have noticed that they’re being contacted by employees of ours with the initially confusing title of “Customer Success Specialist”. We think it’s time you were formally introduced.

COVID-19 taught us a lot. Unlike many industries devastated by the impact of the pandemic on their very survival, we saw the need to grow and expand our team to help our clients cope with the ramifications of the pandemic. 

In South Africa, despite how goalposts seemingly kept changing from the government’s side, our team was able to respond with agility to the uncertainty surrounding how governmental social security interventions were to be administered. Similarly, in Ireland, the government’s introduction of their employee assistance programme had payroll repercussions that called for us to react without delays, ensuring our clients got the help they needed. 

On the other side of the globe in Singapore and Hong Kong, we noticed less of a direct impact on the management of payroll from a system perspective. Nevertheless, we kept our ears to the ground to ensure we responded accordingly to any change of regulations in these regions.

The silver lining of the pandemic for us (if ever there was one) was that it caused us to take a step back and reevaluate how we do business - how do we maintain the level of service we provide our customers at scale? SimplePay’s focus has always been on providing an affordable, cloud-based and intuitive product with exceptional service. This sort of combination does not come easily and we recognise that support and service in the industry often leaves a lot to be desired. 

This led us to two realisations: First, we identified a need to grow our team – especially our Customer Experience (CE) team – in order to maintain the high level of service we offer our clients and as a result, over the past year, the CE team has doubled. Secondly, in thinking about the ways in which we could potentially improve, the relatively novel concept of Customer Success was considered. We wondered what success looked like for SimplePay: was it merely a healthy bottom line or was it knowing we’re making a difference in the lives of so many accountants, entrepreneurs, business owners and the people they employ? Have you ever wondered what success looks like for your business? Defining success at SimplePay is simple – we want our customers to succeed. It is that motivation that prompted us to build our very own Customer Success team in October 2020.

At this point, perhaps you’re wondering what Customer Success is? And how exactly does that impact you as a payroll administrator using SimplePay? The methodology is straightforward: we help optimise your SimplePay experience in order for you to achieve your desired outcome when processing payroll. What differentiates our Customer Success team from our Customer Support team is that the former endeavours to help you get more value out of your SimplePay experience whereas the latter tackles any system-related concerns you might face. Ultimately, by inculcating relationship-focused habits into our client management efforts, we help you master SimplePay. As a result, you’re able to free up some time and invest any saved resources right back into your business. Doesn’t that sound like success to you? 

So who are we and in what circumstances might we interact with one another? Most commonly, each time you see the, “How likely are you to recommend SimplePay to someone within your business network?” survey on your screen, Shirlynn and Jamie are the ones who receive this feedback. Shirlynn looks after Success in Singapore and Hong Kong, while Jamie oversees South Africa and Ireland. We read every response (there are a lot – we now know how Santa must feel) and take the necessary action from there. Understanding what it is that you, our customers, value and what you want is an imperative of ours. We advocate on your behalf to shape our product and service into an offering that is suitable for each of you. We welcome and appreciate any and all feedback, suggestions and yes, even the complaints! We’re also working hard behind the scenes on some exciting new initiatives to kick-start 2022 and we hope you’re just as excited as we are!  

In closing, we’d like to leave you with something to think about - what does success look like for your business? How can we help you reach your goals? You’re welcome to get in touch with Jamie and Shirlynn once you’ve given it some thought by reaching them at success@simplepay.cloud.