SmartSimple’s Eric Lauer Hits the Road

He may not have roadies or concert t-shirts, but that doesn’t make Eric Lauer’s summer tour any less exciting.

As SmartSimple’s recently appointed Director of Customer Experience, Eric has been reaching out to our clients, touching base to make sure they’re getting the most from their SmartSimple system.

Director of Customer Experience, Eric Lauer

“A big part of this role is taking a much more proactive approach to the customer experience than SmartSimple has in the past,” says Eric. “We’ve been busy working to create an industry leading product, meeting prospective clients and showcasing how we help streamline grants, research and claims management. It’s now time to take a step back and take the pulse of our user community.”

When Eric took on his new role back in January, he wanted to get a read on how people were feeling about their SmartSimple system, features and services. “The first thing I wanted to accomplish in my role was to get a feel for what clients thought about SmartSimple and what their users thought of the platform, as well as where we could be working to improve our services,” adds Eric.

“What I began to notice was everyone appreciated the personal touch; they liked that someone was actually taking the time to reach out and talk to them about a service they were using. Clients were excited and eager to talk to me, share ideas and get their input in front of a live person, not just as part of a survey, where they never know if anyone is actually listening to what they have to say.”

This gave the SmartSimple team a great idea; if the response to a simple phone call could generate so much goodwill, how much more impactful could personal visits be? Thus the concept of The SmartSimple Road Show was born.

“We decided New York would be the first stage in the tour,” continues Eric. “We have a good number of clients in and around Manhattan, so it gave us the best opportunity to interact with several over a relatively short period of time.”

Eric was joined by Director of Business Development, Gary Modin, and Pre-Sales Technical Analyst Karim Fahmi. “Having a few of us made it possible for more visits and allowed the clients a unique opportunity to get up close and personal with not just our sales team, but our technical team as well,” adds Eric.

The New York tour included such clients as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Poets & Writers Inc. and The Wallace Foundation. “The feedback we got was great. The fact we were willing to go to their offices and see their operations personally were well received and appreciated. It also gave us some fantastic insight into exactly how SmartSimple is being used by the people who interact with it every day,” says Eric.

The next stop on the tour is Chicago, and the team is already pumped and eager to go. “We have wonderful clients in the Chicago area, and with the feedback received from New York, we have some new ideas for this leg of the journey. I’m looking forward to making these trips a regular part of my schedule,” concludes Eric.

Eric and the team will be in Chicago the week of June 22^nd, and we’ll be sharing their experiences on the blog – stay tuned! In the meantime, check out the SmartSimple events page to find out about upcoming conferences and to sign up for our upcoming webinars.