If there’s one word that describes our company, it might be “engaged.” I speak for everyone at Mazévo in saying that one of the things we love most about our work is connecting with customers, learning about their scheduling challenges, and brainstorming how we can meet them even better.
Interactions during our monthly Mazévo Connect webinars are always enjoyable and enlightening. And, of course, nothing beats in-person conversations for the effective exchange of ideas. So, when I recently had the opportunity to attend two tradeshows (ACUI and ACCED-I) in two weeks, I jumped at the chance! The shows were essentially on opposite sides of the country (New York City and Albuquerque, respectively), so it was some long jumping, but I was still excited to go.
I thought I might share some insights I got from hanging out with customers for several days in this article.
TL;DR Key Takeaways:
- Mazévo is all about engaging with our customers.
- We connect in several ways, including our Mazévo Connect webinar series and industry tradeshows
- We participated in a couple of shows recently and got some insights from scheduling pros on their wants and needs.
- Attentive customer support and intuitive software are top priorities.
There’s Customer Support, and Then There’s Attentive Customer Support
Every software company is going to tell you they provide “excellent customer support.” That’s one of those default statements businesses feel compelled to make. However, I heard from conference attendees that many companies seem to believe that just having a few people assigned to that role makes their support “excellent.”
What I also heard is that the attentive customer support we provide at Mazévo sets us apart. Existing customers told me that, but so did several Mazévo-curious folks who aren’t yet on board but are doing their homework and learning that the assistance we provide to customers is outstanding and unique in our industry.
I was humbled by those statements but not surprised by them. Mazévo CEO Dean Evans has been in this industry for decades, and whether a company of his had a handful of customers in its early stages or thousands of them, he’s always been eager to get on phone calls, video conferences, or flights to tradeshows if his presence would be helpful in solving a problem, brainstorming a new product feature, etc.
This is a guy who has plenty of executive-type tasks on his plate, but he loves being “in the trenches” assisting our customers. It always makes us grin when someone on a phone call will say, “Wait, this is Dean Evans? As in, the Dean Evans?” Yep, that one.
All of us at Mazévo share his passion for excellent customer support, and we’re proud to say that our customers will tell you it shows.
Intuitive Scheduling Solutions Are the Best Scheduling Solutions
The other comment I got from many of the Mazévo customers I talked with (as well as prospective customers to whom I demoed Mazévo) at ACUI and ACCED-I is that ease of use in a scheduling solution is crucial to them because, among other reasons, that makes it easy for new users to get productive quickly. This characteristic is so important it can be a dealmaker.
One prospective customer I talked with at ACCED-I was a staunch supporter of her current system… until she saw Mazévo in action. It’s fair to say that she was blown away by many aspects of our solution, including its ease of use, commenting, “It’s like you’re two years ahead of what we use.”
Don’t get me wrong — scheduling pros need a powerful, feature-rich system that can handle an array of tasks, but they want it to be intuitive. And from our perspective, that’s really not too much to ask!
We continually enhance Mazévo as new technologies become available, new customer needs come to light, etc. But the first question we ask today is the same as the first question we asked when we were creating our system years ago: What’s the easiest way to accomplish the task?
That doesn’t mean taking shortcuts or doing the bare minimum from a development standpoint. On the contrary, creating functionality that feels effortless or frictionless generally takes far more time and effort than creating features that get the job done, but only after users jump through several hoops.
People who understand what a complex job scheduling can be and see Mazévo in action virtually always come away respecting the effort that’s gone into developing it. As many of them told me in the last few weeks, they might not have the freedom to switch to Mazévo currently, but as soon as they get the green light, they will.
It’s Not All Rainbows and Unicorns
Does Mazévo flawlessly meet every need of every customer? No, that scheduling system doesn’t exist in this universe and never will. There’s simply too much variation in how people operate their facilities to perfectly accommodate everyone’s requirements.
So, my time at the recent tradeshows also included talking with customers about workarounds for current challenges, potential new features for Mazévo, etc. But even those interactions are beneficial, as they’re an opportunity to be transparent with people and say, “No, I’m sorry, Mazévo doesn’t do that currently.”
In my 20+ years in this industry, I’ve learned that people appreciate that answer and definitely prefer it over, “Ummm, yeah, I think our development team is working on that right now. Oh, and we provide excellent support.”
Can Mazévo meet all of your needs? Or enough of them that it’s head and shoulders above your current system and others you’ve researched? The best way to find out is to participate in a demo tailored to your environment.
Book a session, and let’s talk about your scheduling challenges and how to address them!
