What does ongoing support look like at Whirks?

In the last article, we outlined what you can expect during implementation. What will ongoing service and support look like for you as a client? 

After you read this article, you’ll know what to expect from our team. Jot down any questions you may have so you can reach out to your dedicated client success specialist. 

First, before telling you what you can expect from our support team, it’s helpful to explain our approach to good customer service. We talked a lot about this subject during this podcast episode if you want to give it a listen. 

Our payroll & HR services enable you to use our HCM, SaaS-based, platform to process payroll, manage benefits, and track employee time. 

To accomplish this, we take a ‘train the trainer’ approach during implementation and give you and your team the resources you need to learn our technology and use it as quickly as possible. 

We offer on-demand live training, self-help articles and tutorials, courses, quizzes, and videos in our University, and ongoing service by our support team. 

We want you to experience white glove customer service with our team. We are constantly working on our definition of what supporting you means, but in a nutshell, we give our support team the green light to do whatever it takes to deliver the right answer to you. 

Sometimes that means building a custom report or walking you through a complicated process over the phone. Other times it means emailing you instructions on the best way to handle a specific question. 

Having written documentation gives you a knowledge base and instructions for the next time the issue arises. Whatever it is you’re trying to do, we believe it’s our job to give you the tools and support you need to make payroll processing fun. 

Now that we’ve given you our ideas around support, here are the most frequently asked questions about customer service.

Will I have a dedicated service representative on my account?

Yes! Whether you’ve run into an issue, need a question answered, or simply want to check in with us, you will have a dedicated customer success specialist, and they are your main point of contact when you need help. 

You can contact them via email or by their direct phone number. You can also call the front desk and be transferred back to their line. 

When your customer success specialist is out of the office, your email is seen by our entire support team, which enables anyone on our team to jump in and resolve your issue as quickly as possible. 

This allows us to quickly address your concerns and answer your questions and creates some redundancy in our processes when an individual staff member is OOO or unable to take your question if they’re in an extended meeting. 

We want you to build a great working relationship with one person, but we also know the value of getting an answer back as quickly as possible which is why we equip our entire team to answer any question you have. 

Our customer success team is trained to respond to questions within one hour of receiving a message, and completely resolving an issue in four hours or less within our normal business hours (Monday-Friday from 8:30 am-5:30 PM CST).

How long has your service team been working at Whirks?

We have been asked this question a few times, so we’re finally sharing our answer! Our longest customer success specialist has been with our team for twelve years, and we’ve experienced ZERO turnovers in the last three years. 

When we say we want you to get to know your customer success specialist and build a relationship with them, we really mean it! 

What other resources should I know about?

Being a supportive payroll partner means providing you with as many resources, training, and information as possible to feel equipped to handle any issue that may come along. 

The University 

In addition to our support team, you also have access to our University. The University contains specific courses, which include a library of how-to videos, articles, quizzes, and quick help videos that you can use for self-paced learning. 

You can access the University anytime, anywhere, and on any device,  so even after business hours, you are able to receive help. 

Whether a new HR employee needs software training or you want to learn how to do something better, this knowledge base is a valuable resource for you and your team. 

For example, if you’ve recently hired a benefits administrator, you can assign them 10-20+ hours of online Benefits Administration training. This teaches them all of the ins and outs of the tool and helps them excel in their role. 

You can also earn certifications, badges, and prizes as you complete training, (plus gifts from us!) We get stoked when clients take our classes – and we believe in rewarding that type of initiative with things like cash prizes, local restaurant gift cards, spa days, and even the chance to win an all-expenses-paid trip to the beach! 

Monthly Newsletter 

The Whirks monthly newsletter, “Heads Up”, is our exclusive client news source for HR and payroll compliance. We will keep you in the loop on upcoming webinars, projects, and events happening around our office, and opportunities to network with your fellow business peers. 

Occasionally, we’ll use the newsletter to get super technical on a small aspect of our software that you might not know about yet. 

We believe in helping you get one step better every day, and that means constantly updating content and promoting ideas that benefit you, your company, and your team. We strive to make this content valuable and relevant to your business. 

What is a QBR?

QBR stands for quarterly business review. We send you a link four times a year to schedule a QBR if you want to have one with your customer success specialist. 

During this meeting, we review your current organization, how you’ve changed, and what action steps you might want to take to further integrate or automate your people processes.

This is our opportunity to be more of a strategic advisor, so feel free to ask questions about salary benchmarking, employee wellness initiatives, and HR policy updates.

Organizations are never stagnant, and we like to stay on top of any growing pains you may be experiencing as a company. 

Often, we get into the weeds of processing payroll and fixing time cards on a day-to-day basis, and we may never stop to talk about how you just hit a compliance tier you need to know about or think through how you’re handling a specific process internally. 

It’s also an opportunity for us to proactively address service issues and make you aware of new updates to our platform that you need to use. Our platform is constantly being improved throughout the year, and we want you to be aware of every update. 

Your quarterly QBR is our way of giving you open office hours to address problems and future needs or catch up with our team and tell us how you’re doing. 

How do I let my employees know I’m making a switch to your company?

The last thing we will help you with during implementation is a life-changing thing we like to call Adaptive Employee Experience. This refers to how your employees perceive what is happening and going on in your company.

Adaptive Employee Experience is our online portal that you can use to ensure communication flows through your company properly. 

In every organization, employees need to know the rules. This means understanding what can get them landed in the HR office, what’s a fireable offense, or how they can be promoted. 

Your employees’ lives are constantly evolving, and life updates have to be made within your organization. Your employees could get married. They might change their last names, addresses, bank information, and benefits plan. 

They may need pay stubs for a loan or need to send you new certifications, update personal documents, or complete training and performance reviews. They may have a new baby and need to add new insurance policies to their benefits plan. 

We help you accomplish all of this paperwork by offering a consumer-grade User Interface (UI) that is fully accessible across any of your employee’s devices. This tool allows you to engage and interact with your team for all of their needs. 

During the final stage of implementation, we discuss what permissions you’d like your employees to have. For example, you may want to allow them to view their pay stubs or change direct deposit information. 

After you put these permissions in place, we’ll turn these features on for your employees, and you’ll help them log in for the first time.

How to use the Adaptive Employee Experience

1. To use the adaptive employee experience (which is entirely free in all of our service packages) all you need is your employees’ personal email address tied to their employee account. As an authorized contact, you decide what they can access. Once that’s completed, we can turn on Employee Self-Service. Employees will receive an email invitation to create their password (their username is always their personal email) to our platform. Then they will have full access to the information you’ve allowed them to view. 
2. We recommend announcing this change during a company-wide meeting or in a detailed email. We have two email templates available for you to send out to your employees, or you can use our script as a guide to rolling out self-service for your employees. We also have videos with step-by-step instructions for new employees who are logging in for the first time.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we know that customer service is difficult to envision when you first start working with us, so we’ve provided our frequently asked questions to help you get started on the right foot. Having a partner who knows you trust you, and supports you will make the employee life cycle more navigable. 

Our team is here to support you and help you, your business and your employees get one step better every day. 

We’re thrilled to be on this journey with you, and we thank you for trusting the Whirks team!