07/ 29/ 2005
Good customer service is crucial to success in business. There's nothing high-tech about helping customers get exactly what they need from your business. But technology can make the process easier and more efficient. Like the rest of the business world, customer service has been transformed by technology.
The finalists in the Dell/NFIB Small Business Excellence in Customer Experience Award understand that coupling the latest innovations with good, old-fashioned people skills can help you and your employees deliver top-notch service.
Neurosurgery and Spine Specialist
Versailles, Ky.
Dr. Timothy Kriss, CEO
For the past five years, Neurosurgery and Spine Specialist has been making specialized medical care more accessible in rural central Kentucky. Instead of patients traveling far and waiting a long time to see the physician, Dr. Timothy Kriss travels to them. To keep track of medical records, his staff created an entirely mobile electronic medical office, making all medical records and services available to all patients at all times -- regardless of where the patient is located.
On being a small-business owner: "The best thing about being in business for yourself is the freedom: freedom to take risks, to be creative, to fail, to do the right thing and to work hard and have that hard work benefit my family and me," says Kriss.
On technology: When Kriss started his business in 1999, he had never used a computer. "I realized that not only would I need to understand technology to give me the necessary edge in business, but I would need to master certain critical areas of technology in order to compete and excel," he says. Today, Kriss is his own IT expert. "I can solve most of my own small business' peculiar kind of day-to-day technology problems."
