Hawke’s Bay provider NOW Broadband is putting the service back into one of the biggest service industries. Having developed a pedigree in setting the bar for great customer service, their market leading NPS score, wealth of positive customer comments & feedback, and title of NZ’s Best Customer Support (2018 Broadband Compare – TUANZ awards) is a true testament to their passion for helping kiwi homes get the best broadband experience possible.
CEO Hamish White says “We're putting a stop to what seems to have become a senseless ambition - reduce the time and cost it takes to ‘process’ a customer. We sat down and thought that giving great service, was a pretty important place to start in a service industry. Empathy, problem-solving, genuine connections and above all, caring that little bit more can go a long way.
Small things like answering the phone within 30 seconds, and not to mention speaking to someone in New Zealand which our customers really appreciate. In this time of cost-cutting and shifting call centres offshore, we’re investing in local jobs, people and continue to base our model on our customers.”
This industry disruptor is on a drive to continually challenge competitors and deliver more to customers. Providing services to business and residential customers nationally from offices in Hawke’s Bay, Wellington, Rotorua and Tauranga and is shattering customer satisfaction scores in their industry.
NOW’s unique service centric business model boasts its own field technicians and an in-home tech support service, which is part of what sets this company apart from its competitors.
This, coupled with unrivalled accessibility and responsiveness to customers’ phone and broadband requirements, is a unique proposition the big players can’t compete with. It was their innovative in-home service which allowed NOW to walk away as a Broadband Compare Award Winner in 2017 and an area of their offering that continues to grow.
Hamish adds, “As the digital capability of our homes and businesses continues to grow, so too does people’s frustration when trying to make all their devices and gadgets work. Traditional telcos won’t support anything beyond the router. It has always been apparent that there was no single company helping people in a comprehensive way, yet the demand and need for an in-home tech support service was there. Customers were telling us they want help they can trust. They don’t want to go to multiple people, and they want local and accessible support.”
From day one, as a small rural wireless provider, Hamish saw the opportunity to add value and carve out a real point of difference in the industry. New Zealand has responded, with the company growing customers from Auckland to Invercargill.
A “David and Goliath story” as he describes it. “The collective effort, tenacity and passion of the 70 people who work at NOW is what makes the company great. One of the best things about the company is its size. Being small means you’re more agile than the competition and whatever role you have in the company you’re still very close to the customer, so you can be incredibly responsive.
Business cases are done on napkins and decisions are made within hours over a coffee.
We are far from finished. It is a never-ending quest, customers will always deserve more and our competitors will always need to be challenged.”
