Eaton Peabody

It's the 'Year of the Customer' ...this year, every year - May 4, 2007

Written by Jim McCarthy

Courtesy of The Times Record

The Times Record launches 'customer service' initiative with five local businesses
What do a bank, a family-owned department store, a law firm, insurance agency, engineering firm and your hometown newspaper have in common?

In two words: customer service. It's the common ground shared by all businesses, both large and small. Those that do it well typically thrive ... not just survive.

So with that understanding as motivation and context, The Times Record is launching today an initiative with Bath Savings Institution, Grand City, Eaton Peabody, Riley Insurance Agency LLC and Wright-Pierce that seeks to make this year, and every year, "The Year of the Customer."

"I think it all came from our awareness of the Brunswick Naval Air Station closure in 2011 and thinking about its impact on our communities," said Douglas Niven, publisher of The Times Record. "We want to be at the forefront of a 'community betterment' program, to work with our local businesses and help them weather the closure of the base."

Niven likened the "Year of the Customer" campaign to the successful "Community Read" programs of recent years — in which several local libraries select a book and schedule a variety of activities to enhance the reading experience for readers of all ages. The book, in this instance, is "It's Your Business! The Smart Guide to Customer Service," co-authored by Marty Wilk and Dr. Peter McGuire and published by Brunswick Publishing Co., parent company of The Times Record.

"We are in a great position to do this," Niven said, explaining that the book was offered at the publisher's cost to the participating businesses. The idea, he said, is to get a community-wide discussion going on how local businesses can meet the challenges they will face in the next few years by embracing the practical and useful tips spelled out in the book.

Niven took the first step by agreeing to distribute copies of the book to each of the 140 full- and part-time employees of The Times Record. The other local partners agreed to do likewise with their employees.

Bath Savings Institution
"For us, using the book was seen as a nice complement to processes already in place at Bath Savings Institution," said Glenn Hutchinson, president and CEO of the Bath-based bank since 1995. "Our mission statement is 'Exceptional service without exception.' ... So using the book is really a reinforcement technique for a lot of the ideas we're talking about already."

Hutchinson said copies of "It's Your Business!" have been distributed to supervisors, managers and most employees who regularly work with customers at each of the bank's eight locations — ranging from Boothbay Harbor and Damariscotta down to Yarmouth and Portland. The bank, which has been in business since 1852, employs approximately 140 people.

Discussions already have started among Bath Savings employees, he said, about topics raised in the opening chapters of the book.

"It works well as a tool that helps us discuss and come up with our own answers to particular issues," Hutchinson said.

Faced with competition from much larger banks with national or even international offices, Hutchinson said, Bath Savings' employees understand that they "need to deliver financial services better than our competition."

"Obviously, for us, we truly believe that serving the customer is the 'product' we offer," he said. "Anything we can do to improve upon what we already do is going to be helpful."

Riley Insurance Agency LLC
The Riley Insurance Agency is a six-generation local business — located at 139 Maine St., in the heart of Brunswick's downtown — that has been serving the business and personal insurance needs of Maine people since 1853.

"Our niche is serving the people of Brunswick," said David Millar, a partner with Dave Nadeau at the insurance agency that employs 12 people and offers a wide range of property insurance plans. "Our customers range from one-person businesses to a very large company. Customer service, it's absolutely what we do."

Millar said Riley Insurance, like many small businesses, doesn't have a formal training program. So the corporate values, its ethics, knowledge of the community and all the other intangibles that define Riley Insurance tend to be learned in the moment, on the job, by example as well as explicit instruction.
Like Hutchinson at Bath Savings, Millar sees Wilk and McGuire's book as a catalyst for office conversations that will help "solidify and clarify" each employee's understanding of what Riley Insurance stands for as a business in the Brunswick community.

"We live in a unique place," Millar said. "A lot of what we have here is very special. (It's important) to be able to articulate that 'specialness' and that's what helps you be able to preserve that."

Wright-Pierce
Across the river in Topsham, located at 99 Main St., Wright-Pierce is an employee-owned civil and environmental engineering company that marks its 60th year in business this year. It has 135 employees, working at six locations throughout New England.

William E. Brown, its president and CEO, said signing on to the "Year of the Customer" initiative was an easy call, given Wright-Pierce's already strong corporate focus on serving its clients.

"If you look at our Web site, you'll notice we really explain what we mean by 'customer service,'" he said. "We understand that great service and technical excellence only happens if you have an excellent team."
Getting that team in place, for Wright-Pierce, involves hiring the "best and brightest" and offering "a work culture that fosters and rewards professional growth, industry leadership, client focus and balance to personal and professional life."

Brown said the company plans to use Wilk and McGuire's book to facilitate client-oriented discussions and in-house training sessions already occurring at each of Wright-Pierce's six locations.

"It's extremely consistent with our philosophy," he said. "It gives us another tool to reinforce our corporate philosophy and values."

Eaton Peabody
Like the other "Year of the Customer" stakeholders, William Ferdinand of the Eaton Peabody law firm said the initiative fits nicely into the guiding philosophy already in place at the firm's offices in Brunswick, Augusta, Bangor and Ellsworth.

"Law firms are service businesses, so we need to focus on customer service all the time," he said.
One indicator of Eaton Peabody's commitment to customer service, Ferdinand said, is the very fact that it has four offices spread strategically throughout the state. Doing so, he said, provides Eaton Peabody clients with all the benefits of a large full-service law firm, while retaining the advantages of dealing with a lawyer close to home.

In addition to offering general legal services, Ferdinand said, Eaton Peabody provides consulting services ranging from business growth initiatives, political and government relations and local and regional economic development.

From a customer service prospective, he said, the law firm's expansion into consulting services means that Eaton Peabody "is able to bring more resources in a coordinated way" to meet each client's needs. The law firm has begun using "It's Your Business!" as a "tool for generating ideas for discussion," he said, adding that a "client services development committee" already is in place to identify clients' needs and develop a strategic plan to make sure those needs are fully met.

Grand City
Located in the heart of Brunswick's downtown, Grand City is a longtime family-owned department store that values the loyalty of its customers.

But as Scott Fenwick, owner of Grand City, is quick to point out, he and his employees don't take that loyalty for granted. His store's guiding philosophy is to pay close attention to its customers' needs and make sure those needs are met.

As he told the co-authors of "It's Your Business" when profiled for two chapters of their book, Grand City employees are encouraged to build and maintain personal relationships with customers — e.g., to say "thank you" as customers leave the store and to carry niche items (such as toboggans in July for clammers) not always offered by the larger retailers.

This year ... every year
"It's Your Business!" co-author Marty Wilk, a lawyer at Eaton Peabody's Brunswick office and the chairman of the Brunswick Local Redevelopment Authority that is overseeing the BNAS reuse planning effort, sees The Times Record's initiative as demonstrating a key principle of successful businesses — "a focus on the 'community as customer.'"

"The Times Record, a multi-generational family business, has a strong commitment to the community," he said. "It cares about the community it serves and wants to help the community prepare for and deal with the base closure. The hope is that, with the help of this program, mid-coastal Maine will have achieved, in advance of the base closure and continuing thereafter, a national reputation as one of the most customer friendly, customer-focused areas in the country."

WHAT: "The Year of the Customer," is a customer-focus program spearheaded by The Times Record to help local businesses prepare and deal with the closure of BNAS.

WHY: The concept is to create a "brand" for Mid-coast Maine as a particularly customer-friendly, customer-focused area of the state.

HOW: Copies of "It's Your Business! The Smart Guide to Customer Service" by Marty Wilk and Peter McGuire are being offered at cost to local businesses.

To find out more about the program, contact Frank Curran at The Times Record at 504-8270, or by e-mail at fcurran@timesrecord.com.