Day two of RSPA Inspire shifted the education focus to customers (click here to read what you missed on day one). Discussions centered on improving customer health and loyalty. However, before the education kicked off, the RSPA team shared some updates on the RSPA Scholarship initiative.
RSPA Scholarship Update
At every RSPA event, you’ll see volunteers collecting donations for the RSPA Scholarship program. For those who don’t know, employees of all RSPA members (and their families) can apply for scholarships to help ease the costs associated with higher education.
According to Jim Roddy, CEO of RSPA, since 1987, the association has helped hundreds of students, supplying nearly $3 million in scholarships. In 2024, the RSPA had 134 donors give $142,000 in donations. The endowment fund currently stands at $543,000, which means last year, the association was able to award $95,000 in scholarship money to 46 recipients.
There are several annual awards:
- Dave & Norma McCarthy Family Scholarship (Award Amount: $10,000)
- Stanley and Shirley Hayman Founder’s Scholarship (Award Amount: $3,500)
- Ann Maynard “Butterfly Effect” Memorial Scholarship (Award Amount: Two awards of $3,000 each)
- Datacap Systems Scholarship (Award Amount: $2,500)
- John B. Lockington Memorial Scholarship (Award Amount: $2,500)
- Mendiratta Agrawal Scholarship (Award Amount: $2,500)
- Danny Vaughan Memorial Scholarship (Award Amount: $2,500)
- RSPA Anniversary Scholarship (Award Amount: $2,500)
- Retail Solutions Providers Association General Scholarship (Award Amount: Starting at $1,500)
“In August 2024, the RSPA announced plans for the Steve Cuntz Memorial Scholarship,” said Roddy from the Inspire stage. “It’s created to honor Steve Cuntz, the late founder and CEO of Bluestar, and as many people know, one of the most influential people ever in the retail IT channel. He was an unwavering supporter of the RSPA, an unwavering supporter of the channel, and a fierce advocate for small businesses. When we announced earlier that we would launch this program, the scholarship board set a goal of $50,000 for an annual scholarship to be raised in perpetuity. Today, we can announce that the RSPA community raised $70,000 in honor of Steve Cuntz, and the Steve Cuntz Memorial Scholarship will be awarded in perpetuity beginning this year in 2025. A deserving student studying business will receive a $3,500 scholarship every year forever in Steve’s name.”
Excellent work, RSPA! If you’re a member in good standing for at least three years, don’t overlook this benefit.
Morning Session 1
Your customer health checkup is overdue.
The first session of Inspire day two focused on providing outstanding customer service. Same as with my day one recap, here are some highlights from my notebook.
- The RSPA offers its VAR and ISVs members a free service – a customer health checkup. The RSPA does all the work; VARs and ISVs need only to email their customers.
- RSPA will create a survey
- RSPA creates multiple email templates for you to use
- RSPA collects data
- RSPA analyzes data
- RSPA provides you with a one-hour meeting to go over your scores and compare with industry average
- VARs and ISVs gain valuable insights into customer sentiment, problem areas, and more.
- Jeff Sanders, CEO of Southwest POS:
- Gives all his customers his personal cell phone number. If someone needs help, they can call and be assured the problem will be attended to immediately.
- Does not have an automated phone system or company voicemail.
- The company has more than one person trained to take calls.
- “We pay a third party to answer phones after hours so we can continue to provide immediate assistance.”
- Josh Wintoniak, sales manager of Auto-Star:
- “Customer service starts from the top down [setting the expectation]. We’re not the cheapest solution out there. We’re oftentimes the second product people buy, and we back that up with that amazing service support and development.”
- “We also set an expectation for ongoing learning and making sure our people are prepared and ready to service customers. We have programs for employees who want a post-secondary education. We have training programs. We give time for that. We do lunch and learn programs.”
- “Our technical services manager will sporadically listen to calls. If there’s an issue, she’ll listen to that call and find out what was going on to improve future responses.”
- “You can train on the industry. You can train on our products. But it’s more important having someone that is committed to customer service, committed to doing the right thing for customers, doing a customer health checkup, and then taking that feedback and not being angry about it.”
- “Every issue is an opportunity. If you handle a crisis well, that customer will become your best friend.”
- Kirsten Ingersoll, GM, Electronic Office:
- “We give our cell phone number to customers. However, having only three people in our company means we needed a way to handle support when one of us is out of town and a customer reaches out. We use an app called SimpleTexting. Our office number is tied to the app so we all get texts at the same time and whoever is on call can respond.
- We also started working with Helpt. They’ve been doing great. We have our after-hours tied to them so they can either leave a voicemail or go straight to the Helpt desk and then we get the email about what they need to do or what the emergency is, and then we respond back within 10 to 20 minutes.
- Group discussion notes:
- Delivering bad news to your customers early is way better than delivering bad news late.
- Worst case scenario: Lose the business, but always save the relationship.
- When you get an angry response via email, don’t respond via email, pick up the phone and call to talk in-person.
- Recognize generational differences in communication.
- Mirror and match customer emotions to de-escalate tense situations.
- Educate your customers. “Be the 101, not the 1-800.”
Morning Session 2
Mastering Customer Loyalty
As the title suggests, the second session was focused on increasing customer loyalty and providing actionable information on how to compete with the VC-backed competition. Panelists and attendees shared their insights on how to do so.
- Dan Brattland, CEO of CoCard:
- “Your customers are only loyal to their P&L. Make sure everything you do for your customers will address either their profit or loss. That will build loyalty.”
- “We have to add more value and appeal to the bottom line. As a VAR, I have the ability to quickly pivot. If I learn about a new technology at this show, I can go back to my office next week and begin adding it. That’s an advantage over the big companies that can’t pivot as quickly.”
- Brian Edwards, EVP of One POS:
- “It’s about figuring out what makes you different and then doubling and tripling down on that. Some things that come to my mind are same day service of hardware deployment, having that personal touch, and being able to text message with your customers.”
- “I think same-day hardware deployment is a big differentiator. If we didn’t have a technician that could go out, we would call an Uber. We told the customer, hey, we’ll send you your kitchen printer in a private courier. And we call an Uber. The Uber driver gets there. We put the box in the backseat saying, hey, here’s your passenger. Just honk your horn when you pull to the front door. We tell the customer, hey, they’re in a white Honda Accord. They’re going to pull up and honk. You have to go get it out of the private courier. It works exceptionally well when they have valet service. But even when they don’t, the fact that you can do that and get it to them in an hour or two hours is huge.”
- “Meet with each customer at least annually. Quarterly is better. Talk about your new features. Share trends. Listen to their needs.”
- Ken Schember, SVP Channels for PAX Technology:
- “Even if we don’t hear from customers, we will periodically check in to uncover needs.”
- “Customers don’t use the majority of the functionality. We offer a 20-minute class to learn tips and tricks. It gets customers more engaged with the product and our company.”
- “Become a confidant to your customers, not just another vendor.”
- “Take care of your employees. They’ll take care of your customers. The customer will take care of the shareholders.”
- Group discussion notes on how to compete against the large VC-backed competition:
- Customer relationships go stale if they aren’t maintained.
- Get to know what’s important to each customer.
- Focus on speed. Taking a customer call. Getting a resolution to problems. Getting products delivered and installed.
- Get your customer service team involved in cross-selling.
- Hold events to educate customers and build loyalty.
- Nurture multiple contact points across your customer’s business.
- Remember that you’re selling to people. Keep personal notes on your customers, including their hobbies, families, etc.
The above quotes are just a handful of the many pages of notes I took during the four hours of panels and table discussions. If you missed this Inspire, I highly encourage you to save the date for next year’s event (February 1-4, 2026, at The Royal Sonesta Kaua’I Resort).
