Back in May, I had the chance to attend the WCISC conference in Winnipeg and listen to James Comey share his thoughts on security, leadership and integrity. If you’ve had the opportunity to hear James Comey speak, regardless of your political persuasion, I think you’ll agree with me – he is an excellent communicator. Over the hour session he shared many humorous and impactful stories about his role as the Director of the FBI and the direction that his life has taken.
There is nothing quite like a good story. The best kind of stories connect with the listener and engage them on a personal level; they are believable, memorable, and relatable.
In my role as VP of Sales and Client Relationships, one of the highlights of my day is hearing stories about the amazing work that Onliners and Clients do together. These stories, much like the ones James Comey shared, feature a colorful cast of heroes who take on a quest to conquer difficult digital transformation or cybersecurity projects.
These same Client stories also help me understand what our Clients value. Several years ago, we had the opportunity to host a panel of our Clients; we peppered them with questions and encouraged them to share stories – stories of how we helped, what we could do differently, and why they chose to work with us. These varied business leaders with unique portfolios, budgets, industries, and challenges; all had consistent feedback about Online. When we ultimately asked each of them, “Why do you choose Online?” we heard stories that shared a common set of themes:
- “Onliners deliver what they say they will.”
- “Onliners care about my success and that’s unique and refreshing.”
- “Online has a great team, a long history, and can be trusted.”
Our Clients continue to choose us because we keep our promises and in my mind, that makes these stories even more meaningful.
What are our Promises?
Whether we work with Clients on a PCI assessment, a Digital Transformation project, or we are helping mentor their teams on how to adopt Agile principles; we want each of them to echo similar words to what the panel shared with us.
For our Clients to be able to say that, it starts at the very beginning: we recruit, hire and retain some of the most talented people in our industry. They could work anywhere, but the chose to work with Online, alongside a team of Onliners that share their values and are committed to delivering with excellence on every engagement. Onliners thrive on solving complex problems in a way that ensures our Clients’ goals and needs are being taking care of. It’s not just what we do, it’s how we do it.
Imagine a perfect triangle, architecturally the strongest shape to build upon. Our three promises are to Onliners, to our Clients and to ourselves: A promise to provide a great place to work, a promise to deliver a unique and refreshing experience, and lastly a promise that Online will deliver with excellence.
One Story in Particular
One of my favorite Client stories begins with our CEO receiving an unexpected phone call from an out-of-town Client, requesting an immediate face-to-face meeting. Not knowing what to expect, he collected information about the work we’d being doing, and booked a flight.
As he arrived at the Client’s office, concern quickly evaporated as the Client shared the reason for the meeting: he wanted to thank our CEO in person for the tremendous efforts of our Onliners.
The Client went on to explain that after a long career in IT and having worked with numerous vendors, he had held out hope that there would be a consulting company out there that would partner with him, like Online had. He went on to say that he had never met a team that cared as much about the success of his projects, as the team from Online.
I love that story - it highlights how our team truly makes a meaningful impact for our Clients and makes me grateful that I get to sell for company with stories like that.
Tell Me a Story
In closing, if you’d like or feel so inclined, it would be my pleasure to receive a story from you.
Whether it's about customer engagement, customer service, or something completely different; I'd love to hear from you.
Do you have anything to add to my collection of Online Client stories?
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