CCRP - Week 2 & 3

Week 2

Monday - 25 August 2008

Stephen Bryant, Gary Curtis, Brian Grove from Tuscon, AZ provided training on QuickBooks Online (QBO) support tools.

Take- aways:

* Intuit products have an enormous amount of back-end support for every product offering (CP3) which include things such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, remote agent support software and tools, product knowledge databases, skilled Intuit employees that are product experts and are very willing to assist the customer.
* Memory Tools:
o 10-24-7 Principle - Review something 10 minutes, 24 hours, and 1 week after learning something new and it will help you better store information beyond your short-term memory.
o Have experiences that assist in the learning process or in other words make the information come alive such as shared group experience, using all 3 sensory channels (sound, sight, action).
+ In class a fictional story was used while others mocked several hand motions that corresponded with some of the words. Later we were asked to tell the same story to our neighboring classmates and we found it helped us remember the major portions of the story by being physically involved. Little did we know we were learning the process of taking support calls (answer, log time, ensure you have the skills, call customer or leave a message, then summarize to the customer your exchange).

This was a less exciting day than in the past but the information will be important information in the days to come.

Tuesday through Friday (26 August - 29 August 2008)

We continued learning the QBO product, learning how to deal with customer issues, and completed dozens of practice modules that instructed us to first input something in the computer incorrectly and then going back to fix it. This will help us in the future assist customers fix some of their issues.

In the middle of the week we had lunch while we meet several leaders from different areas of the company. I had the privilege of talking with the co-founder of Homestead. He was insightful and had a great deal to say about Intuit and were we are headed as a company.

Week 3

Monday - 1 September 2008 (LABOR DAY! OFF WORK!)

Tuesday - 2 September 2008
We continued to be trained on the products and then split up in the morning in to two groups. I took the first customer service call in front of 20 classmates. Scary! When the instructor asked who wants to take the first call, silence ensued. Then after about 2 minutes and a threat by the instructor that he would randomly select someone I responded that I would go first. Luckily, we looked at the customers online question and then tried to anticipate as a group what the problem was and how we could solve it. I call the customer after lunch. Solved the problem in about 3 minutes and its was over. The rest of the day was more training.

On Wednesday we received more training and started more actively taking customer calls. At the end of the day Justin Kitch and many of the Small Business Online leaders came to meet with us over dinner. Prior to mingling, Justin shared his vision of the potential and burden that rests on the Small Business Online to provide significant growth over the next few years for Intuit. We had a Q & A session and then he asked that this be not only a good experience but that we become intimately acquainted with our customers needs, learn a ton about the product, and provide feedback on what we learn.

Action Item - Send Justin an email during this customer support experience saying five things that I learned.

Thursday and Friday we began taking calls in smaller groups and finished our official training with the instructors. Next week, its sink or swim!

On Friday afternoon we headed to play laser-tag with our 50 person group. We played 3 - 20 minute games. We had six teams and kept the same teams for all the games. We would charge indoor obstacles, take over towers, forts, and strong holds. We finished 2nd place overall winning 2 of our 3 games. It was fun to work as a team, develop and execute strategies, and have fun. Laser-tag was a great way to lighten the mood after a crazy week.

I'm still having a ton of fun and love working for Intuit. I'm still soak up everything I'm learning like a sponge and loving it!