The natural tendency of a spectator is to be in awe of achievement whether it is demonstrated by an individual or team. Many spectators are viewing the snapshot rather than the entire movie that led up to the achievement. This was the reaction of many people when they learned that Roger Federer was going to be employed by On-Running. What does Roger Federer, a world renowned tennis superstar, have to do with running shoes? This is an example of a snapshot that does not make sense unless you have seen the movie.
The movie goes something like this…
When On-Running(On) came to us about a decade ago with less than 20 employees asking if we have the capability to scale with them as they grow and overcome their inventory and back office challenges, we of course said yes. At this time the salesforce platform was still evolving in order to support high growth businesses. Over the years, On has grown into a well known household brand when it comes to running shoes. Ascent Solutions has been there for almost the entire movie. When you are looking for ways to improve something that you are already good at, you would look for a subject matter expert to guide you in the right direction. In the case of On, they chose Roger Federer to help design the next generation of athletic footwear. In a similar vein, when a business is looking to improve their back office operations and efficiency around fulfillment/returns to serve their customers better, Ascent Solutions' team would be the experts that can be trusted to analyze and tailor fit a solution to set that business up for success.
The story plays out over and over again. Recently at Dreamforce, Apple's CEO Tim Cook had a session where he talked about the partnership between salesforce and Apple while mentioning the influence of mobile devices, specifically the iPhone and how it has made a strong push into the enterprise. We listened intently as for many years we have built mobile applications for several of our customers. Then by surprise to all of us Tim Cook mentioned one of our customers, Hastens, during his fireside chat with Marc Benioff. Hastens is a brand that has been around for decades and has been dedicated to serving their customers in a very personal manner. When I say "personal manner", I mean that these folks are serious about delivering the best sleep that anyone can get. The challenge that Hastens was faced with was how they were going to take their brick-and-mortar business that was conducted during a face-to-face transaction into something that can be done over e-commerce. This was the true definition of a digital transformation and Ascent Solutions was brought on to help that transformation occur.
Both of these stories illustrate the importance of having an expert by your side as you navigate the next phase of growth whether you are looking to run on the clouds or be awake for the first time in your life.
The Customer Success Movie and Not Only the Snapshot
