A small foundation’s team wears multiple hats – program officer, IT director, development manager, and the list goes on. It’s difficult to manage each of these unique roles with their respective challenges. A cloud-based grants management system such as {g}grants assists in reducing the paper shuffle. However, an even more meaningful contribution to a small foundation’s team is hands-on customer service. In this blog post, we describe five reasons why customer service within the grants management software (GMS) space is critical for a small foundation.

Another helping hand

In a small foundation, a customer service agent can step in as an additional employee. If you’re in a bind with a tight deadline for your board and encounter an issue with your GMS, you can contact your customer service agent for assistance. With his or her immediate help, you can focus on other tasks that demand your attention. No matter the issue, you can ensure the dedicated customer service team will work behind the scenes to eliminate it. With their hands-on support, it’s like having another team member on staff.

A personal touch

We all remember negative experiences with customer service. These experiences may include extremely long wait times and chat messages with robots. Let’s not even begin to discuss the recorded ads or elevator music that plays as we wait for an agent, or a call back, or an email reply…

With personalized customer service, each time you dial the customer service line you will reach a friendly human. In our office, that human is Kris. With this personal response, you receive the help you need quickly and can return to normal operations. Furthermore, it’s just more pleasant speaking with a human versus a robot especially in an automated world.

Understanding of your unique needs

A personalized customer service team understands your unique needs as a foundation. They know when your upcoming grant cycle opens and closes. They know your progress report due dates, and they know your upcoming board meetings.

Therefore, when the team receives your call, they’re ready, willing, and able to appropriately assist you with your request. They remember your previous processes, past requests, and issues. With this information in mind, the team can assist you in streamlining your processes and assuring future success.

Direct connection with development team

An advantage of working with a company like Jungle Lasers is the flat structure. The customer service team can easily discuss client needs with the software development team. If your grant workflow needs a significant adjustment based upon a recent strategic shift, the customer service team can speak directly with development. No longer will your request sit in a queue of other requests; you will receive the attention you deserve without any red tape inhibiting the progress.

Advocate with senior leadership

In addition to a direct connection with development, the customer service team in a small software company has a direct connection with senior leadership. If your needs can’t be met via support, you can rest assured that customer service will address your concerns with senior leadership. This dedicated team will advocate for your unique requests and will go beyond the call of duty to guarantee your success. Jungle Lasers has dozens of customers that will attest to that.

Grants management software is only as strong as the team that supports it. With a support team diligently working for you and your organization, you can focus on building relationships, determining funding requests, and tracking impact. Imagine the possibilities of your impact when you allow your grants management software vendor to work for you.