Customer Happiness Awards Winner 2018: Memiah

Memiah Story

Please briefly
introduce your
company

Our company, Memiah Limited, aims to build a happier, healthier society by connecting individuals with professional support and creating open, inspiring dialogues around the issues we all face every day. We were founded by two sisters - Emma and Aimi - whose own personal struggles with mental health lead them to set up a service where members of the public could find a talk therapist based on their own preferences and circumstances.

Thus our flagship site - Counselling Directory - was born, closely followed by our sister sites Hypnotherapy Directory, Nutritionist Resource, Life Coach Directory and Therapy Directory. In 2017 we launched Happiful, the online hub and magazine solely dedicated to mental health and well-being, as the next stage in our user's journey.

What role does customer support have in
your company?

Customer support is at the heart of everything that we do; after all, without our customers - whether they're our professional members, our site visitors or our own colleagues - we wouldn't be where we are today! We constantly strive to make sure that we are providing the best service possible to everyone that comes into contact with our company; whatever they need, we will be more than happy to help.

No request is too large, no detail too small - we will always go the extra mile. Making the time to really listen to what our customers tell us allows us to have a unique relationship with them, and inspires a sense of trust within them that helps everyone to have a smile on their face by the end of a conversation.

What does
customer
happiness mean
to you?

In a word - everything! A happy customer leaves the conversation - whether that's via phone, email or face to face - feeling like they've been listened to, understood and had all their questions answered...and, above all, like they've been treated like a person rather than a number on a call centre switchboard. If we can do that, then we know we're doing our jobs properly!

Our team is made up of individuals who genuinely care about other people and making their experience with our company the best it can be - knowing that you are helping another person, making something easier for them or sharing your expertise is really rewarding to us on a personal level.

What would you advise other companies to
do to achieve the same success as you did?

Start at the very top with a company ethos that dictates how you work - that way, everyone in your business is aligned on your vision. Our core values are to be supportive, caring, honest and to demonstrate integrity - to treat others how they expect to be treated, not how you would expect to be treated. With those values behind us, everything else just falls into place! Always put the customer first, and put yourself in their shoes - no matter how simple or trivial a question may seem to you, the chances are it's very important to your customer and you're the one they're coming to for help.

Finally, be interested in what your customers tell you - don't be dismissive, or fall back on robotic terms and scripts to cut conversations short. The more genuine your interactions, the more satisfying they'll be both for your agents and your customers.

How did Nicereply
help you?

Nicereply lets us track of how our customers feel about our company; by providing a quick and easy way to let us know what they're thinking, we're able to review, respond and learn from the very people that our service was set up to support. Naturally, we all have a bit of an affinity for praise - being able to see the positive comments our customers write about us gives us a real sense of achievement and makes us greedy for more - to keep striving to go the extra mile to make someone's day, and to give every single response the care and attention it deserves!

Every piece of feedback - good or bad - is an opportunity for your company to learn, to grow and to build lasting relationships...and what can be more valuable than that?

What was the biggest challenge you had to
face this year?

Never a company to rest on our laurels, we're continually striving to find new ways to deliver on our company mission to create a happier, healthier society - and this year was no exception. Launching our new Happiful platform as a channel to open up discussions around well-being, coupled with several service changes, naturally resulted in a lot more correspondence from both new and existing users - but, rather than seeing this as a challenge to overcome, we saw this as an opportunity to really connect with our customers and build relationships and brand advocacy.

By managing expectations on our reply time (because there are still only so many hours in a day!) and prioritising we ensured that our customers left us feeling like they were in good hands.

Best agents

Place	Agents name	Avg. score
1.	Sian Davies	10.00
2.	Hannah Ervin	10.00
3.	Emma Shearer	9.97
4.	Shaun Brown	9.97
5.	Lucy Bucknell	9.96

Customer thoughts

Polite, friendly, professional and helpful!! Really great service!!!!

The service I received today was extremely helpful, it is so lovely to speak to a human being for one thing but also one who you can tell is genuinely helpful. I wish all communication was so easy.

Outstanding - customer service at the very highest level

I love every email from the team. It is so polite, friendly, helpful and personal. In the age of automation, it is ever so precious to have genuine, helpful and kind people who love what they do, and truly help the stakeholders. Thank you so much! You're an inspiration as a team.

Three Ps: Prompt, Professional and Protective! (dealt with spam email) Thank you.