Happy Employees Important to Bottom Line

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - Feb. 6, 2015 - PRLog -- February 6, 2015, Rochester, NY - Blue Heron Consulting (BHC), a customer information system (CIS) integrator—focused solely on the utility industry—recently hired an independent firm to conduct separate customer and employee satisfaction surveys. The purpose of these surveys was to support the organization’s ongoing mission to pursue excellence through process, service and overall business improvements.

According to Christina Northrup, vice president of sales and operations, “We knew that surveying both employees and customers would give us the most honest picture of the current state of our business. Studies show that there is a direct link between happy employees and happy clients and both are top priorities at BHC.”

In the Bloomsberg Business Week article, Employee Happiness Matters More Than You Think, the author cited a Gallup study that confirmed this assumption. According to the study, lost productivity because of employee disengagement costs more than $300 billion in the United States annually. (http://www.businessweek.com/debateroom/archives/2012/02/e...)

A separate Gallup study by James Harter and his colleagues exposed the consequences of unhappy customers. The study found that business unit sales and profits at one point in time are predicted by employees’ feelings about the organization at earlier points in time (http://www.monster.com/blog/b/whats-more-valuable-skills-...).

“We have one of the best teams in the industry,” said CEO and founder Stephen Northrup. “Its collective experience, mastery of our proven methodologies and unwavering dedication to clients and BHC has allowed us to deliver successful utility projects for more than 15 years. We are winning new engagements and getting better every day. We know that by taking care of our employees, they will take care of our existing, new and future clients and we will continue to thrive.”

CUSTOMER SURVEY RESULTS

One-hundred percent of the customer survey respondents rate Blue Heron’s consultants as extremely or quite knowledgeable; 90 percent said that Blue Heron intrinsically understands their needs; when asked about responsiveness, 85 percent said BHC is extremely responsive and 15 percent reported that it is quite responsive.

Mutual Respect

Ninety percent of the Blue Heron employees surveyed cited mutual respect for each other as one of Blue Heron’s competitive differentiators, an/or why they enjoy working together and for the organization.

“We have a dynamic team and we all know how important each one's opinion is. That makes us analyze problems and think of solutions using different point of views on different levels. Also, being a small company requires the consultants to wear many hats, making us flexible and capable of taking on different kinds of tasks,” explained Solution Center Functional Architect David Diaz. “BHC being a small company has a more personal feel to it. We all know each other very well. Decisions are made by bringing the whole team into the meeting room and hearing all voices,” he added.

Furthermore,the survey revealed that the Blue Heron team has deep loyalty to each other and the company

According to Diaz, “While the results of the surveys were very positive, proving that there is such a strong link between employee and customer satisfaction means that we will never stop striving to keep both sides happy; that is why we exist. Blue Heron Consulting is a great place to work, and clients, including: Benton County PUD, Montana-Dakota Electric, Duquesne Light Company, LLC (DLC), and others, will continue to benefit from employee satisfaction.”

About Blue Heron Consulting

Blue Heron Consulting (BHC) is a one-hundred percent utility-focused system integrator that has served the utility industry for 15 years. In addition to Oracle CC&B CIS implementations, BHC has deep experience integrating and supporting, business intelligence (BI), workforce asset management (WAM) and mobility solutions.

Founded in 1999 by industry thought-leaders—many of which still work for BHC—BHC has provided more than 30 utility clients with objective, high-quality consulting and value-based systems integration services.