Lack of communication from Account Reps- anyone else?

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I just tried to contact the woman who was most recently our account rep, and received an autoreply that she no longer worked for Blackbaud.  We will now be on our 5th rep since I began working here 4 years ago.  Has anyone else experienced this kind of turnover?  Every time, we were left to our own devices to find out that the person with whom we had been working was no longer at Blackbaud.  It would be nice if Blackbaud was a little more proactive about informing us of such changes.

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  • JoAnn Strommen
    JoAnn Strommen ✭✭✭✭✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 4 Name Dropper Photogenic
    Yes, it would be nice.  We've rarely needed to contact our rep but have also found it's no longer that individual. Have also had the call from 'new rep' introducing themselves who didn't even know what BB products we used. 

    There were some posts a while ago on this subject and suggestion made that account rep's name be put on org profile on BB site so you can pull it up.  It was even posted as an idea on the discovery site.  Here's link if you want to vote to support the suggestion: http://rediscovery.uservoice.com/forums/137015-raiser-s-edge-discovery-topics/suggestions/4451761-blackbaud-account-managers
  • I found this a few times in the past, although not always someone leaving the company.  Our current Account Manager is awesome, and I am confident that if something changes and we are no longer her account, that she will let us know.  But you're right, BB should be more proactive in making sure that all customers know who their Acct Mgr is, how to contact them, and when that relationship changes.



    I just checked [My Account] on BB.com and it doesn't appear to list the Acct Mgr there, which would be an excellent place to have that information.  There is a button there to chat with sales, so I would suggest doing that and asking them who your new Acct Mgr is and how to contact him/her.



    Good luck!  Hope you end up with someone awesome who handles your account for many years to come.
  • Thanks for the link, JoAnn.  I went and voted.



    I did get the opportunity to talk to BB a few weeks ago about the BB.com portal.  I will reach out to that person right now and reference this thread and that Idea.  It will probably take a while, but hopefully it will happen eventually.  =)
  • This isn't directly related to Lauren's observation although it may provide some insight. At this year's BBCON there was a speaker, maybe head of engineering(?) on stage with Blackbaud's new CTO and he mentioned something about an initiative around Blackbaud's internal communcation which should prevent multiple sales folks from contacting you with sales pitches from various segments of the company. I personally have never received a sales call from Blackbaud so I didn't realized this was a problem, but perhaps this initiative might also reach into the Account Rep network? Does anyone else remember this comment from one of the BBCON general sessions?
  • This is great feedback - our internal web team is currently gathering suggestions for ways to enhance our customer area on www.blackbaud.com, so I will be sure to add this to our list. Thank you!  
  • I have to say, I'm not sure who our rep is right now, and it there's a place to look it up, it would be convenient, but given how often I'm emailed with a new rep introducing themselves, quite unneccesary.  I don't really know what the rep does.  I'm doing all my homework now about a product I'd like to look at, becasue I know that as soon as I get into the toils of the sales department, I'll be called and emailed with annoying regularity.The sales pitch is in itself irritating,becasue half the time, the salesperson really doesn't know how all the products intertwine and so can't answer my questions.  Since we're quasi-federal, we move with glacial slowness and have NO money to spare, so when I say "I'm looking at next fiscal year at the earliest" the sales department really ought to stop driving me nuts!  I agree with Aaron - the internal communication they said they were improving should really include a better coordination between account reps and sales - I've been contacted by an account rep AND three separate sales people AND the support person working on a problem all at the same time.  If the account rep is supposed to be for our account on the whole, they ought to have an overview of what we have, where we're having problems, and what products we're interested in.  One hand's not talking to the other in the customer service universe at Blackbaud.
  • I remember this and was thrilled yes
  • Customer service from Blackbaud?  We have had similar experiences with turnover of representatives.  The level of technical support from Blackbaud doesn't meet my expectations nor is it anything I'd call a 'value'.  There's much more 'value' found in discussions within this peer community.

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