Customer Experience hero for Axway’s B2Bi – meet Gary Fairall!

Showing care and empathy towards our customers is a highly appreciated value at Axway. In our Customer Experience spotlight series, we are promoting our colleagues who deliver a great experience to our customers.

Meet Gary Fairall, Technical Support Engineer on B2B Integration (B2Bi) solutions. Gary has been with Axway for the last 13 years. He is often praised by our customers not only for his technical skills but also for his will to go the extra mile and make sure cases are thoroughly addressed.

Read below Gary’s recipe for success.

Tell me about a recent instance where you helped a customer and made a big impact.

“I’d like to talk about my work with one of the top healthcare providers in the United States,” says Gary.“ I mainly work with them on managing pharmacies and pharmacists; the latter must have a valid certificate issued by the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration, a governmental agency that controls drug use in the US).

The DEA manages and maintains certificates for every single pharmacist and pharmacy in the US that would order a drug. Pharmacists put their orders into a unique and individual single location that goes to the healthcare provider headquarters. Then the request goes out to drug manufacturers and gets funneled and shipped in.

This process must be verified and tracked and that is what CSOS (a component of our B2Bi offering) does: transfers information from the pharmacy to the healthcare provider headquarters, where certificate authenticity is checked (thus the right to order drugs) and then transfers the information to individual manufacturers.

Certificates

“I worked with pharmacists who basically use browsers such as Internet Explorer and Firefox and import and export the DEA certificate. There are 20 steps that each pharmacist must go through to even get their certificate ready and import it in CSOS before ordering drugs.

Sometimes, certificates have expired, they must be updated or renewed. There’s a new pharmacist that needs a new certificate or the pharmacy changed their computers.

All of this requires them to have their certificate on-hand on a network drive. If not, the pharmacist is blocked from passing an order to get the prescribed drugs. Therefore, a patient goes without their medical treatment.

“The healthcare provider usually reaches out to me to help their customers. I call the pharmacist directly and set up a web conference on their computer. I walk them slowly through this complex process, explain every step so that they know how to do it on their own the next time.

“For me, it’s been probably the most rewarding experience. I’ve been able to help so many people at an individual level. I know we help our customers at a company level, but at the individual level, this is where I make a difference.”

What do you like most about your job?

“Talking with the customers, walking somebody through an issue and then receiving their gratitude. I must admit sometimes it can be challenging as I happen to be the only listening ear for a customer who faces difficulties.

On the other hand, when you feel a customer wholeheartedly appreciates your help, it’s definitely the best part of the job and the most rewarding.”

What are your best practices for delivering a great Customer Experience for B2Bi?

“First of all, I recommend customer advocacy. When I’m talking with a customer, it’s important to be their ambassador. When an issue is reported, I’m always on the customer side.

“Secondly, I prefer verbal communication in writing. Reading an e-mail is different from talking to a person–over the phone, it’s easier to find out exactly what their needs are. Not that I don’t trust what somebody writes, but I don’t trust my interpretation of it.”

Furthermore, my advice is to do a full research on a case subject before answering to a customer–is my customer case similar to another one that has already been reported? Getting information quickly from our database, reviewing notes or simply asking my colleagues is one of my best practices.

Gary is well-known for his expertise and knowledge of B2Bi. And what’s more important, he has been building a great relationship with Axway customers who appreciate his will to help and his dedication. This proves a true customer-centricity attitude valued within Axway.

Read another customer success story here.