At the Heart of Olympus Is Our Dedication to Our Customers

By Sarah Williams - 20 August, 2019

Giving our customers the best experience possible when they order Olympus products is one of our main tenets. Your needs are our preoccupation.

Olympus has been doing business for a century, and we have seen our customers’ needs evolve over time—though, never so rapidly as in the last decade. As technologies have advanced, so have our products and services. To adapt to the increasingly fast-paced, online lifestyles of our clientele, we developed and launched a new Customer Service webpage for our customers in the United States (and we’re working on developing the same for the other regions we serve).

Talking about Customers with Our Representatives

The Customer Service page provides answers to your frequently asked questions as well as access to useful forms and downloads. Although it’s convenient, in certain cases, talking to an actual person may be a better option.

We picked the brains of some of our customer service representatives (CSRs) to gain some insight. Four of our hard-working team members share their experiences and offer observations about issues that require a personal touch.

Meet Four Members of Our Customer Care Team

Katie Fosher
Dir. Customer Care & Support

Brian Chastang
Associate Mgr. Customer Care

Rebecca Saunders
Associate Mgr. Customer Care Ops.

Kenny Riley
Order Management Supervisor

Katie has been serving customers at Olympus for 11 years.

Brian has been an Olympus employee for 2 years.

Rebecca has been at Olympus for 7 years.

Kenny has more than 5 years at Olympus under his belt.

Fun fact about Katie: She says one of her favorite things to do outside work is to “Spend time with all my animals!” Her menagerie includes four cats, six snakes, and a turtle.

Brian credits competitive sports for his dedication: “I played multiple sports in high school and continued on to play college basketball and was awarded captain my final season. This has carried over to my professional career as I am always striving to be the best I can be within my role and take on new roles and responsibilities when able.”

Here’s something interesting about Rebecca: “I have a twin sister, who is my best friend, and we complement each other completely. We have salt and pepper twin tattoos that reflect how we are opposites yet work together perfectly.”

Kenny is a huge hockey fan, and when he isn’t working hard helping customers, he loves to take in a Bruins game at the Garden.

Find out more about Katie in her full bio.

Read Brian’s full bio here.

See Rebecca’s full bio here.

Learn more about Kenny in his full bio.

Our Q&A Session with Katie, Brian, Rebecca, and Kenny

Olympus: How has customer service changed during your time at Olympus?

Katie: I remember when I first started here, we had all calls going through a switchboard at the reception desk. The receptionist at the time had to transfer each call to the correct team. We now have a very detailed call center where the customer has an option to choose which team they want to go to or speak to someone on the customer service team who can almost always help without having to transfer.

Kenny: It is way better than before. The process is easy, and customers are more responsive.

Olympus: Do your customer interactions happen mainly by email or over the phone?

Brian: Currently, most of our customer interactions occur via email. Over the last 10 years doing customer service-related work it has been amazing to watch the business transformation. When I first started, I would say that 75% of my interactions were phone or in-person transactions, now the disparity is completely flipped, and the emails far outweigh the calls.

Rebecca: Many customers order often, so if there are issues, speaking with them frequently both over the phone and via email helps develop a relationship. Customers are often more understanding when they know the person on the other side of the conversation if something does not go right.

Olympus: What are some of the more challenging customer issues you deal with?

Rebecca: Ensuring customers get their equipment when needed—even if we don’t have it in stock.

Katie: The customer service team often spends a lot of time communicating with customers who send in a purchase order but have never purchased from us before. I think it would be beneficial for any new customers to reach out to our customer service team ahead of the first purchase order to make sure we have everything we need to establish their account for a smooth process when the order is placed.

Kenny: Setting up financial terms. The process isn’t always the same. When an order comes in from a new customer if they don’t have financial terms, we need to have the customer fill out the paperwork. This could be 1–4 documents. We can go back and forth for days when the customer was expecting the order overnighted from the day they sent in the order.

Olympus: What’s something that you wish more customers knew about?

Katie: Our web store! We offer a wide variety of our products on our web store, and it is easy to purchase with a credit card.

Olympus: How do customers like the web store? Do they suggest any improvements?

Brian: I think that customers who use the web store like it for its convenience. If they know the part number and it’s a replacement, I think it’s a great tool. The issues occur when they need something right away and we don’t have stock.

Olympus: What should we do to ensure we remain a leader in customer service in the future?

Brian: We need to make sure we are proactive. A lot of customer service is read and react, and when you are always reacting to situations after the fact, it makes your job a lot more stressful. Olympus has tools we can utilize to inform our customers of anything they may need to know ahead if time. It is my job as a manager to ensure this is routinely done to provide the best customer service.

Rebecca: I, like many others, spend a great amount of time looking internally at processes to improve to make the customer experience better.

Katie: Over the last 11 years I have been here with Olympus, customer service has always been the number one priority in daily operations. I love being part of a department that is as customer centric as we are. With all the innovation and cutting-edge technology that Olympus has to offer we need to continue to stay on our toes to support our customer base. We wouldn’t be where we are today without our customers.

Kenny: Make sure if you make a promise to exceed it!!!

Not in the US? Stayed Tuned for More

For the moment, the content on the new Customer Service page is only applicable in the United States. We hope to expand this formula to include other regions in the near future.