If you know Affinity very well, you know that we focus a lot on proactive alignment and strategic planning.  We believe it is the absolute differentiator for our clients – keeping them safe and their technical environment as calm as possible. 

But there is no doubt that our clients are going to have issues pop up, and we know that getting clients back to work will always be a priority.  For this reactive part of our business, we try to apply the same principles that our proactive team practices – having a process for how we handle different types of tickets, getting to the root issue instead of just applying a band-aid, setting goals for how we take care of our customers.  These are just a few examples of work that our reactive service team performs for our clients.

We call this team our “Support Team,” and they work on the front lines every day, helping solve problems that might be keeping our clients from getting work done.  Sometimes there are big, huge technical issues happening, such as an equipment failure on the office network.  Sometimes it’s human error or a training issue, and the Support Team needs to spend a little bit of time educating the computer user on best practices.  Sometimes it’s something completely out of Affinity’s control, such as an internet outage in the area.  No matter the case, the Affinity Support Team gathers information, works towards issue resolution, and documents the client environment.

As the Affinity Support Team is solving problems for our clients, they are also keeping in mind the goals their team has set to bring the best experience to our clients – how fast we start working on a ticket, how long it takes us to solve a problem, how many tickets reopen because they have not been solved.  All of these goals can make or break the client experience with Affinity, and it’s both a big job and also one that needs a lot of management and encouragement.  When Affinity’s support engineers are in the weeds of getting a ticket solved, or putting out a fire, they do not always have the bandwidth to check these goals.  They just want our clients to be able to get back to work.

To this end, we are very excited to announce that Affinity has created a new role to manage this vital end-user support team, and Seth Sanders has agreed to serve in this role as the Manager of Reactive Services.  Seth has been with Affinity for nine years, and he has helped grow the company in multiple capacities and in different departments.  There is nothing that he will ask his team to accomplish that he has not done himself in his time with Affinity.  Seth has also developed close relationships with Affinity’s clients over the years, and the trust he has earned with them will serve him well as he works with Affinity’s front line team to help solve problems.

Here are some words from Seth regarding his new position:  “In 2024, the Support Team aims to reduce overall ticket count while meeting or surpassing established goals and metrics. Recognizing the team's inherently reactive nature, my strategy is to enhance the integration of proactive and reactive services, aiming to anticipate and prevent issues before they arise. This shift is designed to significantly benefit our partners, leading to fewer problems and faster response times. While achieving excellence in this approach may take time, I am confident in our capacity to reach the desired level of performance. These challenges are opportunities that we are committed to addressing throughout the year.”

Seth began 2024 with ambitious goals, and we are excited that in Q1 we have already started to see results from his goals and his team.  Wait times have become shorter.  Team camaraderie has improved as the Support Team has had an advocate to help them aggressively achieve their goals.  Affinity’s desire is for this team to strengthen even more under Seth’s leadership, and that our clients will experience even better results and appreciate even more value from our partnership. 

 Please make sure you congratulate Seth if you see him, and please reach out with any questions you may have about Affinity’s processes and commitment to world class service.