How an IT Solutions Company Knows It’s Doing the Right Thing for Government Customers

By Jeff Myers, Senior Director 

For more than 35 years, REI Systems has felt that listening carefully to customers, anticipating their needs, and providing outstanding service is the key to its success. The company prides itself on being distinct from others in the same market space. However, there is little objective evidence to identify which firms truly excel in demonstrating “soft skills.” As a result, it remains challenging to convincingly showcase whether REI stands apart from its competitors.

Recently, as part of our ongoing efforts to enhance customer experience at REI, we issued a quarterly customer pulse check and gained valuable insights. We asked customers to evaluate and share the key reasons why they or their agency chose REI Systems as a partner for their most critical current task supported by our team.

Here is what our customers said:

• 100% of the customers who have chosen REI say they chose REI for its reliability – knowing that REI will “deliver reliably, finish the job, and say ‘yes’ to their requests.”
• Every customer who has chosen REI says that their choice relied in part upon the fact that “they trust REI as a partner over the long term.”
• More than 95% of customers who chose to award a recompete contract to REI say they did so because of REI provides people “with the right skills and background to support our agency/program.”
• More than 70% of government officials who select REI to support their agency say that they did so because they know if they choose REI, they will receive “value – at a fair price, given their agency’s program and needs.” They are happy with the value REI offers, since budget constraints are “government contracting reality these days.”

This mechanism – asking customers about the core motivations for the complex choice of selecting an IT solution partner – allows insight into what agencies value, and how they perceive REI Systems.

Conversely, the data also point to a few gaps. In the same survey, REI’s customers indicated that the least frequent reasons for selecting REI as a partner were innovation and passion. We seem to have work to do to improve in both of those areas, and to improve our communication of the substance of our efforts and successes in each.

The bottom line is that we appreciate the opportunity to help our customers achieve their missions to serve the public and impact millions of lives. And we appreciate the feedback we get from our customers that helps us improve.

May I suggest you take to heart your customers’ feedback, their priorities, and perceptions of you, your organization, its capabilities and its results?

In this series, members of REI Systems’ leadership team shares insights and lessons learned while successfully building a mission-oriented company.