How to Live Your Company Purpose with Rob Park from Helcim

Rob Park is the Chief Operating Officer of Helcim and he comes onto the podcast to discuss how living their purpose every day makes for a better customer experience.
Show Notes:
The Helcim culture book - The Way of the Helcim
This podcast is brought to you by and hosted by Derek Hovinga at The Inbound Lab.

Transcript

Intro

Hey, what's going on everyone, welcome to the client-side podcast. I'm your host, Derek Hovinga from the inbound lab, and on this episode, I have a conversation with Rob Park. So Rob's the Chief Operating Officer at Helcim. And what LCM is, is while they're located in Calgary, and they're a payments company focused on delivering service to their customers, to help them make accepting payments easier and quicker. So basically, they're just trying to help their customers get paid. And this conversation, we talked about the importance of customer service, and the way Helcim lives, their brand purpose, which really made this conversation interesting for me. And I think you're going to get a lot out of it, too. So without further ado, here's my conversation with Rob park at Helcim. Enjoy.

0:42 - We get to know Rob Park

Derek - Rob, why don't we start off by introducing yourself. When you joined Helcim, what your experience was and your background? What are your top three favorite sandwiches, whatever.

Rob - My favorite food is any dish, I don't have to make myself. So let's just go there. Like it's like I'm useless in the kitchen. My culinary experience basically extends as far as taking things that have bigger containers and putting them into smaller ones. So like it's not robust by any means.

Derek - Well at least you’re resourceful.

Rob - Yeah, I try that right, you know, every day brings a certain amount of processed content into your day, which is not good. So resolve that one day when I have more free time, I will become better in that regard. But at the moment, I'm single-handedly contributing to the economy as far as like food goes. And that's a good place for me to be these days. Anyways, given everything that's going on in the world, like, happy to spread it around a little bit. So that's good. As far as my story goes. It's interesting. Like I do not come from a tech background at all, like I didn't, didn't start out there. I've my education is not in technology. I got a BA in urban studies from the University of Calgary, which is basically like, the easiest way to think of it as city planning. So quickly realized that like, the pathway to success, kind of through that Avenue was like, Oh, yeah, you can start with the City of Calgary and you can be a deck checker, like, you know, make sure people's decks are in compliance. This is like, no, no. And then, and I just don't really, I don't think I thrive in the kind of like those bureaucratic sorts of environments. So there was a mismatch there. So I took a different adventure. I went into real estate for 11 years, did inner-city real estate, had a great time, you know, had run ahead became a partner, we kind of ran a successful partnership. And then Nick came along, he’s the CEO of Helcim, and we work together on some real estate stuff. And, you know, I think I joke with him a little bit about like, Oh, you know, like, it seems like what you're doing is really interesting. And, you know, technology seems exciting, and especially in a city like Calgary, where, like, there hadn't been a lot of focus on technology necessarily, or not a great narrative about it. So it kind of intrigued me, and I kind of just said, like, Oh, you know, sounds neat, like, maybe one day should join you or something like that, or like, you know, like, you know, just kind of like kind of joking, so to speak. And then like a year later, he was knocking on my door saying, you know, making a pitch say, hey, come join. It's grown. There are 16 of us now. And there are lots to do and like kind of being the sole person kind of at the top was a little lonely. And you know, just like he needed some help to come in and kind of run the operation side of things. And since we'd worked together and had a chance to get to know each other, both personally and kind of in a working relationship. He kind of felt good about that. And I spent kind of like a week thinking about it. And then when I came back to him, I tried to convince him, he was making a terrible mistake. Obviously, I didn't work. I'm here now as COO at Helcim, kind of trying to like take care of the day-to-day, make sure things run well. Typically the things on my plate, our customer service, trust, and safety, which are fraud detection, legal regulation, and kind of third party relationships, deployment, that sort of stuff. And I've just taken that all on.

Derek - Oh, it was gonna try to avoid the urban planning puns, but it's kind of funny how you're just kind of in charge of the infrastructure of Helcim’s day-to-day operations now.

Rob - Yeah, yeah. It's a little bit that there's kind of a planning portion to it. There's creativity, which is really nice. And then you know, what's great is just being able to work with the people and solving kind of interesting problems.

4:31 - What is Helcim?

Rob - so we are a payments company. And like when I say that there's probably a range of emotions that especially if your audience is small to medium-sized business owners, there's probably a range of emotions they feel. We're basically want to help businesses accept payments with ease and really kind of focus on delivering a better experience to them. You know, easier signup, smarter payment tools, making it more affordable kind of including everything they need to kind of run their payments in the modern world. So that of course that, especially with COVID, has meant a lot more digital tools. And it's all available to them right out of the box, there are extra fees or, you know, usage limits and things like that. It's just, you know, you sign up with Helcim, you kind of get your merchant accounts, and whoever you need to get paid, you go do it. And we're there to assist you in that. We've recently carved out a new vision statement for ourselves, we're on a mission to build the world's most love payments company. And people's usual reaction is like, nobody loves their payments company like that's, that's, that's crazy. Like, why would you set that as your vision statement? But you know, we've had to Google reviews that have basically said, like, we didn't realize, I could love my payments company. So like for the businesses we serve, and I know you asked, like, kind of Who are they? that's large businesses in Canada in the US, but it's across 800 different industry types. accountants, mechanics, lawyers, doctors, dentists, etc.

Derek - Do you find that you need to you know, somebody who's on the customer side of things? Do you need to get an understanding of each of those industries? Like do you have to kind of step into their shoes and figure out, you know, what's the best solution for them in terms of any of your health services?

Rob - Great question. That's how we operate. That's because like, you'll see, like, fundamentally, there are two things I really, really want. And it's kind of boys of the same thing, which is long-term relationships, whether it's with our customers or with our staff, right, and you're not gonna have a long-term relationship with your customer, if you're not treating your staff, right. So it all kind of ties to each other. But how do you build a long-term relationship with somebody who doesn't take a minute to understand them? So like, from my standpoint, like we, when we focus on, let's say, customer service, for us, it really is relationship-driven. So we've recognized that like, especially with a lot of service providers, especially in the digital age, where there's a lot of automated stuff occurring, there's the lacking that human connection is lacking. And so where we can, we like to kind of build that human connection. Oh, that's awesome. So like, we encourage our team to spend the time to get to know the merchant a little bit. And then like, from the sale standpoint, let's say like we merge the sales and support teams together a few years ago, just because it really came down to like, your goal is the same. Listen to them, understand them, find the best way for them to do what they really want to set out to do help them understand the tools that they're using, and the industry like, you know, the service provider they're signing up with. And that's it really, like, there's no upsells or like, you know, make decisions based on Nelson's best interests, there aren't commissions, that sort of stuff, it really is just getting to know them, get to know what it is they want to do, help them understand what it is they can do and give them like the solution that's best for them. And it's made even simpler by the fact that we don't have all of these like layers of different fee levels and things like that. It's just the base healthsome system that comes with the kind of everything they need to do their payments. And we're really just here to help them figure out which pieces of it most apply to them.

7:59 - On Helcim’s core values.

Rob - the great thing about this company is we really strive to find that alignment in all levels of the company. It's not just exactly it's just like, you know, we lead by example. And we live these values. That's an easy part because it's so very much aligned. And there isn't anything on our core values that don't come right from leadership and living by example. So that's, that's the great part, we don't have the values on the wall, and then we close the boardroom doors, and we go to everything else opposite to that, which makes it easy, we're going to really try to be an open book for everything we do. And you write the core values really centered around the kind of like the company we've built in become over time and like how we make our decisions to like amplify both like our position for our customers and for our staff as well. So the four values are like we are builders, we choose the harder path. We are trustworthy, and we are a company of many, that's where we've kind of pegged it, you can see all of this stuff if people want to go and check it out. Because we've made our culture book public www.helcim.com/theway. And it's like our culture book, just like the Way of the Helcim. It outlines these things in great detail.

9:52 - On building trust with your customers

Rob - It's a good question. It really is focused on that doing what's best for somebody else thing. I think as you know, if you come back to really wanting long-term relationships, people like trust is such a core piece of that. Fewer try to think of it that way. What attributes would you kind of think or expect Given, that's what you were trying to achieve? So, you know, we always want to keep in mind that when people choose to work with us, it's an honor for us to be of service in that way. So like kind of treating them that way, constantly striving to build better tools for them to use things that will be useful to them in their daily life, help them solve their problems, you know, understanding we were talking about earlier about kind of getting to know them a little bit and like, having their perspective and great customer service, like the challenge of this industry is so much about so much of it is like hidden fees. And it's a complicated industry like no sane person wakes up like I'm going to be in payments, because it's like, it's regulation and its banks, and it's so many moving pieces. Knowing that about our industry, we try to build trust by trying to educate our customers in a way that most service providers just don't bother. There's a lot of I think there's a lot of service providers in this industry, where they actually rely on the fact that their product isn't understood, to do things they shouldn't be doing, and then further undermine that trust, right. So for us, a big focus is understanding education, helping the merchant our customer, know what they're doing, and why things happen. So that they're not kind of thinking about how we maybe we're trying to take advantage of them, they feel confident, they made the right choice, because we have this symbiotic relationship with each other. And then, you know, we can't have trust with our merchants, we don't have trust with our team members as well. So we, you know, we invest in their growth, we do open-book management, so the company, the company's financials, all that sort of stuff are open to them to look at any time they like, we like to focus on providing context around decision making a flat model as far as like communication goes, so like, open-door policy, so to speak. So team members can come in and talk to their leaders or execs or whatever, no matter their role, the doors open will talk to them. And just being a company that they're proud to work for, as well. So I think like, as a, as a recipe for trust, I think those are kind of the key components.

Derek - Interesting that you talked about, you know, being transparent with your team, by way of that they'll, you know, be proud to work at wholesome and in turn, they'll provide better customer experience to your various customers. Can you talk a bit about some of the difficulties that you've seen your competition have with customers or some of the feedback you've received from your current customers about the previous payment service that they were using before? Helcim? Or what type of difficulties you've seen businesses, like yourselves have with their client partners?

Rob - Yeah, I think, I think the core of it comes from it's an old business model, it's run, oftentimes by larger institutions. And I kind of point people towards like, well, what's it like dealing with your big bank? You know, it's kind of the same for payment processing, like, you know, the humanity isn't in it, it's hard to get support when you need it, especially from a human who can actually describe it to you and humane terms. I think these relationships often get looked at as extractive where it's kind of like, well, it's a, it's a service, the business needs, they don't really have a choice, they have to do payments. And, you know, there just isn't that investment made on the other side to really build that relationship with people. Again, it's like that missing component of that long-term relationship. It's just like, how much money can we make from them as quickly as we possibly can. wishes lead to bad practices like, like the hidden fees, and long term contracts with termination clauses and fees on top of that lack of guidance and how the industry works again, because like, if they demystify it, then the merchant might be able to better ask questions about the service they're getting now. So I think like, that's really where the focus of the struggle, which is, you know, for us, it leaves us room to come in and, and obviously do things better. And it's like we're trying to walk a line between, obviously providing a service that is really tech-focused and convenient at the same time as backstopping with those human people that can continually build that relationship and further cement the trust. And it's just something that's missing from the industry overall.

Derek - Yeah, because, you know, there's a lot of, let's say, small to medium-sized business owners who may not have somebody in place, like an operations manager who can handle you know, setting up a payment service or payment process. So, you know, when they're busy running their own business, and there's that one piece where it's like, well, how do I take payments from people? You know, how do I bring revenue into the company, they really don't have time to search for it or figure out how to do it on their own. So I think you mentioned earlier about educating your prospects and current clients were interesting to me. So what do you what type of things are you doing to educate them? Are you providing them with marketing materials or educational content to say like, “Hey, here's some stuff that you should read up on”?

Rob - The website like we get even comments from industry competitors like your website is so detailed, who shared your website, the fees, how the industry works, all that sort of, it's all listed right there like you go to a payment processor and see how many of them actually post the rates. Right, you know, like and like and try to explain the industry to you. So there's the web, the website is a key thing. We have blog posts, where we can kind of deep dive into more specific examples, like what kind of look for trends and issues our merchants are facing. And if we can see something that's kind of common, we'll try to kind of create a blog post or a support article to help guide them and you know, push that to them through an email, that sort of thing. And then it's, it's a, it's a having an awesome, you know, there's kind of two sides to support in this industry, which is like there's customer service, just figuring how to use the system. And then we have trust and safety, which is trying to keep alpha and our customers out of harm's way. And it's really like those two teams, their metrics are all about quality. As far as like education goes, we don't discourage team members through their performance metrics, let's say to just get into a conversation, that's going to be 30 minutes long and help the person figure it out. So whether it's a quick answer a long answer, the goal isn't to get them off the phone as quickly as possible, or like, do the minimum to solve the problem and get rid of them. It's to really like understand, teach, train, and kind of deliver a long-term solution for that person they're speaking to.

Derek - That's amazing. And that's very transferable to, you know, any industry, whether it's, you know, like my industry, the marketing industry, or, you know, BLANK cable, maybe I shouldn't say the name, or any cable provider or cable provider.

Rob - The KPI here is not just to get them off the phone as quickly as possible. But it's to dig real deep and get a good sense of what their problem is and, and also provide them with every solution possible. But we really try to remove short-termism from the thinking, which is like, another problem with like, the industry is like, a lot of it is like, it's turned the call around as fast as you can. But it's also like, even just in the sales process commission agents, right, I'm just like, whenever you kind of bring compensation to it, like, it's probably an old expression, or it's certainly one that we use around here, which is like compensation dictates behavior. And, you know, if spending half an hour with somebody to help them understand something means that you won't talk to three other people that you can make a commission from, you're not going to do that. So instead, we'd rather pay, you know, customer service staff, well give them a great environment to work in and make their focus, listening to the customer and helping them out without those, those kinds of arbitrary limits in place that would otherwise incentivize them to spend the time.

17:57 - We talk about turning customers into brand champions.

Rob - I think it's largely by doing what we say we're gonna do, like, I know, it sounds like kind of basic, but like, there's so much just like, to me, like, personally, like, there's a lot of hype out there, but a lot of things these days, and then when you kind of get it, it doesn't live up to and it's really like being honest about who we are. Because of all of our KPIs. And our performance metrics are based on quality. Like, you know, we have a really solid review program where we can kind of get merchants to, in their own words, highlight their experiences with us, because like, there's nothing better than someone else's words to promote your company. Like we can say what we want about ourselves all day long. But if it's not matching kind of what we're doing, then it's not going to, you know, in the world of digital everything these days, and Google reviews and Trustpilot reviews and all that sort of stuff. If what we say doesn't match what we do, then you're really going to see that you're almost constructing a really bad space for your business to be if you're doing that, because the truth will come out, right. So we really focus on delivering on what we say we're going to do and then turning that into advocacy from our customers, not just us saying it about ourselves. We have, we have social media kind of presence about highlighting. It's they're called merchants of healthsome. And it just highlights how different businesses are using us and what they've come to enjoy about us. So again, in their own words, very human, there's a video, and you get to learn a bit about their business. And the challenges they face that a toaster like there's that moment where like if anybody's kind of avoider, we get to tap into that a little bit. And there's a Kumbaya that like just another small business owner stepping forward and telling their story a little bit. Again, there's like educational content. So like kind of being that beacon for them. Like, you know, I've been trying to figure this out for years and nobody's able to tell me about it. And now I found this company will actually tell me how it works like that really puts a smile on their face.

Derek - And on your face too.

Rob - Yeah, we love it. We love it. We reason this all works is that we kind of all agree that this is the best way forward. And then we have a referral program as well. So like if a merchant does kind of step forward and recommends one of their colleagues to join us we have a way of kind of like a little reward for both of them. If they Line up. So that's kind of the ways we channel our existing merchant base, into a good support program for us.

Derek - Yeah, that's, that's really good. Because, you know, when you think about it from a sales and marketing standpoint, more or more from a sales standpoint, that bottom of the funnel part, you're looking to present pieces of content that will kind of offer a good look at what the future might hold, if you're, if you, you know, start working together, right. So those testimonials, reviews, the referral, discounts, or referrals that your, your, your pushing for have are really helpful in creating those brand champions, and then, in turn, creating more customers. So that's awesome that you're doing that.

Rob - And honoring that relationship with the person we already have, and the one we might have with somebody in the future. And again, none of it works. If you can, you can make the nicest referral program in the world. But if you're not living up to what you said you were going to do, then who's going to refer business to you. So really, it really, it really hinges on that one kind of long-term relationship mindset and kind of just living up to kind of your own expectations for your customers.

Derek - Yeah, continuing to make sure that your customers have success with your product and service.

Rob - We're not perfect. So that gives us stuff to continuously work on overtime. Like, there's always room to do better. So you know, it's an undying kind of mission for us to continue to push this experience forward.

Derek - Well if you were, you wouldn’t need a Chief Operating Officer.

Rob - I strive for it so badly, though, and I keep getting boarded.

Derek - You’ll be Urban planning in no time, Rob.

21:46 - What does Helcim mean anyway?

Rob - It's a Latin word, it meant something like on the left bank of the shelves, and I think the shelf was a river or something like that. What I really like to think of it is because the word doesn't have meaning contemporarily we get to spend our time bringing it meaning. It’s kind of maybe tangential on this conversation we've had all together because they look at each and every day as an opportunity to bring meaning to the word Helcim. And what does that mean? Well, it means our core values are our company values, you know, treating our customers, well, all that sort of stuff. So that's, that's where Helcim came from.

Derek - Fantastic! Yeah. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Rob, for coming on to the podcast. And I appreciate you reaching out to come on. So thanks so much. This has been a great interview.

Rob - I hope your listeners enjoy it. Maybe take a little something from it. I certainly enjoyed talking to you. So thanks for being my first podcast, never forget the interview. Appreciate it.

Outro

Derek - Well, I really enjoyed that conversation with Rob and I gotta tell you, I learned quite a bit about customer service and, and brand purpose. And I hope you did too. A few takeaways for me.

1) The first one is that sales and service folks, you know, shouldn't be focused on upselling all the time. The best interest for any company should be more about making sure that your customer has success with their purchase. And throughout your relationship. If you see that, you know, you might have a solution for a current or new problem that they have. You can bring it up with them at that point.

2) Something else that was interesting was when I asked what Helcim meant, his answer was great. The word Heclim doesn't really have that much meaning and it was up to the company to spend their time bringing meaning to the word. To me is such a beautiful concept because it really focuses on living your brand purpose. You know a name is just a name sometimes but the core values of any business isn't just a piece of marketing speak, you truly need to live those values in front of your colleagues and customers, and in my mind, that business will manifest success. Something that a lot of people forget.

3) But Rob said something profound, that you need to think of it as it's an honor for us to be of service to you. It's the Four Seasons mentality, right. So help your customers as best you can. And you'll build that trust along the way to increase your brand champions, your customer advocacy, and retain your customers as you go.

4) We talked about how you can boost more leads with brand champions. You can say whatever you want about your company, or how good you are, how you're probably the better choice than any of your other competitors. But getting the reviews and testimonials from your customers will help you grow your business and you know, retain your customers as well.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this episode of the client-side podcast if you can, and I guess if you want, please rate the podcast on Apple podcast because you know, any support for me would be appreciated and that way. In the next episode, I'm going to have Sarah socials on to talk about influencer marketing. So Sarah is a good friend of mine and she's going to talk about how businesses can use influencers to really help increase their reach and the best way to work with them to achieve the best results. You can hope to see you next time and we'll talk to you soon. Bye-bye