16Sage CSR Report 0817Sage We aim to be completely focussed on our customers We'll do this by: • Looking at and always finding ways to improve our customer satisfaction scores • Listening to what customers think and changing what we do to help them, like starting a premium service or improving integration • Making it easier for customers to work with us by improving communications, systems and the information we provide

0817Sage CSR Report 08 906 awards for demonstrating our Guiding Principles were given out this year A question of recommendation Our vision is based on recommendation because when someone is happy with a product or service, they'll recommend it to someone else. NPP and satisfaction scores are used throughout our customer service departments to help us understand how likely our customers are to recommend us every day. The scores give us real-time feedback, which we use to positively enhance our customers' experience of Sage. The biggest message from our customers is to train our people to the max. No surprise, as our support teams deal with an endless variety of questions, and the more they answer first time, the less time our customers spend on the phone ( and the more time they have to concentrate on their business). Developing our technicians' knowledge is therefore vital. Our people told us they'd like to be experts too ( hurrah! we're all on the same page). We know if our people are happy, satisfied and rewarded appropriately, then they'll pass this on in the support and service they provide and our customers will pass the message on too, so we're putting in the hours and effort to grow the expertise of our people. Show and tell Put simply, we're here to help our customers succeed, so we have a responsibility to make sure they can. Our teams are incredibly experienced and knowledgeable, so we could assume we know how to improve our products to help out but we never assume. We make sure we know for a fact. If we made clothes, we'd get ' real women' to try them on; if we made food - we'd have someone on the high street with a tray of samples. We learn everyday from what we hear, and improve our products based on real life feedback, not on assumptions. More than ever, we get out into our customers' offices and put ourselves in their shoes. They come to us too, to show who, what, how and why they use Sage software and services to manage their business. Before planning changes, we talk ( and listen) to the people who use our software, and consultation continues throughout our software development, meaning our product evolution is based on real user feedback. Our extended family Appreciating the demands on our customers, means we're always building on our products and services. Re- inventing the wheel ourselves isn't always necessary, there's often a fantastic business out there working on what our customers want. So quite often, we adopt new businesses into the Sage family as a refreshing, simple and agile solution to meeting our customers' needs. Integrating new businesses into Sage in a responsible way is the basis of a sound venture. We don't bowl into their offices and paint all their walls green, and re- code their software, we take a far lighter approach. Taking the time to get to know their business and their customers, who they are, how they work, what they're aiming for, and where they could show us a few things too, is far more welcoming. Taking gradual steps to bring their people and their customers with us rather than imposing change, is fundamental to reaching our goals and satisfying our customers' needs. Complete customer focus Everyone at Sage has the same goal, to do the right thing for our customers. So when our customers choose Sage, they're really sure they've made the right choice. They trust that we'll act responsibly and do all we can to look after them, as well as we know how. Whether we're anticipating their needs, listening to and acting on their feedback or working hard to understand their challenges, we're committed to doing the best we can for them. We also apply the same principles to engaging our people as we do to customers, wherever and whoever they are. So, this section gives you a bit of a taste as to what it's like to be a Sage customer. 200 We've recruited over 200 people into Customer Services in 2008 Sage CSR Report 08 - Marketplace17