2009 Small Business Award Winners

Customer Service
Abrahamsen Financial Group, Holmdel, NJ

Backstory: Despite the slumping banking and financial markets, Abrahamsen Financial Group’s (AFG’s) four-person team not only managed to maintain its existing client roster, they managed to sign 92% of the prospective clients they met with. The firm attributes this success to their customer service strategies.

Best Practice: AFG leveraged technology to better its customer service through a proprietary online administrative system, the Admin, which has been very effective in securing sales and better servicing clients. The company developed the system to automate client-management tasks such as sending appointment reminders via email or text message prior to meetings. Potential clients can click through the Admin to confirm or reschedule appointments, or receive directions to the meeting.

Another pre-meeting tactic the company implemented is having a member of the AFG team send a welcome packet to prospective clients with marketing materials like business cards, press clips, and a cover letter to confirm a client’s email address, as well as the date, time, and location of the meeting. Then, Harry Abrahamsen, president of Abrahamsen Financial Group, or another staff member calls the prospect the day prior to the appointment as a reminder, as well. The day after the meeting, the prospect receives a “custom implementation report” that outlines recommended steps and strategies.

Three days later, a staff member at AFG calls the prospective client to confirm that they received the report and to discuss the recommendations it contains. Post-meeting, clients are also sent a custom survey to collect feedback and information. Over the next few weeks, AFG makes follow-up phone calls and coordinates all recommendations and steps the client planned on taking.

This entire process is automated, making following up with clients consistent. “There are automated activity series templates that will trigger events for all employees to follow up with: back office reminders, administrative duties and functions, client assistance, paper work, account opening, and follow up phone calls to clients throughout the entire process,” explains Abrahamsen. “And due to the fact that we are the client’s macro-manager for the entire process, we connect with other professionals to ensure that the plan is properly implemented.” An automated system allows existing clients to directly refer AFG by sending an email to the person receiving the referral. The automated system will log everything into the online Admin system, as well.

AFG president Harry Abrahamsen says, “The administrative system is doing so well that a few companies have offered to purchase it, and we have entertained the notion of licensing the system out to other financial organizations.” AFG also practices a client referral process through its website.

Results: AFG did not lose a single client during 2008 and has managed to close the deal with 92% of new business prospects. The Admin system has helped to reduce no-shows at meetings, and also has helped clients prepare for meetings, making the appointments more productive. AFG’s customer survey also showed zero negative feedback from clients. In addition, the firm’s client referral process allowed for meetings with 484 new referrals (up 350% from the year before) without using a single advertising dollar.

Green Business
Tyga-Box Systems, Inc., NYC

Backstory: After hiring an unscrupulous mover in 1991 for a Manhattan apartment move, husband and wife Martin Spindel and Nadine Cino were disgusted by the amount of waste produced by the moving company’s use of disposable, corrugated moving boxes. Cino, owner of a fashion design and consulting firm and an “environmentalist at heart,” had an epiphany.
Cino came up with the idea to produce a reusable plastic moving box as a cheaper and more environmentally-friendly alternative to disposable, corrugated moving boxes. “It came to me because we hired a moving company that ripped us off and used corrugated boxes that were going to the incinerator,” says Cino. “It was unacceptable.” The pair brainstormed and came up with a napkin-sketch design of an integrated box-and-dolly system called the Tyga-Box.
Manhattan-based Tyga-Box Systems, Inc., was in the research and development phase until 1995, and its product was introduced to the market the following year. Today, Tyga-Box Systems, Inc., has national distribution locations in Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Washington, DC, South Carolina, and Georgia. The company’s goal is to replace all corrugated boxes by the year 2030.