Each person on Parable’s team used the software differently. Greg called Parable’s usage of Karbon “the Wild West”. Because each team member had customized it to their own liking, there was no structure or consistency across the system (and the team).

Here’s how we turned the relationship around and became a stronger product at the same time.

Retracing Karbon’s footprint

Thankfully, Parable was willing to consider us a partner rather than just a vendor. As a result, we interviewed a few of Parable’s team members to understand how they were using the system and where our software fell short. From that invaluable feedback, we gained three key insights.

1. Listen, even if it hurts

No one wants to hear that their baby is ugly. It can be tough to open yourself up to criticism, particularly when you’re proud of what you’ve made.

2. Time to scale up

At the time of Parable’s complaint, we had a Success & Support team of four employees. As such, we did everything we could to get new features built and implemented—but that was about all we could do, given our team size.

Jessica and Greg showed us that to properly serve our customers, we needed to bring them along the journey.

It wasn’t enough to just give customers the keys to the car. We needed to teach them to drive.

It’s important to note that it’s not just a numbers game. Simply adding more people to our Success & Support team isn’t enough. That’s why we make sure everyone on that team is passionate about our product, the industry, and our customers, and who are experts in what they do.

3. Offer alternative workflows

Knowing where Parable’s team struggled, we could offer better workflows to maximize their use of the system. One example of this was reporting. By talking to the team, we uncovered what reporting needs weren’t being met. We could then show them how to leverage Karbon to get the data they needed.

This also helped Parable get better visibility on how everyone on the team was performing.

Previously, since each member used Karbon in their own way, it was difficult to see how the team was functioning as a whole. We showed them how to use our software to its full potential, which gave them that team visibility.

Today, our Customer Success Managers are there to support, educate and customize Karbon for your team’s needs. This resource is available to all users, so please don’t hesitate to take advantage of the service.

Stop, listen, learn, repeat

Experiencing our growing pains with Parable early on helped us develop our healthy customer obsession today.

We now add features and bring our customers along the journey, all the way from inception to release. We also look critically at whether our systems are making things easier or simply adding more stress. Part of our product development process involves reaching out to customers to beta test our newest features.

Another way we get feedback is from our Karbon Community. There, our users can make suggestions for improving the system, including new features that would be helpful.

We’re forever grateful that Jessica, Greg, and the rest of the Parable team took the time to explain what was wrong and give us a chance to make it right. Our goal is to be more than a software system, and instead, a partner in your accounting firm’s success. Customer feedback helps us to improve, and we look forward to growing by your side.