capSpire Blog

In my more than 20 years of providing CTRM operations support, I’ve found trust to be the number-one factor that makes or breaks a client partnership.

In many cases, trust simply isn’t there because a relationship ceases to exist, period. Often, a support person is merely a distant voice on the phone. A company’s team members may find themselves speaking to a different person each time they call, and have to re-explain issues and background information repeatedly.

A support team could be located in a different country and time zone, which can certainly complicate any working relationship and prolong project completion.

Contact can be sporadic.

It can be frustrating when an operations support provider is unable to explain their rationale for making a recommendation.

Company employees may even feel like they’re figuring out things on their own—although the company hired an operations support provider so they wouldn’t have to.

In engaging our clients, our team at capSpire takes a vastly different approach than this unfortunate norm. The foundation of everything we do is trust, and it starts with an authentic, personal relationship.

So, how do we accomplish such a high level of trust and engagement?

• It starts with demonstrating curiosity and interest, and asking the right questions. We take the time to understand our clients well—their business model, their processes and functions, how they’ve enhanced their CTRM system and why, who sits on their team, and what all the different players need in an optimally functioning CTRM system.
• From the outset, we make it clear to clients that we have the best interests of their business and CTRM system in mind—never our own interests.
• In a technical-support relationship, people like to deal with the same familiar, competent professionals each time. It’s always better to have someone on a first-name basis on speed dial, right? That’s why we assign dedicated teams to work with clients for the long term. Communication is more efficient, easy, and frequent, and clients don’t have to constantly catch a new person up on their situation.
• We don’t like to talk over our clients and try to make ourselves sound smart at their expense. Instead, we’re sensitive to our clients’ level of technical knowledge and their understanding of their system capabilities. We aim to communicate with specific audiences in the right way, at their level, in a way they’ll comprehend. We want to share knowledge and empower people, not frustrate or confuse them.
• Transparency and honesty are critical. We report regularly on progress so clients understand what we’re doing and the value they’re receiving. If something isn’t working or we could perform a certain task better, we’re upfront about it.
• It’s important for clients to feel that their team is nearby, readily accessible, and shares similar working hours. This is why we’ve strategically placed teams in many in-demand regions and across many time zones around the world.
• We give clients the peace of mind that we’re here when they need us, to serve as an extension of their team and round out their capabilities with our niche expertise. There are no parameters placed around our help—we can solve any CTRM system-related problem.
• We earn clients’ trust by consistently performing high-quality work that achieves the desired resolution.

 With a strong foundation of trust, the CTRM-support process becomes infinitely more productive and effective. 

Previously, my colleague Dave Webb wrote about why having a commodity trading and risk management (CTRM) operations support partner is so beneficial. To expand on the conversation about why capSpire is different from other CTRM consultancies, read more about what else, in addition to our user engagement, sets us apart: our governance, service delivery, quality of support, and our dedication to continuous improvement.

If you have any questions about capSpire’s operations support, please contact me and my team at operations@capspire.com.

Lisa Garcia is a technical and functional consultant within capSpire’s commodity trading and risk management practice. She has more than 18 years of experience with RightAngle, including more than four years spent as a team lead for OpenLink’s customer support organization. In this role, she directed day-to-day operations for a team of support resources for several flagship RightAngle clients, with a combined user base of more than 400 users. Skilled in both technical and functional work in all phases of system analysis, Lisa has a broad knowledge of RightAngle through customer support work with OpenLink and capSpire clients, by offering training and support on RightAngle, and participating in multiple RightAngle implementation teams, most recently for S16, S15, and ATM.