[00:00:01] Speaker A: You're listening to PTC point of view, brought to you by preferred trust Company, the preferred custodian for all alternative investments. We're here to provide retirement savers like you with the tools you need to succeed. Need a confidence boost when it comes to investing outside of the stock market? Do you want the power to build a tech sheltered nest egg that will last through your golden years? You've come to the right place. Turn up your speakers and turn off cruise control because we're taking you on the alternate route to investing with your IRA.
[00:00:40] Speaker B: Welcome back to another episode of PTC Point of View. Today I have Kerry Cook, CEO of Preferred Trust Company, in the studio, and we are going to discuss something that our clients have been bringing up quite frequently. We just did a survey for the company to get some feedback how we can better improve as a company overall. One of the things that people were asking is why they don't have specific account managers for their accounts. So today, Carrie is going to explain why that is.
[00:01:15] Speaker C: Thank you so much. Yeah. Before we kind of get into that why it is, I do want to thank those that are responding to our surveys.
[00:01:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:24] Speaker C: And, you know, reviews are pretty easy for us to get because, quite frankly, we do have superior customer service. And so that's easy. But not every customer is happy. Not every customer. We're able to fulfill every need that they have as quickly as they believe that they need it fulfilled. And I understand that. I understand that because I'm a customer, too.
So I'm always looking at their perspective. And the surveys are really giving us an opportunity to get a perspective of things that we need to make improvements on. And as we go through those surveys, I want you to know as a client, a preferred trust that we take everything that you say very seriously and into account as to ways that we can make these improvements. And year after year, we're hearing them ask questions about these account managers. And I wanted to give everybody my perspective as the CEO as it relates to having an individual tied to a customer and how that could be really catastrophic for the customer. And so for just a minute, I, I want you to get my perspective of this as a company. When you have a couple hundred clients and you have six staff members, it's pretty easy to assign each staff member 20 clients. I think we would all agree that the client's level of care and customer service is at its highest when that happens. But with growth when you go from 200 to 2000, from 2000 to 20,000, I obviously do not want to add that level of employees, because if I do, the cost to the customer would be astronomical and we'd all have to share in that cost. So a better and more strategic and efficient way of doing that is to create a team environment where I cross train every single member of our staff to be able to facilitate and answer any questions that clients have. And I go so far as to take my team members and rotate them each and every week as to their specific responsibilities that week, so that I can assure that they're constantly getting the education they need to be able to support any questions that our clients have. When you send an email to info at preferred trustcompany or ptcemail.com comma, I need you to understand every single person within our company gets that email. Now that may seem like overkill, but I can assure you there is efficiencies in place to make sure that your needs are satisfied quickly, much faster than any other custodian out there. And I absolutely can put my money where my mouth is because I know that within 30 minutes, every single email that comes into preferred trust company is being assisted. How do I know this? Because every member is required to inform the rest of the team.
So if you want to have an account manager that's tied to you, think of it this way. If your account manager's on vacation, who's going to take care of your request that you need urgently taken care of?
Nobody.
Nobody's going to take care of you. Because when that person's out of the office, if you're only directly communicating with them and you have no other access to the rest of the team, you are going to be very unhappy with preferred trust company. So to ensure that we don't have that issue, I do not have account managers. We had to get away from that as we grew, and we're going to continue growing, we're going to continue growing and we're going to continue growing out our departments. And as we do that, the team environment becomes more and more important. The cross training becomes more and more and more important.
That's why we have it structured the way that we do. I know that other custodians have that same type of structure. I think ours is probably the most efficient.
Before I leave every night, every single night, I review and make sure that every single email has been tended to that day and throughout the day. The director of operations is monitoring it on an hourly basis. And if something is not tended to, I can assure you everybody is put on notice that something was missed. A phone call was missed, a voicemail was missed. An email was missed. We do not mess around when it comes to that. Our clients are our top priority.
[00:06:16] Speaker B: Teamwork makes the dream work.
[00:06:18] Speaker C: It sure does.
[00:06:19] Speaker B: Okay, Carrie, thank you for coming in and explaining that. I appreciate it.
[00:06:24] Speaker C: I appreciate you having me.
[00:06:27] Speaker A: Thanks for joining us for another episode of PTC Point of View, where retirement savers meet alternative investments. Know someone who's struggling with a retirement strategy? Tell them about our show. Can't wait for the next episode. To learn more, visit our
[email protected], or give us a call at 888-99-7892.
