How Kraft Helped Griswold Group Maintain Service and Support throughout the Pandemic
Since its foundation in 1987, the Griswold Group has established great connections within West Michigan by providing expert guidance to employers about insurance. From medical to dental and disability coverage, this family-owned employee benefits agency has only grown its reputation for quality care since ownership passed to the founders’ daughter, Sarah Hall, in 2016. Though a small company, Sarah prioritized the Griswold Group’s increased support and efficiency—in both hardware and software.
1st Challenge: Printing
It was seven years ago that Griswold Group first met with Kraft Business Systems. According to Sarah, they were first only interested in using Kraft’s Managed Print services to rent copiers for their office. After struggling with losing connections and support from their previous provider, Griswold Group was looking for a new, more reliable partner to advise them on the hardware they needed.
Working with Kraft’s Vice President of Sales, Pat Morrissey, Sarah and her team found exactly what they needed. Starting with oversight of their current equipment, Pat and Kraft’s Vice President Mike Zylstra helped to advise and plan for all the adjustments that would be made for the office upgrade. Sarah immediately saw the difference from their old provider and Kraft, going from “no contact and support to full commitment and communication.”
2nd Challenge: IT
In a small business with a staff of five people, Sarah knew it wasn’t practical to have a separate IT department. So, as Kraft offered better IT solutions to suit Griswold Group and the relationship grew, Sarah wanted to learn more.
“As a business owner, I wanted to protect the effectiveness of my team so that they weren’t down for a day or two if something happened and that they had somewhere to go with [their IT concerns],” said Sarah. “Having a voice and a person to give oversight in addition to ‘boots-on-the-ground’ doing the work is what became so important to me [and the whole team].”
This availability was especially important for maintaining their clients’ information security. Within the insurance industry, failing to comply with HIPAA regulations could have severe consequences. Realizing her own IT skills weren’t enough to handle Griswold’s backend systems alone, she reached out to the Kraft team for expert IT guidance and support.
Kraft delivered on what Griswold Group needed, “[showing] they cared more about us getting the results we needed to succeed” to support their business efforts. Sarah notes the aspect of care within Kraft’s approach “really stuck out to me and is part of the way that I do business.”
3rd Challenge: Customer Service
Since implementing Managed Print and Managed IT services with Kraft, Sarah is grateful for their services. Working with Kraft’s Partner Success Manager Kendra Beckman, Sarah always feels that she can “get the response that I need, without question” from Kendra, whom she describes along with the rest of the Kraft team as “incredible human beings” to work with.
During the time Griswold Group has worked with Kraft, their entire infrastructure has been integrated and improved to the point that downtime is pretty much eliminated using cloud-based software! However, the full value of these changes truly appeared during the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to these upgrades happening before 2020, Sarah recalls their company gained an “invaluable service” and advantage to seamlessly transition to remote work at a time when most companies were still using paper. “It felt really good to be able to focus where we needed to and have technology in place to fulfill our responsibilities,” says Sarah.
Final Relationship
The response from Griswold’s clients was overwhelmingly positive: they were able to receive the support and care they needed during such a difficult period, which Sarah and her team were grateful to provide for their community.
Currently, Griswold Group is happy to maintain a strong and friendly relationship with Kraft. Beyond working with “great human beings,” Sarah assures companies that work with Kraft Business Systems will find “the biggest difference that you’ll get—at the end of the day—is [that] they truly care about the success of their clients.”
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