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"A if you have to do is answer customer-support phones for two hours to realize how stressful it is and how
important those reps are to building customer loyalty," says Don Emery, president and CEO of $5.2-million Reference Software International in San
Francisco, a maker of grammar-checking programs. Fearful that his staff would burn out, he set aside one day a week for customer service reps
to work on self-designed projects.
"It went over like a raise and has benefited our company as much as it did the employees," he says.
One employee programmed a demonstration disk that the company would have had to hire an outsider to do.
Another started in-house software-training classes. A third started a computer bulletin board for grammar aficionados. The quality work at
bargain prices and low departmental turnover offset the cost of hiring an additional rep to cover the phone lines, reports Emery.
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