Customer devotion is the key to long, meaningful partnerships

People often ask me what makes UST unique, and I don’t hesitate to answer. Customer devotion is at the heart and soul of everything we do, which translates into a difference our clients and our employees can truly feel.

Customer devotion is not just a checkpoint in a list of lofty values; it’s the very definition of UST’s outlook, attitude and reason for being.

Well, show me a consultancy that doesn’t claim to be all about the customers, you may counter. And you’d be spot on. Everyone says it. No business would exist without its customers. But there’s a big difference between saying it and obsessively living it.

Building trusted partnerships

Customer devotion never goes out of fashion. But it’s especially critical in turbulent times. A single-minded focus on making customers successful allows us to concentrate on what’s important to us as a business as well as what matters to customers – an approach that has worked as a lifeline in challenging times.

Throughout the twists and turns of the last decade, I’ve seen first-hand that a consistent focus on making clients successful benefits our business as much as theirs. Customers appreciate the reliable partners who stick with them, find innovative ways to deliver on commitments and, importantly, meet them where they are.

If a client needs help to deliver against a challenging budget cut or supply chain issue, we roll up our sleeves and find a way to make it work. We go out of our way to partner with them, whatever the situation, because it strengthens the relationship and leads to long-term commitments from both sides. They know they can trust us in good times and in bad.

At UST, we deliver business results through technology. But our bigger mission is to transform lives, so we never lose sight of the human impact at the end of that. We’ve seen technology trends come and go, but we’ve maintained our single-minded focus on people and customer devotion throughout.

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A culture of customer devotion

Customer devotion is not a one-off effort or an empty promise for us. We’ve embedded a culture of customer devotion throughout UST, with practical and structural initiatives to support it. Part of this is a framework we call the UST Handprint. Each of the five competencies within it is underpinned by customer devotion and translates into distinct, observable behaviors. These vary according to individual job roles and dive into each employee’s personal and professional development.

It also informs the way our business is structured. For example, one of the competencies within the UST Handprint is “passionate entrepreneurship.” We know the ability to move fast and make decisions is vital to innovation and great customer service. That’s why our teams work in clusters, each with a leader who can give a quick, confident answer when a customer has a question. This makes us more responsive to clients and the markets, and better able to deliver effective results fast.  

We ensure this all translates into a difference customers can feel by empowering our client-facing teams to drive their customer conversations. Leaders across UST are clear that their teams are free to make decisions and manage investments in any way they see fit, as long as it’s right for the client. This mindset leads to long-term success for clients – and, ultimately, makes UST stronger.

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In for the long haul

We only have to look at the longevity of our partnerships to know our approach is working. Many of UST’s valued customers have been with us for 5-10 years, which is astonishing in a changing world where brand loyalty is hard-won. Those clients tell us they feel the connection we’ve established.

We’ve been able to maintain these relationships by evolving our business alongside those of our clients. We’re proud to stay by their sides throughout shifting market dynamics, fluctuating trends, changing products, and even significant leadership changes.

Of course, there are two sides to the agreement. We go out of our way to select clients who want to truly partner with us and who see the world in a similar light.

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Creating meaningful change

We emphasize cultural fit when we’re hiring our people, too, setting an early expectation of customer devotion. People don’t join UST to “own” client relationships; they come here to leverage the power of our organization to benefit the customer and create meaningful change in the world.

UST’s mission of transforming lives begins with our clients at an individual level. We’re never just serving a company; we’re partnering with an individual who has taken a chance on us. We do whatever is necessary to see those individuals succeed in their careers and ambitions. 

We can’t transform lives through technology without an oversized dedication to the people investing in it, using it and benefiting from it. Our in-built devotion to customers starts and ends with that – and we’re excited to see where it takes us in the future.