People of PointClickCare: Nick Noel

Have you ever wondered what happens after a sale is made at PointClickCare? We recently chatted with Nick Noel, our Chief Customer Officer, to hear all about his journey to PointClickCare, the reason he is constantly asking his team the ‘why’ of everything, and how we ensure our customers get as much value out of our solutions as possible.

The Value of our Solutions

Speaking with Nick, we realized some people might not know the extent of what goes into the customer journey after the sale has been made. As he explains it, the post-sale journey relates to “Everything that goes beyond the commercial engagement with our customer.” The everything he is referring to is every single touchpoint in the customer journey. From the implementation process of deploying and enabling the solutions, to the success teams who are looking at how our customers are utilizing our solutions, to our amazing support team who engage with our customers daily to teach them how to leverage the solution features and help to facilitate a seamless integration experience, it’s all a part of the customer journey. “At the end of the day, it’s about ensuring that outside of the sales process, our customers are able to derive the value they need from our solutions to do their job.”

Nick’s journey to PointClickCare

Nick was attracted to the opportunity at PointClickCare for two simple reasons. The first, is because after working in technology organizations most of his career, he was intrigued by the idea of joining a Canadian leader in the industry and considered PointClickCare one of the best kept stories in Canada. The second, and most important reason, is that he admired the organization’s mission and knew it was a place where his work could positively impact the lives of millions. “To me, joining PointClickCare was an opportunity to make a difference. Most of my career has been in technology and I’ve worked with a lot of solutions, products, and organizations, but when you look at what some of them aim to do and you strip it down to the mission of the organization, sometimes it can be a bit frivolous. With PointClickCare, I knew the work would be meaningful and I would be able to have a positive impact on those who needed it most.”

Getting to know the customer

One of the things Nick’s team focused on when he first joined was gathering feedback through customer surveys. He mentions that, in his experience, this is the best way to understand how customers are using products and identify what can be done to add efficiencies that contribute to simplifying tasks or removing administrative burden within our customers’ facilities and homes. Nick also shared that this is particularly important when the feedback is constructive. “When a customer is willing to engage with us in an honest and open forum, that to me is what is most valuable because it proves that they are in it with us as opposed to us simply being a vendor. It reinforces the value that our relationship brings and the difference that we make in people’s lives.”

He also mentioned that the feedback they have received has allowed him to see the impact we have on our customers and the people they serve. “When a customer gives you feedback and you realize that you actually made a difference in what they do, to me, that is the most rewarding part of my job. There’s that downstream effect, because you know if they are able to do their jobs more effectively, you’ve not only made a difference to them, but also to the people they are helping.”

Be a force multiplier

If you take a look at Nick’s executive bio, you’ll see that he firmly believes that great leaders are force multipliers, making the people around them better through leadership, coaching, and example. He tells us that being a great leader is about asking questions and making sure you are always thinking about the end goal. “For me, personally, leadership is about understanding the power of the word why. In my experience, asking “why” leads to  conversations about the value in what we are doing, for our customers and for PointClickCare.” As Nick says, once you do that, and you do it consistently, it builds a culture of people around you who also ask “why”, and it reveals the true meaning and value behind your processes. “The more you constructively challenge, the better your outcomes will be over time. When people start to do it when you aren’t even there, that’s the leverage that you get, that’s the force multiplier effect. It is a reciprocal thing too, when people ask me “why”, that’s what makes me better too.”

Other characteristics he believes leaders need in order to succeed are flexibility and accountability. “Flexibility in how you lead your team is key. People are different and you need to have the ability to recognize that sometimes you need to take different approaches with different individuals in order to get the most out of them.” Nick also believes that as a leader you need to be able to recognize and be comfortable with accountability. “You need to own the success and the failures, and more importantly, you need to learn from the failures. The leaders that I have seen that are successful are the ones that have a desire to learn and grow. People who are willing to learn and grow, typically surround themselves with people they can learn from because they know if they can learn from others, it makes them better too.”

Advice for future leaders

As Nick mentioned, people are all different, and that means leaders are too. When speaking about advice for future leaders, Nick wants to ensure that those individuals know that leadership comes in many forms. “It’s not about how many people you have on your team, and it’s not about your title, it’s about the value you drive to the organization. I’ve seen leaders who have no one report to them, and they have an outstanding impact on the business. My advice to our future leaders it to find the form that works best for you.”

He also says that leaders need to be self-aware and know the things they do well and the gaps they need to fill. “Self-awareness helps you develop on a personal level by allowing you to nurture the things that you do well, but also by finding ways and maybe remedial action to actually address blind spots.” Nick also stresses the importance of diversity and inclusion when building your team. “Surrounding yourself with diverse groups offers individual growth and contributes to greater success across an organization. The need for diversity is something we can’t ignore. You need to surround yourself with people who think differently than you do, who have different life experiences, and who have a different perspective to offer.”

What makes PointClickCare different

As many have mentioned on the Life @ PointClickCare blog, the culture at PointClickCare is unmatched, and for good reason. When we asked Nick what sets PointClickCare apart and makes us a leader in the industry, he boiled it down to three important things: our people, our culture, and how we act as a partner with our customers. “Our people are our greatest asset. Our understanding and our empathy with our customers are what drives our organization, and it is reflected in our culture.” For example, Nick mentions how our organization pivoted during the pandemic. “We never for a second thought about anything other than how could we help. We showed up as a partner and supported our customers as best we could. I think that the partnership we share with our customers is what separates us from our competitors, and it is what will continue to make a difference for us as we develop as an organization.”

Thanks for sharing with us, Nick!