There is a video that went viral on Facebook and YouTube. The theme was Paying it Forward. I want to share a story from one of our customers, Sonic Foundry as our interactions with them reminded me of the video and the graces of “Paying it Forward”.
Sonic Foundry was originally introduced to Wind River by TermSync, an Accounts Receivable automation solution founded by Mark Wilson, who once worked for Sonic Foundry. By the way, the mission at Sonic Foundry is to amplify the world’s knowledge by empowering organizations to place video at the heart of every class, training, communication and event.
I recently connected with Lynn Aspinwall who was starting her 17th year as the Accounting Manager for Sonic Foundry who reflected on their decision to partner with Wind River. “We’ve never intended, or claimed to be a payment processing expert,” said Ms. Aspinwall. When it comes to credit card processing, we’ve found it to be confusing and frustrating. There is a lot of jargon, and hundreds of rates. That’s all gone away since we partnered with Wind River in 2014.”
Fast forward three years since that decision to today, when Ms. Aspinwall has found herself preparing to follow in her grandfather, father and uncle’s footsteps by becoming Exalted Ruler of the Madison Elks Lodge #410. The Elks Lodge has been a part of her family for 3 generations, and in the Madison community since 1898. Its active membership is involved with numerous philanthropies for the benefit of children and veterans by giving back to our community.
Ms. Aspinwall was thinking about how to bring new value to Madison Elks in her new leadership role, and she thought it made sense to call her contact at Wind River.
“We were never really able to fully understand the different fee structures we were seeing in our credit card program at the Madison Elks. When reviewing our current provider, Wind River pointed out that our bundled pricing led to an annual over payment of more than $3,000 –that’s real money to us.”
Without even knowing it, Sonic Foundry received additional benefits. By recommending the Madison Elks Lodge to Wind River, Sonic Foundry became an active part of the Wind River customer referral program.
“When Wind River called to congratulate us on the reward of a $200 statement credit from the referral program, I was pleasantly shocked! To us, it is about working with people you trust, and partners that have proven themselves over time. That’s why we work with Wind River.”
It turns out that Paying it Forward does have its rewards.
