Welcome to the second instalment of our customer service spotlight feature!
If you’re reading this article, it’s probable that you’re no stranger to the likes of Agile business and Agile methodology. If by chance you are an alien to software agility, you might want to take a look at the official Agile Manifesto.
In simple terms, Agile is an umbrella word for an array of methods that companies – namely software development, IT, project management and delivery focussed – can implement to adapt to changing conditions in any of the following areas:
- Market change
- Customer demands
- Stakeholder requests
- Its own accelerated timelines
Whilst customer demand is a fundamental aspect of development, customer experience can often fly under the radar as a result. At Predatar, we’re all about making the customer’s experience as smooth and supported as possible, this means that we need to be agile in our customer interactions and processes.
What does this mean?
In the same way that agile methodologies make way for controlled change in business processes, creating an agile customer experience means adapting to customer needs and support requirements. It holds us accountable to our customers and enhances responsive change.
Why does it matter?
Currently, many organisations approach customer experience in a similar fashion. That is, customers are unpredictable. Because of this, making the customer journey as regimented as possible is often a key focus. Typically, a single agent will take a single customer call, or will respond to a single email. If the agent can’t resolve the issue, the query is fed through the organisation until it hits someone that can solve it. When we look at this from an outsider’s perspective, we can see how this might benefit the organisation in terms of time-saving but it’s certainly not as easy to see how it might benefit the customer and passing something through so many hands can cause its own issues.
Think about how many times you’ve been in this position. You’re on the phone to a service provider only to be passed from team to team, supervisor to supervisor. Banging your head against a brick wall comes to mind, right? You’re bound to come off the phone and complain to someone. You might even complain directly to the company, and with today’s digital accessibility to organisations, you can do it publicly over social media. So, with that in mind, an agile customer experience is a remarkable thing that can prevent customer frustration and enhance a company’s reputation ten-fold.
How does it happen?
Simply put, it’s about having the right specialists in all the right areas. Rather than focusing on a regimented and controlled customer experience, organisations should look ahead to future problem-solving with a zoomed in focus on mapping out and categorising customer journeys. No one customer is the same, and so there is no benefit in allocating them all to the same process.
Onwards… Agile steed!
For more about customer service, check out our interview with Predatar’s customer success officer, Andy! (he’s a real superhero!). You can read the interview here.
