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When you think “great customer service,” you probably don’t immediately think of the word “agility.” It might seem like friendly agents and the ability to quickly resolve problems would be the top criteria instead.
But if you’re looking for methods to improve customer service, you might want to revisit the idea of agility. As it turns out, it means quite a bit more than just responsive customer service – and can mean a world of difference to your customers.
Why does agility matter?
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines agility as “the ability to move quickly and easily” – and that’s a good start. But when we talk about being agile in business, it can mean a whole lot more. Agility in customer service, specifically, can also mean flexibility, efficiency, and scalability.
Think about it like this. You have a team of great customer support agents. You’re about to release a new product and anticipate higher call volume because of it. So you prepare your agents to try to resolve calls faster, on the first attempt, in order to meet this demand. You’re trying to adapt to the circumstances in your business, but you’re not actually agile. You only have the personnel you have, and if you have high call volume, all the training in the world won’t help you adapt adequately to that.
But, let’s say you’re working with a BPO partner like Conectys. You still have your team of customer support agents – and you have us as an extension of that team. When you anticipate your call volume will spike, we’ll be ready to supply you with more agents. And when it dips again, you’re back to your core team. Even if you don’t give us a lot of warnings, we can jump in and fill your need extremely quickly. And that’s being truly agile.
What kind of impact can it make?
Based on the example above, it’s clear why the ability to scale up or down – and do so quickly – could make a big difference to the customers calling your business and expecting a timely response. But can it actually make a deeper impact?
As you may have suspected, the answer is yes. Here are a few of the ways:
- Forrester has shown that 77 percent of people say that valuing their time is the most important thing a company can do to provide them with good service. So if you have adequate personnel to answer customer calls or live chats, no matter how the volume ebbs and flows, you increase your ability to give your customers the one thing they consider most important. You can’t ask for much more than that.
- But, still, agility is not just one and the same as responsive customer service. It also means being able to give customers real answers (and comprehensive insight) in real-time – and then make adjustments accordingly. In order to do this, of course, your agents have to be able to access customer data instantly – and know what it means. Depending on the industry, this can take a good deal of training but can make a big difference. How much more valuable is it if a customer calls into their software provider, and gets an immediate analysis of their data so they can fix their issue quickly, versus calling in and having to speak generally about their problem, often with no immediate resolution?
- Being agile in one avenue is not enough, either. Unpredictability in business is a constant, so in order to be truly effective, companies must have an Omni-Channel digital customer service approach so they can practice agility as needed across all channels. This gives you the ability to be where your customers are, when they need you and how they need you.
So, what’s the surprising impact of agility on customer service? It’s that it has an enormous impact.
In order to get the most benefit, you must find a partner who has a true culture of agility and is used to making quick changes whenever needed for their customers in order to meet demand and provide value. That’s how we serve our customers, and that’s how you deserve to be served too. Please contact us anytime to learn more.
