Topic Teasers Vol. 72: Agile Customer Support

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  Agile   CRM   Stakeholder Management  

We’re totally committed to agile as a methodology, and we think that is partially why we have now grown so big that we need to open a customer call center. However, my expertise is not in planning contact centers, so what is the current wisdom of how these need to function to satisfy customers?

A. Customer inquiries are best served by FAQ sites: online and well-written website summations of the products you offer and the way they function. Spend your money in this type of development, which is probably more comfortable for you anyway.

B. Most staff members are reluctant to move into customer support functions, so you will first need to make sure there are enough competent people who know about your offerings available for hire. Prepare hands-on tests to screen out those who do not already know your merchandise or service products.

C. Call centers are the most cost efficient way to deal with customer issues, but you should outsource this function as creating your own may be beyond the skill set you possess. Third-party providers are uniformly cheaper than an internal system.

D. First, determine if it’s in your organization’s best interest to create a call center or a contact center. They are two different things and have different pluses and minuses. Then consider a management style for the center based …

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