A Powerful Message
There’s an international film about a dyslexic 8-year-old boy who struggles to cope in school. His parents, frustrated by their inability to tutor the boy at home, end up sending him to a boarding school. The boy sinks into a state of fear, panic, and depression losing his motivation to go on with his life. Luckily, one of the teachers of his school notices his struggles and tries to calibrate his teaching method that would better suit the boy. The teacher’s philosophy is that a mentor should understand the strengths and weaknesses of their students and deliver their lectures accordingly. If not, they would not be able to fulfill the basic requirement of their job description - educating the students.
The reason for me to exemplify this movie is to give you a perspective on how much prioritization matters when you are trying to get effective output out of someone or something. The child in this movie did not understand letters the way others did but thanks to the teacher, a unique lesson plan helped him grasp the lessons at the same pace, if not more, as the rest of the youngsters.
Indeed, this is a powerful movie where the student-teacher dynamic proves to be important and to some extent sacred for the happiness of the boy. Now, what if I told you that prioritizing your clients can have an equally powerful impact on your business? How are they connected? Let’s keep reading.
They Deserve More
As businesses keep popping out left and right, so does the competition around the globe. In a world where customer satisfaction is one of the fundamental building blocks of business success, you surely have to strategize your business process in a way that enables effective case management. To give context to this statement, I reached out to my colleague’s friend Linda who compared her current and previous company in terms of customer prioritization: “Okay, first of all, I loved working in the previous company and I love this company too. But if I have to give you an objective view of how both companies prioritize their customers, there is a big difference. In one word, it’s automation. My previous company was initially dependent on email calendars for all its case management. Meaning, our priority customers were enlisted there and we would update them based on changes that came along the way. This seemed quite old-fashioned to me. We would get calls from customers asking when a certain task would be done and we would answer them over text messages or phone calls. After that, we would update them in our spreadsheet. It honestly didn’t make sense to me. I mean, why not communicate to all the relevant stakeholders about the job progress at the same time?”
After speaking to Linda about the ineffective ways of handling our SLA, I could understand her frustration. Just like students in a classroom, customers need different types of service, in different ways. It boils down to efficiency and if the work is not done proactively, it is quite difficult to keep your customers satisfied.. However, they later implemented an SLA system to mitigate the issue.
“It was clear that our way of operating was creating a lot of backlogs and so we went for an SLA system to minimize them. We were able to update information in real-time for everyone to see but it was still missing something. I found the missing link after joining the company I am currently working in. This system is quite advanced. We can set SLAs based on the type of customers we are serving and the product types we are offering. They have different needs and all these SLAs are notified to the field agents instantly. Let’s say a customer has to get their electronic machinery fixed within 24 hours after the issue arises. We can assign technicians based on location, skill-sets, and utilization, to offer our clients the best.”
How To Be Proactive?
An effective SLA system enables effective case management by separating them based on the priority of the customers. As Linda mentioned earlier, she is able to set SLAs for different cases based on specific support agreements in place. You can enjoy a wide range of benefits when using such a system. Let us get a better understanding of it.
Set timers: Your most profitable customer requires special attention. If the SLA requires you to send in your technicians for their business within an hour after they inform you, the application will notify you immediately.
SLA-breach alert: An alert notification will be sent to your technicians and supervisors if they are about to miss a deadline. For example, an alert message is sent to the technician 30 minutes before breaching the SLA. With efficient visibility of time, your team is equipped with the ability to respond and take mitigating actions to ensure your customers will get the attention they deserve.
Assign the right person: If a client of yours has a broken MacBook, you will need to assign a technician who is an expert at diagnosing and solving Mac issues. They need the right software and hardware skills to get the job done. Incorporating such options will help you know and zoom in to the person who has the right capabilities to complete the job.
Set priorities at your ease: Even in the worst-case scenario where all your technicians are occupied, you will know which assignment needs more attention. Based on that information, you can deploy your field agent for the high-priority work and then move on to the next task.
Prioritization Done Right
Case management can be difficult if you choose to treat all your customers as equals. Not all of them will bring you the same amount of profit nor will they expect the same service in return for the package they have signed up for. What you have to be aware of is how to keep track of each of these customers and prioritize them efficiently. An SLA management mobile application like Custella can be the perfect place to start your journey to ensure you are proactive rather than reactive to issues at hand.
This may be your opportunity to build and grow your customer-service and experience.
Still have more questions? Check out more FAQs on our website here. You can also get in touch with us below from the link below; we are always happy to get back to you with any queries regarding your business.
Need a field service management application like Custella? If you’re in Malaysia, Indonesia, or the ASEAN region, drop us an email to schedule your demo: ask@custella.com.
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