Practice This

Customer’s situation

I was contacted by a customer, returning customer, who complained about his problem not being solved although it has been escalated to high priority. After few quick questions I realized the criticality of the problem for a customer and the reason it is not solved yet. The customer needed to go live next day. The reason it was not solved was the communication disconnect, the case was handled remotely. I took the case and went onsite.

Course of action

I was not familiar in depth with the technology issues the customer was facing – I told the customer so before taking the case. I suggested to serve as a broker and use my network of experts collecting their insights and then interpreting and applying it onsite. The customer said this is what he exactly needed, someone with a broader network but in proximity to his premises. Remote assistance failed and time was running against us.

After quickly collecting relevant information I was able to transfer it to remote specialist so he could guide me exactly what to do next. After several rounds of information exchange we nailed the root cause and fixed the problem. It’s was past midnight.

Result

The customer went live as planned and he could serve his customers without interruption. I strengthened my relationship with the customer and learned new technology. After the case was closed the customer filled service satisfaction survey. Key questions and answers for me were these:

• Please rate the performance of the consultant using a scale of 1-9 where 9 is “excellent” and 1 is “very poor.” – 9.
• What influenced your rating the most? – Fast mobilization and expertise.

Conclusion

There are several lessons I learned handling this case:

• Time sensitive and mission critical cases must be handled onsite, high cost usually is not an issue, time is.
• Immediate response earns trust and builds relationship.
• Transparency is critical.
• Listing options for immediate action is a great way to getting unstuck.
• You do not have to be expert, but you must be a pro and have to maintain well oiled network of experts.