CUSTOMER SUPPORT IN THE AGILE TRANSFORMATION - OPPORTUNITIES MEET CHALLENGES

In the turbulent world of modern business, agile transformation is no longer just a passing trend, but rather an essential necessity. To keep pace with the constantly changing market conditions, it is no longer sufficient to excel in individual aspects. Customer demands are increasing at a rapid pace. This leads to heightened conflicting requirements, such as meeting high security standards versus enhancing innovation through shorter development cycles.

What currently challenges companies is called "ambidexterity." Ambidexterity is structurally the "bimanual action" of an organization. A company simultaneously masters the demands of operational business and the development of innovations. In terms of IT everyday life, this means finding a balance in serving and meeting the mutual customer requirements. Agility is crucial here to achieve sustainable change management. The desired identity of an agile company is high flexibility, better responsiveness, and strong customer orientation. While the path of agile transformation offers many advantages and potentials, customer support also faces specific challenges that need to be addressed.

HOW TO MASTER THE CHALLENGES OF CROSS-DEPARTMENTAL COLLABORATION IN AGILE TRANSFORMATION

Firstly, cross-departmental collaboration within the company presents one of the biggest challenges. While agility promotes self-organization and interdisciplinary collaboration, many questions remain unanswered:

  • How can support integrate into agile teams without compromising efficiency?
  • What tools and methods can be used to improve processes between interdisciplinary teams, consisting of customer service, product management, and operations?
  • How do we ensure that support quality is consistently enhanced?

These are questions that particularly challenge support on the path to a harmonious, agile transformation.

A SOLVABLE HURDLE: THE DECENTRALIZATION OF CUSTOMER SUPPORT

However, the decentralization of customer service that comes with agile transformation also presents another hurdle. This decentralization means that process governance lacks immediate insight into the organization of support teams. In a transformation, this responsibility lies with agile teams, operating autonomously and cross-functionally. Where training measures for employees or even micromanagement at the ticket level were previously controlled, today, self-organization, accountability, and creativity are the order of the day. Nevertheless, regulatory authorities, auditors, and reviewers—despite their fundamental agreement with the transformation—demand sustainable process control and sound process management.

ON THE TRANSFORMATION JOURNEY, OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES COLLIDE

It is up to each company to make customer support a part of this agile transformation. The journey is demanding, but the rewards for a well-positioned and agile support system are immense.

Sebastian Kohlhepp, Tribe Lead Customer Services focusing on processes and control, will present at the Innovation Day how his team has mastered the challenges of this transformation in customer support.

SUCCESSFUL HANDLING OF AGILE TRANSFORMATION THROUGH CONTROL AND MONITORING

Are you ready for an in-depth look into the world of change? After an initial phase of euphoria and a subsequent downturn into the valley of tears, the team realized at the nadir of change that transformation without adequate control and monitoring is difficult to manage. As a result, various control and monitoring elements were implemented in customer support, serving as fundamental pillars supporting the newly designed agile support process and giving the entire transformation an impressive boost:

5 TIPS FOR SUCCESSFUL AGILE TRANSFORMATION IN CUSTOMER SUPPORT

  • Self-help for agile teams: Through dashboards with clear and distinct KPIs, each team can recognize its own performance and benchmark with other teams.
  • Individual reporting: This provides a precise overview of the development of the support team and customer sentiment.
  • Process optimizations: Enabled by process mining, these not only bring about improvements but a veritable transformation of workflows.
  • Meeting formats for innovation and collaboration: This promotes collaboration within the company and accelerates agile change.
  • Integration of New Work: A completely new work experience not only changes the workplace but also increases creativity and productivity.

Are you ready to change the structure of your company? In his presentation at the Innovation Day of CCW 2024, Mr. Sebastian Kohlhepp navigates through the change in customer support with his experiences and tips. The future of agile transformation begins here and now. Become part of this process!

Experte Sebastian Kohlhepp

Tribe Lead Customer Services ITIL Processes and control | Atruvia AG

Show Profile

Do you like what you read? Share this post or leave us a comment!

Comments

No Comments

Write comment

* These fields are required