Providing smooth customer service is essential for a successful startup business operation. But achieving that is not always going to be easy. Your company will likely encounter bottlenecks that prevent you from effectively delivering support. So, how do you deal with these issues? Let’s take a closer look.
Identifying Bottlenecks In your Customer Service
A bottleneck is any issue that causes your customer service process to either slow down or stop altogether. When these bottlenecks appear, the level of input coming into the process exceeds the volume that it can handle. That leads to various problems on both the customer and agent sides.
There are two main bottleneck categories that your startup business customer service can encounter.
- Short-term bottlenecks: These are the bottlenecks that appear temporarily when there is a sudden spike of workload.
- Long-term bottlenecks: These bottlenecks last longer and might also keep recurring. They happen due to an inherent flaw in the service process.
Short-term bottlenecks can eventually morph into long-term ones if not attended immediately. Thus, you need to consider both when planning your work management strategy.
Types Of Bottlenecks
Beyond the above two categories, you can break down bottlenecks into several types. These types identify the area where the issue might occur. That will help you determine how to resolve it faster.
People Bottleneck
As the name implies, these are the bottlenecks caused by your team. Often, these can be due to a member not being able to complete an action fast enough. That causes other members to slow down as they wait for the person to complete the task.
Image from Casual PM Blog.
It is also worth noting that the cause of the bottleneck can also come from outside your customer service team. Decisions made by other departments can affect how your team does its work. Consider these external factors as well when resolving these bottlenecks.
System Bottlenecks
Your system can also create slowdowns in the customer service work. That typically happens when a specific process has issues that cause it to stop. These could be errors or restrictions that prevent an action from being completed. There might also be compatibility problems when bringing a new process into an older system.
Image from Thomas.
Since this bottleneck occurs within your system, it might require some technical expertise to resolve. Additionally, it can sometimes take longer to fix depending on the issue’s complexity. Because of that, you need to have some form of contingency plan while resolving it.
Identifying Bottlenecks In Your Startup Business Customer Service
Now that you know what kind of bottlenecks can affect your customer service, it’s time for you to identify the specific ones that you have to handle. Keep in mind that this is an ongoing process, as new bottlenecks can appear from time to time. Do the identification work regularly. There are three main steps involved in the identification process.
Map Your Startup Business Processes
The first thing you need to do here is map your customer service process. Use visual tools to get a clearer idea of how your process works. You can also ask the help of your team to determine the more intricate steps within the process.
Image from Asana.
That last bit is of particular importance. That is because you then need to analyze the process more closely. Trace how customers get from one step to the next. From here, you can already determine potential issues that might arise.
Identify The Issues Created
Jumping off from the above, you need to identify the signs that a bottleneck might indeed be in a part of your service process. Go back to your various key performance indicators to see if there are noticeable differences from ideal values. Some particular KPIs that you should focus on include:
- Wait times: Are the wait times going longer than the allowable limit?
- Throughput: Look into how much volume each step in the process can handle versus what it actually receives. Even if that value is still within a designated threshold, there might still be some limitations.
- Backlog volumes: See how much backlog work has been accumulating. This one is often the largest telltale sign that something is causing a slowdown in your processes.
In some cases, you might need to do a longer comparative study. That will give you an idea of whether the bottleneck is just temporary or is persisting. The former may even be just a sudden spike that resolves itself without a hitch. On the other hand, a persistent bottleneck can hint at a bigger issue.
Talk To People
Communicating with your team also helps better pinpoint the bottleneck. They can give you more information on the struggles they encounter. Note the level of stress they have as well. That helps gauge the impact of the bottleneck on them.
On the other side of the equation, you also need customer feedback. They will be able to describe the issues that they encounter when connecting with your service team. Comparing this with the statement of your staff will help you further pinpoint the exact area where the bottleneck occurs.
Helping Your Startup Business Resolve Bottlenecks.
One of the simplest ways to resolve most customer service bottlenecks is to have more people handle the process. That lets you get rid of backlogs while resolving the issue at hand. However, the challenge here is where you can get extra personnel on demand.
This is where we at Virtua Solutions can help a lot. Our team can provide you with additional agents on short notice. The service is fully customizable, which means you can get the exact number of agents to fulfill the need.
But we go beyond just providing you with more people. We can also be more proactive in looking for bottlenecks that you might not yet notice. When you employ our customer service team, we set up our tracking system in conjunction with yours. With that, we can compare notes with your in-house agents.
From there, we use our expertise to help you devise a more effective solution to the bottleneck. The goal here is to go beyond resolving the current one. We also help you put in measures to prevent future bottlenecks from happening.
Dealing with bottlenecks is pretty much a part of running a startup business. But with the right help by your side, these don’t need to be headache-inducing. Sign up with us today and we will help you unblock those and create better customer service.