How to communicate with customer during incidents?

How to improve communication on the customer-agent line to raise CSAT and change frustration into understanding? 

📚 This article has been published in the DevSamurai blog.

Incident communication is integral to incident resolution and management, as crucial as the rest of the framework. Properly tailored communication minimizes incident costs and keeps agents focused on ticket resolution. 

What is Incident Communication?

Incident communication involves the strategies and tools used to facilitate effective communication between customers and support teams during incidents. This approach enhances the customer support experience by providing clear, timely, and relevant information throughout the resolution process.

Benefits of Strategized Incident Communication:

  • Enhanced Customer Satisfaction: Real-time updates reduce frustration and build confidence.
  • Faster Incident Resolution: Clear communication minimizes repetitive queries.
  • Cost Minimization: Proactive communication helps avoid SLA breaches and reduces operational costs.
  • Improved Agent Efficiency: Structured communication allows agents to focus on resolving issues.

Pain Points Faced by Service Desk Agents: Agents face several challenges during incident management that impede efficiency. Addressing these pain points with clear and consistent communication strategies is crucial for improving management and satisfaction.

Agents’ Pain Points:

  • Lack of communication
  • Information overload
  • Back-and-forth interactions with customers
  • Lack of clarity
  • Siloed communication
  • Inconsistent processes

Advanced Incident Communication Strategy:

Incidents are inevitable, but bad reviews travel faster than good ones. A proactive and strategized approach to incident communication is essential.

5 Tips Every Service Desk Agent Should Follow:

  1. Self-Service Portal: Empower customers to edit, escalate, or save tickets as drafts.
  2. Ticket Lifecycle: Show customers the ticket stage and remaining progress.
  3. Inform Customers Fully: Display detailed information on request details view.
  4. Inform Customers in Advance: Use announcement banners to provide timely updates.
  5. Status Page with Live Incident Reports: Offer real-time updates on service status.

Conclusion: The Importance of Advanced Incident Communication

Advanced incident communication is crucial for effective incident resolution and customer satisfaction. Implementing strategies that ensure clear, timely, and comprehensive communication minimizes incident costs, improves agent efficiency, and transforms customer frustration into understanding.

Key Takeaways:

  • Ensure everyone is well-informed.
  • Advanced communication minimizes resolution costs.
  • The service desk portal should be a single source of truth.
  • Empower customers with more self-service actions.
  • Proactive communication reduces additional questions, allowing agents to focus on resolution.

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