Profiles in Customers: Nigel and the Stressfree Vacation
I’m planning to take a vacation with an old friend of mine, Nigel, who is the Customer Support Manager for a large, fast-paced B2C company. Nigel's role demands exceptional customer experiences, team management, and meeting service goals. However, his commitment to the company often leaves little time for himself, and vacations are rare. His company expects that he will take time off but he finds himself so inextricably intertwined with his ongoing operations that he finds it difficult to do so. As someone who knows him (and we may all know someone like Nigel or see a bit of him in ourselves), I know Nigel’s problems run deep but I think Navgar will be able to help with some of them.
Problem: Without being the ever-present leader, Nigel fears that communication gaps among team members will lead to misunderstandings and hinder their ability to provide a cohesive customer service experience in his absence.
Navgar as the Solution: Even as we are making rapid improvements on our initial chat module, our chat is already incredibly contextual to the activities and tasks in flight. Navgar’s centralized platform was designed to avoid the kind of misunderstandings among teams that Nigel fears. His team will be able to interact without him running interference. Or interfering, if you prefer.
Problem: Nigel worries about being disconnected from his team and important updates during his vacation, impacting his ability to address urgent issues.
Navgar as the Solution: For urgent issues, Nigel can accept text messages from his team, we’re not going to Antarctica. For anything else, Nigel should set up a ‘While I’m Away’ channel in Navgar for his team and occasionally monitor it during his absence for a centralized hub of crisp summary updates.
Problem: Nigel is apprehensive about delegating responsibilities to his team, fearing that they may not handle tasks with the same level of expertise and attention to detail.
Navgar as the Solution: Navgar allows managers like Nigel to define very clearly the tasks his team members are expected to complete, how they are to be performed, and the order of operations for their completion. Navgar also offers in Flows the analytical capabilities to track team performance and important metrics. This empowers him to make data-driven decisions to enhance customer service operations.
The Biggest Problem: In case you haven’t figured it out: Nigel has a little bit of a savior/martyr complex that Navgar can’t solve on its own. So I’m asking his team members to hold the fort down, only reach out if something goes massively awry, and demonstrate to Nigel that he is a great manager because he is able to take a well-deserved worry-free vacation and his team are prepared for it because of the operations environment he leads.
Navgar as the Ultimate Solution: On the day-to-day, Navgar can prepare Nigel’s team through continuous streamlining of their service operations, enhancing team productivity, as well as promoting collaboration and communication. The intangible but meaningful benefits are that people like Nigel can achieve work-life balance, the virtuous cycle of delegation and trust, real-time connectivity, and control of what is going on. So, we’re now on the plane and I’m hoping Nigel can enjoy a rejuvenating vacation while ensuring the continued success of his team. I’m just slightly concerned about his first day back at the office right now…
(TO BE CONTINUED)
