How do you handle SLA breaches and avoid customer dissatisfaction?

When dealing with SLA breaches, prioritize proactive communication to maintain customer satisfaction. Warren Buffett's advice on reputation applies here - keep customers informed about the issue and the steps being taken to resolve it. Learn from past challenges, optimize processes, and heed Bill Gates' wisdom that unhappy customers can be valuable sources of learning. Keep striving for greatness in your commitment to excellence!

A comunicação é essencial para manter a satisfação do cliente, ao implementar um sistema de suporte, é crucial analisar os fluxos de trabalho atuais e definir números de SLA realistas. Forneça atualizações regulares e garanta o envolvimento do cliente.

Incorrectly set expectations are often the top reason for SLA breaches. Quite often, the same SLA rules are applied across all inquiries, but there's a big difference between one-step solutions and more complex issues that involve multiple people or steps. When implementing a support system, it's crucial to analyze current workflows and set realistic SLA numbers. But remember, SLAs aren't set in stone—you should regularly review data and adjust them as needed, especially when transitioning to new software, since performance will naturally evolve over time.

Swift and transparent communication is crucial. Inform users promptly, detailing the issue and anticipated resolution. Provide regular updates and ensure customer involvement. For eg., if a cloud service experiences downtime, communicate the expected recovery time, offer alternative solutions, and consider compensations like service credits. Establish preventive measures and conduct post-incident reviews to enhance future performance. This proactive approach minimizes customer dissatisfaction by demonstrating accountability and commitment to service excellence.

One opportunity came, blessed for sure. It was within Service Management. I was task to and still performing the same - advising, monitoring, instill, approaching and collaborating with support folks with department heads - yet still haven't got a smooth flow of it in terms of ITIL best practices and its framework in Incident Management. People start asking what is different now and then, when comes to closing outstanding tickets, why I need to have my staff to do so, what is and how do I see an SLA from the ticket, time-stopper from breaching SLA - what status code should I use! Well, I have to explain all these questions which I am glad they do seem to be getting the flow when I start sharing mid-week ticket SLA breach reports.

Escalations are signals in that something is "off" with the end-to-end process, and therefore excellent candidates for innovation and improvements - not to mention, the opportunity to truly partner with your customers on a solution is priceless.

SLA breaches are often the result of poor system design or inefficient manual processes. When automations and workflows aren't in place, your team spends more time managing the process instead of resolving the issues. I've seen companies where automating just a few key workflows reduced SLA breaches by 40%. Less manual work = faster resolutions, and faster resolutions = happier customers.