Scaling Customer Service by Fixing Things Twice
We think that for each customer issue, we have to do two things:
- Solve the customer’s problem right away
- Find a way to stop that problem from happening again
How we solve the first depends on the specific problem at hand, but to resolve the second we use the 5 Whys method.
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If you stick to Fixing Things Twice then over time all the common problems get resolved. This frees up your Customer Service team to look in to the unique issues that need more time.
I think this is the right way to do things and leads to a higher quality product. It’s incredibly satisfying to track down root causes. But you have to exercise some discretion because this is a hole with no bottom. At a certain point, you can do more good for more customers by not trying to second-fix issues of diminishing severity and popularity.
