Lilith Antunovic, Rentman’s Customer Experience Manager, tells us how Klaus helps her manage a busy customer-facing team.
Rentman has been using Klaus since 2019 and quality was a high priority from the very beginning.
Lilith Antunovic has led Rentman’s customer-facing team since March 2020. After she attended a Klaus event in Amsterdam, she expressed how important it was to share space with similar-minded companies:
‘It’s not often the case that you meet others who know the worth of success, companies who put customer support at the center of the company. Meeting like-minded people at the Klaus event was like a balm for the soul.’
Not all companies share the same values. The strength of the support team is what distinguishes Rentman from the rest of the industry. As the curious cats we are here at Klaus, we wanted to know how Rentman maintains its high standards of support. Lilith shared their story with us below.
Feel free to jump through to the parts that interest you, or read right through for the entire story.
Jump to:
- Sales-Success-Support Pod
- Tips for onboarding customer support agents
- Tips for coaching customer support agents
- What can you learn from Rentman’s Support QA Strategy?
How do you make customer-facing roles a focal point in the company?
There are 15 in Rentman’s customer-facing team (support and success combined). Coming from a purely customer success background, Lilith initially wondered why they were using Klaus. CSAT was high, tickets looked perfect – they didn’t have a quality problem.
It wasn’t long, though, before she realized the value of measuring and maintaining high-quality standards. The support team is the tie that binds a strong customer-business connection.
The customer support agents have the ground-level data that executives need to listen to in order for their business model to be a success. For one thing, they hear first-hand why customers switch over from competitors. Lilith wants to make sure that her team is given the credit they deserve.
‘All customer-facing teams need a seat at the table. They have the important data – if executives don’t listen to it, their business model will eventually fail.’
Customer support teams can often feel inferior, like they are just an add-on to the motor driving a company forward instead of a crucial component. Klaus plays a big role in making sure this doesn’t happen at Rentman.
Members of all departments are selected to review support tickets through Klaus for a time period. No matter if they work in development, product, marketing, or sales, Rentman employees know their customers. Being customer-centric is baked into the company philosophy.
‘I feel Klaus allows us to extend that pure look at our customers. As well as help with the appreciation of CX agents within the company!’
Are your customers giving you an A+? Ace your CSAT with Klaus.
? Sales-Success-Support Pod ?
A sales pod usually consists of a sales rep and customer success manager working in tandem to fulfill customer needs and streamline the buyer’s journey.
Lilith is working on a pod strategy to include a relevant support agent within that same pod.
‘It makes a lot of sense. Our agents know what’s happening in the market from talking to customers, maybe even more than sales or customer success. I want them to weigh in and strategize for development and upcoming campaigns.’
How do you maintain quality with a high turnover?
This year, the Rentman support team had a near-complete turnover, with agents either promoted or moving on elsewhere.
Relying on the high-performing agents in your team isn’t a long-term strategy – it’s too vulnerable to turnover. Maintaining quality, in the long run, relies on steadfast quality and onboarding programs.
Rentman’s process is not reliant on any one person, even the manager – onboarding a new agent is a shared responsibility. Although Lilith still has a perfect overview of how agents are progressing, through her dashboards on Klaus. Currently, their usual CSAT of 96% has dipped slightly. But Lilith knows that this is a temporary lull, due to many onboarders within the team, and she’ll continue to track KPIs weekly to make sure this is a short-term trend.
Tips for onboarding customer support agents
✍️ Write out clear conversation review guidelines
At Rentman, all onboarders must study the structure to understand how they will be rated on Klaus. These are comprehensive and thorough so that, if followed, a perfect score is attainable for every conversation.
????? Make it a team effort
Seniors in the team take turns to adopt the role of ‘question answerer’, which includes assigning newcomers slightly easier tickets for them to work through as they learn. This position also relieves some of the burden of training from Lilith, as manager.
? Share all learning
Everyone should be there to help each other. New agents are encouraged to ask questions openly so that answers are shared and searchable.
Tips for coaching customer support agents
?? Run regular feedback workshops
Lilith reinforces a growth mindset at Rentman. As Customer Experience Manager, she conducts workshops to cover how to effectively give and receive feedback.
? Use a rating program to quickly catch problem areas
Klaus reviews flag issues within the team. As soon as new agents gain a certain level of experience, they become a reviewer. Peer-to-peer reviews give Lilith a more objective look at performance. If several reviewers have come to the same conclusion and rated an agent negatively in any category, she knows there is a problem that she needs to address and coach.
? Instil accountability
Lilith doesn’t want to micromanage. It’s important that every agent acknowledges Klaus reviews in Slack and comments on their plan of action. ‘It’s about making this a habit,’ she says.
What can you learn from Rentman’s Support QA Strategy?
- ? Binary ratings ?
This makes it easy for reviewers, reviewees, and Lilith to quickly assess performance in Klaus and detect problem areas. Rentman has comprehensive guidelines to outline expectations.
- Custom categories to represent all support goals
Being an excellent agent at Rentman requires a certain personality. Agents are, therefore, rated on whether or not they were charming and proactive, as well as on categories that determine their technical accuracy.
- Peer to peer reviews
A flat structure is valued at Rentman. Peer reviews allow for shared learning and shared responsibility instead of relying on managers. Klaus’ Slack integration makes instant acknowledgment easy, and everyone is encouraged to comment.
- Constructive feedback & coaching
‘You are allowed to make mistakes: failure is ok if you learn from it. Feedback is something that helps us grow.’
- Weekly KPIs
Lilith tracks review targets on a regular basis to make sure the quality program is ticking over as intended, and to get an overview of agent performance and trends.
Unfortunately, Lilith told us that not everyone is happy with Klaus. Included in the Klaus swag bag is a (we think fashionable) bandana for your pet.
Her cat was unamused.
