Is it better to be fast or good?

17 Jan 2014

In support, there are two gold standards for measuring an organization's quality: speed of responsiveness, and quality of response. Focusing heavily on one of these two areas will clearly result in a high level of amazement. The amazement is the currency of support. It's not the most important thing -- it's the only thing.

At the same time, it's impractical to focus on one at the expense of the other. If someone has to wait several days for a response, a modern poet won't be able to save the experience. On the other hand, an inept, but immediate response will infuriate people.

So, how do you reconcile the two. The most obvious answer is to build a system where great support people -- people who can wield language like a painter wields a brush -- are do their best work as quickly as they comfortably can.

Building an system like that is a holistic challenge. Few companies think about support beyond ticket counts and potential upselling, let alone providing a quality experience.

But, we got off track. Which is it? Is it better to be fast or good?

The secret is that it's not about the answer. If you're thinking about the question you're already winning.