Scrum For Dummies, 3rd Edition

Chapter 16

Customer Service

IN THIS CHAPTER

Encouraging and embracing customer feedback for improvement

Saving and gaining revenue

Improving the service process

Get closer than ever to your customers. So close that you tell them what they need well before they realize it themselves.

— STEVE JOBS

Customer service is one of the most critical aspects of any organization. Agile values and principles almost all point directly to the customer, the benefit of the customer, the customer’s competitive advantage, and so on. Positive experiences give us a reason to go back to a product or refer it to friends and family. Yet, customer service is the very area many customers and clients say is the most problematic part of the experience. They like the product, but its perceived value decreases with poor service.

Scrum teams always focus on the customer — before delivering value, while delivering value, and afterward. After release to the customer, their feedback and experience is the most important data a product owner can learn from. Product owners work directly with — and understand intimately — the customer's needs.

Product discovery is the continuous learning scrum teams go through to ensure ...