Agile by improvisation
Today I went to my car’s insurance company looking for a refund check (some issue with the car during holidays).
After a usual 10 minutes wait, I got to a desk and presented my case with the proper documents to Mr. Payments (don’t know the real name so this will be his name from now). He looked friendly, answered all my questions and handed in the refund check. Everything was running smooth until I verified the amount on the check. They were paying me, by accident, only 20% of the expected refund. I was not happy at all with this so he pointed to the next desk where I could settle my complaint.
At the complaint’s desk I found a 5 person queue, attended only by one single employee. As you probably know, complaints take average over 15 minutes so I forecasted a minimum hour-wait for a company’s mistake. 20 minutes afterwards I decided it was enough waiting and went back to Mr. Payments desk to fill a customer dissatisfaction form against the companies bad policies for making me wait when it was their error.
Arriving at Mr. Payment’s desk, I asked for a pen and a paper and, after providing me both, he suggested that he could take care of passing over my complaint and wrote down my contact number to let me know when the new check is ready.
Instead of filling a customer dissatisfaction form I was glad to having my car insured with them.
In this situation, it was not Mr. Payment’s direct responsibility to receive my complaint but he understood that the customer satisfaction is vital for his company, and by being agile (adapting to change and collaborating with the customer) he strengthened the relationship with a customer instead of losing him. He probably does not know what agile means but he practices it for sure.