Often overlooked in technological industries, customer service representatives act as the front line in dealing with customer experience issues, offering a human touch to an environment overrun by technology.

With the pandemic beginning to subside, it’s more important than ever for customer service reps to be prepared for an increase in customer engagement across a spectrum of industries.

“It’s created a whole new set of needs around collaboration and communication,” said Jonathan Rende (pictured), senior vice president and general manager of product at PagerDuty Inc. “We’ve seen that customer service teams are a critical component working with development and being part of a three-legged stool that has to work together well for great customer experience in the digital age.”

Rende spoke with Natalie Elrich, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during PagerDuty Summit. They discussed the importance of good customer service, the role of DevOps in customer service collaborations, key products at PagerDuty and more. (* Disclosure below.)

Communication is key

Customer service teams have to be reactive and communicative to be successful.

“Gone are the days where they can pass that customer case off to just another individual and then another and another; that’s incredibly frustrating from a customer business experience,” Rende said.

Eliminating hand-offs and allowing the representative to reach out directly to the needed department increases efficiency for both the company and the customers. Rende reiterated the importance of DevOps and customer service teams collaborating.

“What we’ve worked towards is making sure that customer service is not just the stakeholder, but an active participant because issues can be identified from customers on the front end or proactively by issues that are identified in the back office.”

PagerDuty plans to create a customer service app for Zendesk Inc.’s and eventually Salesforce.com Inc.’s customer relationship management system. This app, which will be available in professional and business versions, will seek to strengthen the connection between customers and customer service, according to Rende.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of PagerDuty Summit 2021. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for PagerDuty Summit. Neither PagerDuty Inc., the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE