Why Is An SFCC Agency’s Response Time So Important?

Timing is everything. Get it right and things continue to move along smoothly. Get it wrong and it clogs up processes, and throws obstacles in your pathway. The same holds true when you’re seeking a relationship with potential tech agencies that specialize in Salesforce Commerce Cloud (Demandware).

The sad and simple truth is that many of us — and all of us have been guilty of this at one time or another — are slow at responding to messages, emails and calls — sometimes painfully so.

There are many legitimate reasons and poor excuses for being slow at responding. But when it comes to courting a future dev team to carry out your Salesforce Commerce Cloud dreams, testing their speed of responsiveness is a great way to determine how efficient and effective they are.

And there is one simple reason for this: there is a correlation between the speed of a client’s responsiveness and their level of competence. That’s because those who are on the ball and capable of their duties tend to be the ones that respond quickly, or at least in a reasonable timeframe.

Think about how you personally would feel if you were communicating with a tech agency who you want to task with the serious business of development and strategy of your website. You’ve been back and forthing for a week, and suddenly your chain of emails breaks off; you’ve been waiting one week for a reply, and your assumption is that your business has drifted to the back of their mind. And while that may not always be true, the optics certainly appear so.

And there is a particular caveat to look out for when communicating with a possible agency. All companies will put forward their most representative and responsive people to talk with you, those who were innately born with seductive powers and full of charm. This shows the bright side of their business. The extra effort that you must undertake is to reach beneath this surface, to discover the pace of their internal culture.

In order to see how this would work in the wild, imagine that the tech consultancy has asked you to meet their team of software developers. Here is your chance to test their speed of responsiveness, in your conversations with the dev team. This will get you a much more complete picture of their company, rather than being restricted to their best salespeople.

Then there are other aspects of responsiveness that act as bonus points, acts of communication that go above and beyond. Examples of this include SF Commerce Cloud agencies that provide open access and respond to you during out-of-office hours, during the night, and even on weekends.

Here at United Virtualities, we set a general limit for the next business day for a response. And the longer time passes, the less impressed we become.

PS: UV is one of the world’s leading Salesforce Commerce Cloud (Demandware) agencies. Contact us to see how we can work together.