CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
Turning Sticky Notes Into Teamwork And Quality Assurance
Ashley Weese
Iowa State University
OVERVIEW OF IT SERVICES
IT Services
Customer
Services
Systems and
Operations
Solution
Center
Employee
Technical
Services
Student
Technical
Services
Academic
Technology
Administrative
Services
Network and
Communications
WHO WE SUPPORT
Employee
Technical
Services
Account
Management
Research
Groups
Students/
Emeritus
Core
(limited)
CorePlus
(Annual
Fee)
Administrative
Colleges
Departments
WHO WE WERE AT THE TIME
• Employees did not have the same skill levels
• Low moral
• Employees who didn’t want to assist others
• Overthinking
• Lots of uncertainty due to budget
• Employees were put off from the leadership change
• Employees were relocated to be within earshot of each other
• Single Point Of Contact (SPOC)
GOALS
• What do we do?
• What expectations do we have for each other/ourselves?
• Reduce the amount of time the customer waits for service
• Create a team atmosphere
• Improve quality
• Gain trust throughout our team and the IT Services department
• Improve moral
• Start TCO – Total Contact Ownership
IDEAS…
WHERE IN THE WORLD DID WE COME UP WITH THIS?
• Recent restructuring of positions
• Former manager didn’t have the energy to deal with the “us vs. them”
mentality
• It was a perfect time to implement some changes that would improve
our services and our teamwork.
PROCESS
• Created multiple 30 minute sessions
with ½ of the team in each session
• Two-person teams that rotated after
each scenario
• Gave everyone an opportunity to
work together.
• Each team was equipped with
sticky notes and a marker and then
teams were provided with scenarios
based on
• Expectations of each job duty
• Previous calls that year
• Teams were given two minutes to
work together
• Asked to write down five
• Expectations
• Different troubleshooting questions
they would ask the customer.
• After time was up, each team
submitted the sticky notes to share
and discuss amongst the group.
• Other sticky notes were added we
the group discussed ideas.
IMPLEMENTATION
• Created improvement sessions
•
•
•
•
•
What do we do?
What are the expectations?
Common Calls – What questions to ask
How to find answers
What tools should we be using
• Rotating groups
• Manager proctored, but didn’t contribute
• Scenario based
TRY IT OUT
• Scenario 1:
• I am not able to get email messages on my iPhone. Can you help?
TRY IT OUT
• Scenario 1:
• I am not able to get email messages on my iPhone. Can you help?
• Questions:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Are you using a wireless connection or a data connection?
When was your last message received?
When was the last time you changed your password?
Are you able to open a web browser and go to Google?
Can you restart your device?
Can we review your server settings?
TRY IT OUT
• Scenario 2:
• Help! I can’t log into my computer!
TRY IT OUT
• Scenario 2:
• Help! I can’t log into my computer!
• Questions:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Are you on or off campus?
Are others in your area having the same troubles?
When was the last time you were able to login?
Can you restart your machine?
What does your screen look like?
Are you getting an error message?
RESULTS:
WHAT TO DOCUMENT IN THE TICKET
Sticky Note
Number of Duplicates
Sticky Note
If the need a swap machine
When the problem started
Urgency/do they have a way to work for now
Problem details
Description of the problem
4
Users experience of problem/incident
Number of Duplicates
2
Call back times
6
Who to contact/who has the problem
6
Service tag
6
Symptoms
IP
2
What user has tried
3
Type of equipment
Location
Phone number
4
Software/version info
5
Error messages
4
System they are trying to use
2
If easy to close the solution
Recent changes
3
Links to pages affected by problem
Who they've worked with before
Is the incident isolated to this individual
2
Screenshots (maybe can be in email log)
What Operating System
How long the problem has been happening
Previous Ticket Number
What they are trying to do
RESULTS:
EXPECTATIONS OF THE GROUP
Sticky Note
Number of Duplicates
Team spirit
2
Knowledge of subject matter
5
Considerate/Respectful
8
Do their jobs/be reliable
7
Help each other
4
Work together as a team
3
Different viewpoints encouraged
To inform/communicate
6
Professionalism
3
Close quality tickets
2
Be available/approachable
Put clients first
Do what scheduled
9
Lunch coverage/meeting coverage
3
RESULTS:
EXPECTATIONS
Definitions:
In the queue: logged into the queue, auxed in the queue, not taking
non-queue calls, not making a non-queue call
Available time: time spent on a queue call or available for the next
queue call. When calculated for a phones day, only hours that the
phone lines are open (7:30am-4pm over breaks and summer) will be
used. The formula used will be “Total time logged in” – “Total time
auxed out” + “Time scheduled for meetings in Outlook” = “Total
available time”
•
Lunch Expectations (Phones, Installs/Email):
• Will select an available lunch hour and put the time up on
the lunch board by 10:30am.
• If selecting the 10:50-noon lunch, will be in the queue
between 12pm-1:10pm
• If selecting the noon-1:10pm lunch, will be in the queue
between 10:50am-12pm.
• If selecting the 1-2:10pm or Other lunch, will be in the queue
between 10:50am-1:10pm.
•
Paid time off expectations (Phones, Installs/Email):
• If you need to take the day off after the initial schedule is
distributed, find someone who is not otherwise scheduled to
fill in for you before that day. Inform the team of these
schedule changes by emailing [email protected].
• If you are sick, email scnotice or call 4-4000 and to inform
the team. If someone else is available, they will fill in for you.
You will take over one of their days in the future.
•
If you need to leave early, email scnotice to inform the
team. If you do not find a substitute you will still have the 6
hours of available time.
RESULTS:
EXPECTATIONS
• What we do on each scheduled phone day:
• Will abide by the lunch expectations and
paid time off expectations outlined above.
• Will be in the queue between 8am-9am for
the early morning rush.
• Will have at least 6 hours “available time”.
• What we do on each scheduled email day:
• Will abide by the lunch and paid time off
expectations outlined above.
• Will handle all email tickets assigned by the
end of the day.
• What we do on a backup manager day:
• Create CEL and premessage in “outage”
situations
• Check for tickets in Employee Technical
Services that are not assigned to a person
• Remind people of tickets that have not been
updated in over 1 business day.
• Be the go to person when there is a problem
that cannot be solved
• Could be a technical issue
• Could be an external/staffing issue
• Run the 8:15am phone team meeting
RESULTS:
EXPECTATIONS
• What we do on each non-scheduled day:
• Pick up coverage for anyone out sick. Email scnotice if you are trading the day with someone.
• If you are not picking up sick coverage, you do not need to log in, you do not need to log in from 8am-9am, you
do not need to log in for lunch coverage, you do not need to sign up for a lunch time.
• Work on any tickets that are assigned to you, keeping customers working is always the top priority.
• System administration work.
• Training
• Creating specific trainings assigned to you
• Training others on a specialty you have
• Watching training videos
POST STICKY NOTES
• All the sticky notes were typed up
• Sent documented notes to the group
• Some information was documented in our Knowledgebase
• Idea of what training was needed for tools
• Created a Quality Assurance form
• Started one on one sessions with management
• Implement the exercise into weekly staff meetings
QUALITY ASSURANCE FORM
• Greeting
• Troubleshooting Steps Used
• First Call Resolution
• Call Handling
• Documentation
• Asset Information
• Customer Service Skills
• Appropriate Tools Used
• ITS Representation
THE RESULTS ARE IN
• People finally were working
together
• It took awhile, but over the
following months you could
see the bonding that was
taking place
• Willingness to help increased
• Positive customer feedback
• Employees were building
relationships
QUESTIONS?
Ashley Weese
[email protected]
aweese.public.iastate.edu/SIGUCCS12.html