Hi All,
I want to discuss a case study that may be helpful to others whoever trying to find a solution for this problem. Kindly see the case study below.
Objective: To increase the First Contact Resolution (FCR/FTR) of a Global Service Desk by 45%
Current State of FCR (At the start of this project): 10%
Desired State of FCR: 55%
Methodology Used: Six Sigma DMAIC method
Environment: Global Help Desk
This project was one of the exciting and challenging projects when one of the managers asked us to develop a plan within three months.
Then we started exploring standard methodologies like ITIL, PRINCE 2, Six Sigma, and PMP.
After careful consideration, we choose Six Sigma as it is a data-driven approach and will help us go to the root of the problem to know all the possible causes to develop the solution.
Before we get into the details of the project, let’s ee what is FCR is and why it is crucial.
Let’s do that quickly.
First Contact Resolution:
FCR is the percentage of initial interaction that does not require further interactions to address the customer’s issue. Ideally, FCR should be defined from the customer’s perspective.
FCR is a powerful metric because it serves as a KPI for customer experience, operational performance, and efficiency.
Benefits of FCR:
1. Happy customers
2. Increased efficiency
3. Happy staff
4. Improved staff performance
5. Profitability
Let’s discuss different stages of the Six Sigma methodology to improve the FCR below.
Define:
This is a crucial stage where we need to know the objective of our project and what we need to achieve it and define it correctly to help us focus on the purpose of doing the project.
In our case study, management is concerned about their global service desk, and it is performance. They invested a considerable amount of money in setting this with high-end equipment to decrease a load of L2 and L3 resources to focus on real issues. However, due to some constraints, they are not able to achieve. Hence we are doing this project to determine the cause.
Let’s go to the next step in our methodology.
Measure:
This is the crucial stage where we collect the data to find out the issue.
We can use sophisticated tools if we have them or use regular excel to capture that.
In our case study, we gathered six months of calls and tickets data from HP service Manager Tools which they were using.
In any project of Six Sigma, the collection of data is essential as it is not straightforward. In most cases, we need to focus on the project’s objective and calculate the data related to all possible causes.
Analyze:
This is the phase where we need to focus on the objective and causes of the issue by analyzing the data we collected in the previous stage. For root cause analysis, we can use the Fishbone diagram, five whys, or Fault tree analysis.
In our case, we did a five why analysis to found the root cause. Our research found that most cases were escalated to L2 and other teams for resolution, which increased the end-user frustration, and FCR was falling out.
Then we came up with a set of questions based on five whys and asked the engineers to find the issue’s cause.
Here are the questions:
- Why did the case escalate to L2?
Ans: We don’t know how to solve it
2. Why don’t you know?
Ans: Nobody trained us in that environment and no knowledge base
3. Why no training?
Ans: We don’t know
4. Why no knowledge base?
Ans: No Tool and no guidance
5. Why no guidance?
Ans: Need to check with management
After this exercise, we came to know that the significant contributor for less FCR is lack of knowledge and lack of training, and at the same time, we captured different areas where agents need training.
Improve:
This is the stage we need to implement our solution.
After the analysis, we arranged training where ever agents needed training. We created a knowledge base by collaborating with L2 and L3 engineers to empower the L1 engineers to solve the issues by following the knowledge base rather than escalating the case to them. We advised L2 and L3 folks to create a knowledge document whenever there is a new issue and pass it to L1 to increase FCR.
Control:
After suggesting the solution, we monitored the whole process for three months to identify the knowledge gaps across L1, L2, and L3. After three months, all are more productive than before with the increased FCR.
Happy weekend !! Thank you again, and please post your feedback on this article.
I will take feedback constructively, and I will accept appreciation graciously.