Root Cause Analysis

 

Do you have customers that seem to contact your Support Center again and again on the same or similar issues?  Does your Support Center personnel consistently fix the symptom of the problem but not the actual problem?  Are they empowered to work on the root of the problem, or do you have a time limit on how long they can work on a problem?  If any of the answers to these questions is yes, then maybe it’s time to move from being a reactive Support Center to a proactive Support Center by empowering your staff to work on the root or the problem.

How should you proceed?  First of all, it helps to understand what the definition of root cause analysis is? It is looking for the root of the problem and then solving the problem instead of repeatedly fixing the symptom.  When people fix the symptom, it is very likely that it will recur, because the underlying problem has not been resolved.

An example of this might be your customers calling in when their remote logon fails, which requires you to reset their password.  It’s easy to just reset the password (which fixes the symptom), but if it appears as though everyone that has remote logon problems does this, you might want to find out why.  You’ll discover, perhaps, that the root of the problem is that there may be no message(s) sent to your customers when their log on fails, (like their password has expired) so when they cannot access their desired system, they pick up a phone and call the Support Center.  To get to the root, and correct it, all your Tech Support group would have to do is add code that sends a message to the customer describing why the log on has failed and remind them to change their password.   Of course, for them to do this, someone has to identify the opportunity to correct it. 

The reason we practice root cause analysis is to provide quality customer support.  In the above example, the customer’s perception of the Support Center’s service would be dramatically improved, because the problem would have been solved permanently at the first occurrence.

Here’s some tips on practicing root cause analysis:

• Hopefully your Service Management System allows you to track information about each service event, so analyzing a customer’s, or location’s, problem history is a good start towards practicing root cause analysis.  Some of these systems now have the ability to be sensitized to similar trends or patterns building and can notify the Support Center when they are detected.
• Train your Support Center staff to peruse the customer’s history records to see if there are similar events in the past.  Are there repeated reports of the same symptom?  Is it something that can be fixed, whether by dispatching a desk side technician, sending the customer additional information, providing quick reference material or providing better training?
• Your Support Center should not only be trained on how to look for the root of a problem, but you should also provide guidelines and boundaries to them on how far they should take these before turning it over to Level 2 or Level 3 for correction.
• Develop a program to reward the appropriate behavior with your staff.  Remember the more root(s) of problems that are corrected, the better level of service you are providing.
• Finally, if you have a Service Level Management program, have the Service Level Manager look for trends and share them with their service partners during their periodic meetings.  Some easy ways to do this might be to run a series of reports, focusing on top ten service event categories, top ten customers contacting the Support Center, or top ten resolution codes.  You’d be surprised what you will find.

Root cause analysis is not the sole responsibility of the Support Center; it is an initiative that should be shared throughout the entire IT Enterprise.  This will ensure that quality products and services are being developed for your customers.

 Editor’s note:  An excerpt from a presentation at HDI’s annual conference on Service Level Management.   Learn more on great topics, in-depth sessions and what can make you a better leader at the 2011 HDI Annual Conference and Expo.  Check all the information at www.thinkhdi.com