"Standard" Activity Prioritisation
"Always the right activity at the right time + a zest for more"
No matter what walk of customer services, from IT to line-of-business product support, customer needs and expectations must be met every time.
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As featured in ServiceTalk (itSMF) and SupportWorld (HDI), "standard" activity prioritisation enables teams to achieve this crucial outcome. All required activity is picked-off in the most appropriate sequence, determined by progression thresholds that are dynamically updated according to status-based rules.
The question of “what next?” becomes a thing of the past and no ticket can be left forgotten. Detailed, actionable performance knowledge is formed, "on-hold" mapping ensures SLA accuracy, and precise time-frame expectations can be communicated on a service portal to further reduce the likelihood of chased tickets.
Progression expected by 11:03 AM, 01.11.2019
Your teams probably already use some meaningful statuses, so to adopt them all is just a small adjustment.
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But ticket queues will sometimes fall behind...
Not everyone can be focused on their queue all of the time, particularly when taking leave. Progression thresholds will breach.
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Perfect Prioritisation
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Perfect Prioritisation is an advanced form of AP that brings collective teamwork.
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From a Progression Dashboard, progression breaches and other high priority progression points are team "swarmed", with five types of cross-queue-cover included in Contribution Recognition to encourage it - to show how often individuals have gone "above and beyond".
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Ultimately, because Contribution Recognition engages strong levels of activity regardless of ticket ownership (read our article or White Paper), ownership silos can be entirely removed for some teams.
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In this way of working, support team members are each given responsibility for a sub-set of status queues so that timeliness is owned, not tickets; and collectively, not individually. Everyone is enabled to achieve their purpose - to reliably meet needs and expectations.
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You can read more about the practice, including how to maximise digital channel uptake, in our community-based mini-course, Perfect Prioritisation in 10-minutes, or by reading the feature article written for ServiceTalk magazine (itSMF): "An end to chased tickets - is there a silver bullet?" (issue #08).
Next.. Check whether your tool is compatible. If it isn't, please join the petition for your tool vendor to include it as a standard feature, and book a meeting with David to discuss the big difference that will be made by introducing Standard Practice Progression Point Prioritisation instead.
If introducing AP yourself, help shape your transition by referencing what we do for our clients.
Ready to go? Or if already using AP - join our free community of practice for many benefits including free TOFT Verification and free licensing for internal support organisations*.
Or, we can help. Benefit from a best fit AP practice that includes all standard TOFT statuses plus a choice of others to fit how you work (our Body of Knowledge includes over 30), AP integral automation plus other features and TOFT integrations | We specialise in bespoke standard operating procedure design covering much more than only TOFT practices | For recruitment or competitive advantage, become TOFT verified | Or, understand the imperative in context of where you are with a detailed performance audit.
SOP: Even Standard AP, as straight-forward as it is, must have its detail explained and be formally transitioned as the way you work now and into the future.
We specialise in standard operating procedure design and production, prepared separately for your service desk and for wider IT support operations, for the benefit of existing and new team members alike. Transition is usually through a bespoke micro-learning course.
All good practice procedures and policy principles should be included in your SOP - not just those for TOFT - because SOP is your team guide to standardise service quality, and is the frame that managers need to manage well.
Key TOFT practices and your SOP are supported by our Support Service High Performance Principles course for teams to learn.
* Please contact us for information on any restrictions.
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