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In: Operations Best Practices

I like process. I like order. I like predictability. However, I have learned that managing change is messy. Dave Wieneke reminded me of this again yesterday while I attended his presentation called “The 7 deadly sins of business innovation”. Among other great insights, Dave reminded the audience that “your business is not a project, so don’t manage it that way”. (Learn more about Dave on his website www.usefularts.us ) In most corporate America environments, we try to manage most things like a project. Initiatives have kick-offs, due dates, budgets and “SLT” sign off. We have detailed Excel docs with deliverables and owners. Before we approveRead More →

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In: Customer Experience

In most cases when I have to call a customer service or tech support department, I expect the worst…..long and confusing phone menus (cable TV), continual transfers to get you to the right person (banks), long wait times (the recording, “we are experiencing higher than average call volume”, is always on) and frustrating conversations with employees who may or may not have the appropriate training. But, I absolutely LOVE Go Daddy technical support. I store all of my domains with Go Daddy and use them for website and blog hosting. Because I use so many different services across numerous sites, I occasionally need help andRead More →

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In: Operations Reporting-Analytics, Resource & Demand Management

A technical support capacity plan, also called a resource model, is used to estimate the required human resources (FTEs) and related costs during a designated, future time period and is often a key input for the annual, budget planning process. In most cases, labor is the largest component of a tech support department’s expenses. Capacity planning is both an art and a science. Even with all of the data in the world there is no way to project the future with 100% certainty, so you must add in your leadership experience and judgment, i.e. the art, to create the best plan possible. We must expectRead More →