Using Data to Improve Incident Resolution and Eliminate Waste
Health Catalyst AP Program
Steve Burton, Clayton Berrett, Porter Foulger, John Parsons
Customer success and transparency are core Health Catalyst operating principles. When we learned customers were dissatisfied with our incident resolution process and communication, we took action. The support team engaged internal and external stakeholders to identify root causes and potential interventions. We identified two root causes: no standard process between the support and engineering teams and an insufficient customer support portal.
Results
- Reduced average time to close a ticket from 11 days to 4 over a 6-week timeframe.
- Reduced average number of escalated and returned tickets from 50% to 3% over a 6-week timeframe.
- Reduced costs by an estimated $5,600 per escalated case.
- Will reduce licensing costs by $200k over the next 3 years.
Lessons Learned
- Include internal teams and clients as stakeholders
We knew our customer support process had issues based on complaints we received from customers, so we asked resolution process users—both internal and external—to help us improve. Everyone’s feedback was critical; without it, we wouldn’t have understood the depths of problems customers faced. For example, criticisms about the customer support portal helped us realize we needed a new portal. Customer comments revealed two other problems: an inefficient ticket escalation and resolution process and inadequate communication between the support and engineering teams.
- Visualize the process through flowcharts
Before we started this improvement project, the support and engineering teams had different opinions about how the escalation process worked. The two teams met to diagram the process in a flowchart. The visualization of the process enabled both teams to see how it really worked and where it needed improvements.
- Survey stakeholders on a regular basis
We regularly survey users of the customer support process, asking them to rate their experiences. Customer feedback helps us gain valuable insight into improvement opportunities. As a result of the responses we received while working to improve the incident resolution process, we discovered a number of simple changes our customers wanted. For example, one customer requested a return phone call instead of email. To fix this problem, we chose a new ticketing system that asks the user how they’d like to be contacted. Other customers wanted more resolution details as opposed to a simple notice their tickets were closed. Our new ticketing system now requires a more detailed description of what happened.