I was at lunch with the Director of Service for a large, multi-million dollar a year medical device manufacturer. We were discussing the challenges he’s having with his Service and Support organization and he kept bringing up the frustration he had over his Time to Closure for customer support cases. He was really pretty focused on it.

So I asked him point blank “Is that something your customers are complaining about?” His answer was “No, but I don’t want it to be”. Fair enough.

The more we spoke I realized that he had painted himself in to a corner. Over time he had convinced his leadership that this was the single most important metric and that it was the representation of success.

But is that the metric that matters?

The shortest distance between point A and point B is a straight line. The shortest distance between a customer with a problem and a customer with a resolution is Google.

If the goal is to ensure that customers are getting the answers they need to be successful with the product or service, and the answers are being produced by the Service team, then why isn’t the best metric the one that measures information generated and made available to customers?

Service Teams are Factories – They produce, store, and distribute Information

I can’t count the number of times I would say this to my teams. Set aside whatever it is that the company produces to generate revenue. It can be toasters or telephones.

Service is a manufacturing arm of the company. They produce a product called “Knowledge” and distribute it through multiple channels. The product is information that enables a customer. Focus on that metric. What information did the Service team produce this week, how much of it was distributed, and to whom? How many customers “bought” it or were able to use it successfully? Use KB article generation to do it but get it built, get it out the door, and get it in the hands of customers.

Bad Fruit

Grocery stores take bad fruit off the shelves by putting it on sale when it’s nearing the end of its shelf life. Then they toss it. The information generated by Service is no different than produce. Take out the bad stuff with a relentless focus. What did you make? What was consumed? What was removed because it was no longer good for customers? Explaining to leadership that a recent software update obfuscated the need for 13 different KB articles and therefore they were removed or flagged as being outdated is an important and valid metric, don’t you think?

Are you suggesting Aging Reports are not important?

Obviously not. What I am suggesting is that the creation, distribution, and REMOVAL of information is what will get customers the information they need to be successful more readily and with greater accuracy. When a Support manager arrives in the morning aging reports should absolutely be something they examine. But so should the Knowledge Base. “What did we produce yesterday that can help a customer today?”.