Proposal to Replace Support Crew and FRTHawk

Introduction

Introductory Video

  • This issue presents a proposal
  • We need input and alignment from the global team to ensure this proposal is sound before we decide to move forward with implementation
  • Please contribute by the end of your day on 2021-09-29
  • The DRIs are Tom Atkins (EMEA), Viji Rao (APAC) and Mike Dunninger (AMER)

Context

  1. We've heard from a majority of the team that changes made over the last few months have reduced collaboration opportunities and that stress levels have increased.
  2. At the same time, one of our key KPIs, FRT achievement, has declined significantly.

Over the coming weeks we'll be working transparently to help us overcome these challenges by moving forward proposals on existing issues while ensuring changes are compatible with a cohesive system.

Above all, we've heard that the Response Crew system in AMER and EMEA is causing stress and isn't helping our team effectively meet our FRT goals.

  1. The crew was designed to help cope with NRT breaches: That is no longer the case.
  2. It's now being asked to cope with FRT achievement and assignment on first reply: That was not the design goal of the crew and it's not a good fit for that purpose.

Given the universal feedback that the crew isn't working well, we propose that, as a first step, the crew system should end and be replaced by the system described below.

Note: This is a first step towards longer term, holistic solutions to enable global collaboration, reduce stress and meet our KPI goals. It's not the final iteration, and we have DRIs representing each region, which will help in making globally aligned changes.

Proposal

'Meeting our Service Level Objectives' Changes

  1. End the Support Crew and FRT Hawk systems
  2. Each SE uses some time every day to take ownership of some new tickets in two views:
    1. A global Needs Org / FRT view (all regions see the same view)
    2. A regional Handover Needed view (see 'Zendesk Changes' below)
  3. Choose a ticket at the top, or near the top, of the Needs Org / FRT view and:
    1. Assign it to yourself and reply to the customer.
    2. Then, if the preferred region is neither your region nor 'all regions', use the Handover to Preferred Region macro (see Zendesk Changes).
  4. Choose a ticket from the Handover Needed view that has a preferred region equal to your region.
    1. Assign to yourself and then reply.

Note that the workflow calls for assigning a ticket first, then replying. This is to take the ticket out of the queue and help avoid confusion with the 👁 presence indicator. You can always un-assign (here’s how!) if you're unable to make the first reply after some investigation. If you do this, do aim to leave an internal note with anything you found.

What does success look like?

  1. Work-related stress levels go down for most, if not all, SEs
  2. FRT achievement improves - no breaches in the Needs Org / FRT view!
  3. The Needs Org / FRT view ticket count stays in the single digits.
  4. The Handover Needed view ticket count stays near 0.
  5. Each SE, each day, takes ownership of tickets according to primary focus:
    1. SM -> 1 each day and 2 on one day (6 per week)
    2. SaaS -> 2 (10 per week) (includes SaaS and SaaS account tickets)
    3. L&R -> 3 (15 per week)

These numbers come from our actual data over the past few months, and represent what it will take to provide first responses on all tickets. These are averages, each person might take a little more or less on any given day based on the queue, their abilities, and what the team needs.

Everyone should help with the above goals. If you see the numbers rising, please take a ticket. The manager on call in each region will keep an eye on these views and alert the team if extra focus is needed. Keeping the numbers low means we'll be replying to tickets soon after they arrive. This is good for SSAT. Your first reply doesn't have to be the solution!

Zendesk Changes

  1. Modify the Your Region / Needs Org / FRT view to be a global Needs Org / FRT view - same view for the whole team.
  2. Replace 'Needs Assignee' view with ‘Handover Needed’ view, tailored for each region, that shows un-assigned tickets that are not in 'Pending'.
  3. Add a new macro, Handover to Preferred Region, that un-assigns the ticket and populates the internal note field with a brief template to be used to summarize the ticket.
    1. Consider reusing (and renaming) the OOO Handover macro (see suggestion in comments from Katrin).

A more holistic system

This system is intended to distribute the load of first responses to everybody throughout the week, and to open up the environment to make global collaboration easier while still supporting ticket assignment. The system encourages sending a first response to the next ticket, regardless of preferred region. All regions can help each other. The goals of keeping the number of tickets in the views low are simple and we hope everyone will be motivated to work together to achieve them.

The system is a first step to removing the stress of crew and enabling global collaboration.

We believe that the eventual long term solution to improving collaboration, reducing stress and achieving our KPI goals is a more holistic approach involving smaller groups. The ongoing work with Support Pods has helped us see how this can be effective. Discussion will be needed to work out how best to do that. We'll share more soon to see if that is something everyone feels is the right direction.

Related Crew Issues (click below to expand)

Related Issues

Action Plan

Please see our Action Plan for Replacing Support Crew issue

Edited by Viji Rao