As one of GoLeanSixSigma.com’s clients, Kern county discovered new ways to innovate and provide ultimate productivity in their help desk resolution problems. Our team worked diligently to ensure they digested our Lean Six Sigma training after providing their pain points in slow and outdated processes. They turned to GoLeanSixSigma.com and never went back.

There are a lot of Help Desks out there advising users to “help themselves.” As a customer on the receiving end of a “good luck with that” approach, it’s easy to feel frustrated. What happened to the “help” in “Help Desk?”

Green Belt Patty Reiswig of Child Support Services of Kern County wanted to do better than that. Patty worked within Technology Service, whose Help Desk—like many others—was lacking in the “helpful” category. It simply took too long to resolve problems.

Patty formed a team with Technology Services to launch a Lean Six Sigma project. They selected “Time to Resolve a Problem” as their focus since it was the most prevalent customer complaint. The team got together to clarify what they had agreed to tackle.

The first task was to agree on exactly what they meant by “time to resolve a problem. They established an Operational Definition of “the time from submission of a Help Desk Request to the moment the problem is resolved and the work order status has changed to ‘complete’.” With the time frame clarified, they began investigating the data.

As they dug into their existing data, they discovered that the historical average for problem resolution was over ten days. The team established a goal of reducing that time by 30%.

They also hoped that the project would result in a reduction in the amount of work time expended on each call. This would have the bonus impact of saving money by allowing for increased call volume without adding overtime or staff.

They collected baseline data from January to May showing considerable variation. The overall average problem resolution time was 10.6 days, although completion could take as long as 42.7 days—over a month. Work time averaged 255.3 hours, with a maximum of 1025.5 hours. Clearly room for improvement!

The first task was to agree on exactly what they meant by “time to resolve a problem. They established an Operational Definition of “the time from submission of a Help Desk Request to the moment the problem is resolved and the work order status has changed to ‘complete’.” With the time frame clarified, they began investigating the data.

As they dug into their existing data, they discovered that the historical average for problem resolution was over ten days. The team established a goal of reducing that time by 30%.

They also hoped that the project would result in a reduction in the amount of work time expended on each call. This would have the bonus impact of saving money by allowing for increased call volume without adding overtime or staff.

They collected baseline data from January to May showing considerable variation. The overall average problem resolution time was 10.6 days, although completion could take as long as 42.7 days—over a month. Work time averaged 255.3 hours, with a maximum of 1025.5 hours. Clearly room for improvement!

Implementation went well, and led directly into a sustainment plan, which included:

✅ Revision of the onboarding process to train new employees in the new process

✅ Regular reports to supervising staff, allowing them to confirm and ensure compliance

✅ Monthly reminders to all staff

✅ Expanding the system “Track-It” to include self-service

✅ Improved first-contact resolution

✅ Improved customer satisfaction

✅ Improved Help Desk morale

✅ Improved productivity frees Help Desk technicians to resolve other critical business needs