Years ago as I thought of what would be a good tool being a manager, I came up with the motto: “Full Circle Ownership“. It has served me well since using it. It encompasses what I firmly believe in how we should be providing customer service no matter what industry or department someone might be part of. For me, it was in technology and there is a tendency not to have a lot of follow-up or having a closed loop system (something ITIL addresses).
I found an example of this called the 4-F’s and I have used this in team meetings to help my computer techs with something they can relate to and reinforce Full Circle Ownership.
The 4-F’s:
Find (disruption)
Fix (immediate issue)
Finish (fix root cause)
Follow-up (to ensure things are still working and if we met expectations)
I had the team put this to memory so the process becomes second nature. Much like the seven layers of the OSI model and using mnemonic devices – such as Please Do Not Throw Sausage Pizzas Away – it helps them remember it much easier. (Mnemonic devices is a memory technique to help your brain better encode and recall important information)
I encourage the team to focus on the follow-up. This is one of the hardest to do but is also one of the most important.
Why is this important? It is not the fix or solution put in place that is most important – it is following up with user after the root cause has been resolved. This ensures the user feels that you care about their problem and share with them what was done to resolve their issue. That human connection and building that trust relationship with the user.
To add to this process model, our service management should be a closed loop system where it is always improving. We must be constantly looking at our processes for ways to improve.
Here is an example:
I had a computer tech, at the end of a long day, get a call to go out to a remote site to fix a computer and network issue. Not only did he go out and take care of the immediate issue, he found root cause, fixed it, and then went to ensure the computer and network were up and running as well as reported what was the issue and resolution to the end user. That is follow-up and Full Circle Ownership. The end user called me and said they were extremely grateful for the quick resolution as well as the tech showing them what was the root cause and the solution that was put into place.
Try my Full Circle Ownership and 4-F’s with your team and create a closed loop system for your service management. You will see some incredible results.
