5 Reasons Why Cases Are Aging out of Control

Continuing our 5 Reasons series, this month we turn to case aging, that is, cases taking weeks or months before resolution, especially when no progress is being made at all, or no visible progress.

Case aging is a perennial challenge in support organizations, leading to customer frustration, churn, large backlogs, wasted effort, and even team members’ burnout. There are many different reasons why cases can age, and the first step would be to explore which one(s) apply in your particular situation. Once you have a diagnosis, you can apply the correct remedies.

Let’s explore the top 5 reasons why cases age.

1. We say yes when we should say no

Many cases age because they should not be cases in the first place. Back in January, we talked about 5 reasons why support engineers are not setting boundaries and how to address them:

Define the scope of support clearly
Propose viable options when declining a request
Reinforce the value of boundaries with the support engineers
Train them to say no kindly and firmly
Refrain from overruling them

If your cases are aging because of scope issues, address boundary-setting and the backlog will take care of itself.

Lesson: Prevent out-of-scope cases to enter the backlog in the first place.

2. Individual backlogs are too high

I routinely ask support engineers how many cases they can manage at once, and the answers are very consistent, hovering between 10 and 20 cases. If your support engineers have dozens of cases, some of those cases will get ignored and age.

Compare individual backlogs: if you see a wide range of backlogs and at least a few people have reasonably-sized backlog, move to reason #3. But if everyone’s backlog is high, you are likely understaffed: create a justification for more headcount, or remove scope.

Lesson: if everyone’s backlog is high, get more staff.

3. Support engineers struggle to manage their time and their case queue

If some support engineers are doing well while others have large backlogs (assuming that cases are distributed fairly), then you have a skill issue. Some support engineers have a hard time managing their time and balancing the needs of multiple customers. Train them and coach them to prioritize their case list daily or twice-daily, to box their time so they don’t spend hours on a single case, and to ask for help promptly. You may also find weaknesses in technical and troubleshooting skills, which will be surfaced as they request help.

Lesson: coach support engineers to manage their queues

4. No one is watching for aging cases

This one is on the managers: if no one is watching for aging cases, they can sit there until they escalate, and in the meantime generate extra work and mental load. The cure is pretty simple.

Set targets for case aging. This will depend on the complexity of your cases but you can set a target of perhaps a week or two for a case to become “aged”. This is as much of a psychological reminder to the entire team as it is a tool for tracking. If your situation is dire, start with a longish aging delay and ratchet down over time.
Report on aging cases, using the targets you set.
Review aged cases regularly at the senior management level. This requires each manager to review and explain why certain cases are taking longer. It’s fine for a case to age, as long as it’s making regular progress.

Lesson: regularly identify, report, and take action on aging cases

5. Engineering cases sit for a long time

If the bulk of your aging cases are waiting for another team, often Engineering to fix a bug, there’s little individual support engineers can do to move them forward to resolution. You need to take action at the organization level.

Ensure that Engineering requests are accurate and absolutely required. Poorly-structured requests will often be used as the reason why there are delays–and why wait for another organization if you don’t have to?
Institute a prioritization scheme for Engineering requests
Create SLAs with the Engineering team and track SLA achievement
Train support engineers to set reasonable expectations with customers
Close cases that have reasonable workarounds. Why clog up the backlog with cases that are not progressing? Alternatively, you can move such cases to a special status or queue.

Lesson: whittle down and structure the Engineering backlog to a minimum

What are you doing to manage aging cases? (And if you need help with that, just ask.)