Shift Handoffs

Many thanks to Antonio Orozco for suggesting this topic.

Cases handed over from one shift to another are trouble magnets: information is not passed on properly, customers don’t like working with multiple support engineers, and sometimes the cases just fall into a black hole. Here are 6 steps to make peace with handoffs.

Step 1: Schedule to avoid handoffs

If support engineers routinely grab new cases at the end of their shifts, cases will spill over to the next shift. And if you have customers whose work hours don’t match those of the support engineer who picks up their cases, you will get pressure from these customers to keep working cases past shift-changing times.

For both situations, stagger the shifts to avoid mass departures at a set time. Even small staggers help if that’s all you can achieve. (And of course you can always ask support engineers to stay late to complete case work, but that won’t always work, or work for extremely complex cases.)

Step 2: Qualify handoffs

Much can go wrong during a handoff so the first idea is to reserve them for situations that truly need them. For instance, a system-down situation impacting a customer’s business is an obvious candidate for a shift handoff, whereas an issue that might reoccur can safely wait in the owner’s queue. Establish your own criteria. For instance:

• If the customer is down and is available for collaborative troubleshooting, we will work continuously and do a warm handoff. Most teams find that only a couple of cases require warm handoffs each day, especially if step 1 was followed assiduously.
• If the case may require attention off-hours but is not a candidate for a warm hand-off, specific instructions are left in the last case note and, depending on criticality, a heads-up can be given to the next manager on duty.
• If the case lends itself to offline troubleshooting, it is placed on a task delegation or automated handoff list with no warm hand-off and no special designation. (This is a common way that support teams take advantage of offshore teams.)

Step 3: Structure the handoff process

For automated handoffs all you need is a queue to place the cases being handed off. It’s usually best to maintain a single incoming queue per shift to avoid confusion: all new cases and all handoff cases go on the queue and are worked in order of SLA urgency.

For monitoring-only cases, a heads-up to the next manager on duty may be appropriate — or nothing at all. If a problem occurs, the case will be retrieved and worked.

Warm handoffs may occur between support engineers, between support managers, or from the sending support engineer to the queue manager. Each method has pros and cons and the choice will depend, in part, on how cases are assigned. I recommend the support engineer to support engineer method since it is the most direct, and the most comforting to the customer. Start an internal chat to identify the next owner a few minutes prior to the end of the shift. You can choose to mandate a heads-up to the manager-on-duty, but deliver the briefing directly to the person who will actually work the case.

Step 4: Return to sender

Multiple handoffs increase the likelihood of “spaghetti cases”, cases that are touched by many hands but never moved to any kind of stable troubleshooting progress. A good practice is to assign a permanent owner for all cases, usually a support engineer in the same time zone as the customer. If a case occurs off-hours and is not resolved by the end of the shift, it goes to an owner in the customer’s home base. If a case is handed off by the daytime owner, it eventually returns to him or her if not resolved off hours.

Even with multiple handoffs, limiting the number of owners is a big help.

Step 5: Match bodies and cases

Often, handoffs are painful because the receiving team is overwhelmed or resentful of the extra work. Make sure that headcount and incentives align with receiving handoffs. If receivers get no credit for their work, surely they won’t work quite as hard on transferred cases.

Step 6: Use metrics to ensure quality

Do you know how many handoffs occurred last night? Last week? How many cases were handed off more than 3 times? If not, you need better metrics. It’s also useful to appoint a Follow-the-Sun manager to monitor handoff metrics and oversee (and improve) handoff processes.

Last idea: when a handoff goes wrong, it is useful to hold a post-mortem to identify what went wrong, and improve the process (or adherence to the process) for the future.

Do you have more ideas to improve end-of-shift handoffs? Add a comment!