Metrics showed that the staff had an average resolution rate of 1.2 business days for 95 percent of its calls. Responding to these repeat calls was as time-consuming as logging new calls. The situation occurred because service providers were responding to the calls but not entering the problem resolutions into Autodesk's call-tracking system. The severity-level field creates, in effect, a link between reporting a problem and knowing when it will be resolved. Now that the system is accessible through the intranet, technicians who resolve calls at user cubicles can enter the problem resolution along with notes before they leave the customer.
Customers also receive automatic confirmation when their calls enter the system.
At Autodesk, as at other corporations, severity levels 1 and 2 are for business-critical problems that usually can have serious financial impact. This simple concept makes sense to most employees, but many still insist that a problem that halts their own productivity should be given high priority. In these instances, Barthold believes that support personnel should educ ate the customer rather than debate the appropriate severity level. Our policy is not to change the severity levels that users have entered. The goal of this personal type of coaching is to persuade customers to enter appropriate severity levels the next time they log a problem.