TOT Rocks: Q1 Operations – Durable Improvement Graduation Ceremony
TOT Rocks: Q1 Operations – Durable Improvement Graduation Ceremony
Date: September 18, 2025
Rock: Q1 Ops Rock – Reducing Escalations
Rock Lead: Milner
Durable Improvement: Establishing a structured weekly monitoring process to identify, track, and resolve recurring escalation issues — transforming them into KB articles for long-term prevention and efficiency.
🧩 A. Summary of the Process
- Weekly Monitoring of Escalations and Trends
To address recurring support challenges, the Ops team implemented a weekly review and tracking process.
Process: Every Wednesday, the team reviews the previous week’s escalation data, identifies repeat issues, and logs them into the Weekly Escalations Tracker.
Outcome: Common issues are tracked for patterns, documented for visibility, and converted into KB articles to prevent reoccurrence.📎 Resources:
💡 B. The Value of the Improvement
Effort and Cost
The process requires only 15–30 minutes weekly, making it a low-effort yet high-impact initiative.
Why This Is an Improvement
Before implementation, repeat escalation issues were frequent, leading to unnecessary workload and slower resolution times.
Now, proactive weekly tracking has significantly reduced the escalation rate and improved team responsiveness.
Key Results:
- Reduced escalation rate from 2.68% → 1.43%
- Identified an average of 1–2 repeat issues per week
- Improved team efficiency and knowledge sharing
🚀 Highlights
- Escalation analysis now drives KB creation, improving internal training and customer response times.
- Team visibility has increased — everyone can now spot trends early.
- The process has become part of the Ops team’s regular rhythm.
🔄 C. Making It Stick
This improvement is now embedded as a weekly ritual within the Ops team’s process:
- Conducted every Wednesday as part of standard weekly tasks.
- Escalation data is logged into the Weekly Escalations Tracker Sheet.
- Results and updates are reported to Elmark and shared in the Slack Ops Channel for visibility and accountability.
📘 Appendices
- Escalations Sheet
- Ops Weekly Escalations Tracker
- KB Article: Investigating Missing Excise Tax on Orders
🎯 DI Readiness Card
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| DI Name & Originating Rock | Weekly Escalation Score Card DI (Q1 Ops Rock – Reducing Escalations) |
| Bright Line (One Sentence) | When weekly escalation data becomes available, the process owner reviews and logs all escalations from the past week every Wednesday, noting trends and recurring issues. |
| Acceptance Test (Verification) | Weekly escalation tracker reviewed and summary posted to Slack Ops Channel. |
| Evidence Links (Last 2 Weeks) | Weekly Escalation Reports |
| Process Owner + Backup | Milner + Amanda |
| Ritual Hook (Meeting/Agenda/Timebox) | Weekly Escalation Review (Wednesdays, 9:30 AM) |
| Status | ✅ Ready for Graduation |
🏆 Closing Thoughts
This Q1 Operations Rock represents a major step toward proactive issue management and knowledge-driven support.
By turning recurring escalations into lasting solutions through KB documentation, the Ops team not only reduced workload but also improved overall service quality and team efficiency — ensuring smoother operations and happier clients.