Cross-functional SLA time improved about 50%. Customer ratings moved from 3.9 to 4.8 stars at a 200+ staff university.

The starting point

Siloed departments did not know how processes worked across functions. Things were getting dropped despite everyone’s best intentions. The culture was solid. The processes and the systems behind the goals were not. Customer-facing handoffs had no shared SLA or service standards departments could run the same way.

What we did

1. 01

   Employee and operational surveys

   We asked the teams what was broken before we redrew anything. Those staff surveys are separate from the customer star ratings.

2. 02

   Teams talking to each other

   Departments that had been working side by side started describing the handoffs they had been guessing at, and who owned the cross-functional SLA.

3. 03

   Processes mapped visually

   The cross-functional work was drawn so a dropped step was visible, instead of living in one person’s head.

4. 04

   Customer service standards by department

   Each department got customer service standards that were clear, simple, and uniform across a 200+ staff organization.

5. 05

   Staff roles, training, and recognition

   A staff roles directory said who does what and how each department connects to the mission. Tiered training and recognition kept staff retention deliberate, not accidental.

What they have now

• Cross-functional SLA

  Cross-functional SLA time improved about 50% after silos came down and processes were owned.

• Customer ratings

  Customer ratings moved from 3.9 to 4.8 stars and stayed strong on an ongoing basis.

• Staff retention

  Staff retention ranked among the strongest departments in the organization.