Circle of Excellence Part 2: Brainstorming for Better Customer Service

As we discussed in Part 1, establishing a “Circle of Excellence” (CoE) is a way increasing numbers of companies are building a modern foundation for achieving operational excellence (OPEX). 

A Circle of Excellence is typically a group or initiative dedicated to fostering best practices, driving innovation, and promoting continuous improvement within a specific area—such as customer service, engineering, or leadership. Supporting these circles effectively often involves leveraging a range of software tools across multiple categories. One of the most impactful starting points is engaging in structured brainstorming sessions.

Brainstorming for Circle of Excellence Teams

Circle of Excellence teams need to rely heavily on effective brainstorming to identify problems, generate solutions, and refine processes within their department. Before focusing on a specific solution, it’s a good idea to identify the areas that need the most attention. Here are some suggestions:

• Align with strategic goals
  • What are the organization's top priorities?
  • How can the CoE support those?
• Identify pain points or gaps
  • What challenges are teams facing?
  • Where is there a lack of expertise or consistency?
• Survey stakeholders
  • Ask team members, leaders, and customers what they think the CoE should focus on.
• Evaluate impact vs. effort
  • Use an Impact-Effort Matrix to prioritize initiatives that offer high value with reasonable effort.
• Start with a pilot
  • Choose a small, high-impact area to demonstrate value quickly and build momentum.

Introducing the Minitab Solution Center: Brainstorm

Innovation & Idea Management with Brainstorming

Your team can explore common issues or problems with Minitab Brainstorm. The possibilities are endless, once you identify the issues you want to tackle. The Minitab AI function will help you along the way. For purposes of this blog, we are focusing on two common customer service issues organizations face. These brainstorming tools will draw out and ideate things the team might want to focus on:

• Idea Map

  
  Great for visually organizing ideas, connecting root causes to problems, identifying pain points. Below, we started with a central problem: High Volume of Unresolved Complaints”. Then, as team members generated ideas, they branched out from the center, creating sub-branches for related thoughts.

• Fishbone Diagram

To help your Center of Excellence (CoE) team thoroughly analyze a particular issue, consider using a fishbone diagram (also known as an Ishikawa or cause-and-effect diagram).  A fishbone diagram features a central "spine" pointing to the problem (the "fish head"). Major categories of causes branch off this spine, helping you pinpoint the root causes of issues and identify areas for improvement.: 

It is easy to use AI with Minitab Brainstorm:

Whether you are creating a mind map, idea map, fishbone diagram, or CTQ tree, click on any entry and you will see this:

Click on the three stars on the left to open up AI to get even more ideas.

Collaboration is Key

Starting your Circle of Excellence team off with brainstorming tools is an excellent approach, particularly given the focus on continuous improvement and problem-solving. Brainstorming is interactive; everyone should have a voice. Set a positive tone for the team and start with some of these collaboration practices to build the foundational ideas necessary for ongoing success in driving continuous improvement.

Learn how Minitab can help you with all of your improvement efforts: