Please read on for a few important updates and reminders.
Interview
If you aren’t familiar, Interview is the process where we collect important information before taking a computer to the CN build bench. Interview has recently been moved from a stand-alone application to a link within Build Tracker. We are working on getting the link in Coho updated.
When setting the “Reason at Bench” please choose the primary reason this computer is being worked on. This information will be used to help understand what drives our workload.
There have been some issues with interviews for Extension. For now, Ken Howard will be taking the lead on those. Please set Ken as “responsible” on Extension interview tickets.
Scheduling Appointments
When scheduling a placement for a computer at the time of pick-up, please remember to allow 5 business days from the day/time of pick-up to placement. If the computer needs to be done sooner than that, mark it as a “rush” and inform the Bench team.
Also, please remember to send an appointment confirmation from the ticket to the customer using the canned response.
Finally, when scheduling field appointments for locations far outside the core of campus, remember to allow 30 minutes of travel time both before and after the appointment.
Student Time Reporting
Thanks to the efforts of Andrew Wheeler, Chris Sinnett, David Barber, and our colleagues in UABC, all Client Services student workers will now clock their time against a single job in EmpCenter. This should make life a lot easier for all of us and for UABC.
Changes coming this Summer
The ITIL-inspired Service Desk implementation is still under way. The call center merger is complete, and the next steps are to redefine processes for Build Bench, Campus Labs and the Walk-Up.
It is not official yet, but we are working on a plan to move the walk-up to Milne Computer Center by the end of summer (thank you, Andrew!). This will improve collaboration between teams, allow us to more easily provide walk-up services to CN customers, and will provide a reception area for the building. More details on this will be shared as the plan firms up.
As part of the change to support for the labs, we are evaluating adding support via chat. Users in the labs would be encouraged to request help via chat, but we will also provide a phone in the lab that rings the call center, and technicians can be dispatched to help in person as needed. We may also consider putting a chat tool or link to a chat web interface on CN customers’ computers.
Communicating with CN Customers
We have been making a lot of changes lately, and more are planned. We need a standard method to communicate these changes to customers. I will be sending a survey out to CN customers shortly to ask how the call center merger went, and where they would like to see us continue to make improvements. I will also be asking how they prefer to receive notifications from us.
If you have items that you would like to see included in a newsletter to customers, please let me know.
OSU and Information Services Strategic Goals
One of OSU’s stated goals is to improve “student success”; in particular, the university is looking to improve student retention and on-time graduation rates. What role can IT play in improving student success? A huge factor for students deciding to stay with the university is feeling a sense of belonging, of being listened to and cared for. When customers call us with problems – can’t login to Canvas to submit a paper, trying to figure out why their professor isn’t receiving their emails, computer infested with viruses so bad they can barely use it – we have an opportunity to show them that we care and are here to help.
At the same time, you – as student workers – have an opportunity to develop your active listening skills and critical thinking skills – skills that will serve you well in any job and really at any time in life. Learn to empathize. Show you understand what the customer is trying to accomplish, and that you care about them as a person. A 2 minute conversation with someone who is having a bad day could be the difference between whether or not they finish their college education at OSU.
Something Fun
Due to popular demand, I am thinking of starting up a regular game night for Client Services employees. One possibility would be a bi-monthly table top game night or LAN game night. If you have suggestions or would be interested in helping to coordinate something like this, let me know!
Service Desk Stats
Weekly Stats for 7/4/2016-7/8/2016:
- Calls: 581
- Abandon rate: 7%, 42 seconds
- Appointments: 60
- Computers built: 29
- Tickets created: 600
- Cascades jobs: 76
- Surveys: 32
- Average survey score: 4.3 out of 5
Know Thy Customer
Our customers are interesting people doing interesting things. For example, the Master Gardener Program is pretty cool, and you can learn about it here:
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/mg/
