does it matter what we are called? building an accessible student hub al rodgers, student hub...
TRANSCRIPT
Does it matter what we are called?
Building an accessible student hubAl Rodgers, Student Hub Manager, Student Services,
University of Birmingham
• Aston Webb C Block is being re-developed to accommodate a range of services, including:
• Student Services • Registry • Careers Network • and a new learning space / lecture theatre.
Knowledge Base Use
Queries logged in EMS
Existing triage model
Contact types
Contact types
“Organisations are not built to serve customers – they are built to preserve internal order. To customers, the internal structure may not mean very little, it may serve as a barrier. Organisation charts are vertical, and serving customers is horizontal.” George Fisher, Former CEO Motorolla
3 traditional models of customer service
The Socialisation model (Godwin & Markham 1996)
This mental model works on the assumption that students should learn how to work within a bureaucracy and that they need to learn how to move from office to office in order to register, pay their fees, apply for student funding, obtain proofs of attendance and manage their studies.
3 traditional models of customer service
The Highly specialised model(Pellicotti et al)
This mental model views the work of individual offices as highly specialised and there is a belief that “this specialisation prohibits integration of any of these functions”
3 traditional models of customer service
The “long-linked technology” model(Thompson 1967)
This mental model sees organisations viewing processes as a series of discrete steps, these processes remain paper intensive with forms issued, completed by students, passed to various academic and non-academic departments where actions are taken before they are eventually filed.
So where would students go for a service?
• Approximately fifty students completed a task at the Enquiry Services Counter
• Each student was presented with a series of nine flashcards. Each card was headed with the general question ‘Where would you go for help with….’ followed by a series of example topics/services
• The card also contained 6-8 example category headings. Each student was asked to choose their three preferred headings for that particular topic, and rank them in order of preference
Categorising queries
• A second student user test was then designed, implemented and analysed to try to better understand how students categorise common enquiries
• The results from stage 1 were collated, and the two most popular category names for each topic area were selected (creating 18 category names in total)
• Three sessions were held to carry out the test. A mixture of nine current students (international, home, undergraduate, postgraduate taught and postgraduate research) took part, split into three students per session
Categorising queries
• Each student undertook the activity alone. The 18 category names were laid out on a desk, and the student was given a stack of cards, containing 70 common student enquiries (each student had an identical set of category names and enquiry cards)
• In a briefing prior to the session, the students were asked to read each enquiry and place them under the category they would select to find the answer (if they were looking at the category names on an FAQ page)
Categorising queries
• Once all the cards had been placed, the results were collated and a feedback session was held with the students
• Three different outputs from the sessions were then recorded
Output 1
Output 2
Verbal feedback
FAQs should:• Be clear and easy to use• Provide a clear answer or give up to date
contact details for someone who can help• Be concise – not lots of text• Have opening hours and contact details etc• Have a high quality search function
Verbal feedback• Instant messenger would be really helpful – the online chat at the
library is very useful (however not for confidential and personal queries)
• For specialist information, for example from ISAS, it would be best to speak to someone in person
• Ideally want their questions answering immediately - but if they receive a clear automated response giving timescales they will understand they need to wait
• Would like the FAQ system to be integrated with the portal, as this is the main system they use
• First instinct would be to go to an office/counter or telephone someone, but they like the idea of having clear information available rather than having to wait for a response to an enquiry
studenthelp
The agent desktop
• https://birmingham.kxondemand.com/Login/
Aston Webb Student Hub
Simplifying navigating services
Bringing the back-office forwards
Any Questions
?