IT Service Desk Nomination

Customer Service Excellence Award – Team

By Dr. Bryson Payne, Associate Professor & Former CIOand Steve McLeod, Interim CIO

The NGCSU IT Service Desk (ITSD) team continues to provide excellent customer service experiences to students, faculty, staff, retirees and visitors of the University. The ITSD team, under the leadership of Ms. Katrena Hook, applies the concept of continuous improvement on a daily basis. Katrena and her team are never complacent in the pursuit of excellence, and proactively produce new support and service initiatives that specifically target students. The team’s mission statement is: Provide responsive, thoughtful, proactive IT services and user support from phone-based, web-based, and in-person troubleshooting and resolution to friendly, efficient software and hardware purchases, installs and service brokerage.The Service Desk provides courteous and helpful support services which enhancethe customers’ use of technology at North Georgia. Examples include: Over-the-phone support, catalog sales, technology quotes, remote support, brokering repair, help ticketing and customer service follow-ups, student computer repair,faculty staff personal computer repair, and end user / internal IT related training.

Specific ITSD initiatives include:

  • Accessibility through expanded hours of operation – the ITSD opens at 7:30 am and closes at 6:30 pm during the fall and spring semesters. During the first month of the Fall semester, the hours are extended to 7:30 to accommodate new freshmen
  • New student support – during INTRO’s ITSD staff hold training sessions to teach students how to use the technology available on campus. The ITSD team also holds a “move in day” event to help students when they move in to the dorms with their computer setup and connection to the residential network
  • New student “bed –packets” the ITSD provides tri- fold bed packets that contain useful technology information to all students
  • Start of semester ramp up – the Service Desk expands its hours in the evenings and works weekends to service student owned computers; getting them connected and helping them access the resources they need
  • Students at NGCSU can have their personal computers repaired at the ITSD, as well as have a computer backup, re-image, and receive free software (Windows 7, MS Office and Anti-virus)
  • Student mobile device support – the ITSD conducts basic mobile device support
  • Implemented a number of social media functions to enable better communications with customers, including facebook, twitter, Google hangout, Youtube, Wordpress Blog and more.
  • Implemented a knowledgebase with many self service presentations and videos to help customers help themselves
  • Improve knowledge and skill for student workers - Train all student workers in a three tier system, from junior tech to senior tech. Students that perform well and request references are provided with letters of recommendation to aid in job placement after graduation
  • Improve knowledge and skill for full time staff - Train all full time staff members in service best practices through the Help Desk Institute (HDI), Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and Dell WPD program

In addition to these initiatives, the IT Service Desk Team uses IT Service Management best practices on a daily basis. These practices allow for the tracking of Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s), which provide the data necessary to generate reports that show individual and team performance, particularly in the area of responsiveness, follow- up and follow though, as well as Service Level compliance. Here are some of the last 12 months statistics:

  • 8997 tickets opened, of which the service desk directly resolved 80%, 33% on first contact
  • Serviced 810 student personal computers
  • Serviced 65 faculty and staff personal computers, including retirees – retirees see this as a great retirement benefit
  • Fielded approximately 8000 phone calls via the five rolling phone lines, which ensures the customers that when they call, the get a friendly service desk member, not an answering machine

The results of these initiatives and processes are that the University now knows and trusts the ITSD as the single point of contact for IT. Customers and not left hanging, and requests do not “fall through the cracks”. With 80% closure rate of all work orders, the A/V, engineering and infrastructure teams are freed to focus on service enhancing products for the campus, and produce them in a timely manner. As a result of training, the ITSD team members have achieved many service related certifications, such as HDI Analyst, HDI Service Desk Manager, ITIL v3 foundation and Dell Warranty Service. These certifications document that the ITSD staff members are professionals in customer service, and the team displays these badges with pride. When you ask an ITSD team member about a change in process or technology, the first thing they ask is “How does this affect the customer”. The NGCSU IT Service Desk Team is truly a customer focused organization where customer support is job one.

Respectfully submitted,

Bryson Payne

Steve McLeod