Treat? No, trick.: When your AV setup seems to be great but you realize you might get egged
By: Craig Shibley, California Baptist University
I think we’ve all been there, but I could be wrong. That blissful moment either at the end of an installation or the end of a busy few weeks of a semester and you think to yourself “well we got through that and everything is great. Good job team.” Days, weeks, and even months go by and you think everything is still that finely tuned machine.
Until you realize it’s not.
You hear murmuring of some unpleasantness. You get a call asking for when something you’ve never heard about will be changed and made right. Or, you get the worst words to be blindsided by…
IT’S BEEN HAPPENING ALL SEMESTER!!!
Oof. That’s something you never want to hear. You especially don’t want to hear that phrase when you’re hearing about the topic of discussion for the first time. Here are some potential spooks in our AV service life and ways to make sure you’re not seen as the house that gives out raisins.
Underreporting
This problem is common and often comes down to the person facing the problem, and not necessarily your team or systems. It can be tempting to say underreporting happens because of one thing, and move on. The truth is underreporting can happen for many reasons; the professor is rushed between classes and just wants to move on. They’re embarrassed they can’t figure it out. They weren’t satisfied with the help received when they’ve called before. They think people don’t care. And so many more reasons that I’m not going to write. And I’m not trying to pass blame. There’s no judgement there…there are many legitimate reasons someone may not report a technical issue and I have all the empathy in the world for a professor trying to get a room to work.
The thing is, when reports of issues aren’t coming in, you may feel overconfident when there are more issues than you realize. I can be easy to put this on the shoulders of your end-users for not letting you know, but part of our job in customer service is to actively discover issues as well as respond to reports.
One of the best ways I’ve found to help curb underreporting and make people feel comfortable is to make yourself and your team known. Having a placard or screen that says “for assistance, please call xxxx” doesn’t exactly exude the warmest feelings and can make calling for help feel like picking a number at a diner waiting for assistance. But by introducing yourself, giving some background as to not only what’s in the room but why it was put there, and how they can reach you can make people feel more welcome to discuss what they’re going through. If you can get five or ten minutes at department meetings before the semester starts to let them know who you are and why you do what you do, it will go a long way with communication. I like to tell people “if you need help right away in class, call the classroom support number. If you need help in the future, call me” and give them my number. This will help them feel taken care of even before they step into the classroom.
A bonus of this is that people who know you tend to show a little more grace if a problem does occur as well.
“Resolved” but not resolved
This issue will vary greatly by your standards and practices and by the system for taking tickets that you use, but I’m sure there’s a version of this on most campuses.
A call comes in, tech sent, resolved the problem, success. The next week a call comes in, tech sent, resolved the problem, success. And repeat.
For a ticketing system, this can all look like a success. Tickets are made. Tickets are closed. No issues to report. Could be user error. Could be a cable issue. Could be something else, but no matter, the issue was resolved and the ticket was closed. It doesn’t matter what the issue was because it is solved.
Except for the end user. If it’s the same professor calling each week to get a class set up, even if it’s quickly resolved each time, that professor will be frustrated with the process and to them the tech setup and assistance is not a success but a hindrance (and could lead to underreporting listed above). It’s very possible that the call was responded to by a different worker each time, so even anecdotally asking “have we been having issues in this room” doesn’t help because the answer might be “I went there once and fixed it” from the workers you ask.
We recently had a room change request because of all the problems happening in a room. Our reports just said “resolved” for each call.
Without auditing and seeing the same problem come up consistently can lead to frustrated end users, even when the problem is resolved quickly. Be sure to take the time to see patterns in rooms, professors, and types off issues in order to get ahead of calls and keep customers happy. Sometimes a consistent call might be from a previous professor doing something out of the ordinary and changing it for the next professor. Learning when that happens and either training the professor that makes the changes or getting in the room to change it back for the next professor will lead to a better customer experience.
Technically right but practically wrong
This one can be tougher to see or find out about. Often you hear of it only after a whole semester of unuse or misuse. And it’s a shame because often it’s a specialty room of some sort with extra bells and whistles…that no one knows how to use in their teaching.
These can be areas where the setup was specified by someone who is no longer with your university, or it was a great idea seen on another campus and enthusiastically installed without proper training for the end user. Or, maybe you got the “latest and greatest” from a manufacturer that was not great for anyone’s pedagogy.
This is an issue that you need to get ahead of, because it’s very difficult to fix once done. Equipment requests and item lists will always only get you so far. Making sure you understand what your end users can do, what they are trying to do, and what they are currently able to do should be known long before equipment is dreamt up. A proper needs assessment should include the current ability of the customer as well as where they want to be. The “latest and greatest” can quickly turn into a room that people just walk by, or a room where in the end they plug in a laptop and use PowerPoint like they do in every other space on campus. Understanding the desire of how a room will be used will always be more important than getting the “best” equipment available.
Connect with Craig Shibley:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigshibley/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CraigShibley