June 1999
Volume 15
Number 3
The Key to Great Service - Become the User
In a recent article in The Wall Street Journal about
human resource policies at Amazon.com (AHow
Amazon.com Staffs a Juggernaut: It=s
Not About Resumes,@ 5/4/99), a senior
vice president, David Risher, describes one of the interview techniques he uses
to hire new employees for Amazon.com this way: AI
might ask, >How would you design a
car for a deaf person?= Some people
freeze when they get a question like thatCothers
say they=d talk to people who are
deaf. But the best candidates say they=d
plug their ears and drive around in their cars to experience what it feels like
to be a deaf driver. They put themselves right into the customer=s
mind and body, to find out what they need.@
They put themselves right into the customer=s
mind and body, to find out what they need. This should be engraved on the
entryway to every campus computer center in the world. What better way could
there be to understand the user=s
needs, wants, and desires? What better way could there be to create products and
services that meet those needs?
What do a lot of us do instead? In many cases, we just presume to know. Or we do actually ask, but then we presume that our judgement is better, more well informed, more experienced than that of our users, so we make decisions Aon their behalf.@
For example, we create a list of the thingsChardware platforms, software packages, etc.Cwe can support, then communicate that list to the user community, expecting that most of the users will conform to the Astandards@ we have set. Whether because of a lack of resources, or a need to bring some conformity to an otherwise chaotic environment, or even because some of us think the users aren=t capable of making these decisions by themselves, we decide what is an appropriate mix of services and products for our users. And we have all kinds of reasonable justifications and rationales for doing this. What we don=t have Cmuch too oftenCis a happy, satisfied, and productive user community. This is especially true if we try to impose these standards after people have already decided what constitutes an effective and comfortable computing environment for them.
Is there a better way? Yes. Become the user. Look at the
world as a user looks at the world. See the technology as a means to an end, not
as an end in itself. Subject every project, every initiative, every system,
every standard, and every data structure to a non-technical, user perspective.
Go beyond just figuring out what educational and/ or administrative purpose is
to be served by imagining yourself actually responsible for the outcome,
not just for the technology.
Become a faculty member. Have the desktop support people come in to your
office sometime when you are not there and upgrade your computer. Try a new
technology you have never used before in front of an audience. Call the Help
Desk and tell them the Web interface isn=t
working for the class you=re teaching
right now. Call the academic services folks and request some help in writing new
courseware. Figure out a new course load for one of your advisees who wants to
change his major from chemistry to political science.
Become an administrator. Work in the Registrar=s
or the Bursar=s office for a day
during registration. Attend one of the computer center=s
training sessions on software you don=t
already know how to useC let=s
say Microsoft AccessCand as soon as
you return to your office, create a database of the students who work in the
computer center. Create a new report from the institution=s
administrative information system showing what effect participation in student
activities has on donation potential as an alumnus.
Become a current or prospective student. Register for a class using your
institution=s registration system.
Look up your institution=s Website and
see how long it takes to find out the phone number of the Admissions Office.
Create a dummy student record for yourself on the institution=s
student record system, then change your mailing address in the Registrar=s
Office and see how long it takes for the change to show up on your work-study
paycheck.
Become any kind of a user. Call the Help Desk and see what kind of a
response you get to a question on a feature in a software package the computer
center says it officially supports. Stop using your favorite word processor and
use one you have never used before; see how long it takes to do anything more
sophisticated than creating a simple text document. Try the same experiment with
your favorite Web browser, spreadsheet, presentation software, database manager.
Of course, just like the best movie critics and restaurant reviewers, you have to do all this anonymously. You shouldn=t be able to get any special treatment just because the person providing the service knows who you are, so it may take some subterfuge and creativity. But the results in terms of knowledge and understandingCresults you can put to work for you in creating a more responsive departmentCwill definitely be worth it.
If there is one overriding issue for campus information
technology departments, one issue that is above all others in importance, one
issue that affects everything else that goes on in the department, it is clearly
customer service. By committing to seeing thingsCthe
department=s products and services, as
well as its attitudeCfrom the user=s
point of view, the chances of raising the quality of customer service are
enormously high.
The Wall Street Journal article ends with a quote from Mr. Risher. In
describing one of his best hires, he says that the candidate wasn=t
like Aa lot of smart people I=ve
met who think they alone have the right answers.@
Fill the computer center with folks who can generate those right answers, the
right mix of services and products, as if they could read the users=
mindsCand be one yourself. LF
The Edutech Report is a monthly publication of Magna Publications
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