ITS Service Desk Consultant
Western Kentucky University

May 2015 — January 2020

At a Glance
  • Delivered Amazing Customer Service and Technical Support™ to the campus community by fulfilling my customers' unstated and stated, psychological and business needs.
  • Inspired novel CX and EX initiatives including Nexus, A.G.E.S., a revitalized voice of the customer (VOC) program, an improved account management website.
  • Contributed to the Knowledge Centered Service (KCS) structured problem solving process, by capturing, reusing, and improving knowledge.
  • Protected the identities of over 50,000 vulnerable customers by detecting an active attack on a public-facing application and working with the security team to implement additional controls.
  • Engaged in professional development activities including attaining new professional certifications, attending live and virtual conferences, online video training, contributing to industry tweet chats, studying books and academic research.

Projects

  • Nexus Information Center
    Conceived as an intranet web portal to house links to the extensive number of applications required for first and second-level support, Nexus has become an interactive dashboard with up-to-the-second information tailored for to each user role. In addition to application links and consolidated search functionality, it displays system status, problem ticket descriptions and statistics, and daily productivity statistics in real-time. Nexus has become the home page of choice for almost all Technical Support Services employees, and it has dramatically simplified the continuity of operations during emergency, weather, and holiday office closures.
  • A.G.E.S. (Andrew Gilliam Email System)
    Telephone transfers and forced channel switching are among the top customer annoyances and sources of brand-damaging customer effort. A.G.E.S. seeks to alleviate this source of customer frustration in our highly compartmentalized organization by empowering our employees to accept customer questions and share them with the most appropriate department for follow-up. This method provides the receiving department with better articulated customer questions, enables a more seamless follow-up contact, reduces the time customers spend queuing, and increases the perception that the organization has taken ownership of the customer's problem.
  • Closed Ticket Survey
    Almost two years of research, deliberation, and negotiation proceeded the deployment of our new Ticket Closed Survey, which is offered to every customer 24-hours after their contact with us. The survey had not been revisited in almost a decade, and it's predecessor collected irrelevant, unhelpful information. This led to the data being largely ignored by the leadership team. The revitalized survey uses industry standard questions, including NPS and CES, as well as custom developed questions. Incidentally, the new survey totally changed our follow-up procedures, and it has greatly reduced our response time to customers who's needs were not completely met.

Other Responsibilities & Activities

Technical Support

  • Accepted incoming customer contacts by phone, chat, online service request, and in person.  Updated customers on existing requests through outbound calls and emails.
  • Actively listened to understand customer issues, evaluated if requests required escalation, and collected information crucial for third-level analysis.
  • Conducted basic to intermediate troubleshooting of supported software and services (see Technologies).
  • Reviewed the work of first-level consultants to procedural adherence and collection requisite information before routing incidents to the most appropriate third-level group.
  • Remediated compromised user accounts, and improved customer awareness of security issues through informal, on-the-spot education. Assessed the impact of security incidents and escalated to the security team or provided other appropriate guidance.
  • Evaluated outage reports, contacted necessary on-call groups, and alerted the public through our status monitoring website and social media as appropriate.
  • Regularly recognized as one of the top-three performing consultants in availability, number of chats opened, and number of tickets closed. (See Helpdesk Stars.)

Innovation

  • Revised our most popular ticket template, Account Recovery & Information, to improve ease of use, promote policy adherence, and meticulously document regulatory compliance.
  • Initiated the process of replacing our remote support and live chat software by exploring new products and presenting their capabilities to stakeholders.
  • Produced a new system image for first-level consultant workstations which enhanced security, reliability, and employee satisfaction while reducing labor costs.
  • Recipient of the 2016 Technical Support Services Innovation award.

Coaching and Supervision

  • Provided new-employee training for first and second-level consultants, including mock calls and call shadowing. Served on hiring committees to review job applicants, conducted interviews and reference checks.
  • Supervised first-level consultants, worked closely with the first-level manager to provide performance feedback and develop strategies for employee development. Provided on the job training and coaching when necessary.
  • Investigated my own average handle time (AHT) through a comprehensive and detailed study of customer contacts over several months.
  • Exercised good professional judgement during extended hours support, as the most senior employee on site.

Collaboration and Outreach

  • Advocated for customers and the department in Division-wide projects and initiatives, including the migration of tens-of-thousands of mailboxes to the latest Exchange platform.
  • Represented the Division and marketed IT services at campus events, including new student orientations and informational fairs.

Professional Development

  • Organized a DiSC training session which included multiple workgroups and departments from across the IT Division.
  • Attended WKU's Staff Leadership Institute, a rigorous 8-month leadership program for staff who have demonstrated advancement potential.
Acheivements
  • Technical Support Services Innovation Award, 2016
  • Staff Leadership Institute, Class of 2017
  • Nominated, IT Division Unsung Hero, 2016
  • Nominated, IT Division Unsung Hero, 2015
  • 14 Helpdesk Gold Stars
  • 16 Helpdesk Silver Stars
  • 25 Helpdesk Bronze Stars
  • 2,235 Avg. Annual Calls
  • 358 Avg. Annual Chats
Technologies
  • Microsoft Windows
  • Apple® macOS®
  • Apple iOS (WiFi, Mail, Calendar, Configuration Profiles)
  • Microsoft Exchange
  • Microsoft Office365 (Mail, Administration, Licensing)
  • OU Campus
  • Mediasite
  • Tegrity
  • Ellucian Banner
  • Cisco AnyConnect
  • Duo Mobile
  • Adobe Acrobat DC
  • Adobe Creative Cloud
  • Web Browsers
  • VLC Media Player
  • Microsoft Office
  • Active Directory
  • Group Policy
  • Printers
  • TeamDynamix
  • Bomgar
  • Blackboard Learn
  • Qualtrics