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10 out of 10 for Learning Services!
Not only are we celebrating our 10th year of Customer Service Excellence in Learning Services but following our assessment in January 2015, we now have a fantastic 10 compliance pluses which are given to services who go that ‘extra mile’ for customers!
In this our
10th year as award holders, we were delighted that our work was recognised with another 2 compliance pluses. The first was for our use of UX (user experience) and ethnographic techniques to gain a deeper understanding of the needs of our customers. The second was for the introduction of our 24/7 live chat service which launched in Oct 2014.Where did our journey begin? In 2004 Learning Services were one of a small number of academic libraries who achieved the award (originally called Chartermark). In 2010 the government reviewed the award and it became known as Customer Service Excellence and is based on 5 key elements:
Customer Insight; knowing who your customers are, consulting with them, involving them in decision making.
Culture of the Organisation; showing a commitment to building a customer focused culture right through the organisation from senior managers to the front line staff.
Information and Access; providing accurate and comprehensive information and ensuring it is delivered via most appropriate channels.
Delivery; achieving positive outcomes for customers, listening to their views, achieving key performance targets.
Timeliness and Quality; ensuring prompt action, keeping to agreed timescales, always trying to ensure that speed of service doesn’t come at the expense of quality.
In Learning Services one of the most important thing we can do as part of offering a good customer service is communicating with our customers. This doesn’t mean telling you things. It means listening, finding out what is important to you and putting ourselves in your shoes as much as we can.
If you would like to find out more about the award, or are interested in participating in one of our many user experience groups just get in touch.
Helen Jamieson, Customer Services Manager
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We’ll be the judge of that!
Over the past few weeks 2 of our staff have been helping to judge the 2015 entries for the BBC Radio 2 500 words competition.
Helen Jamieson our Customer Services Manager, and Rita McWilliam who manages our library at the Woodlands Centre have volunteered as judges for the past 3 years.
This year both Helen and Rita judged over 30 stories each and were very impressed by the high standard of writing, creativity and imagination the children brought to their stories.
The highest scoring entries are now being collated and a judging panel will produce a shortlist of the top 50 entries which will be announced on 9th May.
The top 50 entrants will be invited to attend the final at St James’s Palace on 29th May for the live broadcast of the Radio 2 Chris Evans breakfast show and the names of the 6 finalists and the overall winners will then be announced.
All the judges who took part in the competition will be entered into a prize draw and winners will receive a pair of tickets to attend the broadcast of the Chris Evans breakfast show on 29th May – so keep your fingers crossed for Helen and Rita!
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Evaluating academic skills support
Last term, as part of Learning Services quality framework, we undertook a full evaluation of the 1-2-1 academic skills support sessions we provide to students.We provide a number of mechanisms for students to access support, these include sessions embedded within the timetabled curriculum, on-line help and on-line workshops, Steps to Academic Success workshops which are delivered across the term, and 1-2-1 appointments.
In terms of the number of students we see via this wide variety of mechanisms, the figures look like this:
- Curriculum based sessions – this academic year we have delivered 210 sessions to 6,842 students.
- Workshops – we have seen 109 students at the Steps to Academic Success workshops
- 1-2-1 sessions – provided help and support to 814 students
Evaluation of group sessions is very well established in Learning Services and we regularly use feedback to help us reflect. Examples of improvements following feedback include improving the relevancy of inductions sessions, changes to the days and times of day we delivered Steps to Success sessions and access to help and support using virtual tools. However, we have not previously evaluated the 1-2-1 sessions we deliver.
In early December 2014 we contacted all students who had attended a 1-2-1 session and asked them to anonymously complete an online survey, with a focus on whether the support they received was effective and has helped them move on with their studies. The survey was short, just 6 questions but with opportunities for students to use free text to tell us changes they have made since accessing support and if the structure of the session was useful.
We are extremely pleased to report that:
- 83.1% of respondents either strongly agreed or agreed that the advisor was able to provide guidance and answer my support queries
- 84.7% of respondents said that the support they received was effective and helped me move on with my studies
Comments from the free text sections include:
My planning of assignments is better. This is reflected in my marks as they are getting better.
It helped me write in a more reflective and analytical manner
It has helped me back up my observations with theories and quotes and has enabled me to analyse more critically
The short survey has provided some valuable feedback around what the students liked and disliked (which was mainly around the booking process, turnaround time and location of where the support was held) and this feedback will also help us as we manage expectations in terms of support and also make the other mechanisms of support we provide more accessible.
This was the first time we have undertaken this form of evaluation, however this will now form a key part of gathering feedback and the process will be repeated at the end of April 2015, when we will contact those students we have supported via 1-2-1 in the Semester two time scale (January 2015 – April 2015).
