2007 Survey Analysis

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The survey results indicate a general level of satisfaction with Telecommunications service to the campus. There are areas, such as timeliness of repairs, where there is an indication that service levels should be improved.

Three questions were asked on the survey that requested comments rather than rankings.

• What areas of improvement do you feel that Telecommunications would need to make in order to deliver a better service the campus community?
• Are there any services that are not currently offered by Telecommunication that you would like to see us offer?
• Do you have any additional comments or concerns in regard to telephone services?

Figure 5 is a breakdown of the responses to these three open ended questions. Of the 1005 answers submitted, 755 were either left blank, or contained a simple and undiagnostic answer such as “No.” The remaining 250 answers have been broken down into three categories; Request, Negative, and Positive. As you can see, the positive comments represent a rather minor 8% while negative comments account for 36% of returned answers.

After reviewing the 230 negative comments and requests, some trends began to emerge. The following is a breakdown of the most common and repeated responses into four general service categories.

• Equipment
  • Phones are too old
  • Meridian Phones are too expensive and simple
  • Phone installation costs too much
  • Infrastructure development CHE, TBE, TEC
• Services
  • Call forwarding off campus, mobiles
  • VM limits are too short
  • More 895 numbers
  • Transition to VOIP
  • Web based bill auditing
  • Voice Mail forward to Email
  • Call waiting
  • Caller ID history/call log
  • Memory dial
  • Block incoming numbers / telemarketers

• Customer Training
  • Manuals for Voicemail and Phones
  • Voice Mail training
  • Voice Mail is too difficult to use.
  • Customer Service
  • Service takes too long
  • More time for departments to update info for Campus Directory
  • Operators are too quick to transfer, don’t listen to entire request
  • Communication with customer base about services and projects
  • Turn around on IDRs too long
  • Work order accuracy

Many respondents complained about the age of the phone available in their office or lab, and also about the cost. It doesn’t appear that customers are aware that the limiting factor in receiving a newer phone is not Telecommunications, but the amount of money they or their department is willing to spend on the phone itself. It was additionally suggested that the cost of installation was also too high. It would appear that the campus believes that Telecommunications is artificially inflating the price of both phones and phone installation to create an unethical, or at least poorly implemented, profit model.

It’s evident that no one has attempted to explain to the campus community at large our chargeback model, the reasons for it, and the purposes that the recharge funds are used towards. At the very least, it should be explained to our customer that the cost of phone installation is a straight charge through from our maintenance vendor.

As expected, there were numerous requests for enhanced services, many of which are similar to the services that out customers have come to expect from commercial telephone companies in their home. Chief among these requests was call waiting, memory dialing and enhanced caller ID functionality such as a log of dialed and received numbers and names in caller ID from off campus numbers instead of just numbers. Other frequently mentioned requests were the capacity to block incoming telemarketer calls, call forwarding for off campus numbers, and voice mail length limits. Some of these requests are more practical than others, and investigations into potential have already begun.

• The service inquiries were rounded out with; more 895 numbers, transition to VOIP, web based bill auditing, and voice mail forwarding to email.
• UNLV currently owns 6000 895 numbers, from 0000 through 5999. The remainder of the block is no longer available, and procuring it is not possible, as it has been distributed among commercial and residential phone lines off campus in the UNLV area.
• A transition to VOIP is already being planned.
• Voice mail forwarding to email is not likely to be practical since it was discovered that Lotus Notes integration with Unified Messaging would require a Notes Domino server resident on a Windows server, something that Systems and Applications is unwilling to do.
• Web based bill auditing may be possible with the newly implemented billing software, MicroCall, but it’s too early in the development stage to know if this is practical.
• The voice mail length limit is already being addressed by a class of service change that will double the current limit of 180 seconds for individual messages, to 270 seconds.

Many people noted the lack of available or easily located training documents and instructions for both their phones, and their voice mail. Some went so far as to note that the voice mail system is too difficult to use and too complicated. Since it’s unlikely, and potentially impossible, that any changes to the structure of Call Pilot will be made, Telecommunications should instead focus on the training element.

By the end of the calendar year Telecommunications will have available on their website, documentation and instructions, that are easy to read and understand, for the most widely distributed models of phone on campus as well as both the Unity and Call Pilot voice mail system. An effort will be made to co-ordinate with the new faculty and staff orientation to present these instructions and other data relevant to provided services and repair requests on an annual or semi-annual basis.

A number of respondents suggested, or outright demanded, that Telecommunications needs to concentrate on becoming a more customer service oriented organization. Complaints ranged from the turn around time needed for IDRs and work requests, to rudeness and slow responses on the part of Telecom staff.

Telecommunications needs to come to terms with the idea that their customers and their needs are the department’s primary concern. The service Telecommunications offers the campus community should never reflect poorly on the staff as individuals or the department itself. An American Management Association seminar on training is being arranged for all staff to attend and expectations will be set that clearly establish the role of Telecom staff in their relationship with the campus. Telecommunications will never be able to please everyone all of the time, but they should never stop trying to do so.