AUSTIN, TX--(Marketwired - May 13, 2015) - In a world of on-demand everything and instantaneous communication, students have become sophisticated consumers of both technology and services. Many colleges and universities, while stepping up to provide Wi-Fi and high-speed Internet for students who own a fast-growing number of devices, are also looking for ways to efficiently and effectively support the myriad of student connectivity issues that come with this device explosion.
"The volume and diversity of support requests have grown tremendously," said Jeff Tobias, Apogee's director of student services. "Having anticipated this trend, the Apogee team set an industry benchmark for service by building our 24/7 support infrastructure from the ground-up so as to achieve two goals -- provide students with a highly-customized and interactive service while maintaining productivity and efficiency for administrators."
As the nation's largest ResNet provider serving many thousands of students each day, Apogee understands that dependable ResNet support helps students succeed. Here are the company's six top tips for greater student satisfaction:
1. 24/7 Troubleshooting is Essential: In today's fast paced learning environment, the need for 24/7 customer service support is greater than ever. Running a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. help desk simply no longer works for a typical college student. When students are rushing to get a term paper done at 2 a.m. and their Internet service goes out, they need help immediately. For many schools that do not outsource, this is more the exception than the norm. According to the 2015 ACUTA/NACUBO/ACUHO-I State of ResNet Report, only 9 percent of schools with in-house networks provided 24/7 support, compared to 68 percent of schools that have outsourced their ResNet.
Apogee's 24/7/365 customer service policy ensures that no student gets left behind. Apogee also maintains a state-of-the-art 24/7 NOC (Network Operations Center) in addition to 24/7 support for any outages or major issues.
2. Building the Right Team is an Everyday Endeavor: Attracting, hiring, and motivating quality support staff to consistently deliver an "awe-inspiring" support experience is vital to delivering excellent service. Apogee empowers our staff and supervisors to make customer service calls and nurture our team to better meet student and administrator needs -- every single day.
3. Timely Case and Resolution Management: It is important to know when to scale support staff up or down to address student concerns in a timely manner. The average wait time for each student to speak to an Apogee representative is less than 30 seconds per call, even during peak periods. Additional support capabilities outside of just phone support will become increasingly vital as well.
4. Making Information Easily Available: Enabling customers and service representatives to find the information they need easily and in ways they are familiar with are crucial. To cater to all the different forms of student communication preferences, Apogee provides support across many mediums including text messaging, social media and instant messaging as well as 24/7 phone support. Apogee also provides a comprehensive support portal that was created with the student in mind. The 2015 State of ResNet Report found that of all the support mediums, live chat grew the fastest in the last year (nine percent), although traditional support methods such as email, call center and on-site or walk-in troubleshooting are still the most popular.
5. More Devices Mean More Support: Although Apple devices are still king, the need for comprehensive help services to troubleshoot other mobile devices still remains. Apogee expects that this trend will continue with new smartwatches and other smart objects making their foray into homes and on campus.
6. Feedback Mechanisms and Reporting Ensure Happy Students: Monitoring and analyzing data such as call time per student helps improve effectiveness. Apogee has implemented a number of ways to track service levels and customer experience, including transferring students to a post-call survey for timely feedback, and then proactively reaching out to students in response to survey results. The team has also implemented Twitter tracking for complaints.
About Apogee
Apogee is the largest, most innovative provider of on-campus residential networks (ResNet) in higher education. Partnering with Apogee for ResNet services allows colleges and universities to enhance their network infrastructure while offloading the growing volume of administrative responsibilities associated with managing a student network. This partnership allows IT, Business, and Housing to focus on the mission-critical tasks of the university. Find out why nine out of 10 schools that outsource their ResNet choose Apogee at www.apogee.us.