Pick Up the Phone
Caveat: Most of the people I deal with at UOP provide exemplary service and focus on the best methods of success for the student. This is one person, one situation, and thus I consider it isolated to that person.
I have a new Financial Aid Counselor these days. This is something that happens as workloads shift and people leave or move in the school. It is a time of considerable frustration for those that enjoy a close bond with their Graduation Teams at UOP. And, it is an understandable business process.
My new counselor was made known to me only by checking on my student portal page. I am attentive person to changes of information, I pride myself on knowing when things change and making adjustments to how I work based on that change. Also, I look for how others deal with that change.
My new FA (Financial Advisor) has yet to introduce herself to me, it has been months. Now, in fairness, I don’t need to have an introduction and I am an independent student. So, lots of communication is not necessary. However, I am returning from a short leave and the financial aid year has changed. These are 2 important times to exhibit customer service. Alas, no service has been given, in my mind.
Sure, the FA has emailed a mass mailing saying that the financial aid year is changing and a new application for it is needed. I didn’t respond to it, there was no indication that a response was necessary or desired. Rather, the FA wants the student to go to FAFSA and the UOP fin. aid. section to fill out the forms. The FA can check for the forms and status without actual interaction.
I recently replied with my status change to a “cash student” and advised that I would not be needing financial aid and to contact me about procedures required.
I got a nasty-gram telling me that I’d not done anything about the financial aid forms and needed to do something or call. Uh, I don’t think so!
My FA sent a second note claiming that she had not seen my reply before sending out a not and advised me about what to do with my status change and the deadlines for doing so.
All via eMail. PICK UP THE PHONE AND CALL THE STUDENT! I hate to yell, but someone assisting doctoral students should be the cream of the crop and set the pace. With the sheer expense of the program, these folks should be providing service that is second to none. In my estimation this service is mediocre at best and probably worse. Working from a distance sometimes requires some voice-to-voice communication. If it is inconvenient or a bother for a customer service person to make a phone call, then find a new occupation.
What could’ve been done differently? Well, when the FA took over my file, a phone call to me, to introduce herself and review my account would have been both polite and service-oriented. Sure, it could be hassle for the employee that is continually picking up and changing groups of people. But, the FA would’ve known my status and proactively resolved an issue. Being proactive leads to success.
Today’s lesson in customer service for my FA and anyone else at UOP not phoning students on issues is pick up the phone; success is waiting.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Mike,
I had a great team to start off with, and one of the major reasons for choosing UoP was the great service I got right from the start. My Admissions Counselor called 5 minutes after I sent my contact information via their website. He was great! Same goes for my Counselor and Financial Advisor. I’ve experienced a couple of changes, and now am not so happy. My AC is pretty good, but my FA is far from top notch when it comes to service. I’m essentially crossing my fingers that I have completed everything correctly in order to start classes again next week.
- Joel
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Joel,
I’ve always been impressed with the customer service aspect of UOP. Like you, it was a deciding factor in going to school there. This, I am sure is relatively isolated. I’ve been able to coach and mold my grad teams to how I work best. This has met with some good experiences above the standard. A little follow up on this incident, my FA eMailed and things seem to be okay now. My AC called and got me square for the next class, Stats.
So, the story concludes and opens onto a new chapter.
Mike
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
My experience with UOP wasn’t so great – albeit, I didn’t have the long background with them – only completing the Orientation course. My Enrollment Counselor was great, he was prior military and hired on my UOP to purely focus on enrolling military people.
As others stated, within minutes of submitting the online form, he had emailed me back (personally, not automagically) with links to forms I needed to fill out and contact info for the education people at my base – it was impressive. He made the phone call to me that evening, after I got off work, to check if I had any questions, walk me through some of the paperwork (applying for Tuition Assistance, etc).
After that, I never heard from anyone again. I had to stumble through registering for classes, I don’t even remember how I received my books or what that process entailed.
I think the only person I spoke to was Technical Support when I was completely dumbfounded I had to use Outlook Express because the entire school was operated off of Newsgroups (this caused quite the annoyance – since I managed my email with Outlook 2003 – there are only so many times you can tell OE, “No, I don’t want you to be my default mail application!”).
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Michael,
Thanks for the comment. Sadly, there are many people at UOP that are just afraid to make that personal connection. The ones like your Enrollment Counselor are the superstar performers, the rest tend to move into less contact oriented roles and expect them to be less phone time.
Having Call Center experience in my background, I can tell you this is pretty normal for agents to not want to work on the phones. I’ve never understood it. Communication is something that most companies have as a major problem and it seems that UOP might be considered in that ranking.
BTW-I did resolve my issues with my FA and got on the track to the course. Still no phone call though. Good thing eMail was available.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0