Just because Student Financial Services is no longer a part of UVAFinance doesn't mean we don't still work together. Our SFS colleagues are a big part of UVAFinance's Continuous Improvement Committee.
This week, Sarah Doran of SFS highlights a Continuous Improvement Bright Spot for us. Sarah talked with Chris Doran and Dustin Ciraco about a recent improvement they helped make in SFS, and what continuous improvement means to them.
Sarah's questions are in bold.
You can read more great CI content in the Online Community, in our dedicated Continuous Improvement space.
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Chris and Dustin, thank you for joining me today to discuss the SFS Ocelot implementation. Before we get into the nitty-gritty of the work you’re doing, I’d first like to know, from each of you, when I say “continuous improvement”, what does that mean to you?
Dustin: To me it means not settling. We need to check processes at a regular time frame to make sure they’re still meeting our needs.
Chris: You have to have a growth mindset. Make a point to challenge what we think we know, make sure it works, needs of end-user.
Would you, based on your responses, consider the implementation of Ocelot to be “continuous improvement”?
Dustin: Yes, absolutely. The idea for this came out of some service issues we experienced last summer. Having a “failure” actually gave us the opportunity to see where we could improve.
Chris: Yes, there are clearly demonstrated needs that this project will address.
Could you please provide a brief description of the Ocelot product.
Chris: It is a human-guided AI product we will have available to students, parents, and others that is based on the IBM Watson technology. It provides 24/7 non-human support for customers of the SFS and ultimately others (UREG, Admission and Dining) to answer hundreds of basic questions that are related to those service areas.
For example, it will allow a student who’s trying to register at midnight but has a hold, to get an answer to how to solve their problem without having to wait to call our office the next day or to receive an answer by email. Ocelot also allows us to receive and answer questions in English, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, and Vietnamese. More languages will be added in the future. There is also the ability to integrate with the Student Information System to provide student-specific answers. This piece will take a lot more time to flesh out. And we also could eventually use this to offer Live Chat. There are lots of options going forward.
What problem(s) are we trying to solve by implementing this?
Chris: To provide our users with the ability to answer simple questions without having to wait so long to talk to someone or to hear back from SFS. And in turn, this will allow our staff to focus our attention on the students who have more complicated needs that require more in-depth conversations.
Dustin: This is not really a problem, but this product will also allow us to track the types of questions that we get. We currently can’t track that, and this would allow us to do targeted outreach to our students about issues that seem to be misunderstood or confusing to them. And as a communications tool, this will allow for a more consistent response to questions from SFS as a whole. When humans answer questions, the responses can be inconsistent.
In your mind, what would be a successful outcome of this implementation?
Dustin: Seeing students and parents (and maybe even others around the university) actually use the chatbot and get answers would be a great success. It would mean our customers are being served, and our staff is not having to focus on the questions that the customers can answer for themselves.
As we move closer to the fall, we hope that this will really impact our ability to service our students without long wait times.
Chris: As I’ve been listening to your questions, an idea came up that I hadn’t thought of before, but a great outcome would be able to track the number of interactions on Chat, and then retroactively model what the wait times would have been if they had had to contact our office. This would allow us to assign a value to our service in real dollars, opportunity cost, public perception cost, and a human cost to our staff who have to answer questions over and over that students and families could get on their own. If our customers use it, we will see a difference.
Do you have a sense of how much time this will save our Contact Center?
Chris: We won’t know until we have data, but we will figure that out! But most importantly, it’s the parents’ and students’ savings that matter.
Dustin: Integrating with SIS will be where we would see the biggest savings, so we hope we can do that in the future.
Are there any other potential outcomes you predict that weren’t initially expected?
Chris: Because all of the Enrollment areas are going to be using this, it could provide a little bit more of a seamless handoff between functional areas. One voice, tone, helpfulness. Also, the multiple language feature of this is a real game-changer and could be a way to call people in to interact with the university on their own terms. They can feel safe in asking questions that they may not be able to with a person who doesn’t speak their native language.
Dustin: I think that we’ll be surprised by the amount we can learn from our customers to know better what they need. Also, this could help other departments to gather information if they’re helping students without having to call our office.
Why do you believe in doing projects like this?
Dustin: I really enjoy doing something new and exciting that may or not be a part of my normal work. It’s fun.
Chris: Having a pretty significant background in Contact Center management, I believe that any time that you can deflect service back on the customer, there’s satisfaction for the customer to find the information themselves, and they can do it when they need to, not just during our office hours. Allows us to think differently and provide assistance to our customers. I feel like that’s our job to do that work.
What recommendations would you have for others who see a need in their departments in “making the case” for improving a process and/or implementing new ideas within their department?
Chris: Support from the top always helps. If you see the need you should raise the question. “There’s got to be a better way!” Then review resources in-house or externally to make the case. Don’t be afraid to ask the question. Even if it costs money, that shouldn’t be a reason not to do it. UVA suffers a bit from people not wanting to get in trouble. This isn’t complaining. This is continuous improvement!
Dustin: Pack your patience. Sometimes these things take time, pounce when the time is right. Encourage your colleagues to think through these things too.
Thank you so much for your time. Best of luck with this project!
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