The mission of the Call Center is to provide accurate, efficient handling of all incoming telephone calls. The Call Center is committed to providing excellent customer service and representing Butte College in a positive, professional manner.
The Call Center resides under the Student Programs and Services branch of the college overseen by the Vice President of Student Services and Dean of Student Services. Our unit takes direction from the Director of Admissions and Records. The Call Center was established to provide personalized assistance to students and to enhance the customer service experience by increasing first call resolution at the college. By answering a number of commonly asked questions we provide assistance and free up resources at the department level.
The Call Center provides information to new students about the steps to enroll, navigation to the six steps to financial aid, important dates and deadlines, ID retrieval, MyBC login assistance, student email assistance, general navigation, busing information, fee information, cashiering and registration services, and assistance with contacting college departments and personnel.
The Call Center is comprised of:
• One (1) full-time Call Center Representative
• One (1) full-time bilingual Call Center Representative
• Five (5) Call Center Representatives who are
permanent part-time 24 hour employees
• One (1) part-time grant funded Spanish speaking
Center Representative through Student Equity
• One (1) full-time Call Center Supervisor
During peak periods our call volume can exceed more than 1000 calls per day. Call monitoring software would allow the Call Center to more effectively manage resources, align staffing with peak student demand, and minimize caller wait times.
Call Center Representative Reclass
Reclassing our area staff and moving them to a pay scale more in line with their scope and responsibilities will allow us to hold on to highly trained and knowledgeable Call Center staff to better meet the needs of our students. This reclass lowers vacancies since we will no longer lose employees to positions of lower scope and responsibility that were at higher pay scales. Additionally, by reclassing our division and changing the job specifications to be different then the Technology Center job specifications we will no longer lose employees automatically to full-time positions that open up in their area.
Seasonal Worker budget Registration and Orientation periods
Calls nearly double during peak Registration and Orientation periods. Having peak on call staff allows us to meet student demand. Without this funding students must wait on hold for the next operators at a higher rate. In fact due to this funding we were able to completely eliminate queue times from as high as 20 minute wait times without help to virtually eliminating wait times all together.
New Computers
The Call Center Computers were old and were locking up on nearly every operator on a daily basis. Now that we have replacement systems, we are no longer experiencing lock problems and the need to reboot our systems which allows us to more effectively serve our students.
Budget for Headsets, equipment and basic supplies.
This ongoing budget helps to purchase headsets which, on average last us about a year with our volume of calls and 9 hour shifts that we are on them. This budget also provided us to replace our two highly used printers for printing materials for both our staff and others to effectively serve our students.
The Call Center participated in Student Learning Outcomes for the first time this year.
SLO#1 All students who called the college and get the Student Services Call Center will know their ID#.
We surveyed multiple Student Services and offices that we transfer calls to and asked them to survey students if they were being transferred from our department and if they knew their ID#.
100% of students surveyed knew their ID# after talking with our staff.
In conculsion, we are doing a good job at making sure students who call our office know their ID# and we will continue to make this our #1 SLO for students.
The Call Center helps students succeed by instructing them how to access our services and giving them the needed steps for completion.
Specifically we do this by:
1) Enhancing a Culture of Completion and Academic Achievement by connecting with students and providing students with guidelines or paths to success.
2) Supporting Student, Faculty, and Staff Success by engaging with our students with high touch support.
3)Enhancing a Culture of Inclusiveness by assisting underrepresented groups with a high level of support.
Admissions is currently going through program review and this section will be completed once our Program Review information is approved.
Continue to identify the needs of students and recommend improvements to online services to best serve those needs.
Create and update easy access information systems that provide students, staff and operators the quickest most accurate information possible.
Continue to seek out new information, programs and services to in turn accurately share and guide students to all the services that our institution has to offer.
Strategy 1 - Quality Information and Access to Students
The Call Center is often the first point of contact for students. It is our goal to get students timely answers in the most efficient manner possible.
When phones lines are busy, students turn to self serve. To assist students online we wish to create a Student Services FAQ webpage where students can fiind answers to the top questions of the period. This page could also include links to top services (e.g. Steps to Enroll, Transcript Ordering, General Education Sheets, Financial Aid Distribution Dates, Steps to Financial Aid, password retreival and How to videos, etc.) We hope to also provide a mechanism for students to email additional questions or search an online knowledgebase system.
Strategy 2 - Customer Service and Sustainability
To provide the best service to students in a sustainable manner, I wish to mantain the most knowledgeable Call Center staffing level possible.
This requires us to stay knowledgeable of all areas of the college in order to accurately share the Steps to Enroll, our Programs and services as well as all the resources that students and staff can use to select and complete their goals.
The Call Center has experienced a significant amount of staff turnover in the last year and a half. Well trained staff are critical for answering student questions thoroughly, accurately, and efficiently. This is particularly true during peak call times. Vacant staff positions can significantly increase caller wait times.
Strategy 3 - Utilizing Technology for Information Access
Continued improvement of online services and navigation for students to self-serve. Main areas that students continue to have difficulty finding and understanding are:
Continually adding new functionality and services online through ongoing utilizing of newer technologies impowers students, reduces frustration, improves academic success and reduces phone calls.
Strategy 4 - Additional support to Spanish Speakers
We currently have (1) full-time Spanish speaker to assist with our Latino population. This year the Call Center applied for an additional full-time Spanish speaker through Student Equity funds and we were granted (1) Half-time worker.
This support has allowed us to request a queuing system to hopefully allow students to be assisted with a live operator to callers during periods when both Spanish speakers are working. Once we bring this on board and can show the additional Spanish speakers we are able to assist we are hoping to request an additional half-time spanish speaker to provide assistance during all open hours of the Call Center.
Having Spanish speaking staff for set hours would allow us to advertise a live operator to be available for students to get personalized assistance. We have found this population is hesitant to leave messages or ask questions without an actual operator to assist them. Having (2) full-time equivilant operators allows full time live coverage for this population.
With additional staff we would also be able to reach out to current Latino students and assist them with online services. Getting these students online where most of our services are we hope will assist with their success.
To help with call volume and to improve online services, we would like to ask for ongoing suport of a Student Services FAQ page. This page would be designed to provide answers to the top 10-15 questions students are asking for the given period. We would like to keep these answers relevent throughout the year and also provide important Student Services links and how to videos to provide additional online support to students. We also wish to provide email help and a link to some type of knowledgebase system to look for more answers or post additional questions. This online help would be accessed through the "ASK ME" online help icon from the main webpage and MyBC.
The Call Center has used SSSP and Student Equity funds on an as-needed basis and will continue to do so as needs arise.
| Original Priority | Program, Unit, Area | Resource Type | Account Number | Object Code | One Time Augment | Ongoing Augment |
| Description | Supporting Rationale | Potential Alternative Funding Sources | Prioritization Criteria | |||
| 1 | SSSP, Student Services, Call Center | Personnel | 11-000-700-1-649005 | 52390 | $14,540.00 | $14,540.00 |
| Seasonal Worker Budget for Registration and Orientation periods | The Call Center with 2 FT and 5 PT staff answer up to 1000 calls a day during peak periods. This is an average of 22.5 questions per operator per hour. Call Center training costs are expensive and with our scope requiring operators to know so much about the college and Student Services it takes a minimum of 3 weeks of training. The budget here reflects 2 additional staff during our 5 key orientation/registration peak periods for 40 hours per week and training costs. |
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| 2 | SSSP, Student Services, Call Center | Equipment | 11-000-700-1-649005 | 55610 | $35,000.00 | $35,000.00 |
| Call Monitoring System | Our calls and scope have double or tripled and our staff level has stayed the same. We need a way to measure our volume to be able to set reasonable call volume limits for staff and be able to justify additional staff to meet any increase in volume or scope. Without a monitoring system or guidelines in this area, we are not planning effectively for a sustainable future. |
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| 3 | SSSP, Student Services, Call Center | Operating Expenses | 11-000-700-1-649005 | 56411 | $5,000.00 | $5,000.00 |
| Budget for Headsets, equipment and basic supplies | Operators often go through a headset each year with the volume of calls we receive. Additionally, paper, envelopes, printer cartridges, business cards, binders and other supplies are needed for outreach, training and day to day operations. |
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| 4 | SSSP, Student Services, Call Center | Personnel | 11-000-700-1-649005 | 52190 | $9,660.00 | $9,660.00 |
| Call Center bi-lingual part-time Representative | Currently, our bi-lingual staff is busy answering regular calls and must return Spanish calls. To provide immediate service to our Spanish speakers, translate our website for Spanish speakers and increase orientation and online help to Spanish speakers, additional personnel is needed. With changes in the Dream Act it is important that we have a go to person for students that is knowledgeable and accessible. The only way to ensure the level of service to really make an impact with this population is to have additional staff. Even if we can bring in temporary staff on one time money it would help to serve this population. |
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| 5 | SSSP, Student Services, Call Center | Equipment | 11-000-700-1-649005 | 56410 | $2,027.00 | $0.00 |
| (8) Drawers for Adjustable Desks | Having drawers on our new desks would provide operators the tools needed to organize information effectively to better assist students. |
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