IT Express changes hours, adds new resources

Faculty, students and staff who contact the IT Express Service Desk for help with campus tech services now have helpful new ways to connect.

IT Express has:

• Added chat support.
• Redesigned and added new functions to its home website.
• Created a new knowledge base, which goes live Feb. 28. This online reference guide on how to use campus tech services has both new articles and the best of IT Express's current xbase knowledge base, which IT Express will retire sometime this year. The new knowledge base will be available at kb.ucdavis.edu.
• Changed its hours to 7 a.m.-6 p.m. on weekdays (except holidays), starting March 3. IT Express has been been open until 9 but receives very few calls after 6, so the new schedule lets IT Express assign more consultants to the busiest hours of the day. IT Express will still open for extended hours during peak times of the academic cycle.
• Created an ITX Facebook page.
• Begun to integrate support from IET student employees, who will field basic questions and service requests from students so that IT Express staff employees can provide more advanced services.

The changes better align the team's resources with campus requirements, based on Information and Education Technology's review of IT Express customer metrics. In 2013, IT Express logged more than 34,000 phone and email requests for help, plus 380,000 visits to its knowledge base.

IT Express recently earned HDI certification for customer service--a service industry benchmark that recognizes commitment to service excellence through use of best practices, enhanced skills and advanced knowledge.

These changes are part of a larger effort to improve IET customer service that extends beyond IT Express. "This is part of a significant plan to improve our support services to the campus," said IET Client Services Manager Ani ta Nichols. "We're not stopping here. There's more coming."

Please send comments or questions to IT Express at 530-754-HELP (4357) or ithelp@ucdavis.edu.