between 9:00 and noon would be funneled to India. We didn't consider that LA has 3 people on the HelpDesk and Bangalore has 10. Sure the guys in Bangalore are new to this, but they won't get any experience if they just take one or two calls a day. So on Wednesday we upped that to 100%. Even with that, the large number of people we had on the phones allowed each agent to have plenty of time to process what they were hearing and learning. The three guys to the left have new names because their names were misunderstood by LA folk. We have Nitish (Nick), Ratish (who was often called Radish, so we call him by part of his last name, Americanized to Shaker), and Prithvi (Paul, the cute Beatle.)I remember my first days on the HelpDesk. I'm not a techie. I'm a people person. I knew most of the people at The Times and I knew exactly how everything operated. Everything except the computers. "I can't log on." It took me a long time (it seemed to me) to remember to say, "log on to
what?" We have a lot of passwords, you can't make assumptions. I also had the advantage of Fred. Fred sat on the other side of the partition from me. I would listen to him to hear how he solved issues. I would ask him what to do. I would toss "dumps" over the wall. It wasn't the people I was dumping on Fred, it was a problem that confused or scared me. Soon the dumps got fewer as my confidence built, but I was blessed to have Fred there to help me. We have Sharon and Sowmya in the foreground to the left. Teena is watching over all that's happening in her beautiful embroidered blouse. Pratchi and Sanat have their backs to us. Working hard.These guys in Bangalore have had a lot more training. They know 
computer hardware better than I ever will. But they don't know everyone in the building or the building for that matter. They are getting a sense of how things operate, how a newspaper goes together every day, but they still have a lot to learn. And they are learning. Every call is a learning experience. Boy, do I remember how that felt. I was over 50 when I started on the HelpDesk. Some old dogs can learn new tricks. I would marvel at all the new things I learned every day. This is how to keep a brain young. Learn a whole new language (tech). So these younger pups get to learn something new everyday, every call. And they have to do it without Fred. Avinash seems to be doing very well. He may become the Fred for future agents.
They have Teena and Suresh and me for now. When we were taking mock calls last week, I knew what the questions would be and I knew all the answers. In real calls, you get some pretty strange
questions. It's kept us all on our toes. Another interesting thing is that none of them has the role of Fred or any of the other 10 people that used to be on The Times' HelpDesk when we had a large staff. I came into the department as the only new person so I had plenty of Freds around for support. This group only has each other. They are very collaborative and will work through solutions with others in the group. It's fun to watch. They will get an answer. And I'm there to make sure it is the right answer. By the time I leave in just 5 more weeks (but who's counting,) they will have some very good experience under their belts. Vishak was working next to Avinash yesterday. He is very charming on the phone.
On Monday, they start covering most of the hours that The Times HelpDesk is currently open. This is probably 2 shifts here. I'm not sure who will cover 8 a.m. to 5:00 and who will cover 11:00 to 8 p.m. We've been having some great review sessions with the whole group. I'm going to miss them. Since we won't be taking a high percentage of calls at first, I'm hoping to get training room time to review calls and perfect performance. It seems vital to me at this point. Chandan and Avinash can expect a visit from me on Monday.
computer hardware better than I ever will. But they don't know everyone in the building or the building for that matter. They are getting a sense of how things operate, how a newspaper goes together every day, but they still have a lot to learn. And they are learning. Every call is a learning experience. Boy, do I remember how that felt. I was over 50 when I started on the HelpDesk. Some old dogs can learn new tricks. I would marvel at all the new things I learned every day. This is how to keep a brain young. Learn a whole new language (tech). So these younger pups get to learn something new everyday, every call. And they have to do it without Fred. Avinash seems to be doing very well. He may become the Fred for future agents.They have Teena and Suresh and me for now. When we were taking mock calls last week, I knew what the questions would be and I knew all the answers. In real calls, you get some pretty strange
questions. It's kept us all on our toes. Another interesting thing is that none of them has the role of Fred or any of the other 10 people that used to be on The Times' HelpDesk when we had a large staff. I came into the department as the only new person so I had plenty of Freds around for support. This group only has each other. They are very collaborative and will work through solutions with others in the group. It's fun to watch. They will get an answer. And I'm there to make sure it is the right answer. By the time I leave in just 5 more weeks (but who's counting,) they will have some very good experience under their belts. Vishak was working next to Avinash yesterday. He is very charming on the phone. On Monday, they start covering most of the hours that The Times HelpDesk is currently open. This is probably 2 shifts here. I'm not sure who will cover 8 a.m. to 5:00 and who will cover 11:00 to 8 p.m. We've been having some great review sessions with the whole group. I'm going to miss them. Since we won't be taking a high percentage of calls at first, I'm hoping to get training room time to review calls and perfect performance. It seems vital to me at this point. Chandan and Avinash can expect a visit from me on Monday.
Nahum is here from Chicago. He's just been put in the position in Chicago of helping us get our Citrix servers working and set up. He did that for the first pair and is here when the final work is being done. So he's been spending odd hours helping those who remain in Chicago with the set up of the last servers. He was on the helpdesk at Tribune for a longish time, so he knows how to troubleshoot "with his eyes closed" (that's how I answer questions on the phone when I can't see what's happening.)
No comments:
Post a Comment