How Do You Measure Staff & Student Satisfaction with School IT Services Without Surveys?

[keerthieva]

Hai Community members,

We’ve noticed that surveys don’t always get good response rates, and sometimes the feedback is too vague to be useful. I’m wondering if anyone here uses other methods to measure satisfaction with IT services in schools,like helpdesk data, feedback forms after tickets are closed, or informal check-ins. What’s worked best for you to really understand how end users feel about the IT support they get?

Thank YOU....

[mdrabble]

I use to do yearly surveys, updates and regularly training - all of which were very poorly responded/attended.

 

in the end I gave and even informed SLT that it turned out to be a pointless exercise.

 

In June/July we deployed out in tune laptops to staff - took 3 weeks and several emails to remind staff!

 

I ran just short of a 2 week (open) drop in session with no times set in stone, so staff could come when they were free to try and help improve training attendance 

 

Out of approx 75 teaching staff - approx 15 turned up!!! This was in the last 2 weeks of term with no exam classes, year 11 or 13 and when they would be most free!!!

 

I made a note of who attended and told SLT if anyone came in September and complained about no training being offered then the person complaining would be give the sharp end of my tongue.

 

It is always the same, staff complain but when offered the chance to get involved and have their say and help improve things, they are always too busy!! 

 

Some schools find them useful and beneficial but sadly not this school.

 

[3s-gtech]

Oh god. I just found any satisfaction surveys would be such a downer - I’d work my arse off on something, like a summer refresh, then get such dismal, negative feedback that it’d suck me down with it.

 

Now, I do my best and they can suck it up. I don’t care enough to hear negative feedback.

[DrBeaker]

These are pretty much always a one-sided thing in IT I've found.

 

Some users won't have gotten the thing/answer they wanted at some point - and will use it as an excuse to pretty much verbally slag off the IT department for anything they can think of.

 

Some won't bother as they see it as beneath them.

 

Some will use it as an excuse to vent against the school for things that are either out of our control, compliance issues or simply nothing to do with IT (e.g. 'Air con still doesn't work in IT room 3'

Yes dear, we can't MAKE the site team fix that faulty air con in the IT room WE've already reported (OURSELVES...MULTIPLE, times, in PERSON and in EMAIL) and they've still done nothing.

 

I'd ask if IT are having them - is SLT quality, site team quality, admin staff quality etc being surveyed as well - or just the IT department, which is a tad unfair in my book.

 

49 minutes ago, 3s-gtech said:

Oh god. I just found any satisfaction surveys would be such a downer - I’d work my arse off on something, like a summer refresh, then get such dismal, negative feedback that it’d suck me down with it.

 

Now, I do my best and they can suck it up. I don’t care enough to hear negative feedback.

 

This ^ . Worked our arse off several times in summers over multiple years and get no thanks, appreciation or recognition of our work upon return. Yet I know for a fact our team, we sweated our asses off that summer to get things done. 

 

We had an open/drop-in training session for 2x days on new phones once - only 2x people turned up.

 

We had an open/drop upon a return to school in September a few years ago for 'any IT issues' so they were ready to go for when the kids came back - ONE person turned up.

 

We and my team know we do a damm good job, despite being understaffed, under-resourced with no training

so they can think what they want as as above, we don’t care enough to hear negative feedback.

 

[dmj]

I work in a devops function, and some of the techniques we use could also be applied to IT Support; Along with surveys we report our Service Level Objectives (SLO) as a percentage. This is effectively the uptimes and latency of the services we are responsible for. We also report our DORA stats: Deployment Frequency, Lead Time for Changes, Change Failure Rate, and Mean Time to Recover (MTTR).

 

Combined, these give a good overview of the state of things.

[Roberto]

28 minutes ago, dmj said:

I work in a devops function, and some of the techniques we use could also be applied to IT Support; Along with surveys we report our Service Level Objectives (SLO) as a percentage. This is effectively the uptimes and latency of the services we are responsible for. We also report our DORA stats: Deployment Frequency, Lead Time for Changes, Change Failure Rate, and Mean Time to Recover (MTTR).

 

Combined, these give a good overview of the state of things.

Yep. Surveys are somewhat subjective (though my feelings about a service should be important to the service owner. But these kind of stats are a good objective measurement of how the team are performing and should be front and centre.

 

I think our SD uses similar metrics, SLO/SLA vs. actual availability, and quite importantly, first time fix percentage for calls - the amount of time someone contacts the SD and gets a fix back straight away vs. having to wait while their issue gets escalated and bounced around various teams.

[FragglePete]

We measure it by the amount of Jaffa Cakes, Biscuits, etc we get on the last day of the academic year and also at Christmas time.   😁

 

Pete

[TechMonkey]

Do you publicly report on the findings from the survey?  I've learnt from my current Ops Director that it is important to release the results AND trumpet what was the action from the survey AND that the action was carried out.  Most staff are apathetic and will not fill out surveys as it "never changes anything" but if you can challenge this and prove that it does you get a better up take.  Plus, you need to badger and cajole and point out that if they don't pipe up then nothing can change.

 

As for negative feedback, you just have to have thick skin, it isn't (hopefully) personal.  If it is justified, then you have something to deal with and why were you asking if you didn't want the feedback.  If it isn't justified then this is a chance to open communication with those people, or the staff in general, over those issues.  There may be some underlying issue or something they are finding hard to communicate that you don't know about.

 

As for issues beyond your control, publish them too.  If you can't get site to fix air con let staff know that.  You now have evidence that the air con is affecting teaching and learning so take it to the powers that be. Let staff know that you have pushed this and it is at a higher level.  You will get the recognition for trying to get something done, even if it comes to naught.

 

Other ways to get feedback:

- Sit in the staff room and have a brew, preferably at the same time as teacher's break or lunch.  Someone will ask you a question while they have you.

- Ask for a small slot at a HoDs meeting. Be prepared to be ripped apart for every little thing but you just have to stand your ground and be clear with boundaries.  You will find all the little niggles.

- Go around HoDs one to one.  Get some time with them to find out the issues their department are having or what they want to move forward with IT.

- If your Helpdesk has CSATs turn them on as staff are much more likely to fill in a quick happy or not survey and you can follow those up.

- Helpdesk stats, like number of reopened tickets (shows dissatisfaction with solution), number of response to completion, number of tickets per department.

 

All of these are going to feel like a slog and probably be a bit overwhelming and feel negative, but opening the flood gates will get a whole back log of feeling coming through first, but after a while, if you stick at it and can show progress it will get easier and the department will get a good reputation for sorting issues.

 

This is coming from a place where no one would even talk to the IT Department when I took over as "nothing gets sorted".  I'm in no way saying we are the perfect model department now, we still have a lot of work to do, but staff have noticed the difference and it is commented on.  In whole school surveys the IT satisfaction levels have risen year on year. It is just about plugging away and not getting disheartened and accepting the status quo. 

 

But do accept Status Quo.