commonsensepolice

**Disclaimer** While I am ready to scream at 90% of the “Regional Resource Center” there are a few that have never done wrong by me. Sure, they have MAYBE made a mistake or two, but seriously folks, people are human and it happens. Sandy, Kris (I’m probably misspelling your name) and Matt you guys rock. This blog is not speaking to the occasional slip up, blonde moment or just plain bad day. You guys 99% get it right, aren’t afraid to ask questions and make our lives much easier!
Every time my phone rings, and I can see that it is the “Regional Resource Center” AKA our call center I cringe. There is a glimmer of a chance that it is one of the three people who have shown me they are competent. However, I know it will probably be someone with a question they should have known the answer to, they were given bad information before being transferred, or it will be a call for another department. In the end, I will probably have a frustrated student, and a headache to boot.

The Offenses:
1) Not knowing the answers to BASIC questions. Every semester the Director of the Resource Center asks us to update our information so his employees know. The information I KNOW we give them includes
- Hours
- Location
- Testing Policies
- How to check in
- What they need to bring
So why am I getting phone calls asking me about our business hours, or what things they need on the day of the test? You would think it would be THEIR JOB to dispense that info to the student instead of putting them on hold and then transferring them to me. Apparently, not so much.
2) Bad information. Now what is even more fun is when I get a call transferred to me and the student has been given bad information by the call center rep. Yes, they have been told they can retest as many times as they would like or some other off the wall garbage. You know, once again we provide this information. It is in the student handbook. Plus, if they do not know the RIGHT answer, they really should just ask. I have no issues with the rep that calls me to clarify a policy when the student they are speaking with swears up and down they were told something else. However, when they give them bad info and then send them off to me, then I become the bad guy. This frustrates me and the student. Had the rep grown a pair and just been the bad guy upfront, the student would not have been happy, but now they have two conflicting explanations. That just makes the college look bad.
3) Wrong Department. At least half of my calls each day are really for other departments. There are multiple reasons for this.
- Reps hear the student say “test” and automatically assume they mean us. They fail to ask the right questions to determine if it is a distance ed test
- Despite the fact that out labs have been split for almost two years now, they assume I must still know all about distance ed
- They assume just because I am a “testing center” I have information on TEAS, PSB, and workforce certification testing that isn’t done in out lab…let alone on this campus.
- That I somehow know exactly what is going on at our Lawrence Campus testing center
- They do not bother to read the info we give them about our department, and they blindly assume that we handle issues that are obviously (well to anyone who knows how our student services works) Advising and Registrar issues.
- People who seemed to miss the memo that we are no longer a GED testing site. That means we do not house GED records anymore AND no I do not know where they can take the test.
- Total Moron Move. I’m not financial aid…I’m not the Bursar and I haven’t worked in the Registrar’s Office for over two years…why are you sending me these calls? Um yeah…last time I checked giving a student his or her scores over the phone violated FERPAS…and don’t even get me started on the parent calls. Those calls should never make it to my phone…so why do they?
I get that they are overworked and under paid, but seriously this is kind of ridiculous. If it your job to know the basic information about the departments and to know which department handles what issues, maybe you should actually bother to do just that. Instead you pass the buck and now you have just been rude to the student and are aggravating me.

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