Superuser Program

[#1]

@Mayfly staffing issues are a separate issue and the Superuser program is not about getting any end user, to do the job of the PN help team.

[#2]

Excellent news @LouisaMartin, glad to see someone is listening to the users.

[#3]

@MauriceC

Once the Superuser program is up and running, we expect to have regular meetings between the Superusers and our department heads, likely through both webchat and face to face. As Louisa stated in her earlier reply, we don't as yet actively feedback specific topics, only general information. This program will change that.

[#4]

Froth and bubbles!

Seems to me be a easy inexpensive way of filling the short fall for lack of staff help. 

I still don't see why it took over a week for a question to answered on here by staff, yet I got a response on facebook within 20 minutes. 

@Mayfly

I think HarryB hinted at this through the links he gave earlier, but we are looking to increase our social team numbers significantly in order to improve our staff response times across all our social Platforms, not just the more public ones.

[#5]

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Bergstien wrote:

.., but we are looking to increase our social team numbers significantly in order to improve our staff response times across all our social Platforms, not just the more public ones.

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@Bergstien - You say this nearly 2 weeks after the original post!

[#6]

And a new face @Bergstien pops up and promises major changes in the reporting / interaction functions?  Look back a while and you'll discover that such an interface was in place and worked very well until after a change at the top of the management tree.  Post this change direct interaction with Users became deprecated and then non existent.  So, unless there is a change in attitude at the Top there could still be major hurdle to overcome?

It's more than disappointing to  hear that there is no current formal mechanism for feedback from this well supported forum into the Management process.  

Don't get me wrong.  I'm extremely keen to see it work as benefit to the whole Plusnet Community, but I for one remain stoical about senior level commitment.

[#7]

Sadly it is difficult not to be cynical here.  There have been numerous promises of taking on board feedback by @LouisaMartin's predecessors which have come to nought.  We now appear to have a new face in the play ground who (please forgive me if its not the case) appears not to be aware of the long disappointing history around here.

@Bergstien Would you like to introduce yourself, tell us about your role (you have the same forum role as Louisa - should we take any hints from that?) and history ... If you've not done it elsewhere and I missed it.

Is it yet possible to state that senior management (right up to the top) are indeed committed to the SU programme?  For if they were, I'd expect that this would "just be happening" rather than there being continued consideration of doing it.

As we say in Yorkshire, either get off the pot or have a wee ... Just DO something, don't just sit there.

[#8]

Hi all,

I've been following this thread with some interest and thought it was worth showing my face a little. There is obviously quite a bit of frustration bubbling up about the relationship between Plusnet and our Community users and how we deal with feedback from here. I think it's fair to say that over the last 3-4 years that relationship has declined a little and I thought I'd explain what's happened and why I think what @LouisaMartin is suggesting looks like a good idea.

Previously, the "Digital Care Team" as they used to be named, reported into me as part of the Products Team under the marketing function. I spent quite a lot of my time on here, and one of the roles of that team was to compile information about what was being talked about and pass it into me, and via me, the Senior Management team. This worked well for a while, as the Products Team would then be able to take this information and ensure it was handled in project and bug fix work, but later on we stopped being all that effective based on the make up of our project road maps and lots of business change. I've certainly overseen at least two "Ask Our CEO" threads which I believe let you down somewhat as we failed to get the traction we needed on virtually anything you raised. As our support teams grew to deal with our user growth a decision was made (which I supported) to begin to align all areas of Customer Relations back into one idea. As a result of this, I passed ownership of the Digital Care Team into the support centre, conserving their remit for the social channels, external forums and the Community Site. It wasn't that long after then when I ended up changing my role completely and becoming a 1 day a week hanger on while I did other stuff. (Unconnected to the above, just a fun opportunity).

As you all know, since then we've continued growing in users and working to recruit bodies within the business to support those new users. At the same time, more and more people are now using Facebook and Twitter to get in touch with us, and expect a very fast turn around on those messages. Whereas I used to have 1-1.5 people handling Twitter and Facebook a day, it's a much more significant part of the day now taking more focus in Customer relations. During that time, the way we've been responding to you via Community has changed a bit (we've been less open than we used to be) and our response time has slowed down. As a result of that slow down and change of style, the feeling on the forum has changed.

Over the past couple of months I've started getting closer to the community site again (Mostly because I've missed it!). Being so heavily involved in it beforehand meant it was important for me to take a step away from it to let the new owners craft their own direction, so its taken me a bit of time to get back up to speed. I've recently been chatting to David Leather who is PN's COO and ultimately responsible for the day to day operation of the business and he's definitely excited about increasing engagement of the community site. He's aware of, and appreciative of issues that you find for us and help us fix which we'd struggle to notice thought any other medium. (The disconnecting routers on upload thread being a perfect example). He's very much about allowing users to engage with us on their terms and making sure we listen to them.

Superusers is Louisa's next step in starting to fix the relationship between us and the Community. It feels like to me a recreation of the old PUG concepts, but more structured to be able to work in a much larger business. Previously, the Digital Care Team would be able to float around the business and directly feedback information into the developers as they worked, but that's really not possible any more just based on the size we are now and the nature of the work. Once it gets moving, Louisa and co. will be able to direct what the Superuser team flags up to where it needs to be, within an organisation that is asking for and willing to act on that advice if it can. This is more than just arranging the Superusers in the first place, it includes creating mechanisms for their feedback to be considered. It's good stuff!

I'd like to ask you to give us the benefit of the doubt and support it. Then get your feedback in about what's working and what isn't and we can improve it together. There will be some rough edges to work out (there always is) but it's a great opportunity to start to make sure we are listening to our users.

[#9]

Thanks @Kelly  nice explanation

[#10]

@Kelly,

Such openess and honesty is very much what has been lost aound here under Louisa's predecessors. Thank you for returing to tell it as it is / how it happened. It is heartening to know that there is senior management commitment to making this a good place again. I could suggest that if this place had not faltered and there were not the spectrum of difficulties accessing the formal support channels, there would not be people flocking to the social media channels, to complain in public. They are quite unstructured and I imagine a nightmare to support / resource.

Formal support routes need to work better. The reinstatement of the ticketing system has been suggested on many occasions by many users as being a very useful, desirable and practical route to support. So given that there is a new appetite to listen to feed back ... can we please have the ticket system reinstated?

[#11]

in. I could suggest that if this place had not faltered and there were not the spectrum of difficulties accessing the formal support channels, there would not be people flocking to the social media channels, to complain in public. They are quite unstructured and I imagine a nightmare to support / resource.

I think I disagree a little with that point.  People like complaining contacting in plain view.  I certainly do it all the time, and I know plenty of people who would rather have a moan via Facebook or Twitter just because you feel like you'll have more success due to the pressure of public responses.  I suspect we'd have the same social contact growth irrelevant of how our other channels perform.

Formal support routes need to work better. The reinstatement of the ticketing system has been suggested on many occasions by many users as being a very useful, desirable and practical route to support. So given that there is a new appetite to listen to feed back ... can we please have the ticket system reinstated?

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Definitely one for the Superusers to pick up and debate with us.   As I said in my post, David is very much about users talking to us on their own terms.  It's part of the plan going forward to work out what this turns into in reality.

 (edit: swapped out complaining for contacting.  It's not just complaints really!)

[#12]

So when is this project's official launch date and when are the 'Super Users' announced?

[#13]

@Kelly

You seem to be forgetting that when people have posted on here on to the tbb forums and had no response sometimes we have recommended posting on twitter or facebook as that will get a quicker response. We've no idea how much of that has gone on via PMs.

[#14]

I'm sure that has happened as well.  (I've seen it!)

[#15]

One of the arguments against tickets has been that often less knowledgable users raised tickets that did not have sufficient information to allow Plusnet to act or answer. The obvious solution to that is to have a stock response asking people to call or use chat.