Blackboard Support: Busier than a Bee Hive

History dictates that when institutions are performing Blackboard system maintenance, testing, tuning, upgrading and related activities en masse, the Blackboard Support team becomes very busy.  This heightened activity tends to swell in the August - October timeframe and again during the December - February months.  We typically refer to these periods as "Back to School."

Naturally many people are calling Blackboard Support seeking guidance and assistance as they venture down these numerous paths.  And when you include the high level of adoption that Blackboard is experiencing, you can imagine how busy it must be.  In addition, the capabilities of the Blackboard application itself are being used at higher and higher levels everyday as system administrators and instructional designers become more and more engaged with the products.

Just how busy do things get for Blackboard Support during what is referred to as the Back to School season?  Well, here are some numbers that just might make your head spin . . .

During the month of August, Blackboard Support:

• Made and received 5,119 phone calls
• Sent and received 23,696 emails
• Received 5,462 new tickets (a 43% increase from July)

And, in spite of all of this activity, telephone abandon rates remained low as did Support's average speed of answer.  Support wouldn't be able to handle this volume without sacrifice and this means working weekends, working longer hours and taking fewer vacations.  Blackboard believes these are necessary sacrifices in order to accommodate this busy, busy Back to School season.

“Back to School is always an extremely busy time of year not only for our clients, but also for Client Support,” says Jon Hope, client support training manager.  “One of the things that we do is add additional staff to our weekend coverage team.  This helps us make sure that we have enough technicians available to assist the clients that are working to get their systems ready for use.  The employees that work on the weekend do so knowing that they need to be available 24 hours a day.  It is demanding work and I am always impressed by our team’s willingness to sacrifice their time and give that extra effort to meet the needs of our clients.”

We know how busy our clients are not only when preparing for a new term but all year long as well.  It’s important to Blackboard that our clients are successful in whatever activities they endeavor upon.  And if, when endeavoring upon one of those activities, assistance is required from Blackboard Support, we’ll be here when you call.