Looking back at the first six months of the Student Service Centre

24 March 2022

The new vision for student services at the university creates a student-centred, consistent, professional, and continuously-improving student services ecosystem that spans all student supports at the university. The Student Service Centre is at the heart of this vision. Launched August 16, 2021, the Centre is a navigation hub for students—and for staff who support students—and a one-stop shop for enquiries.

Achievements

To celebrate the first six months of the Student Service Centre, we reached out to Director Raymond Matthias to talk about the successes, difficulties, and evolution towards the vision. "Thinking back on the first six months, I think I'm most proud of the team that we've put together," Raymond says. The team comes from across the university and is composed of:

  • 21 Advisors who answer the phone, reply to emails and respond to tickets as well as questions over live chat;
  • 8 Specialists who support the advising team through the creation and maintenance of knowledge base articles and training materials; the team also helps to support the systems on which advisors rely, and liaises with stakeholders throughout the campus community.
  • A leadership team consisting of three team leads, the manager of service improvement, and the director.

By the numbers

Since opening its doors in August 2021, the Student Service Centre has received an average of 357 inquiries per day, including in-person office visits, phone calls, e-mail and forms, and live chat. When including interactions with Vera, the university's chatbot, that number jumps to 739 interactions per day.

The team at the Student Service Centre have:

  • Seen 3,156 students in person (due to health restrictions, the SSC was closed in January and February, and re-opened on February 28, 2022)
  • Received 16,352 phone calls
  • Answered 31,071 emails
  • Processed 1,825 completed forms
  • Exchanged 2,228 live chat conversations
  • Managed 58,434 unique chatbot conversations

Watch the video

Raymond is excited about the future of the Student Service Centre and its place in the university ecosystem. He says, "Our university is a complex place and having a diverse set of perspectives on hand is so valuable. It's amazing to see how much wisdom that folks bring to our team."

Watch the video for more discussion about the Student Service Centre.