Dive Brief:
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Colleges and universities are taking a tip from Apple stores, moving their IT support from back rooms accessible to students only by phone to visible help centers in high-traffic areas.
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University Business reports that higher education leaders are increasingly thinking of IT from a customer-service perspective, placing their help centers in bookstores, student unions, and classroom buildings.
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Walk-up tech support is often provided by student employees, and many of these new centers offer digital device rentals, computer labs, and one-on-one consultation space, according to the article.
Dive Insight:
Campus wireless networks across the country are being strained by additional devices students come to school with. Whereas they used to show up with one or two devices, now students are showing up with double that. IT departments have to expand their capacity on one end and also provide support to students on the other. All of these devices are bound to break at some point.
According to University Business, students show up looking for help syncing their devices, connecting to the campus wireless network, and repairing hardware, among other requests. The Apple concept is familiar to these young digital consumers, and IT departments intending to expand their reach would do well meeting them where they are.