Conference govt02::basingstoke

    Les,
    
    Tell 'em the _whole_ story!  
    
    Because of complaints from customers and senior internal Digits, we
    discussed Voicemail at the team meeting yesterday.  The decision made
    was to turn off Voicemail and re-implement it "properly".
    
    No decision was made about how this will be done or how long it will be
    "off".  Clearly, if there are any Teams whose customers would be
    negatively impacted, they should discuss this with their Manager. 
    Doubtless consideration will be given to all reasonable deputations.
    :o)
    
    Jon
    

What a ridiculous waste of money that was then!!!


	Ian

  Re .1 (Jon)

> Tell 'em the _whole_ story!  
    
  Yes, please do !

> Because of complaints from customers and senior internal Digits, we
> discussed Voicemail at the team meeting yesterday.  The decision made
> was to turn off Voicemail and re-implement it "properly".
    
  1) What is the nature of the "complaints" please ?
     Is it that people are apparently not returning calls (eg., bad manners) ?
     That people are apparently not receiving the messages (eg., system bugs) ?
     That the recorded messages are not always informative ? (eg., smart-*rses)?

  2) How are the customers involved ?  Are they being put straight through
     to the specialists' phones ?  Are they being given information second-
     hand ?

  3) Who are the "senior internal Digits" and what is the nature of their
     complaint please ?  Are they the same people who complain that there is
     no one available to take a message ?

> No decision was made about how this will be done or how long it will be "off".

  Has a decision been made as to when this will be done ?  Is anyone going to
  tell us or is it another thing that we have to glean from the notes files ?

> Clearly, if there are any Teams whose customers would be
> negatively impacted, they should discuss this with their Manager. 

  ... or leave them a voice-mail ? Err, ...

  Thanks in anticipation of more of the _whole_ story,

  Frank

  PS : "senior internal Digits" ... heh, heh ... should we tell 'em to get
       their fingers out ?  :-)

    Personally  I have found voice system very useful.
    
    It would be a great shame to lose it.
    
    Obviously it is frustrating when you phone someone and you keep getting
    voice mail but otherwise you would get engaged tome or no answer
    anyway.
    
    Unfortunately the system does need a bit of discipline to work
    properly, like leaving a new greeting regularly to let the caller know
    if you are out of the office or not.
    
    The biggest problem witth the new phones in general is that you can't
    visibly tell if the phone is forwarded or not. Maybe this contributes
    to the frustration because people are at their desks but forget their
    phones are forwarded to voice mail. My high tech workaround is to leave
    a post-it with 'forwarded' on it stuck to the phone to remind me.
    
    Royston

    
    Has anyone actually been asked what they think the advantages / 
    disadvantages to  *US* (the CSC specialists) are ????.......
    
    Given that at lunchtimes we are fairly sparsely strewn across 
    the unit ,having people call forward to Voicemail actually 
    saves the remaining few people having to play secretary and 
    message-taker for the whole unit!..Thus letting us get on with
    the job we are actually employed and skilled for ....
    
    I guess the problem is that front-end may be saying I've left a 
    message in their voicemailbox..this would appear to always imply 
    that the person isnt there and doesnt suggest that they may just 
    be on the phone to another customer ....
    
    In fact it is easier to listen to a voicemail and look at the call 
    log rather than trail slowly through NICE commands to List your
    message,show the call,show the descriptions,look at the individual
    description etc,etc....Fortunately the good people of the call desk
    tend to leave both  currently (Pat on the back Chaps/chapesses)
    
    It is also most useful for asking a low priority question to someone
    with particular skills who you know can answer that question but is 
    currently not available....
    
    
    Really what we need is a defined set of common practice in message 
    standards so that it's less haphazard ... eg. 
    "I'm out of the office Here's who to call..."
    "I'm at lunch ,the Hunt Group number if it's urgent is"  etc....
    
    Why EXACTLY is it being turned off ,WHO is it noising up?
    
    Okay it has it's problems as Roy's mentioned but In my opinion 
    ***it is helluva useful !!! ****
    
    Sandie.../

    As a semi-outsider I find that they are troublesome.  There appears to
    be an inconsistency between how rigorous people use them. Some people will 
    invariably return all my calls, whilst others seem to ignore me. The
    messages however do not tell me if they are at lunch, out onsite, or
    have died the previous day. AVAIL is not always up to date.
    
    I have developed my own system for working around the system. Since I
    have an LED readout on my phone I can see straight away if the phone is
    forwarded, so I hang up and phone the person who sits next to them,
    and so on until I get an answer and then ask is So&So around,
    invariably the answer is yes, but if not I send my message by VAXmail. 
    
    Huw. (NUK Comms group)

I take it there will be an official announcement shortly
and that users in the CSC will take part in looking at
ways of improving the system (or whatever they plan to do
with it).

I can see that it must be annoying when all you get are 
voice mail messages, but that's still got to be better 
than no reply or an engaged tone.

I think we should be able to set up a few messages, one for
when the phone's busy, one for when we're out, etc...


	Ian

    Voice mail may or may not be appropriate for internal people. However,
    customers should NEVER get put through to it.
    
    The customer used to be king. Now the most important, overriding task
    is to SAVE MONEY. Customers like good service, and there's plenty that
    will give it if we don't.
    
    Keith

    
    
    I think it's a really useful tool. As previously pointed out, customers
    do not ring specialists directly here at the CSC. And I find it much
    better to have a voicemail message from response saying a customer
    called than just having a comment put on the request. I think it is
    definately worth perservering with. 
    
    Karen

    �customers do not ring specialists directly here at the CSC.
    
    Apparently this is not true.
    
    Some of the hardware specialists give out their direct lines to
    customers all the time as they prefer to work that way.
    
    I can only assume that its their customers that are complaining.
    
    Royston

> Some of the hardware specialists give out their direct lines to
> customers all the time as they prefer to work that way.
>     
> I can only assume that its their customers that are complaining.
    
  If that's the case then the sensible thing to do is ...
  .. oh-oh ... I said the "S" word again didn't I ?

  Frank

I'm a bit confused now. The consensus of opinion is that voice mail
should only be heard by internal people and not by customers.
But surely internal people have access to electronic mail,
making voice mail redundant. 

Can anyone explain why we should buy in a third party voice
mail system when we all have access to e-mail?


	Ian

> Can anyone explain why we should buy in a third party voice
> mail system when we all have access to e-mail?
        
        The advantage of voicemail over e-mail is that you can access it
        with nothing more sophisticated than a telephone.

        For instance, if I've requested help from an engineering group
        I know that that if they leave a message I'll be able to get the 
        information whether I'm on site or at home (or even on holiday, 
        for that matter). 

        Of course, this benefit is completely negated if voicemail is
        turned off with no prior notice!

        Ian.

I've managed to get a bit more detail. This is all I know so
please don't ask any more questions.

When voice mail was implemented in the CSC, the management 
team did not issue guidelines on how the system should be used.
Hence, some groups have been using it effectively whereas
others have not and there have been complaints. It has therefore
been decided that guidelines will be issued to voice mail
users so as to eliminate complaints. In the interim, the
voice mail system may be temporarily switched off depending
upon the nature and seriousness of the complaints.


	Ian

I think these problems reflect on the CSC as a whole. Some people's refusal to
set up a voice mail message says alot about their attitude. Where were the
quality people when voice mail (and the new phone system) set up. Has voice
mail been considered as part of our Quality System ?

The human element of this technology has not been given the attention it
deserves !

Richard

    As Richard says, there are some people who refuse to use voice mail.
    The problem here is that an entry exists for all extensions and a
    message can be left even if no greeting is set up (you just get
    "please speak after the tone").
    
    Obviously these messages will not be heard if the flashing message light
    is ignored.
    
    I wonder if this has added to the frustration and led to complaints.
    
    The answer here would be to identify these extensions and remove them
    from the system. I've already discussed this with Simon Lobar.
    
    Royston

I'm a little surprised that there has been no "official"
word on this yet, but then, the system hasn't been
switched off.



	Ian

    Be not surprised, the Project Manager for Voicemail has had other
    things on his mind for the last few days!
    
    Simon will be sorting out Voicemail when he gets back from paternity
    leave and before he departs Digital at the end of the month.  In the
    meantime, as stated in .1, if you have concerns, please talk to your
    Manager.
    
    Jon