Anyone here work in University professional services?

[credibiliti]

I do. I'm just wondering how usual or unusual this is. We have one IT system for all of our incoming enquiries, from students or alumni or potential students or public/press enquiries, etc. Instead of having a central helpdesk team who can handle the bulk of them (like my previous institution had), and passing on more difficult cases, they rely on enquirers choosing the right enquiry type from a long list, so it automatically goes to the correct one of about 15 different teams. But the list is so long and complicated, people often choose wrongly, so their enquiry is misdirected. Then it has to be redirected by someone, and sometimes gets bounced around before it gets to the right team. Sometimes they get lost in the system for a while, and it negatively impacts service levels. I've mentioned to people how it was done at my old place, because i thought it worked better, but they seem to prefer it this way. Is it an unusual process for a university helpdesk? How does your uni handle enquiries?

That sounds completely nuts. Wouldn’t current students be emailing the relevant department/person directly if they had an enquiry? And don’t potential students contact the Admissions department? Are you saying all of these enquiries are done through the same “contact us” form or same email inbox?

Sounds like the uni I used to attend- it going to the right place partially depended on what “help” article you submitted the query on iirc

Where I am enquirers usually contact the relevant department or area if they find it on the website; most have "contact us" forms so they are coming to the right place. If they don't always know the email address, say they are enquiring for the first time, there is an enquiry form and the central phone numbers are freely available. The Enquiries team merged with Admissions some years ago, and enquiries not related to course admissions are passed on to other departments by email.

Thanks all. We just have a link to one form, but if they're a logged-in student I think it recognises that and they're given a different list of questions to, say, applicants or unrecognised enquirers. But otherwise it's just one form.