Customer Service
During this term, I’ve decided to collect a few events that I participated in which, in my opinion, stood out from the usual services we provide.
I helped a lady preparing her visa application during a desk shift and continued to do so when the shift was done. At the end of the day I think I dedicated at least 2 hours to get all of her stuff done. In the end she paid me with warm hugs and smiles.
Since the past term, I must have had at least five sessions with this graduate student who needed help on formatting his thesis. Whenever we meet now, he keeps on thanking me repeatedly. He also told me he recommended the commons to all his friends because of how helpful this service was to him.
I find it amazing the diversity of clients that we help daily. I had this lady come over the other day to book an appointment so that she could learn the most basic interactions with a computer. We started talking about how computers changed society as we know it and how, in some way, it punishes people like her, who didn’t keep up with the changes. She then later shared with me she’d been a housewife for the last 35 years and that she had been dedicating herself to write anthropology articles from her home for the last 15 years, without possessing any of the common knowledge of using a computer that most of us take for granted. We also talked about how amazing it was, for someone who learned to write essays by counting the words that were supposed to fit in each line, when one of her papers was selected for a speech at a local college. It’s crazy, how the learning process has changed over the years and the shift towards typed over handwritten notes. Anyways, this conversation made me really relate to her life and how insecure and unsure I felt about this new learning environment that I stepped into when I decided to move to Canada. Apparently, it doesn’t really matter what the circumstances are, but if you align your practices and beliefs with fundamental values that fill up our souls then the outcome will certainly be positive.
Skills and abilities
This term I took my first DMC shifts; a major learning opportunity that I did everything I could to learn as much as possible. One of the factors that aided my training was that the shifts were mostly really quiet, that way I was able to properly focus on the challenges and other services offered in the DMC, like taking passport pictures and large format printings. I also had to get used Trello and managed to update it with a few cards, more specifically those for the AT reserve. Speaking of which, this was also my first term as an AT tutor and, although I didn’t had that many clients (one), it has been a productive term on my opinion. I learned how to use the basic tools in every software we offer and also started working on an update brochure that reflects the recent changes that the area underwent.
Given my indifference towards the DMC challenges since I first started working here, I decided to make my change of heart towards the area as my SMART goal for this semester. I think it turned out reasonably well in the end, given that I’ve only skipped two challenges, one of which got deleted with the old profiles at the desk stations :( . In general, I feel that, while I was able to keep on doing all the things that I’ve been getting it right, I was able to learn several new things that improved the service and contribution I provide at work. I have high expectations for myself next term and I hope to keep on taking the opportunities that are presented to me (like the AT tutoring was this term);the makerspace, for instance, is looking more appealing by the day as a great and new learning experience.
