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daredogg
Mayor / Maire
Status: Idea completed

I've been with Public Mobile for 2 weeks now, and so far I'm pretty happy with my decision to switch. My registration and number porting went fairly smoothly and I only needed the help of PM's moderators twice.

 

However, my experience is not everyone's. When you read through the discussion threads, you see that help from the moderators is usually required with registration, porting of numbers and changing of plans. I notice that Community members are often tagging ALL the moderators, telling new members that @Shazia_K@Mary_M and now @Saray_O will get to them soon.

 

Here's my problem with that current trend...

 

Notifying ALL the moderators will bring attention to a specific member's issues, yes, but I'm sure it's making a lot more work for each moderator. Imagine if one of them has their day off. When they get back to work, they will have to sort through a huge pile of notifications, figuring out what's been responded to, and what has not. Maybe I'm wrong about this, but it seems having to do this "sorting" is rather time consuming at the beginning of the day. Don't we all have access to the "Latest Topics" listing? I'm sure the moderators are actively monitoring new topics and responding when they are able. The current practice of tagging all the moderator's names, seems rather redundant (and a great way to collect a bunch of bravos *sarcasm*)!

 

HERE ARE MY IDEAS:

 

1) Set up a permanent discussion thread called Protocol for Contacting Moderators in the Knowledge Base. This thread would outline the steps new members can take in getting their issues resolved. This thread could highlight the names of the current moderators and the times when they are available. It can also let new members know how to private message the moderators for account related changes.

 

2) With the idea above, could a username of @PM_Moderators be set up for when someone needs to private message the moderators? This message would go to all the moderators and once someone has responded to it, it's no longer listed as "new". With this single username, you could list it in the Protocol for Contacting Moderators discussion thread (mentioned above), telling new members to private message their phone number and PIN there for quicker assistance. This one step would eliminate the need for moderators to send the "can you please private message me your phone number" message and having to wait for a response before actually getting going on resolving the issue.

 

I think it's great there are now 3 active moderators, but wouldn't it be even better to free up their time for quickly responding to the needs of new (and old) members? For Public Mobile to continue growing, I'd imagine retaining new members and encouraging positive word of mouth would be key.

 

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading through and considering my idea! Robot Very Happy

 

26 Comments
daredogg
Mayor / Maire

@Luddite Huh?  Can you please elaborate?

Luddite
Oracle
Oracle

@daredogg Like you I was confused about tagging one or all moderators so I sent a private message to Shazia and asked her what was best. She said "tag us all".

Chaos_Scorpio
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

@Luddite so there is no procedure ... it is just tag all 3 ... 

 

I still vote for 1 tagging to get sent to all 3 ... or make them the first that show up when you choose @

 

Luddite
Oracle
Oracle

@Chaos_Scorpio I thought the same as you and was given the current "protocol"  in response. I suppose a single mail box is not much better since the incoming request must still be distributed.

 

You have probably noticed moderators responding, when available, even without tagging so it's only really necessary outside business hours.

Rockdaddy22
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

I'd rather give members a chance to help other members solve problems first. If people could contact moderators with a button, imho they'd be contacting them for all kinds of wasteful nonsense. Of course, I'm thrilled you are trying to think of ideas to help this wonderful company. 

daredogg
Mayor / Maire

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I guess ultimately, it's up to the moderators themselves to suggest improvements to PM -- I wonder if sometime down the road that the discussion board itself might be replaced with something newer anyway?!

srlawren
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité
NDesai
Oracle
Oracle

We get it that mods have to go through tons of tag notifications. That's why on their active hours, i only tag who is online that day. If its after their active hours, i tag them all since we don't know who will be on the next day. Even if they set flex hours, we never know who will be for sure online....

 

The Answered solution would help them if all members mark it solved. Oracles try their best to do it form them...but sometimes when users and mods resolve through pm, they don't exactly know if its solved or not. 

daredogg
Mayor / Maire

@NDesai I like your thinking about how to tag the moderators... makes sense!

 

I think my biggest issue is that the moderators are getting tagged multiple times in the same thread. Just this morning, I see at least two threads have the moderators tagged multiple times. In one case, two messages in a row. Last week, I tagged the moderators in a new thread only to have two users follow up and tag them again.

 

My guess is that people are "trying to be helpful" in the name of having their posts number go up, and the chance for a bravo. Yet, with the moderators tagged 3 times, it seems rather redundant, not to mention all the extra notifications to sort through.

 

I believe that new users are simply copying what other users are doing, thinking that's "protocol". I get the idea of tagging all so that one of the moderators will get it... but not ALL issues are so urgent.  That's why... again, I'm thinking a permanent thread in the knowledge base, on how to contact moderators would be very useful!  It can have the do's and do not's, such as, "if the moderators are already tagged, don't tag again"!

 

Anyway, thank you @srlawren for your "oracle stamp of approval" by notifying @Brooke_C and @David_J that you think this idea should be considered. Robot Very Happy

daredogg
Mayor / Maire

@NDesai sorry, one other thing... about "answered solutions", I do think if someone marks a thread as solved, it should lock it. I'm pretty sure this has been requested before. Sometimes it seems discussions go on and on and the original person who asked the question isn't even participating any longer, yet still getting the email notifications (if they didn't uncheck that option).

 

I do agree that when we open a discussion thread, we should also close it by clicking someone's answer as the solution. Good reminder!

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