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The Evolution of an In-Person Service

Learn about running an award winning self-service studio resource during the pandemic.

By Douglas Bonilla, Communication Specialist

As many service owners can attest, running an in-person service during a pandemic is particularly daunting. It means evolving its customer support model as well as its technological underpinnings to allow your service to function in the absence of actual people on-premise. For Robin Martin, manager of Multimedia Services, ensuring the future of Studio U, the University's Sautter Award winning self-service studio resource, was the priority.

Studio U is a one-of-a-kind, professional studio on campus in which faculty and staff can book a two-hour block to generate whatever instructional video content or training and development communications they need. With its user-friendly, plug and play ethos, guests are free to record with a green screen, use a learning glass and even take advantage of screen annotation, all on their own. The goal is to provide guests all they need to record a session and have them walk away with a USB thumb drive loaded with the video they just made, ready to upload to wherever they need it. 

"In terms of its popularity before the pandemic, Studio U was available eight hours a day at 90-100% capacity each day, and all being supported by in-person staff," said Robin. "We allowed for people to drop into our office along with email and phone calls. We were used to meeting with people face-to-face, having one-on-one interactions, training them on how to use the space, and being available if they needed help in the room." 

All that needed to be rethought after March 2020. Robin directed Senior Educational Technology Specialist Treb Padula and Senior Producer-Director Jordi Olimon, who developed and maintain Studio U, to implement new safety protocols and various upgrades, which not only protected and reassured guests and staff using the studio, but improved the customer experience overall.

These revamped safety procedures included: 

  • Cleaning all points of contact following each session
  • Clearly posting cleaning checklists and safety documentation in the room
  • Requiring weekly staff testing and offering greater transparency of staff testing with clients
  • Requesting daily symptoms screening from clients using the studio, as well as staff
  • Offering socially distant in-person walk throughs, as well as remote options
  • Enforcing the rule that only one unmasked person could be in the room at a time
  • Reducing operational capacity from four two-hour sessions to two sessions per day to allow the room time to properly air out

As the team brought the studio and clients into alignment with these safety protocols, there was still some trial and error as they refined the client experience in this new environment. 

"We originally tried to do walk-throughs over Zoom or an intercom system," said Treb, "but we found it took longer and people were more confused when they couldn't get a hands-on feeling for the room or someone in the room with them to demonstrate or acknowledge their concerns. Doing a socially distant walk-through is something we can complete in half the time of doing a fully remote training session. We do have a lot of tools to support them remotely, so they do not feel alone in the room once they are in the room."

Beyond finding the right tool or level of support, it became clear that they needed to rethink the very intention of the studio's design from a technology standpoint if their newly adapted service was to be successful with clients. 

"The room was designed to be on its own network solely to control the room itself," added Treb. "Nothing needed to go out to the internet at the time when we built the room. Now, we needed to be on the internet to see outside of the space. We then worked with the campus network group, who helped get us on the network to see and control the room outside of the studio."

Adding to this hands-off, customer-centric approach, the team repurposed a security camera to add in visually monitoring and anticipating client needs. They also added an iPad to the room for room controls and troubleshooting. They set up a Google voice number for improved customer support that also worked well with the building lockdown procedures and even installed an intercom for better immediacy in live customer communications in the space.

And in addition to all of this, they even made some important upgrades to their equipment, adding 

  • a new teleprompter
  • an hdmi to USB livestream option to send feed though zoom for content specialists to monitor recordings for clients
  • annotation software to mark up the screen as needed
  • motorized learning glass legs for faster, improved room set ups
  • an online reservation system that was streamlined to be smarter and more efficient for tailored client communications (a part of Robin and Daniel Suchy's Green Belt project- more on that later) 

"By incorporating user feedback into planned updates and innovations," concluded Robin, "the Studio U team was able to make timely improvements to the service, while ensuring stability and reliability, which were key to keeping the service safe and sustainable via remote support."

It's fair to say, mission accomplished!! 

Are you interesting in booking some time at Studio U? The studio is available for booking on weekdays with two 2-hour slots daily: Monday-Friday, 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. Weekends and campus holidays are not available for scheduling at this time. Book Studio U!