The Trainees for Dialogue Marketing
Source: Own Illustration
As a provider of education and training in the StädteRegion Aachen, the IT Center offers education and training positions for various professions. The trainees for dialogue marketing are primarily trained in the department “Service & Communication” and support the IT-ServiceDesk in 1st-level support by telephone, in person and in writing. Support is one of the main tasks of the trainees. In addition, however, you will also be given special tasks, write technical reports and work on projects. The administrative part of the training is facilitated and ensured by in the Finance, Human Resources & Organizational Support department. The trainees are deployed there for nine weeks.
Yasin Kalem and Daniel Malenkovic have been at the IT Center since August 2021 and are 1st year trainees, Madeline Lebrun, Kerstin Kesper and Tugce Arslan are 2nd year trainees and have been there since August 2020.
We wanted to know more and asked the trainees about their tasks.
Yasin tells us in more detail what his daily support routine looks like:
Yasin: First, I greet the employees in the chat, which we use to communicate every day, since we all work from the home office. Then I open all the important programs, log into the telephone system and open the customer chat. We process all customer inquiries in so-called tickets, where all communication with customers and the specialist department is collected and stored. Each customer inquiry is assigned to a ticket and can be processed further. The daily support routine starts with processing the tickets, answering phone calls and handling chats. In addition, it is important for me to constantly expand and improve my knowledge, which is important for support. To do this, I go through old customer inquiries and read in our documentation portal IT Center Help. Building up my knowledge helps me to be able to answer customer queries more quickly.
In my eyes, customer support can be compared to an iceberg. There is a visible part and an invisible part. The visible part is the support and the contact to the customers. The invisible part is the knowledge management, the communication in the team and the support among each other. Communication with each other and regular exchanges have become more important than ever during the pandemic. Because we learn and help each other, and that is just as important digitally as it is on site.
In addition to customer support, the trainees are responsible for tasks in the various groups of the Service & Communications department. We asked in more detail and the trainees told us about their current tasks and projects:
Janin: Yasin, what tasks do you have that go beyond the daily support routine?
Yasin: I am assigned to the IT Service Desk group and am currently revising and restructuring the DiMa area in SharePoint. I share responsibility for another task with Daniel. We look at the ratings of the articles on help.itc and try to understand what could be the reason for the negative rating. Because we are relatively new, we have a different view of the content and can perhaps understand the customer’s point of view a little better. Other tasks are, for example, writing the technical report or tasks that I think about on my own. For example, I plan to go through various training documents again to consolidate my basic knowledge. I am also very interested in improving internal processes and updating our documentation. So if something catches my eye, I communicate it to the respective team. These are tasks that are not imposed on me, but it is a contribution that helps everyone. Such own tasks belong also firmly to it.
Janin: Daniel, what tasks do you handle besides customer support? To which group are you assigned?
Daniel: I am assigned to the IT Service Desk group. In addition to customer support on the phone, via e-mail and chat, one employee is on site every day to perform identity checks for e-mail user certificates or server certificates. Before the pandemic situation, we also provided personal support. This took the form of the “meeting point for mobile devices”. We then helped users with the installation and configuration of devices, for example. At the moment, I am looking into these tasks in more detail in order to be able to train new employees for this work on site in more detail in the future. For this purpose, I am creating a presentation in order to be able to inform new employees and trainees in detail in the form of a training course.
In addition to this task, I have also been entrusted with the creation of an explanatory video. The video is intended to make it clearer how a personal mailbox is created and what needs to be taken into account when creating it. For the training of new employees such videos are very helpful. In addition, I regularly write minutes for meetings, a technical report and weekly my training records.
Janin: Kerstin, in addition to customer support, you also support the deployment planning of the “Service & Communication” department. What tasks do you take on?
Kerstin: Every week, I am in charge of comparing the calendar for on-site office assignments with the current support shifts for the week and completing the office assignments for the coming months. This ensures that there are no incorrect assignments and that all shifts are distributed correctly. Also, each of the trainees should work once a week on site. I also check this shift allocation. In addition to these tasks, I check the shift assignment of the student assistants on a weekly basis. I also keep an eye on the inbox in case someone calls in sick or otherwise needs support for shift planning.
Janin: Tugce, you support the Knowledge Management and Processes group. What are your responsibilities?
Tugce: Currently, I have been assigned the task of mapping a process in a Swimlane diagram. The process defines the handover and delivery of new and old hardware by the IT administration. To do this, I first looked at the basic structure of such a diagram and then transferred and applied it to the process.
In addition to this task, I am also responsible for the trainees’ magazine project. In this project, the trainees prepare regular presentations, about 10-15 minutes, on various topics related to the world of work. To do this, we inform ourselves through various magazine reports and then prepare the respective topic, which we present with a presentation at a department meeting.
This includes topics such as home office, time management, leadership and many more.
Janin: Madeline, your responsibilities include support tasks for the Marketing and Event Management group. With which tasks do you support the group?
Madeline: I am responsible for integrating myself into the group and expanding my knowledge. For this purpose, I arrange regular exchange appointments and take part in meetings. I also write blog posts on various topics, such as the About IT module. This is a project that we the 2nd year apprentices completed. I’m always on the lookout for new and exciting blog posts and then pass on my ideas to the group. In addition, I have been given the task of creating a Corona booklet. The booklet should graphically show which measures have been implemented within the Corona pandemic at the IT Center. In addition to these tasks, I am the trainee spokesperson and act as a mouthpiece between the trainee supervisors and the department management. I advocate for the interests of the trainees and chair our trainee roundtable. Like my trainee colleagues, I prepare regular presentations as part of the journal project, write technical reports, minutes of meetings and my weekly training report.
We would like to thank the trainees for their cooperation and the information about their tasks.
Your interest in the apprenticeship “Businesswoman and Businessman for Dialog Marketing” has now been aroused?
You can find more information on the RWTH Aachen website.
Responsible for the content of this article is Janin Vreydal.
