Augusta University Online on Choosing Mojo Helpdesk for Higher Education

Kris:

Hi, everyone, and welcome to today's customer spotlight. We're lucky to have Jessica Driver with us, formerly the instructional Technology Lead at Augusta University Online. She gave a fantastic presentation at the Distance Learning Administration Conference in Georgia back in July. And after talking with her, I remember thinking we need to share the story with a larger audience.

Fast forward to today, and here we are recording this conversation so even more people can hear how Augusta University Online transformed its support operations with Mojo Helpdesk. For a bit of context, Mojo Helpdesk is used by schools around the world from K-12 districts to large universities to streamline support, reduce response times, and give teams a simple centralized place to manage requests. AUO is a great example of how higher ed teams can use Mojo to handle high volume inquiries with small agile teams.

For this conversation, we'll walk through what support looked like before Mojo Helpdesk, how AUO recognized the need for something new, why Mojo stood out, and what the implementation process was like, and of course, the outcomes, lessons learned, and any advice Jessica has for teams in a similar spot. Jessica, thank you so much for joining me. Before we dive in, could we start by introducing yourself and giving a quick overview of Augusta University Online?

Jessica:

Yes, thank you so much for that warm welcome, Kris. I am Jessica Driver. Like she stated, I'm the previous Instructional Technology Coordinator at Augusta University Online.

This is one of the highlights of my time there was leading the implementation of Mojo Helpdesk. It quickly became one of my favorite projects because I love creating something that's streamlined, practical, and truly helpful for everyone that used it every day.

As far as I'm concerned, I have been in education for approximately twenty years, working both in K-12 and higher ed. Though most of my career has been in K-12. For approximately sixteen years of that, I have been working as an Instructional Technology Coordinator, whether it was in K-12 or higher end.

A couple months ago, a position opened at a nearby high school that really spoke to me which is the Graduation Coach role. It felt like the perfect opportunity to do something I've always loved, which is cheering students on, helping them grow their skills, and guiding them as they figure out their plans after high school. So it's been a wonderful transition and feels very aligned with the heart of the work that I've done throughout my career.

Kris:

Congratulations on the new role, Jessica. It really does sound like the perfect fit, bringing together everything you've learned across K-12 and higher ed and channeling that into supporting students.

And honestly, it's no surprise that you agreed to join us today. Helping others learn and grow comes naturally to you.

So let's rewind a bit. AUO officially launched in the fall of 2023. Please tell us more.

Jessica:

AUO officially launched in fall of 2023. It has been growing quickly ever since. We started with just a few fully online programs and steadily built out a foundation for high quality online learning. How it works is our instructional design team partners closely with faculty and content experts to create courses that are engaging, accessible, and align with our student needs. Since that launch, AUO has expanded to seven fully online degree programs with two more set to launch in January. That's a big part of why implementing Mojo Helpdesk was so important for us. It helped streamline communication, improve response times, and gave our team the tools we needed to support a rapidly expanding online community.

Kris:

Thank you for that, Jessica. So what did support look like in those early days before Mojo Helpdesk came into the picture?

Jessica:

So in the early days, which on my presentation, there's a slide that has, like, all of these post-it notes all around because, well, that's what it was. We were having a mix of answering emails and trying to track everything in an Excel spreadsheet.

So as we know, that becomes overwhelming really quickly. And as we started growing, it was clear to us that that system just wasn't going to keep up. And we needed something that was organized and scalable, which eventually led us to Mojo Helpdesk.

Kris:

Was there a specific moment that made you think, in all that chaos, that we have to make a change?

Jessica:

Well, I think my leadership team wanted to make a change before we actually did, but there definitely was a moment.

We had a transition in our student success team, and so that really opened everyone's eyes as to how much we were relying on processes that just weren't sustainable. So when that happened, our leadership recognized that to be the perfect time to rethink of how we were tracking student issues, and that's when the conversation began moving to a more organized system, and that's when it really took off.

Kris:

So things were a little chaotic, but functional, but extremely difficult to manage at scale. So then you recognize that need. How then did you start looking for a better solution?

Jessica:

So once we realized we needed a better system, the search actually was pretty natural. One of our leaders, Corey, he had used Mojo Helpdesk at a previous institution and had nothing but great things to say about it. So that immediately put it on our radar.

And then what really sold us was the ability to personalize the setup while keeping everything super simple for the end user.

We were even able to take the "categories" that we used in our Excel spreadsheet and use them as our starting point to build a form that was tailored specifically to our student and faculty needs. It felt like a tool that can grow with us rather than something that we were gonna have to work around in the system.

Kris:

What were the must haves on your list when choosing a help desk system?

Jessica:

The must haves were pretty straightforward. We needed something that was easy to set up, easy to use, and something that would grow with us over time. And, of course, it had to be cost effective.

So we didn't want a system that was gonna create more work. We wanted something that was generally going to simplify things for both our team and our end users.

Kris:

It sounds like Mojo checked a lot of those boxes. What stood out about Mojo Helpdesk when you compared it to other systems?

Jessica:

So what stood out to us was how easy it was to set up and personalize.

So a lot of these systems are very, very heavy and overly complex, but Mojo Helpdesk let us build out something that fit exactly what we need. And honestly, the Mojo bots, they were a game changer. Being able to automate the parts of the workflow of the system made it feel like practically runs itself now. It saved us a lot of time and allowed for us to create a system that runs a lot smoother.

Kris:

Absolutely. Mojo bots are incredibly powerful, and we'll definitely dive into that a bit more in a moment.So once you made the decision to go with Mojo Help Desk, the next challenge was bringing it to life. Can you walk us through the implementation process?

Jessica:

So I am a planner at heart, and you can ask anybody in my family. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I'm the one that plans everything out. This was my dream job of creating the plan for this.

When we began planning our help desk configuration, my goal was to make it as logical and efficient as possible. I'm always thinking about the quickest, clearest path to the end result, and I wanted that experience for our end users too.

We ultimately decided to create one ticket for our students and one ticket for our faculty. From there, the ticket branches out based on the category they choose, so this allows for them, for us, to ask specific follow-up questions we need. The setup really reduces the cognitive load for our users. They don't have to choose from a long list of ticket types. They always start in one simple place.

After that, we mapped out who handles what. Each ticket category routes the ticket directly to the right agent, so everything goes exactly where they need where it needs to go from the start. So this created a clean, streamlined workflow that works well both for our team and our users.

Kris:

As you were setting up Mojo, did you reach out to the Mojo team for support?

Jessica:

So I did, and Ron is amazing. Every time I wanted to include something that I was like, I can't figure out this one part, I would set up a meeting with Ron and he was always happy to hop on and us talk through it. So I did connect with y'all's customer support manager, Ron, a few times at the start and actually throughout the whole implementation. So he would walk me through figuring out things. Other than that, it was very intuitive and really easy for me to figure out on my own.

Kris:

Right. The learning curve with Mojo Helpdesk is pretty minimal, and I imagine having support in the same time zone definitely made it easier to get quick answers. So once everything was mapped out and you were ready to launch, I remember you mentioned that you rolled it out to students first instead of faculty. That's a very interesting approach. Can you talk a little bit more about why you started with students?

Jessica:

Absolutely. So we started with students because of transition that was happening in our student success team. It made a lot of sense for us to focus on giving the students the direct support and structure that they needed right away. And honestly, the timing worked out perfectly. So it lined up specifically with our new student orientations.

So introducing this more organized system just felt natural to us. Not long after that, our faculty were up and running too, but the students were definitely the priority in the early days.

Kris:

Another interesting thing that you said during your presentation was you invited your team to try to break the system. Can you walk us through that testing process?

Jessica:

Sure thing. So I think it's funny that I say try to break the system because that's what we tried to do. So once I had the form set up, I sent it out to our team and asked them to submit tickets to the different categories. I wanted to make sure that I hadn't missed anything as far as the setup was concerned. So branching, we have the questions, we have the automations, and I wanted to make sure that was working the exact way that we intended.

We also checked that each ticket was routed to the correct agent. Since that's such a big part of the workflow and making it smooth, we wanted to do that internally so it helped us catch and fix any issues before rolling it out to our students, which in turn gave us a lot more confidence going into the launch.

Kris:

And when you first introduced Mojo Helpdesk to the broader team, how did you help everyone adjust to working in a new system after relying on email for so long?

Jessica:

Well, we always know whenever you implement anything new, everybody kind of like freaks out to begin with, and then they come over to the other side.

But overall, the transition went pretty smoothly because we introduced Mojo Helpdesk right as our new students were coming in. The students adopted it quickly. They were up and running in no time, and it was the only system that our new students ever knew. As far as our existing students, we made it easy because we put a link to the form directly in their courses so they had that access right in their courses.

We also set up an automatic reply on our old email system, so that redirected them to the Mojo Helpdesk form. So that gave them a little gentle nudge that helped them shift towards the new workflow without overwhelming them. And before long, the whole team was just naturally using it.

Kris:

It's great to hear that the team picked it up so quickly and started using Mojo Helpdesk so naturally. So once the foundation was built and the help desk team was trained, you focus on building the knowledge base and some automations. Let's talk about Mojo bots first. How did you decide what kind of Mojo bot to set up first?

Jessica:

So the first thing I focused on was making sure that the tickets were being routed to the correct agent. That was the biggest priority because if routing isn't set up correctly, then nothing else works really the way it should. So once I made sure that I had all of that in place, we moved to automating and the tagging, like assigning the correct program and category. So this helped us keep everything organized and made reporting a lot easier down the line.

Kris:

That's awesome. It sounds like the Mojo bot not only saved your team time, but it also made sure nothing slipped through the cracks. Now let's talk about launch week. What was that like?

Jessica:

So launch week was pretty easy for us because it started with our new students. So they didn't have any type of preconceived notion of what we used beforehand. So adopting Mojo was very natural for them.

I also put a very short walkthrough video of what to expect when submitting a ticket, so that helps set them up for success right away. On the staff side, I met with staff ahead of time to walk them through the ticket stages and how to interact with tickets in the system. That way, everyone felt confident before students even started using it. All of that prep made launch week feel like it was really seamless.

Kris:

Were there any unexpected hiccups or moments of relief, things that told you right away that this was working?

Jessica:

So the moments of relief were seeing how quickly tickets were being handled from the start. The turnaround time improved almost immediately, and then the five star ratings, because I am a nerd at heart. And so whenever I got a five star rating, it was like this little boost of dopamine, I think.

When those started rolling in, it was such a boost for our team. It was one of those instant confirmations that the system was doing exactly what we had hoped it would.

Kris:

As someone who also works tickets on our help desk, I completely agree with you about that boost of dopamine when you get a five star rating. Now let's talk about the knowledge base. Did you have any existing documentation?

Jessica:

Yes. We had definitely started building some documentation that we built our knowledge base off of.

Kris:

The knowledge base is a big undertaking by itself. How did you approach this project?

Jessica:

So it was a true collaboration. Corey, our AVP, really took the lead on building out the knowledge base. We worked closely together to make sure that we were addressing all of the pain points that we had anticipated. We spent a lot of time thinking through what students versus faculty would mean, which led us to create two separate topics, one for students and one for faculty. That made it easy to tailor the articles to each group and ensured everyone had clear, relevant resources from the start.

Kris:

So you started by implementing Mojo with students first and then rolled it out to faculty. I know your presentation also mentioned that other departments have taken notice of your team's success with Mojo Helpdesk. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

Jessica:

I'd love to. Yes. The College of Education and Human Development noticed how well Mojo was working for us and reached out because they wanted to implement something similar for their department.

I worked with their dean and a few key team members to build out their system. It was really rewarding to see how quickly they were able to benefit from it. They now use Mojo to track student issues and streamline several of their internal processes, which has made a noticeable difference in their team as well.

Kris:

That's good. Was there any resistance at all to using Mojo?

Jessica:

Oh, of course. Because anytime you introduce a new system, there's always gonna be a little resistance at first. That's just natural when people are used to doing things a certain way because, you know, you know the saying, don't move my cheese.

But once we got over that initial hump and everyone saw how much smoother mojo made things, the hesitation quickly faded. After that, it was very easy system for everyone to get behind.

Kris:

What are the lessons you've taken away from this process?

Jessica:

So I'm gonna talk about three. Thing one is having a strong foundation from the very beginning. That makes all the difference. Knowing your end goal and what you're actually trying to accomplish. That gives you a solid framework to build from and helps you stay focused during the build.

Secondly, paying attention to the system name component. That is huge because when you're setting up your Mojo bots, you tie it to the system name. So if it's something that is not easy to read or to understand, then you're not going to tie it to the correct portion. Then your Mojo bots aren't going to work correctly, and then you're going to get frustrated.

One thing I learned from my own mistakes is making sure that the system name is something that I am able to quickly understand which portion of the form I'm talking about.

And then the other one is making sure you know who your key players are and that they're involved early in the process. So I found that their input is crucial. When they feel like they're truly a part of the build, they're more invested, and you end up creating a system that actually meets their needs, and that buy-in makes the entire transition so much smoother.

Kris:

Absolutely. That makes so much sense. Getting your key players involved early is huge. Looking back, what's something you wish you'd known before starting implementation?

Jessica:

Oh, Kris, you're making me think very far back.

Honestly, the one thing I wish I'd known from the start was just how supported that we were going to feel throughout the whole process. Ron and the Mojo team did an incredible job walking us through the implementation.

Customer service was fantastic and really gave me the confidence to kind of push the envelope and make sure the system met every single one of our needs. Looking back, that level of support, it made all the difference in the world.

Kris:

That's great to hear, Jessica. I'm sure Ron and the entire support team are smiling ear to ear right now. Okay. So what's one thing your team did that you think made the biggest difference in your success?

Jessica:

I think the biggest difference came from the fact that our whole team decided to go all in with Mojo from the start. That collective buy in was huge for our success. And I also made it a priority to support the team in every step of the way, which helped everyone feel comfortable and confident using the system. And honestly, that confidence came from the support I received from the Mojo team, and it just trickled down in the best way.

Kris:

Thank you so much, Jessica, for sharing your thoughts. From Mojo bots that streamline workflows to the built in knowledge base that empowers users to help themselves, Mojo makes it easy to reduce manual work, speed up response times, and create a smoother support experience for students and staff alike. Your team really took advantage of all the great features Mojo offers. And in your presentation, I loved what you said. A small team with the right tools can make a big impact. Before we wrap up, Jessica, I'd love to give you a chance to share any final thoughts, tips, or lessons learned to other teams considering Mojo Helpdesk.

Jessica:

So first off, I wanna talk about how when I said at the start that this really was one of my most favorite implementations, you're talking about 20 years of implementations that I've done, and I've truly enjoyed it. Actually, I'm currently contracting with another university to implement Mojo for them, so that's awesome for me.

But the three things that I would say is having your strong foundation when you're getting started so you know exactly what you want to accomplish. Knowing your key players so the staff that you want to be involved are involved and you have their input.

And then developing your strong implementation plan. So when you're driving forward and implementing this, you have a very good plan of where you're going to end up after you have implemented Mojo Helpdesk.

Kris:

For anyone who wants to learn more, you can connect with Jessica Driver directly on LinkedIn. We'll also include a link to her full presentation from the Distance Learning Administration conference. We hope this conversation gave you actionable ideas and inspiration for making your own support operations more efficient, effective, and user friendly with Mojo Helpdesk.