At the end of 2016, SWAN surveyed its members about communication preferences and how you'd evaluate the communications outlets we've created. We also asked about services and outlets you may be interested in. After reviewing the survey and strategizing changes SWAN could make in 2017, we reviewed the plan with SWAN staff and the SWAN Board. Now we're sharing these recommendations with you. Attached to this news post, you can see the survey results, as well as the PowerPoint presentation that walks through the survey results and recommended strategies. 

To summarize, here are the short-term and long-term actions due within three months, and also by the end of December 2017:

Short-term communications actions due at end of March 2017

Help Desk and Access to SWAN Support

• Linking to the Help Desk and updating the Help info on the support website
• Re-writing language in Help Desk automated responses for opening and closing tickets
• Updating the automatic responses or updates received when SWAN staff are interacting with the ticket (submitting a question, SWAN staff working on the question, the question being answered, the ticket being closed)
• Giving directions for how to escalate a ticket all the way up to Aaron

SWAN Support Website

• Create/update staff pages
• Remove outdated documentation
• Standardized website publishing
• Links to the Help Desk and update the Help section
• Banner at top of site for updates
• Project status updates
• Update menu links

User Groups and Special Interests Groups

• Share 2017 meeting calendar
• Agree on way to share/distribute meeting updates afterwards (similar to the meeting summaries and posted video after the Quarterly? Minutes from the meeting? Notes from a note-taker? Notes from the chair?) Email lists?

Email Lists and Forums

• Consolidating email lists into MailChimp to discover analytics
• Training staff to use MailChimp
• Identifying SWAN-member audiences and how to engage with them
• Standardized information to include, as well as subject line standardization
• Transitioning the News from SWAN newsletter to a more member-focused email, and using SWANcoms, SWANcirc, SWANtech, Cataloging for specific information updates

Documentation

• Remove outdated documentation from support website
• Regularly share new documentation available through email lists, support website, and during membership meetings

Long-term actions due at end of December 2017

Help Desk and Access to SWAN Support

• Deciding how to funnel out FAQ’s and other updates/answers to the membership after a Help Desk ticket is answered
• Establishing a SWAN Service Level Agreement tied to communication: expectations for time to close a ticket and the quality of answer received
• Include a short 1-5 rating at the end of a ticket-closed form to rate the answer received
• Create more ongoing short surveys around improving SWAN support

SWAN Support Website

• Creation of and moderating forums
• Website redesign

User Groups and Special Interests Groups

• Tie-in with forums?

Email Lists and Forums

• Creation of and moderating forums
• Support website improvements and redesign

Documentation

• Plans to standardize documentation

Social Media
Accounts will be kept active and periodically updated, but this won’t be an immediate focus for 2017.

If you have questions or concerns, please email Susan Ricker, SWAN's Library Relations Specialist, at susan@swanlibraries.net.