# LSE New Arrivals Helpdesk

Starting to work at the New Arrivals Helpdesk during registration week. It's a fun experience, and it felt great to be able to put our skills of being student mentors, a.k.a human signposts, into good use. It is no wonder Sarah advertise this job mainly to student mentors, because we are more familiar with the whereabouts in the school.

Top Questions:

1) Where is the Accommodation Office?
- East building, second floor, E294

2) Where do I register?
- Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House building. From Old building, get out to the main street, turn left, walk along the street, Clement House is just next to the Post office.

3) How to I open a Bank Account?
- The leaflet says everything about it. For the Certificate of Registration, print out from LSEForYou, get it stamped at the SSC. There are other documents that the Bank might require.

4) How do I get to Student Service Counter?
How do I get to the Library?
How do I get to the IT Helpdesk?
etc etc etc...
- directions, directions, directions...

5) What else to do after registration, and before other inductions?
- NUS card, student discount card, bank account, medical centre, lots to do!
- Refer to the New Arrivals Website, pleaseeee...


Interesting questions:

1) Which mobile network should I get?
- Stores like the Link, Carphonewarehouse, phones4u, etc etc will provide more professional advice than we do. :-P

2) Where can I get bedlinen?
- Unexpected question, but a very crucial one.

3) Where is the toilet? (with grimace on face)
- (poor chap...)

Scenarios:

1) A guy asked the same question, "What is the time that the Graduate Admission Office is open?", for at least 8 times, 4 times to Sarah, 1 time to Michelle and 3 times to me. I can already memorize the answer, 11am - 1pm, dear.

2) There was such a hype over the registration of Lewinsky as a student in LSE. Press Office came to instruct us to contact them immediately but discreetly if we encounter any media groups, or notice any 'unusual' new arrivals. Gosh... what's with the world today? She is just like any other student, man...

3) A girl accompanied by a whole group of her family came to ask loads of questions. The interesting thing is that it is not the girl who asked, but her dad, mom and bro who did the asking, and seemed much more anxious that she did. Princess of the family I suppose.

4) A guy who kept announcing to the whole world that he has got thousands of cash in his pocket and really needs to open a bank account, although we repeatedly advice him to go to the Bank instead of telling us about how much money he has got. Posing a risk to himself.


While working at the Helpdesk, realized that the arrangements of the registration process and other inductions are not well planned.

- Students found themselves at loss of what to do, and what is next.
- Students were advised to arrive early, but they could not do anything at all until they have registered. No point to come early and be told that they are not allowed to do this and that until their regstration.
- Students face bottlenecks in most process because of lack of the tactic of 'break-and-conquer' to serve the crowds.
- Students could not get hold of computers, while all the crucial information can only be found online.

I decided to write a feedback/suggstion letter to the Student Service Centre, to suggest things and provide some constructive feedbacks. Examples are like:

- Produce a 'very-concise-checklist' of what to do
- Produce a 'step-by-step-timeline' of the important dates and events
- Produce a more user-friendly handbook to give more personal touch, instead of putting everything online, where many people do not get internet access that easily.
- Arrange the registration process such that returning students can go through the process faster and earlier, instead of insisting that everyone register on the very same day, causing bottlenecks and traffic jam. After all, I thought that we have gone all computerized and online?

Written a long feedback and suggestion letter to the SSC, hopefully they will look into the matter and take actions to improve our service to the students.

To serve is our duty, to provide top service is our initiative.