Carolina People: Theresa Silsby
“The primary directive of my team is delivering customer service, and I believe I have a great team that does that very well.”
Theresa Silsby
Director of the Business Systems Help Desk
25 years at Carolina
What does a typical day look like in your job?
I supervise a call center that supports the University’s HR, payroll, finance and reporting structure. So these days, there are a lot of Zoom meetings because we’re not in the office. Typically, my meetings start around 9:00 most mornings, but the first thing I do is log into ServiceNow, which is our ticketing system. I’ve built a dashboard so I can monitor activity to see if we have any tickets that have been assigned and check the status of things. But day-to-day, it varies. I’m part of the Employee Forum, the Equity and Inclusion Diversity Committee and the Personnel Issues Committee, so there are some days where I can be scheduled for up to seven Zoom meetings!
My motto for the past couple of years has been “roll with the punches.” The primary directive of my team is delivering customer service, and I believe I have a great team that does that very well. Life happens, and we do what we have to do to make sure customers get great service.
What is the most rewarding part of your job?
Helping people is what is important to me, and I get a lot of satisfaction from completing a task and knowing I’ve done it well for the people who are relying on me. Even if I don’t necessarily know how to fix a problem, I feel confident that I can find the person who does know. I also enjoy working with my team and helping them grow.
How are you staying connected with your team?
We’ve had more Zoom meetings, more email communications and sometimes I find myself texting people that maybe I wouldn’t have before because we would normally just talk. It’s been a bit of a struggle for me because before, I would go to someone’s office if I had a question or needed to talk through a problem. Now, I’ve learned a lot with Zoom and have been having more regular check-ins and have tried to make myself available for people if they need to reach out.
How have you been staying healthy during this time?
I’ve been following the three Ws and I think that’s very important. Following the advice that’s been given to us and recognizing that I have to do my part to protect myself and others has been the best thing I can do, I think.
How are you continuing to uphold Carolina’s mission?
I’m a hands-on manager, meaning that I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure that the customer gets what they need. For me, maintaining customer service means making myself available not only to my team, but to my customers. One of the other things I’ve committed to my team is ensuring that we get involved with a task as early as we can, which I think also upholds Carolina’s mission. Even if I don’t know much about it, I’m going to let my team know because we are on the front line with customers. I feel strongly that my team and I are customer advocates.
