Phone Support Ending. How will this affect Family History Center operations?
Starting on September 1, 2022, FamilySearch will provide live support to its patrons through “scheduling appointments on Google Meet” on all days of the week...The new option to schedule a live virtual appointment will replace the old phone-based support system starting on September 1, and live phone support will be discontinued at that time.
Answers
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It will increase the hours support will be available and will insure that support technicians and support missionaries will be available at the time you choose and will be able to stay until the issue is resolved. Appointments can be made on the hour and half hour and scheduled until ten minutes after the start time.
when scheduling all times will show in your local time, preventing time zone confusion. You will also get reminders emails with direct links to join and start the appointment. This will give you complete control of the appointment.
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That's all good. If I am helping a patron at the FHC and need to contact support, I use Google Meet to set up an appointment. Does the patron get the Link sent to their personal email or is it sent to the FHC email?
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When you schedule you enter the email address you want the link sent to.
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It's not working. Am getting "No times are currently available" before I can even select a day.
I was assuming for a group coming in on a set day & evening time, I should have at least one appointment setup in advance, in case a patron will need help getting their sign-in to work. Don't want them to leave disappointed and have to wait again for another time.
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I personally feel that sometimes it is not possible to schedule a time when a support team member is on to help in Family History Center issues.
I prefer that the Family History Centre first send the support team member an email stating the details of the Family History Center and then the support team member can ring them on the specific time when the support team member needs to be on to handle the issues.
Family History Centers operate on a narrow window during the day and it is very hard for them to make an appointment with support.
These thoughts are what I feel is a solution when phone supports ends.
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Is it okay to schedule a patron consultation from a FHC computer for same day and within the time frame the patron will still be at the FHC or is the patron required to schedule it on their personal device?
If the FHC staff/T&FHC at the center needs to resolve a question with no patron involvement, can they schedule with Google Meet from the FHC computers?
I guess you would have to be able to access their personal email or your own personal email from the center computer to be able to get to the link in order to use the FHC computer?
Is there a training link help article on this change?
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Yes, it is on the contact us page titled Learn More. you can use the Center email address if you are in the center.
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As an FHC director, this new process of assistance only being available via setting up an appointment is frustrating and I'm concerned that my center will continue to lose even more patrons.
I am at my center tonight (thank goodness I live close by) because one of my non-member consultants is having an issue viewing content that they have previously viewed on FS. Tonight, it seems, those records are not viewable. Could it have something to do with our "Portal button" (the green button that confirms the portal is open) and the fact that our access seems to turn on and off? We seem to be able to get into the FS Premium Websites ok, but FS Search/Catalog records that should be viewable from our FHC are tonight not viewable.
Not being able to contact FS Support during FHC shift hours does not provide "good experiences" - especially for non-member patrons.
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Thank you for your question.
Yes not being able to see some records is because of the green dot. click on the dot and wait for your center information to show, at that point you are connected. You may have to do this many times. It is a known issues and is being worked on by the engineers.
Support hours are 8am to 8pm MDT, Monday through Saturday and 1pm-8pm MDT on Sunday. Anytime during those hours, you can make an appointment. You can go to the contact us page. select North America and follow the instructions. **** Elder Richins stated above there is also a video for more help.
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