WashU IT’s mission is to provide an IT experience that leaves customers feeling confident, valued and understood. The priority is to deliver services and support that are transparent, seamless, and accessible. To put it simply: The promise is to provide technology to make the day easier, not harder.
To help deliver on that promise, WashU IT established a centralized End User Experience (EUX) team focused specifically on the customer’s IT experience. The team’s purpose is to create a more consistent, responsive, and connected service experience across the university.
The EUX Navigator Program
At the center of this effort is the EUX Navigator Program.
Each Navigator is assigned to a specific zone of the university and serves as a dedicated point of contact for the departments and units within that zone. Navigators build relationships with their customers, regularly meeting with departments to understand their priorities, business processes, technology needs and concerns.
They then bring those insights back to WashU IT, helping ensure that technology services and solutions are aligned with the needs of the university community.
When an inquiry, service issue or technology need requires additional attention, Navigators help coordinate the appropriate IT resources, facilitate escalations and maintain accountability toward resolution. Just as importantly, they keep customers informed along the way.
Navigators serve as a bridge between the university community and WashU IT—connecting people, priorities, and technology.
How the Navigator Program creates value
The Navigator Program operates across three interconnected areas:
1. Customer engagement
Navigators help customers navigate IT services, coordinate support, communicate IT initiatives and changes, and ensure departments understand how technology decisions may affect their operations.
2. Internal IT engagement
Navigators work across WashU IT to bring the customer perspective into conversations, improve processes, address recurring issues and help align IT services with business needs.
3. Customer feedback and continuous improvement
Navigators collect customer feedback, identify trends and recurring pain points, and maintain awareness of departmental initiatives, priorities, and schedules. These insights help WashU IT identify opportunities to improve services, communication, processes and the overall customer experience.
Together, these three areas give WashU IT a more complete understanding of what customers need—and create a continuous feedback loop between the university community and IT.
Navigators as a partner
For departments, a Navigator provides something simple but valuable: a dedicated IT partner who understands the business and knows how to navigate WashU IT on their behalf.
A Navigator can serve as a primary point of contact for IT initiatives, projects, services and changes, helping reduce the number of separate conversations and meetings the department might need to manage across IT.
Because Navigators work with multiple departments and across WashU IT, they can also identify opportunities to:
- Streamline processes and reduce unnecessary effort
- Connect departments with existing IT capabilities and resources
- Identify opportunities for efficiency and cost savings
- Share solutions and best practices across similar departments
- Anticipate technology needs before they become problems
- Improve communication and coordination around IT initiatives
- Ensure issues and escalations have appropriate visibility and follow-through
Navigators also use customer insights and journey mapping to better understand the experiences customers have with IT—helping identify opportunities to make those experiences simpler, more predictable and more effective.
Most importantly, the departments have someone who knows their department, understands their priorities and knows who to engage within WashU IT.