Setup your office phone for remote work by Lisa Notarianni, Telecommunications Engineer

Tip 1: Forward your campus phone to your home or cell phone:

You can open a Royal Support ticket to request that your office phone be forwarded to another number.  Please include your campus phone number that you want forwarded and the number you want it forward to.  The number you provide will ring when your campus number is dialed. Be sure to state if you would like it sent only during normal business hours (M-F 8:30am-4:30pm).

Tip 2: Send your voicemail messages to your email:

Send your voice mail messages to your email to receive “wav” file for each voice mail you receive.  This is the most efficient way to manage voice mail while working remotely.  You will not need to call into the voice mail system to check if you have messages. Please open a Royal Support ticket to request to forward your voice mail to email.  Be sure to include your office phone number and email address.

Tip 3: Alternate Greeting

You can record a temporary greeting without having to change your standard greeting. You may want to record something like “Hello, you’ve reached “John Smith”, I am currently working remotely.  Please leave your name and number and I will return your call as soon as possible.”  This helps callers know you are working and will return their call if they leave a message.

Follow these steps:

1. Call 570-941-2450
2. Enter your “ID followed by #” (enter your 4 digit phone number)
3. Enter your “Pin followed by #” (enter your voice mail password)
4. Option 4 set up options (You do not need to wait for the prompts to finish paying
5. Option 1 Greetings
6. Alternate Greeting 2
7. Press # for indefinite (no end date)
8. Follow the prompts from there to record your alternate greeting and make it the current greeting

What’s In A Word? by Kathy Boock, Tech Support Center Analyst

Have you had the unfortunate experience of a colleague misinterpreting the context to your email or text message? Clear communication is perhaps one of the biggest challenges we face when we aren’t working face to face.

A disadvantage of communicating through either email or text message is that it can’t capture the all-important non-verbal cues of in-person communication. Things like voice inflection, facial expressions and body language significantly affect how someone understands a message’s meaning. A one-word reply may seem annoyed or angry. Humor may be misunderstood or even offensive. A lengthy message may seem rambling and pointless.

Here are some best practice suggestions to keep communication effective even at a distance.

1. Determine the best method of communication for the message – Anything complex that might require further explanation should be handled with an email or a phone call.
2. Be Concise – if it takes you more than 30 seconds to type it, an email or phone call may be more appropriate.
3. Remain Professional – save the cute or funny emojis for your personal texts only.
4. Be Clear – Use texts for information that has little room for misinterpretation. Avoid attempts at humor or wit – without a lot of context, your message could get lost in translation.

Keeping these few things in mind may save you from unintended misunderstandings and keep professional relationships positive.

When you experience a computer issue, try a few basic things first – Karl Johns, Tech Support Center Analyst

• Is everything plugged in properly and connected to a power source?
• Try restarting your computer or device using a manual restart if necessary.
• If you’re getting error messages, do a quick internet search to see what others suggest (and write those error messages down in case you do need to call the TSC).
• Does your computer/tablet/phone have a pending update? Installing updates may fix your problem.

Make sure to include helpful information in your TSC phone message – Sam Falbo, Tech Support Center Analyst

When calling the Technology Support Center, please make sure to leave a message that not only includes your name and phone number, but also your Royal number and a brief description of your issue. Having this information is crucial for us to be most helpful, as it helps us to identifying several things early on.