I have been impressed by the partners who are taking my plea to get their Jump waiting lists in order before Christmas. As of today, we have 65 partners with waiting lists and a total of 309 people waiting (not much different to two weeks ago when we had 60 partners with waiting lists and 310 households waiting).
But it has also highlighted some confusion about who is responsible for removing customers from a waiting list. Our original approach was to get Alistair, who manages the transfer of Profile Form responses to individual Partner Gsheets, to remove waiters when he receives a Profile form from someone who is on a waiting list.
But what we have discovered is that this doesn’t solve the problem of waiters who fail to turn up within 7-10 days after you have notified them that you have modems in stock. Our agreed protocol for this situation is that waiters be removed from the waiting list when this occurs.
While Alistair and I will continue to help where we can, primary responsibility for waiting listing management must be with partners. Many partners use their Jump GSheets to record contact information for customers on their waiting lists and this is an excellent idea. But just as it is your responsibility to add people to the waitlist, we think you should also be primarily responsible for taking them off.
And while we are on the subject of waiting lists, I was especially impressed with the following response from Jess Thrower at Ranui Library; I suspect Jess didn’t need to rely on ChatGPT like me!
Here at Rānui,
Our waitlists aren’t clear,
But we are working on them
With full Christmas cheer.
A lot on our waitlist
Never answer their phone,
So we’ll keep trying
And get dial-tone.
We give extra time,
As much as we can,
If they don’t answer,
We make a new plan.
We reach out by email,
and we hope that they see.
When all of that fails,
We let the waitlist be.
We love to give modems,
And run out so quick!
When they ask for one,
We’re there in a tick!
Digital Inclusion Alliance Aotearoa 
At Waahi Whaanui Trust, our clients are told they will be put on a waiting list, and we will text them when they (the modems) are available. Once the text is sent to them, they are taken off the waiting list. If for some reason they say they never received a text, we ask if their contact details are correct, then we’re able to show them the message sent to them that gives the date and contact number. These modems are in demand and our text says we don’t hold on to modems for anyone….so arohamai whanau, it’s a first come first served.
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Thanks Cynthia – I like your approach. Thank you
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