Our client was looking for a way to make their IT department more approachable and valued by their employees. Taking from the success of the “Genius Bar” concept from Apple Stores, Y&L Help Desk leadership suggested creating something similar inside the client’s headquarters location. In working with the client, a space was allocated on one of the busiest floors of the office building and moderate construction ensued to erect an IT Genius Bar.
The “bar” was approximately 12 feet long and contained six stools on each side. The bar was manned by Y&L Help Desk Level 1 associates and every Monday there were fresh donuts on the bar and on every other Friday there was pizza to entice employees to approach the bar with any IT-related issues. Behind the bar were locked storage cabinets containing loaner laptops, additional keyboards, mouses (not the living kind), and other periphery items that employees may need.
Employees could approach the counter with any IT issues they were having with their laptops or desktops. For desktop issues, the Help Desk associate would follow them to their cubicle and address the issue. Otherwise, the Help Desk associate could troubleshoot laptop issues, load or reload software, add printers, reset passwords, etc. Needless to say, the Genius Bar was a huge success – and still is!