On Oct. 3 at Clayton State University, the University of West Georgia’s very own publications and printing department won a gold award for Outstanding Customer Service Process Improvement Initiative.
This is a high honor for West Georgia and the director of Center for Business Excellence, Dan Lewis is very proud of the accomplishment.
“When you have the opportunity to benchmark with other institutions within the University System of Georgia (USG) and the method that you developed is selected the best— that is an honor,” said Lewis. “Having the award presented by the Chancellor reinforces that honor since all USG presidents report directly to that position.”
Praising Pub and Print for this goal, Lewis said the best part about receiving this award was “getting to see UWG’s name come up on the PowerPoint and then seeing a picture of the Publication and Printing staff” displayed at the awards ceremony.
He also said, “They did an incredible job last year of turning their operation around. Truly remarkable results created by team synergy.”
Lewis isn’t the only one who was proud of their accomplishment.
Sally Roberts, director of Pub and Print said, “The staff at P&P has worked really long and hard to come up with new print products and services and to make them available to the campus. Already the staff is serving four times as many students as we were 18 months ago.”
Another goal of the improvement project was to keep prices low for students while making P&P into a self-sufficient unit of the university. “We’re really happy with the progress and with this recognition from the Board of Regents,” said Roberts.
Even though UWG was given this accolade, the process of receiving it wasn’t easy. According to Lewis, “You have to have a process, product and employee worth bragging about!”
Pub and Print has been improving their quality of customer service since last year in June and are working hard to continue their improvements.
Roberts said, “Customer service is an ongoing process and we need your input. If you have ideas for our improvement, let us know.”
One example she mentioned last year is that students said they wanted to use their Wolf Bucks card at P&P. “Now you can. We want to make it as easy as possible for you at P&P.”
“The project focused on making the ‘quick copy process’ more efficient. By the time we finished our analysis, removed non-valued added steps, readjusted employee responsibilities and added updated technology, the process was rocking and the new products that they added were beginning to gain attraction on campus. I submitted the application for this at the end of June 2012 and we were notified in August that we were going to get an award – we just didn’t know which level,” Lewis said.
Lewis said that UWG strives every year to receive this award. He said that “the Division of Business and Finance is well aware of the customer service categories and is constantly examining more efficient and effective ways of delivering services to our students, faculty and staff.”
Not only did UWG gain one award under their belt, but they also received the award for Customer Service President and Institution of the Year.
