“The Medgar Way,” the brand of the Customer Service Initiative, is dedicated to providing excellent customer service and is focused on satisfying the needs of our customers, students, faculty, staff and the wider community.  These workshops, a series of two, once each semester, strive to ensure that all are pleased with the service by pledging to provide our 7 core values: Professionalism, Courtesy, Reliability, Commitment, Accountability, Respect and Excellence. The objectives of the Customer Service Initiative are to assist all Administrators, Faculty and Staff, to develop and deepen their understanding of effective conversation, enhanced communication and outstanding customer service with a caring attitude while attaining a common goal to make the college the most student-centered campus in CUNY. The workshops seek to inform participants through on-going experiential practice, and to teach communication practices that demonstrates respect, courtesy and commitment in all customer service-related interactions. Exercises, using real life situations, empower participants to understand themselves and what motivates them.

CONTINUED in Objectives Section.

The objectives of this initiative are to provide professional understanding, skill and experience in the following areas:

o  Effective conversation;

o  Enhanced communication;

o  How to create a culture of service and excellence; and

o  Effective methods for calming an angry customer

Each objective was evaluated by two means, one was the workshop evaluation and the other was a personal action plan.  Each participant works in a dyad to put in place an immediate and personal action plan, called “shovel ready ideas,” to be implemented as soon as they return to their office, based on the workshop material. Each plan was evaluated by the workshop facilitators.

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CONTINUED FROM Project Description:

The Customer Service committee was formed in response to a number of correspondences received by the President from the college community, expressing unmet needs. On one such letter – from a student, spoke of a great need for some adjustments in the way we treat each other on the campus. That letter detailing lapses in civility and in professionalism is what prompted the President to convene a Customer Service Committee. Convened in January 2011 and chaired by the President, a 15-member committee was formed and was well represented by units across the campus, including faculty and staff; among them were Deans, Departmental Chairs, Administrators in Admissions, the Registrar as well as Public Safety and Facilities Management.  The President being the champion of this initiative was very clear on informing the committee of the key stakeholders being the students and employees of the college.

After careful consideration, research and exploration of the issues of the campus and initiatives across academia, the Committee coined the project, the “Customer Service Initiative-CSI”. This committee of dedicated change agents, met on a weekly basis to develop a comprehensive initiative with the introduction of guiding principles, a logo for branding and 7 core values that added to the concept of a creating a Student-Centered College–titled “The Medgar Way.” These core values were carefully defined by the committee and are currently framed and displayed throughout the college. This tactic has encouraged faculty, staff and students to consider their words and their meanings and to engage in vibrant discussions. The committee engaged and made widespread use of our community partners, each who had notable customer service initiatives.  Those partners included: TD Bank, Motor Vehicles, CUNY Kingsborough, Macy’s, CUNY Human Resources and Kings County Hospital. The committee constructed and designed a Customer Service Manual that identifies and works through all the major customer service and possible civility issues at the college.  Utilizing a hired project manager, a pedagogical train-the-trainer approach was utilized to work with the committee, produce a project timeline, coordinate the Customer Service kickoff, peer to peer Customer Service workshops, evaluation, monitoring, scheduling, updating of material for successful continuance of the initiative and the creation of a website containing information pertaining to the research and progress of the workshops.

The kick-off of the initiative included leading industry representatives in Customer Service as speakers, CUNY officials, along with promotional items to brand the initiative. It was well attended by the college community, with close to 1,000 in attendance.  The kick-off qualified the Customer Service Initiative and got immediate buy-in from employees of the college.

Shortly thereafter, we had a schedule for the 400-plus staff members of the college to attend the College’s very own tailored Customer Service Workshop, in which there were no more than two employees from the same department in one workshop. We based the scheduling on the premise that if you know someone, you will be less likely in the future to be uncivil in your interaction with them, in addition to bridging a interdepartmental gap with employees of the college. The beginning of the workshop is very heavily concentrated on engaging “ice-breakers.” The first workshop was facilitated to the President’s Executive Cabinet. A top down approach was important for the staff participants to know that their leaders have also been trained on the same material.

Since the workshops have been underway, we have trained over 200 employees in 16 peer-facilitated workshops. We have received requests from departmental heads to schedule their new employees. The workshops’ evaluations have yielded favorable feedback, from requesting more training, to identifying areas employees would like to see expanded. Illustrative of the feedback was this statement: “I was pleased with the material provided, it has expanded my view and I now see my colleagues as my customers and how I can provide more effective service.” We have also had a number of participants volunteering to assume facilitator roles in future workshops.

With the oncoming new academic year we have plans to facilitate workshops with all new hires, faculty and staff, per suggestions made by department heads and the office human resources.

As we approach the new academic year, the remainder of the employees who have not received training will be scheduled for workshops with new employees along with departmental Deans and Chairs. During this time, the employees who have participated in part one of the workshop, will advance to part two.

Although the manual is tailored to the College’s Initiative to effect change in the provision of service, ultimately creating a “Student Centered” environment, there are many elements of the initiative that can be replicated.  Other universities can duplicate the Medgar Evers College Customer Service Initiative by utilizing a committee dedicated to evaluating the customer service concerns on their individual campus, creating a manual targeted at skillfully identifying methods to resolve those concerns in their pursuit of providing excellence in customer service and maintaining civility.  Using the peer-to-peer facilitation model proved successful, based on feedback from workshop participants.

The committee decided on branding the initiative by developing and defining core values for distribution in each office in the form of a plaque, a logo, a key phrase, promotional tee shirts, umbrellas, a website to keep the campus informed on the progress of the initiative and a major kick-off event.  The promotional items were distributed to attendees of the Customer Service Kick-Off and strategic placement of the 7 core values are displayed throughout the campus along with the display of the plaques in every office. As a result, we noticed the long-term ongoing effects and buy-in from employees and students when we see them with their customer service paraphernalia around the campus. 

We are not alone among American universities in our effort to create a more respectable, accountable, and caring college community. Other universities have issued campus-wide calls for civility and compassion in reaction to individual acts of incivility, hate or abuse. Please see below for information on other College’s/Universities’ call on the need for Civility Initiatives.

Recommended Readings: Two books authored by P. M. Forni

Choose Civility: The Twenty-Five Rules of Considerate Conduct, and The Civility Solution: What To Do When People are Rude. 

Rutgers University has launched a two-year, university-wide dialogue called Project Civility whose aim is to cultivate a more civil, caring atmosphere on that campus.
http://projectcivility.rutgers.edu/
http://news.rutgers.edu/medrel/news-releases/2010/09/rutgers-project-adva-20100908/ 

University of Virginia, Civility Campaign focused on creating a culture of caring.
http://uvamagazine.org/presidents_letter/article/a_culture_of_caring/ 

California Polytechnic State University also has a Civility Campaign, a campus-wide initiative to encourage faculty, staff and students to embrace civility, be responsible, respectful and engaged community members. http://residentiallife.calpoly.edu/rl.cid/civility_campaign.html