ByGeorge!

Oct. 20, 2004

A Salute to Staff on Customer Service Day

Annual Celebration Salutes GW’s Ongoing Efforts to Improve Service

By Claire Duggan

Balloons, food, music and smiles filled the Marvin Center Great Hall as more than 100 of GW’s staff assembled to receive accolades for their hard work and dedication at the third annual Customer Service Celebration Awards Ceremony.

GW’s own Colonials mascot, George, was on hand to give thanks as the staff enjoyed breakfast and ducked out just long enough to run back into the Great Hall with a GW flag as the official Olympic song played on the sound system. This year’s theme? “Going for the Gold!”

“Departments have made many improvements in customer service over the past several years, and it shows,” said Taina Shields, manager of financial emergency/emergent issues team, who heads the 21-member committee planning for the event. “This gives these departments an opportunity to do something nice for their staff, to show how much they appreciate their staff.”

In addition to recognizing the efforts of the University’s customer service employees as a whole, the celebration provided five individual awards to employees.

The University’s Presidential Administrative Fellows chose Lemoyne Miles, a service worker in Facilities/Housekeeping, with the Student’s Choice Award.

This year’s Staff Choice Award, chosen by the Committee to Celebrate Customer Service, picked Robin Imer, senior property manager in residential property management, from its list of nominees.

The Faculty Choice Award was picked by Committee to Celebrate Customer Service and was awarded to Mary Bayliss, assistant director in the finance University budget office .

SASS's Employee of the Year Award was given to Scott Bokker, events planner/SASS Athletics Department.

A team award, the Customer Service Enhancement Award, was given to Parking Services for online Web based parking registration and remote signup locations.

Larry Cohen, director of Parking Services, has been at GW for about six months now and said he knew coming into the job that he had great people on his team and that this recognition proved they lived up to his and their own standards.

“Customers leave our offices feeling good,” Cohen said. “And to think that they probably didn’t even want to be there in the first place, paying for parking, and yet they leave satisfied. Wow.”

Miles, winner of the Student’s Choice Award, has been working in Facilities and Housekeeping for four years and works specifically on the Marvin Center’s fourth floor where student groups work.

“It really means so much to me, it’s not an easy job,” Miles said. “It’s wonderful to know my work has not gone unnoticed.”

The students she has gotten to know say they love her great attitude and smile. Miles said she enjoys all of the students and each year, tries to learn all of their names.

The ceremony kicked off the all-day event that not only provided recognition to the University’s customer service staff for their hard work, but also included training sessions to keep the momentum going in the right direction.


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