In January, Facilities Management (FM) asked 4,855 campus customers to complete via e-mail its annual customer survey. Of the 664 respondents, 528 confirmed they had utilized FM services within the last year.

"Overall the results were very positive and showed improvement over the 2003 survey results," said Bob Hascall, senior associate vice president for facilities. "Although we have several areas that still need our attention, we were very pleased with the results of this survey."

In questions dealing with the appearance of the campus, 88 percent of customers rated the condition of Emory's grounds as excellent or above average, while 95 percent agreed that campus buildings and grounds are clean and well maintained. For questions related to communication, 92 percent agreed FM acknowledges routine work orders within the established goal of 72 hours, and 88 percent said FM completes tasks in a timely manner.

In addition to the survey questions, customers were encouraged to provide comments. Many took this opportunity to praise individual FM employees who work within their respective buildings.

"It was a great morale booster for our staff," Hascall said. "This information is available to every FM employee, and those who were singled out for recognition by their customers set a great example for all of us to follow."

When asked about areas needing improvement, customers indicated FM should continue to explore new ways to improve way finding and campus signage, and do a better job of task follow-up and feedback on work requests. To address the former, FM is working with Institutional Advancement's Office of Public Affairs to develop new ways to assist visitors in locating campus destinations. One such project is the updated campus map on Emory's website; another is the installation of new street signs, as well as plans to place kiosks displaying campus maps at several sites around campus. Another possibility is directional signage at key campus entrances.

Task follow-up and feedback are being addressed using the new "perpetual customer survey," developed in-house by FM's database group. Campus customers now can enter a work request for FM services directly on the FM website and track the status of their requests online. When the work order is closed, customers are sent a four-question survey to determine satisfaction with FM's overall performance. For more information about the perpetual survey, contact Jackie Langham, FM customer service manager, at 404-727-7463.

As another means to improve communication with customers, invoices and detailed billing information are now accessible from FM's website. Anyone with an Emory network ID and password can access his or her account or specific invoice information at www.fm.emory.edu .

"Customer calls have decreased significantly since making this information available on the web," said Tim Lawson, manager of financial services. "Another thing we are doing to provide more timely information to our customers is posting billing information weekly to FAS. This gives our customers the ability to review the full work description and detailed billing information of FM charges throughout the month."

When asked about other issues brought to light by the survey, Hascall said, "We need to do a much better job of educating the campus about the services we provide." FM hopes to complete an updated "Guide to Services" by September.

FM would like to express sincere appreciation to those who completed this survey. This information provides valuable input to FM's management team as it develops goals for next year and measures its achievements in striving to be the facilities service provider of choice for Emory.