Friday, June 29, 2007

Prepare to Succeed



In the world of customer service, you will have highs and lows - LOTS of both. You are constantly interacting with your customers in some form or with co-workers to serve customers or address their concerns. With each interaction you have, there will be an engagement, an interaction. It will end, and then it will begin again. On to another rush, another focus, another challenge, another success.


There is so much to be done and so many people to serve and communicate with, that individuals successful in customer service learn how to take the lesson learned from a previous interaction and apply in forward. Successful people are able to appreciate their success and use it to build confidence. People not successful, however, dwell in the prior mishaps or rude and angry customers. They lack confidence in their abilities because something could go wrong, or at one point did go wrong. They are concerned with what might be a negative attitude of a customer walking in or an issue that could arise. The mindset to have is one of opportunity, where each interaction is new. Even if the question isn't new to you, the need is often new to the customer. Each interaction is an opportunity to serve someone elseas you would like to be served. Each interaction is an opportunity for success.

When you prepare for your day, prepare to succeed. Each day brings a different opportunity to succeed, and each day we WILL have successes. Look for the opportunities, view them as such, and turn them into successes. Be prepared and embrace the opportunities to succeed when they come, andthey will come every day.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Take the Culture Ah!dit!



Please take the time to complete the Culture Ah!dit, an evaluation of how IST culture has improved and changed over the last six months.




The Culture Ah!Dit may be completed from any computer and takes about 20 minutes to complete. Please visit http://appleseed.istjuly07.sgizmo.com/ to take the survey and remember it is completely confidential.




Contact Jim at Appleseed Consulting with questions about the survey jimullman@appleseedconsulting.com.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Vilene Lusk's Daughter Chosen as Top Senior of Merit







Computer Operator Vilene Lusk's daughter Danielle was recently chosen by the Charlotte Post as a Top Senior of Merit for the graduating class of 2007. This is an award that the Charlotte Post has been giving since 1976 to recognize and celebrate achievements of graduating students. She also received a $1500 scholarship from Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and will be attending UNC Charlotte. She loves animals and plans to become a veterinarian.





Danielle attended Butler High School in Matthews and graduated on June 10, 2007. She has a GPA of 3.7 and she belonged to DECA, Key Club, Middle Eastern Dance, Junior Board, Photo Club, Honor Roll and volunteers at the Charlotte Humane Society.



Congratulations to Vilene, Danielle and their family!

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Congratulations and Farewell, Jim Kendrick!

Jim Kendrick,contractor, will retire Thursday, June 28. He has been our lead mainframe system support for 14 years. The mainframe has had just minor outage periods since Jim took over. Jim's solid understanding of both application and mainframe systems has been a great asset to the County.

We will all miss him both personally and technically.


Congratulations, Jim!



Monday, June 25, 2007

Customer Satisfaction Surveys

Our 2007 Customer Satisfaction Survey was recently e-mailed to 2,500 customers from County agencies and the City of Charlotte. The service areas included in this survey are:

- Technology Help Center
- Desktop Services
- Telecommunications
- Project Management
- CRM
- Applications/Data
- IT Purchasing

Customers were asked to complete the survey by Thursday June 28. Please remember that the service that you provide over the next week will leave the most lasting impression on our customers as they complete these surveys!

Customer Service Solutions, Inc. will provide the results when the survey is completed.

To view the Customer Satisfaction Survey, please visit http://newmeckweb/C6/ISTADMIN/Administrative%20Forms/2007ISTCSSurvey%20(3).doc.

We recently completed surveys for the following areas:

- Server
- Network Services
- SMS
- Mainframe Data Center
- Security