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Suzie Brown Wins Silver at USG Customer Service Excellence Awards

South Georgia State College’s Coordinator of Application Development Suzie Brown was named Silver Finalist at the University System of Georgia Chancellor’s Service Excellence Awards on Tuesday, October 25.  The award was presented by Chancellor Hank Huckaby during a ceremony at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville.

Brown’s project entitled, “A Ticket to Service Excellence in Technology” won in the Outstanding Service Excellence Efficiency and Effectiveness Improvement Initiative category. As part of the College’s Informational and Instructional Technology department, she was placed at the helm of creating a new system to make it easier to submit technology support requests in a more efficient way, thereby saving time and effort for everyone involved. The request tracker ticketing system was put in place and it has the ability to track requests and monitor employee task assignments, progress toward completing tasks, and task completion. Since its beginning of operation, efficiency has increased by application development reviewing and assigning ownership of 99.6% of tickets within one business day, and technical services reviewing and assigning ownership to 99.8% of tickets in one business day.

“The implementation of this system has increased the efficiency of the resolution of user issues, the effectiveness of trouble shooting user issues due to the system’s ability to archive past corrective actions, and increased the communication not only between the IIT staff and the user that is experiencing problems but also among the IIT staff members working to achieve the resolution,” says Marcus Latham, Vice President of Fiscal Affairs at South Georgia State College. “All of these results are very important because IIT operations are essential to the efficient operation of the institution, the ability of our staff to provide the desired level of customer service, and the efficient use of tax dollars.”

According to the University System’s website, this award “recognize teams, departments or divisions that designed and implemented process improvements or initiatives over the last year that significantly increased effectiveness and efficiency.” Projects were considered on the basis of improved service times, improved quality of service, and the significance of the positive impact on their customers (students, colleagues, community). Nominee's actions reflected the following four attributes: initiation, effectiveness, implementation, and institutionalization. Nominees were asked to demonstrate five attributes of service excellence: Respectful, Accessible, Informed, Supportive, and Responsive.

“I applaud Suzie for her good work and commitment to using technology to improve our practices and performance at South Georgia State College,” says Dr. Ingrid Thompson-Sellers, SGSC Interim President. “We are very fortunate to have such a talented colleague on our team, and I look forward to seeing Suzie’s continued innovations being adopted around our campuses.”

University System of Georgia Chancellor Hank Huckaby presents Suzie Brown with a Silver Award in Customer Service Excellence