Are You Being Served: Gauging Customer Service
Kristina M. Boone
Robert Furbee
Meeting customer demands is a daily task for communications units.
Documenting how well demands are met is a measure of accountability,
which is a growing concern for educational institutions. At Kansas State
University, the Department of Communications was asked to document how
internal customers perceived the department's service. Multiple methods are
employed in this effort, one of which was a census of on-campus faculty and
unclassified staff. Overall, response by these clients indicated that the
department was fulfilling its mission, servicing customers well, and
responding promptly. The census provided baseline data and helped inform
administrators about department operations. Documenting productivity is
important to administrators as the need for accountability increases.
Productivity for a communications unit often is judged by clients'
perceptions of how well the unit meets or services customer needs.
Determining how well one is servicing customers provides information for
performance documentation as well as improvement and decision-making support.
Trends or changes in client satisfaction can be identified as well, because
baseline data are established.
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ACE members Kristina M. Boone, assistant professor, and Robert Furbee,
associate professor and Head, are located in the Department of Communications
at Kansas State University. Funding for this study was provided by the
Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station, Journal number 98-255-J. This
article is based on a paper presented at the 1997 Agricultural Communicators
in Education Annual Meeting, July 1997, Cleveland, Ohio.
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