Service Excellence Team Minutes (10/8/19)

SERVICE EXCELLENCE TEAM

Meeting Minutes

Date: October 8, 2019

Opening: The regular meeting of the SET was held on Tuesday, October 8 2019 at 3:00 a.m.

Present:  Cara Hamilton, Kathy Brand, Brandon Rice, Laura McClain, Beth Brown, Melinda Hoover, Tim Jared, Sisireia Simmons, Aida Laham

Absent: Lori Burkett

Celebrations:

·         Cara reiterated her appreciation to all new SET members

·         Kathy reported providing excellent customer service to a student who showed up in the President’s office frustrated over difficulties with financial aid.  She got him to the proper people who could assist him.

·         Sisireia shared her experience working with the Women Build Habitat houses group last weekend.  The new homeowner plans to attend TCTC and was able to make connections with Jenni Creamer, Mandy Elmore, Donald White, Marla Cobb, and Caleb Allen.

·         Cara stated that for Customer Service Week, the Executive Staff will be giving out logo lunch boxes with an ICARE standards card reminder after the Faculty Staff meeting on October 9, 2019.  The lunch boxes will be available to all employees at each campus.  Cara reported that the SET will need to plan ahead for Customer Service Week going forward.

·         Discussion took place regarding the ASEHE (Association for Service Excellence in Higher Education) memberships and conference in June at Costal Carolina. 

·         Laura gave a positive shout out to the Budd group employee who assisted her in carrying equipment to the lab in Fulp.

Sub-Team Expectations:  Discussion took place regarding sub-team expectations.  Cara reviewed articles that she has shared that relate to the SET purpose, how to measure culture change, and the collection of data. Sub-team goal-setting, outcomes, and monitoring for success were discussed. It was determined that each sub-team was to define their goals which should be measurable and time specific.  Melinda stated she has reached out to Eileen Soisson, President of ASEHE at Coastal Carolina regarding the process they went through for their Accountability sub-team.  Melinda hopes Coastal will share their data and other helpful information.  Cara stated she would also like to know the biggest challenges Coastal faced and how they overcame them when gathering information. Melinda will report back to the group when she receives information. 

Updates from Sub Teams:

Communication: Aida Laham reported she has worked on ideas of redesigning the flip book that includes the ICARE standards, the College mission, vision, and values, and other information. Discussion took place regarding starting small with the ICARE standards and holding off on the redesign of the flip-book.  Other ideas for focusing on the ICARE standards mentioned were:

·         Adding the information to the TCTC Course Catalog,

·         Creating ICARE posters to display in all buildings on all campuses

·         Creating ICARE challenge coins,

·         Distributing badge holders with ICARE standards

·         Add a quick “shout out” to the recognition portal for to employees exhibiting ICARE standards through their jobs and create a reward system for those who earn a certain number or recognitions.

·         Using the EDGE weekly announcements to reinforce standards

Recognition: Laura stated the portal recognition information will be resent with directions on how to recognize employees.  Her sub-team will be meeting to discuss employee family days.  Future fall ideas shared were of an employee family cookout and a visit to Denver Downs Farm.  Spring ideas include employee engagement lunch and learn sessions and employee/department connections in which areas would host open house type visits. Laura also discussed adding personal shout outs to employees in the recognition portal. 

Accountability: Melinda Hoover has reached out to Coastal Carolina and will share information on what processes they went through to create guidelines for sub committees.

Measurement: Sisireia Simmons mentioned Francis Richmond, one of our TCTC success coaches, as a resource on the culture at Coastal Carolina since she previously was employed there.

Discussion took place regarding how measurement and accountability information will overlap and the information Melinda gathers from Coastal Carolina will be shared.

Talent Management: Brandon Rice reported that on October 15, 2019, the first redesigned new hire orientation will take place.  These scheduled orientations will cover lots of information about the College, including ICARE standards as discussed previously. He also mentioned PEBA information and open enrollment.

Commitment of Excellence/LEAN/Service Obstacle System: Tim Jared asked about identifying people who have previously served on sub-teams or have done similar work on LEAN.  Cara interjected that Cathy Strasser would be the best resource for him since she tracked the LEAN processes for Richard Parker.

Academic – Member At-Large, D&I, TEE:  Lori Burkett

Management: Cara Hamilton requested at the next meeting that each sub-team identify it’s members and start the process of creating goals.

Secretary: Kathy Brand

Review Decision & Action Tracking from last meeting:

Action items and Tracking reviewed and updated from the last meeting.

Confirm Next meeting – Tuesday, November 12, 2019                              

Service Excellence Team Minutes (9/10/19)

 Opening: The regular meeting of the SET was held on Tuesday, September 10, 2019 at 3:00 a.m.

Present:  Cara Hamilton, Kathy Brand, Brandon Rice, Laura McClain, Beth Brown, Melinda Hoover, Tim Jared, Sisireia Simmons

Absent: Lori Burkett, Aida Laham

Celebrations:

·         Cara welcomed the new SET members.  She shared a celebration in which she assisted a student who was attending orientation. Her friend inquired about getting his GED.  Cara took them over to the IBEST office to get information on Adult Ed, GED’s and a pathway to TCTC. Both were grateful and excited about TCTC.

·         Laura shared that one of her students came to her after completing a service-learning project sharing how it changed her bias and attitude toward the homeless community.  The experience was positive for the student, her family, and the community

·         Brandon shared how the HR team enjoyed spreading cheer throughout the campuses providing welcome back treats.

·         Melinda shared how the program IBEST instills appreciation and gratitude by writing personal thank you notes to those who assist with their class.

·         Sisireia shared how she requested to have the student radio station playing in Ruby Hicks TC Central area.  She noted that students are using this area more frequently for studying, working on group projects, relaxing, etc.

·         Tim shared how Heidi Reeves has worked beyond her normal duties to assist students interested in the CNC program.  She met with three potential students at their workplace who were interested in the CNC program to share information needed for enrollment.  She also assisted one student with the equipment funding needed to enroll.

·         Beth noted her prior background working for companies that stressed service excellence.  She stated one reason she wanted to work at TCTC was that she saw how much employees care about the students and how they always try to provided service excellence.

Cara Hamilton began the meeting reviewing the Committee Charter and the Service Excellence Strategy. She identified the purpose of the service excellence effort and the SET (Service Excellence Team). She went over the history of the SET, the development of the ICARE standards, and the consultants that assisted with training sessions.  Cara shared two books that she has found helpful explaining customer service excellence: Unleashing Excellence by Dennis Snow and Teri Yanovitch and Elevating Customer Service in Higher Education: A Practical Guide by Eileen Soisson, Heath Boice-Paree and Emily Richardson.

Kathy gave a quick overview of the SET meetings minutes and action items.  She shared a copy of the SET decisions and action tracking with new members, stating the tracking began with the first SET meeting in March of 2015 to the present. 

Cara explained that during SET meetings each sub-committee team leader gives updates/reports. She continued by sharing past examples of actions from each sub-committee that include: ICARE agreements, secret shopper, Tri-Day events, the recognition portal development, Lean Process training, and the College holiday party.  Cara stated she would send each new committee leader the chapter from Teri Yanovitch’s book that details how the sub-teams work to provide information and ensure service excellence. 

Updates from Sub Teams:

Recognition: Laura McClain shared with new members how her sub-team focuses on recognition.  She listed different ways her team has worked to provide recognition such as: Chick-fil-a Day food truck on campus, TCTC recognition cards (available in work areas) to send to people, the new recognition portal, and the SweeTCart plans.  Laura demonstrated how the recognition portal works and asked new members to use it and share feedback for tweaking prior to reminders being sent to all employees on using the portal.  Cara mentioned we might look into E-cards for recognition in the future.

Communication: Aida Laham/ Beth Brown:  Cara reported for Aida stating that she was working on revamping the ICARE standard information in a new format to distribute.  She also stated she will follow-up with Aida regarding the reprinting of recognition cards for all campus work areas.

Due to time restraints, Cara concluded the meeting by thanking everyone for being part of SET and asked that they bring ideas/reports to the October meeting with names of people who possibly would serve on their sub-committee to assist. 

*The following sub-committees for the new members are subject to change. The SET will determine which member is the best fit for each role.

Measurement: Sisireia Simmons

Accountability: Melinda Hoover

Talent Management: Brandon Rice

Commitment of Excellence/LEAN/Service Obstacle System: Tim Jared

Academic – Member At-Large, D&I, TEE:  Lori Burkett

Management: Cara Hamilton

Secretary: Kathy Brand

Review Decision & Action Tracking from last meeting:

Action items and Tracking reviewed and updated from the last meeting.

Confirm Next meeting – Tuesday, October 8, 2019