Customer Service Excellence Award – Individual

These awards recognize the individuals and teams who have demonstrated outstanding, "above and beyond" service to the citizens and customers of the state of Georgia over the last year. Nominee's actions must reflect all five of the customer service attributes: COURTEOUS, HELPFUL, ACCESSIBLE, RESPONSIVE, and KNOWLEDGEABLE

Describe how your nominee demonstrates consistently high levels of performance while accomplishing normal job responsibilities.

  • Describe how the nominee is a role model for customer service for the University System of Georgia and the State of Georgia. Briefly explain the nominee's responsibilities.
  • Establish a history of exceptional performance on the part of the nominee. Include records of outstanding performance, such as high scores on customer comment cards or letters from customers and peers. Be sure to address all criteria for the specific award category.

There are some nominations you are asked to submit; there are some nominations you feel are import to submit; but there only a few nominations you feel compelled to submit, and this is one of those. This isa great story about an incredible maintenance worker at Georgia Southern University named Bobby Allen.

I have patiently waited to share this story with you. Why the wait? Bobby just obtained his full-time status. He can now officially be considered for this prestigious award. Prior to that time (6 years to be exact), Bobby has served our university in a temporary status, but he has had more than a temporary effect on us all. If you took a survey over the past 6 years from all Housing residents, all of our Community Leaders, all support staff, anyone whom might have entered ahousing complex, and asked them who they remembered most, who was the most helpful, who was the most dynamic, who worked the hardest, and who was the most genuine, I am confident (I am even bold enough to say with certainty) that Bobby Allens' name would echo through the halls.

Since I have knownBobby, he has served as the Moving Coordinator. As most of you know, Housing is a department that loves to move around - from student belongings and unauthorized pets, to both old and new appliances, even vehicles, furniture (both wet and dry - thank you student floods), tents, stages, ... this list could go on and on. You name it and Bobby has moved it.

At Georgia Southern, students move in on one day. It is an amazingfeat considering 4,000 students converge onto our residence halls in one day. What is Bobby doing during this day? It is easier to ask - What isn't Bobby doing on this day? Bobby is the guy who you see in a white state vehicle at 4am placing directional signs along the roadways so that our students and parents do not get lost. Bobby is the guy that sets up the tents for our volunteers to stand under so that they can get a little shade to escape the insufferable August heat. Bobby is the guy that makes sure the day is easy on this whole campus, and because he does it all before the sun rises, the campus population does not see the hard work, but it does not go unnoticed by anyone.

An example, one year during move in, Bobby arrived at his typical 4am to get the day moving forward for our students. (Note: Bobby worked 10 straight days previous.) After everyone was moved in and the halls were buzzing once again with activities, 16 hours after Bobby got started, he was still on campus because our students still needed assistance moving in. Bobby was still making deliveries and dropping off supplies. That day, Bobby received over 300 calls to his radio (radio #30)and went through 2 cell phone batteries. He must have assisted all students and parents in some form that day. After all this, I hear the Dispatcher make a call, "Dispatcher to Radio 30.” Bobby responds, “This is radio 30, bring it on!”

Bobby is also the guy that this university has come to depend on in a crisis. During a flood in the residence hall, Bobby comes to the rescue bringing people, supplies, and equipment so that our students and their valuables are safe and dry.

On most days, Bobby is the guy who has his radio in one hand listening to a caller's needs, on the cell phone trying to figure out this caller's needs, pencil in hand making notes, and helping the people impatiently waiting who are trying to catch his attention. And that's on a slow day! Bobby loves the chaos and always has a smile on his face while serving his customers. If you were to check phone logs, hands down, Bobby would win the prize for most calls received.

Describe how this nominee's actions/accomplishments go above and beyond normal job duties.

  • Describe how the nominee has taken on additional responsibilities, making improvements in the way service is delivered, or giving personal time and resources to serve customers.
  • Include specific examples, how success was measured (baseline measures and current performance measures that demonstrate improvement), results of service, and the time frame when service was provided. Be sure to address all criteria for the specific award category.
  • New criteria this Year! Please include the nominee's internal customer service performance that resulted in improved employee satisfaction for other state employees and/or facilitated their internal customers' ability to provide improved service to their own customers.
  • Awards or honors already given for this effort

I have read the ingredients that make up this prestigious recognition: excellence, masters the job, goal oriented, extends beyond the call of duty, outstanding job performance, resourceful, customer focused and dedicated. If you were to open a compass that was designed to lead someone to an individual like this, the needle would point directly at Bobby.

Take last Friday as an example. Bobby and his crew worked all day long sorting through the bikes on campus that were left by the students who moved out 3 weeks previously. Bobby’s team started early in the morning, cutting off and moving the bikes for storage. The bikes are then donated to a local charity. As Bobby was loading the bikes, a girl came to our offices thinking that her bike had been stolen. Bobby immediately stopped what he was doing and helped the girl search for her missing bike. This task took Bobby out of the field for about an hour, but he wouldn’t stop searching for the missing bike. When we finally figured out that the bike was in fact stolen before Bobby and his crew began working, he was so disappointed that he couldn’t find the girls bike. After taking a long time searching for the missing bike, the sun slowly set, and Bobby hadn’t finished collecting all the bikes. Bobby kept on working, he had to clock out to keep his time card straight, but that didn’t stop Bobby from working. Not only did he want the residence halls pristine for the students returning to campus for summer school, but he wanted to make sure every possible bike was donated for charity. If that meant he would have to go without pay, then that is what that meant. Bobby had a job to do, and 5:00pm on Friday afternoon was not going to stop him.

Always looking for ways to improve, Bobby is a leader within this department, and chooses to lead by example. He supervises students, professional staff members, custodians, basically anyone working with the job. No matter who he works with, he is always the constant professional.

It is hard to write this nomination in a typical format because of the type of story this happens to be. It has to be unpackaged correctly: each page has to be read slowly (and sometimes twice because of its meaning), every chapter is a testimony, every pause in reading would have to be applauded, and every description about Bobby would have to be viewed as genuine. Bobby is compassionate, loyal, inspiring, human, and a “hard to put down best seller.”

I hope you have enjoyed reading some of the cool stories about this remarkable employee. He definitely has moved to the best seller list within our housing family and our university at large. Here’s a strong thumbs up to one of the most beloved and respected employees on campus.