University telephones ring for customer friendliness

The chancellor is planning to organize a committee to look into the fractured nature of how telephones across campus are answered to make the University more customer friendly.

Chancellor Walter Wendler said on several of his community visits to drum up local enrollment to the University community members asked him to try to improve the University's handling of the phones.

Several community members told the chancellor they were either put on hold for long periods of time or transferred from person to person instead of being able to directly talk to whom they needed, he said.

In recent months, the University has become more concerned with its image. Last month, the campus shied away from what administrators said was a fractured image by instituting a logo for the entire campus because there were some 120 secondary logos being used. Administrators also added new signs to the campus that would give the University more clarity in its signage. The signs, which are still awaiting the maps to be placed in them, are larger and maroon as compared to the old metal, black signs.

Susan Ferry, executive assistant to the chancellor, said the University will look into ways to make the University's telephone etiquette responsive to students, potential students and their parents.

Ferry said many departments have machines that answer calls while others have full-time receptionists. She said one of the goals of the committee would be to come up with a plan of how to make the University's voice more streamlined and customer friendly.

Wendler said one of the goals of higher education is to continually improve upon itself and this is one area where there could be some improvements. "It's a matter of putting our best foot forward," Wendler said. " We have to make sure that we do our best to get them to the right person."

Ferry said having someone man the phones throughout the day, that way when students call during lunch hours someone would pick up, would make a big difference in how students' needs are met. As it is now, many departments close for the lunch hour, a time students are generally free.

Rusty Petty, a junior from Springfield studying advertising who answers phones in the President's Office, said he doesn't think the University's call-answering process is fractured. Petty said he gets people to whom they need when they need them.

Marlena Davis, a freshman from Chicago studying nursing, works in the Office of the Provost and said she was given instructions about how to answer the phone. "Does answering the phone really show something about the identity of the University?" Davis said. "I think it shows more about the person."