2005 President's QSA Winner: Project Services Team

ABC has found a hit TV show with "Extreme Home Makeover."

If they go in search of a spinoff (and isn’t that what always happens with successful reality shows?), their answer just might be found here at UC.

Remaking campus spaces in amazing ways is the specialty of Facilities Management’s Project Services Team, a winner of the 2005 President’s Quality Service Awards.

The 12-member team specializes in small-scale jobs that usually mean a lot to the units who are in need of the work. While doing the little things is often seen as a thankless task, that is not the experience of the Project Services Team.

"Project Services has touched and interacted with almost every department on Main Campus, Clermont College and Raymond Walters College throughout the years," says Rick Wiggins, assistant vice president and director of Facilities Management East. "Our ratings and customer comments show that we provide a valuable and much needed service that exceeds our customer expectations."

When customers have been asked to evaluate their satisfaction with Project Services work on a five-point scale over the last eight years, the average score has been 4.74. Last year was the team’s second-highest overall mark in that span, with an average satisfaction score of 4.81.

"Project Services are simply some of UC’s very best people," praises Nelson Vincent, associate dean of the College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services. The team has finished a number of projects for the college, and always done a first-rate job, according to Vincent.

Members of the team include:

• Neil Armstrong, Electrician
• Dale Beile, Carpenter
• Steve Cross, Carpenter
• Bill Crone, Supervisor
• Bill Duncan, Supervisor
• Darrell Duncan, Carpenter/Painter
• Paul Gilfoyle, Electrician
• Glen Kirby, Building Trades Team Leader
• John Maupin, Electrician
• Henry Peters, Electrician
• Daniel Rigby, Carpenter/Painter
• Russell Stenger, Carpenter
• Bruce Weil, Building Trades Team Leader
• Dennis Whitener, Electrician

Among the ways the team has shown its commitment to its clients is by taking care to watch for little details that can make a difference.

When they completed a new suite in Lindner Hall for the College of Business' Executive Education program, bookcases and other touches were done in a style by the team that made the new tenants take notice. "All of these UC employees were knowledgeable, accommodating, friendly and professional. They all seemed to work with one goal in mind -- pleasing the customer!" wrote Executive Education Director Bob Veverka and Associate Director Brenda Curry.

When work was being done by the team within the UC College of Law, an interesting old photo was spotted among a pile of debris on its way to the dumpster. Rather than ignoring it, a team member retrieved it and, after determining it had some value, had it framed and presented to the staff in the college dean's office.

It turned out to be a rare shot from the 1940s of the old facade of the college building. "We were struck by (the team's) thoughfulness as well as their alertness to save a piece of our history," praises College of Law Assistant Dean Jim Schoenfeld.