Southern Utah University Quality Service Committee

Southern Utah University (SUU) Cares About Quality Service

The Quality Service Committee at SUU was created to assist with student recruitment and retention, and also to reward faculty and staff for quality service. It is easier to have happy customers when you have happy employees.
Faculty and staff at SUU care about student success. Students are reminded of important deadlines just by logging into their MySUU Portal on the website. Faculty help students when they get stuck on certain problems; administrators help students to stay enrolled through mentoring with encouragement and caring; and staff contribute to scholarship funds to be awarded to students who can use the financial assistance.  Faculty and staff are friendly and interested in what happens to their students, even after the students graduate and go on to their career. Many offices on campus hire student staff to help them stay enrolled in school.  Facilities Management hires over 200 students. Students are happy to have jobs and Facilities Management is happy to have the help.
Quality Service Lesson:  Help your customers to stay engaged.


Random Acts of Kindness (RAK)
Quality Service means making others feel special. Let's perform a Random Act of Kindness every day in December to celebrate the many religious holidays in that month. It could be something as simple as putting a random note on a car windshield, or taping a dollar on a snack machine, or buying someone else's lunch, or just giving someone a nice compliment - anything that makes someone else feel special.  Feel free to tweet about it using #RAKHoHoHo. 

Along that vein, SUU's Quality Service Committee hands out candy bars whenever someone does a special service for somebody on campus. That's gotta make you smile! Anyone can fill out a Red Handed Award and then the Quality Service Committee members deliver the delicious reward and comments from the nominator to the person nominated. Quality Service Lesson:  Make your customers feel special with treats!

Subway's Customer Appreciation
The other day, I went to Subway to get my favorite sub sandwich and the gentleman behind the counter said, "It's Customer Appreciation Day, so you can buy one sandwich and get one free." Anyone who knows me knows that I can't resist BOGO! So, I paid for two sandwiches and got two extra sandwiches FREE so I could feed my three student employees. So, Subway's Random Act of Kindness towards me turned into a Random Act of Kindness to my student staff. They were very happy and I was very happy that I could treat them and it only cost me for two sandwiches. Thanks Subway! Quality Service Lesson:  Show your customers that you appreciate them. They will appreciate your gesture and will most likely do your advertising for you on social media!

Cindy's favorite sandwich:  Turkey, provolone, lettuce, tomatoes, banana peppers, mayo, salt & pepper on 9 grain bread.    

Thanks to all the companies and individuals who provided Quality Service Lessons for inclusion in my blog!

Remember - every day is Aloha Friday! Take the Aloha Spirit with you wherever you go and make it a good one!

Southern Utah University, Li Hing Mui, and Zappos!

Li Hing Mui - Yum!
Growing up in Hawaii, I learned to love certain foods that might gross out my friends on the mainland. Whenever we went to the movie in Waikiki - this was before the Waikiki Three was built - we would go to the cracked seed store right next door to the theater and buy our treats for the movie. They sold items like li hing mui (dried cherry), dried squid, cuttlefish, mochi crunch and other yummy things.  Once, I was eating li hing mui at my desk when I worked for Clark County Parks and Recreation and my friend Kelly asked if she could have one. I asked if she was sure she wanted to try one and she didn't seem to understand what I meant. So, I gave her one and she popped it in her mouth and then she spit it in the trash and asked why I would do that to a friend. I couldn't answer because I was laughing so hard.  Her face was priceless. I wish I had a picture now!  Anyway, if you grew up in Hawaii and now live on the mainland like I do, you probably crave such foods.  My sister Momi told me about her li hing mui dealer. She sells these yummy snacks on ebay and here is her link. The reason we both like her is because she sells a quality product at a reasonable price and then she adds that Special Touch! You not only get what you ordered and on time, but you get a personalized note wishing you happy snacking and she also includes some tasty samples of other products that she sells. Isn't that perfect?  By including the personal touch and adding some samples, she is promoting goodwill AND her business.  Quality Service Lesson:  Add that Special Touch and promote your business at the same time.

Zappos sells shoes AND Quality Service

Llama Land

SUU VP on a purple elephant

The Southern Utah University Quality Service Committee took a tour of Zappos to see how they consistently provided quality service. Well, we got lucky, because it was Employee Appreciation Day when we went to visit their facility in Las Vegas. What a blast! They had a live llama and a python for employee photo opportunities and they had all these cool motorized animals that you could ride around the parking lot. They gave away t-shirts and food and you could take a picture with a crown on because you were queen (or king) for a day. They invited us to join in the festivities, so we did! It was so much fun. They do a variety of things to keep their employees happy because they realize that happy employees give better service. It is hard to sit in a call center all day long, answering questions and taking orders and making others happy if you don't feel happy yourself. Well, Zappos has it figured out. Employees can decorate their cubicles however they want and they have team activities and a variety of other ways to keep employees happy to be at Zappos. Good job Zappos!  Quality Service Lesson:  Keep your employees happy so they will keep your customers happy!

Monty Python and Me

Southern Utah University (SUU) professors want students to succeed!

Not only do the professors at SUU have terminal degrees, but they really care about their students.

When I signed up for the Spring Semester at SUU to continue my capstone work for my Professional Communication Master's, I thought I was supposed to sign up for Capstone Continuance. Come to find out, Capstone Continuance is for the circumstance of having to continue your capstone if you don't complete it in two semesters. Dr. Barton, Associate Professor of Communication, e-mailed me and explained everything to me so I could sign up and get the right credit. That was so nice!  Throughout pursuit of my master's degree, I have not taken a class from a professor that disappointed me. Ellen Treanor has taught me so much about Social Media. I feel I could successfully run a marketing campaign through social media with all that she has taught me. I never realized all the platforms that were available.  I took a Statistics class from Dr. Husselbee and was lost at first, but I called him and he said I could come right up to his office and he clarified what was keeping me from understanding and I ended up getting an A in that class. He had me write a personal moral theory in his ethics class that I try to live by every day. He used experiential learning in the applied audiences seminar so that now I have experience conducting a focus group and an on-line survey.  Dr. Dubrasky in the English Department taught me creative writing which turned out to be one of my favorite classes. I learned so much in that class.  Working and getting a degree at Southern Utah University has been one of the best experiences of my life.  Quality Service Lesson:  Care about your customers. They will appreciate it and will remember that you cared and they will do your advertising for you.

Remember - every day is Aloha Friday! Take the Aloha Spirit with you wherever you go and make it a good one!

What happens in Vegas . . . again!

Chicken Adobo Recipe
Adobo is one of the more popular dishes in Hawaii. It is a Filipino dish (not Hawaiian) and everybody loves it. Here is a recipe for Chicken Adobo that can be made in the crockpot. Yum! Just cook some rice in your rice cooker when you get home and make a chopped salad and you're all set! We enjoyed our favorite chopped salad at Cosmo's in Durango when we went on our ziplining adventure. Now Cosmo's is closed! Sigh. But, I recorded what was in their chopped salad and have made it at home many times. Everyone loves it.  Everything is cut small and laid in rows on the plate with a little dressing on the side: tossed salad, avocado, boiled egg, tomatoes, corn off the cob, bacon or salmon, fruit and nut mix, and cooked Acini di Pepe. So ono! A taste sensation!


Wireless Upgrade Fees - the Latest Scam!
So, you have to sign up for two more years to get the iPhone 6 at $199 and then you get to pay an upgrade fee. That's the latest scam from wireless carriers. I guess $200+ a month from us is not enough, they also have to tack on an upgrade fee.  That's not making customers happy and that's not quality service.  Many consumers are upset about this additional fee so any customer service capital that Verizon has built up is being used up now with this scam that has been kept a secret in the past until right before you made your phone purchase.  Social media has changed things like that because now customers are sharing this information with others. Quality Service Lesson:  Customers do not like to be nickled and dimed with extra fees. Lump the fee into the price of the product or eliminate it!

Scott Bakula

Scott Bakula had it right!
My husband and I attended a Star Trek Convention a while back - yes, we are geeks, but it's so much fun!  Scott Bakula was a featured speaker for one of the sessions. His advice was, "Treat everyone like a movie star!" That really makes sense. If you treat all of your customers like you would someone famous, how could they be unhappy?  After his speech, he made a running tour of the entire ballroom and "high fived" as many fans as he could. That's quality service!  Quality Service Lesson:  Treat your customers like movie stars!

Chef Ramsay

What happens in Vegas
On one of our Vegas vacations, we decided to try Chef Ramsay's Burgr restaurant. I am drooling right now just thinking about the food!  Chef Ramsay believes in providing fresh, quality food. If you have ever watched Hell's Kitchen or Master Chef, you know that Chef Ramsay will smash something with his hand after telling everyone to "touch it!" or will throw an entire dish - plate and all - into the trash before he will serve a low quality meal. Well, you can witness that fresh food yourself at Burgr in Planet Hollywood or his British Pub in Caesar's Palace. He even makes different varieties of ketchup for your homemade fries.  The burgers were amazing, but the shake - OMG - (drooling again!) - the shake was to die for!  It was chocolate shake with hazelnut flavoring on the bottom half of a giant shake glass, with a delicious layer of butterscotch pudding on top of the chocolate and a thick layer of freshly whipped cream on top of that. It was a taste sensation!  I would go there again just for the shake and have a delicious burger and fries to top off the shake - ha!  Gordon Ramsay knows quality and he only wants his guests to have a quality experience in his restaurants.  Go there!  Quality Service Lesson:  Give them fresh! They will love it and will keep coming back!

Remember - every day is Aloha Friday! Take the Aloha Spirit with you wherever you go and make it a good one!