2007 Survey results and analysis
In October of 2007 a customer service survey for Delivery Services was created on Surveymonkey.com. The campus was asked to participate in the survey and the results were collected over a period of several weeks. The objective of this report is to detail those areas needing improvement and to create a plan to not only implement improvement but notify the campus of the improvements as well. The survey results will be used to formulate goals for the Delivery Services Department to provide planning objectives to meet the type and quality of service that is expected by the campus community. Additionally, certain points of misinformation appeared frequently enough to warrant addressing corrections to the campus.
280 individuals started the survey, of those, 257 (92%) completed the survey. As demonstrated in figure 1, the largest portion of respondents were faculty or staff, with a small number of Student Employees also participating. A single Student completed the survey and accounted for less than 1% of the total.
Figure 1 – Who took the survey
The survey was divided into three categories that dealt with overall satisfaction with service provided, how often the services are utilized, and specific suggestions for improvement.
Participants were asked to rate the overall service of the three areas within the Delivery Services department. The scale used to rate the services was; Very Satisfied, Satisfied, Dissatisfied, Very Dissatisfied and N/A.
Figure 2 displays that, while the majority of respondents are at a minimum somewhat satisfied, the Delivery Services department has many improvements to make in this area.
Figure 2 – Overall Satisfaction
- The Mail Center received the highest marks overall with 30% of respondents being completely satisfied. Central receiving received less favorable marks with 21% being satisfied and Inventory received 30% unsure.
- 58% of participants responded that they were either satisfied or completely satisfied with the Mail Center.
- 42% of participants responded that they were either satisfied or completely satisfied with the Central Receiving.
- 38% of participants responded that they were either satisfied or completely satisfied with the Inventory. However 31% were unsure of the quality of service.
In addition, the participants were asked if they were dissatisfied, what the reason for their dissatisfaction was. One hundred and eleven participants responded to this question. The responses for the dissatisfaction were fairly diverse with the largest number of responses being directed towards Central Receiving.
Still other answers suggest a large portion of the Campus Community is unfamiliar with our process and the reasoning behind certain decisions. This analysis will attempt to address many of those concerns.
Several customers expressed a desire to receive packages more quickly. There can be many reasons why a package is delayed. Often times, packages are not properly labeled per the Delivery Services requested template (which has been designed to facilitate the fastest available delivery). Further, since 2002, the university has experienced a 37% increase in the number of parcels received annually. During that time staff levels have not increased even as new buildings were continuously added. The larger volume coupled with improper addressing consistently slow processing of inbound parcels.
Many customers were concerned about the length of time it takes to get computers delivered to campus departments. All computers must be bar coded or recorded in the UNLV property control system by Inventory Control and then they are sent to the Office of Information Technology for further processing. Once delivered to the Office of Information Technology, Delivery Services’ part of the process has been completed. The average amount of time it takes Delivery Services to receive, record it into the inventory system, and deliver to the Office of Information technology is 3 days.
Recent changes within Delivery Services (Central Receiving) have made it possible for campus departments to pick up a package within a relative short period after it has been delivered. When the new tracking software was purchased a digital signature pad was also purchased to allow our customers the ability to come and pick up their packages without having to wait for a signature card. The signature pad captures the recipient’s signature much like the handheld scanners do and will allow for customers to pick up the packages they need.
Central Receiving does not currently have sufficient staff nor equipment (things such as trucks, etc.) to enable it to provide regular deliveries for off-campus entities. Many off campus locations possess a mailing address separate from the university’s main mailing address of 4505 South Maryland Parkway. Those customers should feel free to utilize their own mailing address to ensure timely receipt of their materials.
Delivering to a department office assures that someone is available to accept receipt of the delivery. Faculty member are extremely busy and are not always present to accept deliveries. The absence of a faculty member from his office may require several trips to the same location negatively impacting delivery times and increasing customer dissatisfaction.
The university has a large number of employees that are frequently moved between office locations and departments. Keeping up with all the changes is very time consuming. While Delivery Services strives to update and maintain current records on employee locations, often Delivery Services does not receive an update as to an employee’s change of location. Delivery Services is investigating methods and procedures to more efficiently and accurately track employee movement.
Inventory control acts as a record keeping and custodial authority with regard to university equipment. The head of a department is ultimately responsible for the maintenance and auditing of their equipment. Inventory control does not process adds, changes, or deletes to existing inventory records without written authorization from the department head or a Property Movement Request (PMR). If a department is interested in obtaining a recent copy of their inventory they can contact Inventory Control or use the Data Warehouse database.
Delivery Services is responsible for the ultimate disposition of university equipment, however, Delivery Services does not have the resources to pick-up or deliver surplus merchandise or computers. If the department head determines property to be surpluses and no longer useable to the department, they must complete a property movement request (PMR) form for each property item being sent to surplus, whether or not the item has a fixed asset decal. Computers should not be placed on the same PMR with furniture. Campus Computing Services is responsible for removing and redistributing all computers on campus.
Upon receipt of the PMR, the property control office will forward the PMR to the Facilities Management department, who will arrange for the property to be picked up from the department by Campus Moving Services. If Campus Moving Services staff is not needed for the move, the department may bring the item(s) to the surplus warehouse (with the PMR) on Thursday’s between 1:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. (Unless it is a computer or computer peripheral. All computer surplus moves must go through Campus Computing Services).
The role of the campus Mail Center is to support the necessary communications of the University for Official Business only. Use of Mail Center personnel and/or equipment to process personal correspondence does not represent a responsible use of State of Nevada resources. Additionally, the Mail Center may not be used for the purposes of organizations or activities not sanctioned by the university, including political purposes. The Mail Center receives a tremendous amount of this mail, the processing of which does delay the processing of valid university business mail.
As displayed in Figure 3, the majority of respondents were satisfied with the availability of staff, with most customers being either satisfied or completely satisfied.
Figure 3 – Satisfaction of Staff Availability
While the largest percentage of customers neither agreed nor disagreed that Delivery Services was helpful to customers with identifying solutions to problems that arose, Figure 4 shows that40% of respondents felt that Delivery Services was useful in formulating solutions.
Figure 4 – Helpfulness of Staff
As Figure 5 demonstrates, most customers are either casual or heavy users with a few in the intermediate usage levels.
Figure 5 – Service useage
Participants were asked for suggestions to improve our services to the campus and those suggestions will be addressed below.
Many customers have expressed a desire for the availability of short term storage. Delivery Services will investigate potential areas to accommodate this request and determine if the cost and demand of a storage facility would warrant the use of the space in Receiving, which is already significantly limited.
Delivery Services is exploring the feasibility of creating web forms that would allow for greater ease of use in mailing and shipping packages. UNR has a working model for a similar solution and Delivery Services will begin investigating if the solution is practical for use UNLV.
Many respondents asked why Fed Ex, UPS and other commercial carriers could not deliver directly to customer offices. UNLV has adopted a closed campus policy for the safety of the campus community. Allowing those carriers to attempt direct deliveries would create extra vehicles on campus, driving on sidewalks and pathways designed for pedestrian and not vehicle traffic.
To further complicate matters, commercial carriers will deliver to only one location per address, and the entire Maryland Parkway campus shares a single mailing address.
In addition, a vital role of Central Receiving is to provide a third party check and balance system to provide proof of merchandise receipt and delivery for the purpose of releasing payment. Other complications would arise if Inventory Control was unable to bar code the required equipment in Receiving, causing more of a disruption to the inventory cycle.
Delivery Service will publish monthly bulletins regarding information or new practices within our department. Several bulletins have already been distributed via the UNLV Official email list. Delivery Services would like to receive suggestions on what type of information the campus would like to see included in these bulletins.
First, Delivery Services would like to thank all of those that participated in the survey. There are many demands on employees at UNLV, and Delivery Services knows your time is valuable. Hopefully the campus finds this analysis helpful and any feedback or other suggestions for improvement would be welcomed.
Based on the results, it is evident that many improvements must still take place to meet the needs of the campus community. Delivery Services will strive to improve the quality and accuracy of services provided to the campus, as well as keeping the campus informed of new procedures and policies resulting from service changes and improvements.
Overall, Delivery Services was satisfied with the helpful suggestions and comments provided, and they were instrumental in creating the department’s annual goals; as well as providing an opportunity to identify and communicate with the campus regarding points of contention or misinformation.