Callers to the Physical Plant Service Centre will be welcomed by a new voice in the coming days. The unit is launching a new phone tree system that will pick up all inbound calls beginning after-hours on Thursday, April 15.
The Service Centre is the primary point of contact for Physical Plant customers accounting for roughly 150 inbound calls each day. With the current system, customers trying to reach a project co-ordinator in Facilities Engineering, for example, may be put on hold while service representatives are fielding calls about work orders or service interruptions. The new system will allow customers to navigate the phone tree system with less wait time.
New callers will also find the system more user friendly as the priority items are available at the top of the list.
Safety being a top priority, callers will immediately jump from the tree to a live representative when reporting a facilities-related emergency by pressing ‘1.’ High volume floods, power outages, and anything that creates an accessibility impediment are examples of facilities emergencies.
“We understand that our customers are making a tough judgement call when they report an emergency,” notes Michelle Knox, Service Centre Manager. “The best practice is to evaluate the risk to the people in the area or degradation to the immediate infrastructure.”
Standard work order and service requests can be made by pressing ‘4’ at any time during the phone tree message. For customer ease, the Service Centre has also developed an electronic work order request (eWorq), which is accessible from the Physical Plant website or www.uwo.ca/ppd/eworq.html.
“Our primary goal in upgrading to a phone tree is to have our service representatives spend more time tending to our customer’s needs and less time on switchboard-type functions,” says Knox.
The new phone system will provide callers with standard features during business hours. After-hours and weekend callers will receive the same options, but will be transferred to voicemail or campus police depending on their selection.
When calling Physical Plant’s Service Centre during business hours (Monday-Friday, 7 a.m.-4:30 p.m.) at ext. 83304 as of April 16:
Press “1” for all facilities emergencies, such as flooding, power outages, etc. Press “2” for project inquiries such as estimates, locates, and service interruptions. Press “3” for card access, callers will be transferred to campus police. Press “4” for service requests and the service centre. Press “9” to repeat the menu.