September 17, 2004

At your service: Materials Management celebrates new Customer Service Center

Whether it's taking supply orders, delivering extra linens, providing equipment or any one of the other services the MGH Materials Management Department offers, the department is accustomed to meeting the service needs of the MGH community. Now Materials Management has streamlined these efforts with a specialized Customer Service Center. Staff celebrated the grand opening of the center Aug. 30 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and refreshments for all MGHers who visited their location in the Gray/Bigelow Basement.

The Customer Service Center was created to centralize all floor requests for Materials Management services that are in addition to the daily standing supply orders and are needed before the next scheduled delivery. These services include linens, supply support, receiving and distribution, mail services and equipment. The department will be offering a service guarantee to make sure that available additional supplies are delivered within 45 minutes of the original call.

"Materials Management is committed to providing exceptional customer service to all of our customers within the MGH," says Ed Raeke, director of MGH Materials Management. "Our goal with this new Customer Service Center is to improve our operations, identify trends in orders and ultimately decrease costs when possible."

The Customer Service Center will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week by calling (617) 726-9144. When customers call, they should give the following information: name, phone number, department, building, floor, room number, item(s) needed (include PeopleSoft numbers for supply products), and quantity needed before the next scheduled delivery. The number for patient and specimen transport requests will remain the same at (617) 726-2255.

"We ask all customers to try and consolidate requests to eliminate multiple calls," says Jim Burns, supervisor for Mail and Customer Service. "We look forward to working with all end users as we streamline our operations. We ask for your patience as we learn to better understand your needs."

Any feedback is welcomed, and MGHers are encouraged to contact Burns at jburns7@partners.org.