Kiosks offer easy access for customer feedback

By Fort Campbell CourierJanuary 20, 2011

Standing in Fort Campbell's Army Education Center lobby Monday afternoon, Don Michael tapped on the keyboard of the Army One Stop kiosk.

A few clicks later and the education guidance counselor intern had access to a number of websites and services, including Interactive Consumer Evaluation, or ICE.

"I think it's very user friendly," Michael said, noting it was his first time using the new machine.

Funded with $100,000 of the post's 2009 Army Community of Excellence award, 10 kiosks were activated at 10 key locations across the installation in December.

"[We wanted to] give our customers more of an ability to tell us how we are doing," said Greg Smith, Plans, Analysis and Integration Office management analyst. "We chose kiosks because it's a direct link from customers to us."

For nearly eight years, ICE has promoted direct interaction between individual constituents and service providers at Fort Campbell.

ICE is a part of Fort Campbell's Customer Relationship Management program. The program uses input from ICE to help gauge how service providers meet the needs of customers and what the customer considers important.

"It provides our customers the opportunity to tell us how well we're doing," Smith said. "We're only as good as our customers say we are. So, we need that feedback to see where we need to improve ... for our customers."

The PAIO, which manages ICE, gets approximately 3,500 to 5,000 comments through the program each quarter.

"We expect a significant increase in comments now that we have the kiosk[s] online on Fort Campbell," said Vanessa Price, PAIO management analyst.

Before the kiosks, on-post customers could fill out comment cards or log their thoughts about programs or services on the Internet site http://ice.disa.mil/.

The kiosks resemble an ATM and feature a touch screen and keyboard for easy access. A consumer may also use his or her CAC cards to gain access.

When a person accesses the kiosk, they go online and connect directly to the Department of Defense ICE system. Comments are logged and sent via e-mail directly to the managers of the services selected by the individual using the machine.

"ICE has become the most important tool for collecting the thoughts and opinions of customers," Price said. "We hope to direct all customer input through the ICE system."

Fort Campbell service providers review customer comments via ICE and then provide feedback, if requested, within three working days.

"Customers requesting a response [and those] that leave their contact information so that we can contact them, will get a response within 72 hours," Price said.

For those who prefer to comment without leaving their names, ICE will accommodate them.

"One of the advantages of the ICE system is [customers can be] completely anonymous should they choose to be," Price said. "They can say what they want to say, and we don't have any way of knowing who they are unless they tell us."

Smith said past suggestions from customers have resulted in solutions that benefited them and others.

"There's been a lot of challenges we've faced in the past [and] the customer had a good idea," Smith said. "We were able to take that idea and expand upon it and make it something we could implement to make everybody happy."

One of the 10 kiosks is located at Hooper Bowling Center on Tennessee Avenue.

Hooper Manager Tim Stancil said he prefers a face-to-face conversation with customers to resolve any issues, but understands the kiosks offer an alternative method for people to communicate their opinions.

"... I would much rather people make a comment on [the kiosk] while they are here, while it's fresh," he said. "[Often] by the time they sit down at their computer at home, they blow [the situation] out of proportion."

In addition to ICE, the kiosks give users access to other services, like My Pay, Army One Source and Army Knowledge Online.

Accessing personal information at these sites is secure on the kiosks. Jason Bise, education guidance counselor at the Ed Center, said the kiosks' time-out security feature gives customers peace of mind when using the machine.

"If a person walks away from the screen and accidentally forgets to log off, it automatically resets itself," Bise said.

Since their installation a month ago, the kiosks have been used 1,165 times. Customers have viewed 13,896 pages and printed 242 pages. AKO and My Pay are two of the top Internet sites viewed by customers.

Smith said he hopes people who use the kiosk to access these alternative sites will take time to comment through ICE as well.

Based on the success of these machines and additional funding, other on-post locations have been earmarked for additional kiosks in future months.

"We're looking at expanding if we get the resources to do that," Smith said. "We want to see if these are a success and we feel like they will be based upon the numbers we have so far."

Kiosk locations

Aca,!Ac Army Community Services, 5661 Screaming Eagle Blvd.

Aca,!Ac CYSS Central Registration, 5668 Wickham Ave.

Aca,!Ac Family Resource Center, 1501 Lee Road

Aca,!Ac Hooper Bowling Center, 5380 Tennessee Ave.

Aca,!Ac Turner Guest Housing, 82 Texas Ave.

Aca,!Ac Army Education Center, 202 Bastogne Ave.

Aca,!Ac In/Out Processing, 2577A Screaming Eagle Blvd.

Aca,!Ac Central Issue Facility, 5214 Eighth St.

Aca,!Ac Army Family Housing Office, 850 Georgia Ave.

Aca,!Ac Main Post Exchange, 2840 Bastogne Ave.