MPF renovation helps customers

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Charlie Miller
  • 47th Flying Training Wing public affairs
LAUGHLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- --  The military personnel flight had their office completely remodeled recently to insure Laughlin customers receive top-notch care.

The remodeling was done to provide customer privacy and to increase the efficiency of the customer service representatives who assist them.

"Before, the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System terminals sat out in the open and there was no privacy, anyone could see the information on the monitors," said Tech. Sgt. Christian Arsate, NCOIC of Customer Service. "Now we have a separate office and two cubicles giving almost total privacy for our DEERS customers."
The two DEERS cubicles have been moved into Sergeant Arsate's office.

"We have people coming here and saying 'Wow! You totally moved everything,'" said the sergeant. "We can serve our customers one-on-one in a much more customer-friendly office. It's worked out so much better for our customer service representatives and everyone we see."

A family of five can come in for DEERS updates and find plenty of room and privacy.

"We knew we needed a new floor plan so the manpower flight handled the design, working with our ideas," said the sergeant. "Force management then gave us the money to make it happen."

Sergeant Arsate also said that they and members of the finance office, which has two customer service representatives working in the office, had done all the painting themselves.

"It took us one day to paint everything," said Airman 1st Class Jim Umali, a customer service representative. It was a team effort, the Airman explained. Between finance and the MPF there were about 17 people, including spouses, armed with rollers and brushes.

The renovations started in mid-January and were completed Feb. 9. From start to finish, the work took less than a month to complete.

"This is way better, there's space to work now and it is a lot easier for me to do my job," said Airman Umali.