MPF open longer, improving customer care in revamped space

  • Published
  • By 1st Lt. Lisa Spilinek
  • 66th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
HANSCOM AFB, Mass. --  Upstairs or downstairs? For people needing personnel action assistance, the answer is likely downstairs. Almost all of the 66th Mission Support Squadron, Military Personnel Flight's work centers were moved to the first floor of the Brown Building, building 1305, where the customer service and orderly rooms once were located. 

Only the MPF's Personnel Readiness Unit and testing office are still on the second floor, said Capt. Mandye Dietrich, MPF commander. 

Additionally, the MPF will now open an hour earlier each weekday, operating from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

"Our focus is on making it easier to meet customer needs quickly and effectively," Captain Dietrich said. 

The movement of MPF personnel isn't the only recent change within the organization.  Work centers have been restructured to be in line with the Force Support Squadron model, which Hanscom is scheduled to adopt in July 2009. Under the FSS model, the Mission Support Squadron, which the MPF falls under, and the Services Squadron will be merged, said Mr. Steve Tupeck, MPF deputy chief. 

While the MPF is still composed of five work centers, some have been re-organized.
"We took the workload and shifted it from "Relocations and Employments" to "Career Enhancements" and renamed it "Career Development," and what used to be "Relocations and Employments" is now "Force Management." Mr. Tupeck said. 

Customers in need of services pertaining to awards and decorations, separations, outbound assignments and other career development issues should visit the Career Development work center, while Airmen working in the MPF's Force Management section will offer customer support on evaluations and employments as well as changes in duty information and inprocessing tasks, Captain Dietrich said. 

Visitors to the MPF will now enter through the Customer Service door where they will notice a new customer service desk upon entering the room. The Airmen will either answer customer questions on the spot or direct customers to a personnelist to fulfill their requests. 

To alleviate problems faced when the expert of a functional area is away from the office, the MPF Airmen have been diligently training for eight months to become more knowledgeable in supporting customers with issues outside of their work center. With the many recent changes made within the personnel career field and many actions being made available to customers online, ensuring MPF Airmen stay current with these changes is an absolute must, Mr. Tupeck said. 

"We no longer have specialists in areas; we have generalists in all areas with the hope of eliminating single points of failure. So, if you come to do a reenlistment and the reenlistment technician is out to lunch, we're not going to tell you to come back in an hour. We're going to be able to take care of you or at least get you started in the process verses turning you away," Mr. Tupeck said. 

Mitigating the amount of time customers spend waiting to be helped is another goal for the MPF leadership. 

"We're continuously working to decrease wait times. We're going to have one computer station designated for making retiree and dependent [identification] cards and making updates in [the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System,] which are all quick functions and will reduce the number of people we have waiting in our waiting room," Captain Dietrich said. 

Another way MPF Airmen are trying to hasten their customer service is by offering scheduled times for Common Access Card production with one of the work stations within the MPF specifically set aside for scheduled CAC appointments, Captain Dietrich said. 

A customer in need of a new CAC can schedule his or her appointment via the Web. The link is located on Electronic Systems Center CenterNet under the Quick Links tab.
"If folks use the CAC Scheduler we're going to take those appointments first and the walk-ins will go second," Mr. Tupeck said. 

Creating a new CAC takes 20 minutes on average and requires customers to show two forms of photo ID including their old CAC. 

"If you come in at 8 a.m. and are 12th in line for a new CAC, you're going to be waiting for a while. You could go back to your office and use the CAC Scheduler to make an appointment and then come back at your scheduled time and be seen right away," Captain Dietrich said. 

To further reduce customer traffic, many customer service actions can actually be accomplished via the Web on the Air Force Personnel Center's virtual MPF.
Forms for outprocessing, separating, retiring and many other actions are available online, however, if customers come to the MPF for these functions, they will still receive help, Mr. Tupeck said. 

"Even though they can do something themselves on vMPF, maybe they don't know how to do it. We'll show them how. The personnel world is more dynamic than it has ever been. If our Airmen aren't in tune with the AFPC Web site and vMPF, then they will be lost. It's their careers and we're here to help," Mr. Tupeck said. 

For more information about MPF services, call (781) 377-3979 or stop by the Brown Building 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.