Earlier this year, a mother of a Yale first-year called the Customer Service Center from Michigan to say that her daughter was locked out of her room after hours. She was worried because her daughter felt stranded and scared. The specialist who received the call took prompt action and dispatched a facilities staff member to get her daughter into her room.
This was one of hundreds of calls for assistance that Facilities Operations (FACOPS) gets every day. As a 24-hour, three-shift, seven-day-a-week operation, the department responds to emergency, urgent, and routine requests from university staff, faculty, and students 365 days a year. Customer Support Services Manager Bruce Bellmore oversees a team of four supervisors and 13 specialists who are located at 344 Winchester Avenue. Not only do they triage calls and online work orders, but they also monitor the campus buildings that have automation systems, looking for alarms that alert them to heating and air conditioning issues.
“We pride ourselves on providing outstanding customer service,” said Bellmore. “My team is dedicated to their work because they really want to help people. I’m proud of them all the time; they take their jobs seriously.”
Bellmore noted that there are two ways to get in contact with FACOPS — and three response times — based on the type of problem that staff, faculty or students encounter: phone calls and online work requests. This number, 203-432-6888, is for emergency situations that may hurt a person or damage a building and include leaking pipes, unsecured doors or gates, power outages, toilet overflows, gas smells, and too-hot or too-cold spaces. The priority-one response time is immediately to within 24 hours. Blizzards, rainstorms, hurricanes, earthquakes, and other weather events are also emergency situations that fall under FACOPS’ purview.
Urgent requests that range from a dripping faucet to a damaged light fixture to a loose door handle require completing an online request; the priority response time is within four days of notice. Routine requests run the gamut, from cracked glass to damaged walls to billable tasks like picture hanging and outlet installations, and the response time is within 14 days.
“We strongly encourage our customers to follow the system that we’ve set up,” added Bellmore. “Call only for emergencies and use online requests for non-emergencies. But we know that there are often exceptions, and we are always here to help.”
Six problems FACOPS does not solve
FACOPS often has customers on the phone who don’t know whom to contact to solve their problems, though they are happy to direct them to the right resources:
- Your bike is stolen: Call the Yale Police Department.
- Your computer is not working properly: Call the IT Help Desk at 203-432-9000.
- You’ve lost your Yale ID: Yale ID Center.
- The carpet in your office needs cleaning: Find the Facilities superintendent assigned to your building.
- You can’t get through the gate in your Yale parking lot: Parking office.
- You want to know your building’s emergency evacuation plan: Yale Fire Marshal.
