Mission Success and customer service go hand in hand Published Nov. 2, 2006 By Michael Pierce 97th Contracting Squadron ALTUS AFB, Okla. -- All civilian and military personnel on Altus AFB have a common purpose of providing customer service. This basic principle is paramount to the success of the Altus AFB mission. Think about it, how many times a day do you depend on someone to successfully perform his or her job? Our jobs and the mission would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to perform without customer service. Many things we take for granted here at Altus AFB require a great amount of customer service and are a vital part of the mission, without which, would create significant challenges. For instance, the 97th Contracting Squadron works closely with the 97th Civil Engineering Squadron, 97th Communications Squadron, and the 97th Services Squadron, to name a few units, to provide construction, renovations, custodial, grounds maintenance, mess attendant, military family housing maintenance, and postal services. Imagine if base personnel had no dining hall or other nice eating establishments. Where would we eat and be able to relax? What if there were no contract maintenance services available? Who would we rely on to compliment the 97th CES in maintaining heating, ventilation and air conditioning repairs, maintenance and living quarters or providing utilities and appliance maintenance? Mission success would be a real challenge if we did not have these types of customer service amenities. I firmly believe that key elements of superior customer service are effective communication, cooperation, and a deep desire to succeed. The 97th Contracting Squadron focuses on these key elements and goes to great lengths to provide meaningful and timely tools to help you help us provide top-notch customer service. Take our Customer Education Guide for instance, the guide available at https:// baseweb.altus.af.mil/ 97cons/ helps the 97th Contracting Squadron to better serve you. The guide provides information and instructions on acquisition planning, Government Purchase Card, Air Force Forms 9, as well as an array of special actions, including sole-source purchases, preventative maintenance agreements, brand name or equal justifications and government estimates. The Guide provides guidance on inspecting and receiving goods and services, Contracting Officer authority and unauthorized commitments and general "dos and do nots." The website includes a gamut of other useful customer service items. As a service organization, 97th CONS strives to provide the highest quality, best value, contracting support possible. We focus on effective communication, cooperation and instilling our personnel with the desire to succeed so that we may always provide superior customer service, ensuring mission success today and tomorrow.