Northeast Iowa Community College Business and Community Solutions wins international award

Thursday, January 27, 2022

The Excellence in Management Practice award recognized the division’s “It's the Little Things ... Be Amazing Customer Service” project.

Learning Resources Network (LERN), the largest association in continuing education in the world, has honored Northeast Iowa Community College’s Business and Community Solutions division with the 2021 LERN International Award for Excellence in Management Practice. 

LERN announced the award at its annual conference, which was attended by 1,755 professionals in lifelong learning from the United States and Canada. Business and Community Solutions serves as the customized training, workforce development and continuing education division of the College, offering a variety of education and training options for businesses and individuals to obtain or advance their skills. The Excellence in Management Practice award recognized the division’s “It's the Little Things ... Be Amazing Customer Service” project.  

“With more than 100 award nominations every year, gaining an International Award is an outstanding achievement,” LERN President William A. Draves said. “Northeast Iowa Community College’s management practice was excellent. The program reworked their customer service and created standards for phone usage, email and chat, plus calendars and meeting guidelines. As a result, class evaluation quality scores rose from 4.5 to 4.75. They are also seeing an incredible 51 percent repeat rate.” 

Wendy Mihm-Herold, Ph.D., vice president of Business and Community Solutions, views the honor as a testament to her team’s hard work, vision and persistence. 

“Northeast Iowa Community College is so proud to receive this award for excellence in management and operations. Our amazing team of directors worked hard to implement a robust customer service model, including a customer service agreement, assessment and training for approximately 100 staff members, with a goal of increasing our customer service by 1 percent every day to ensure our services are above our competition. I am pleased to be a part of this amazing team!"  

LERN serves over 800 organizations throughout the United States and Canada that are engaged in providing continuing education to their communities. 

To learn more about Business and Community Solutions continuing education classes, programming and workforce training opportunities, visit www.nicc.edu/business-community.