Soldier Creek Named ASA Project of the Year

CMSWillowbrook is pleased to announce that the new Soldier Creek Elementary facility — completed in 2014 for Mid-Del Schools — was recently named as the American Subcontractors Association (ASA) Oklahoma Chapter’s 2015 “Project of the Year.”   The firm provided pre-bond planning, pre-construction and construction phase services for the completion of the new 900-student facility, while LWPB Architecture served as architect for both Soldier Creek Elementary and the identical Midwest City Elementary.

Soldier Creek was selected from a distinguished field of competitors. Selection criteria for ASA’s Project of the Year distinguishment was based on overall difficulty and uniqueness of the project,  successful partnerships created by the project team, sustainability, safety record, and subcontractor recommendation.   

Both Soldier Creek and Midwest City Elementary have received previous construction and design accolades including as AGC’s prestigious “Build Oklahoma” award for 2014, Outstanding Project Award from Learning By Design, and Outstanding Design Award by American School & University Magazine.

CMSWillowbrook staff included Angelo Bradford, Project Manager; Ray Trammel and Larry Hudson, Project Superintendents; Justin Lockwood, Project Engineer; Matt Wilcox, Project Accountant, and Tara Hamby, on-site administrator. Lead architects on the project were Lisa Chronister, AIA and Jeff Wegener, AIA of LWPB.

CMSWillowbrook would like to extend special appreciation to Dr. Pam Twidwell, Chief Operations Officer of Mid-Del Schools; Dr. Pam Deering, Superintendent, Mike Bryan, Director of Maintenance & Construction of Mid-Del Schools; and Mr. Larry Stephenson, Director of Security and Safety. Their dedication to the planning, design and construction of these facilities has been the benchmark for excellence, and has created a new standard for educational construction management.

Customer Service Equals Marketing

It is assumed that most everyone wants to be good at their job. Whether they are working in estimating, project management,  project administration, or contracting- most people want to fulfill their roles and responsibilities to the best of their ability. Although job titles and project roles generally determine what those responsibilities include, it is easy to forget that everyone is responsible for marketing. And if we forget or fail to realize that marketing is everyone’s job, chances are, we aren’t doing a good job at it.

So in what ways does the Superintendent, Project Engineer or Project Accountant provide marketing for CMSWillowbrook? Simple. By providing excellent Customer Service at all times.

Excellent Customer Service should not be limited to just our clients that have hired us, but should be extended to all parties we come in contact with- from the architects and engineers, to the subcontractors and suppliers, to the service vendors we talk to on a daily basis. Each relationship is an opportunity- an opportunity to market CMSWillowbrook  and to make them want to work with CMSWillowbrook over any other construction manager. In our line of work, it’s easy to get sideways with an architect or subcontractor but, even in these cases, we should make customer service a priority. After all, you never know when that person will have a chance to give their opinion on CMSWillowbrook’s performance.

Here are some simple ways to “Market” CMSWillowbrook:

• Be accessible and responsive: Answer your phone rather than send them to voicemail. Respond to emails in a timely fashion.
• Be helpful: Problems will arise. Let’s do what we can to resolve - even if it’s not “our problem”.
• Follow through: If you commit to doing something, do it.
• Exceed expectations: Put your best effort forward no matter what the task at hand is.
• Show respect and be polite.