Jenna Miley of Bainbridge College (BC) is the recipient of the highest award in the state for individual customer service excellence, according to announcements from the Governor’s Office and from the University System of Georgia (USG), which also won a top award from the governor.

Miley received one of the four 2010 Governor’s Individual Customer Service Awards that Gov. Sonny Perdue presented in the fourth annual Governor’s Customer Service Awards Ceremony that took place Tuesday in Atlanta.

In September, she received the 2010 Gold Award in the Chancellor’s Customer Service Excellence Awards for the USG.

With Tuesday’s news came congratulations from the USG to BC President Tom Wilkerson and recognition of BC’s Customer Service Champion Tonya Strickland, who had nominated Miley for the USG award.

Customer Service award nominees demonstrate service that is “above and beyond” and is helpful, courteous and knowledgeable, the governor’s announcement said.

In addition to the honor for the Bainbridge College faculty member, the University System was selected as Customer Service Agency of the Year. This award recognizes the state agency or institution that has shown the highest commitment, highest performance levels, and most improvement in customer service across the organization over the last year.

Winners of the governor’s awards came from among more than 580 nominations from 42 different agencies across Georgia.

The associate professor of computer science earned the two state awards and a BC Customer Service Award for creating an electronic textbook to reduce costs to students and donating proceeds from its sales to a scholarship at BC.

In his message to the USG about the system’s award as Customer Service Agency of the Year, Chancellor Erroll B. Davis said, “This is the Oscar equivalent of Best Picture or perhaps, more appropriately, Best Actor(s) since the award is for what you and your fellow colleagues have done over the last year, under some increasingly trying conditions, to make this System more customer friendly, efficient and productive.”

“Part of making Georgia the best managed state is improving customer service and recognizing those employees who provide it,” Perdue said in his announcement. “These awards highlight exemplary employees and their commitment to changing processes and attitudes to provide faster, friendlier and easier service for the citizens of Georgia. Those recognized here represent scores of others who have found ways to produce and measure results.”

“Nominees were judged by a blue-ribbon panel of leaders from the business community and the public sector,” the news release said.