Finance offers new hours to better serve customers Published April 6, 2011 By Senior Airman Clay Murray 52nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany -- The 52nd Comptroller Squadron now offers broader, more flexible hours for both their customer service desk and the cashier's cage. This change in opening times comes as a direct consequence of recent survey results collected by both the 52nd Fighter Wing Commander and the U.S. Air Forces in Europe Functional Manager. "One of the things that happened is the USAFE FM and Colonel (Christopher) Weggeman took some surveys, and some of the feedback for the finance office was limited office hours," Maj. Gerald Stevenson, 52nd Comptroller Squadron commander, said. "So one of the things we did was we took a look at the surveys and broke it down; we're just responding to the feedback of our customers who want more office hours." Expanding office hours can be tricky to do in the middle of cutbacks and tight budgets. The finance office managed to support a new schedule of open office hours with a little help from the major command. "We had some assistance from the USAFE functional manager who gave us some over hires for a couple of years to help us with getting the proper kind of service out to our customers," Major Stevenson said. "So, we have received an additional three bodies. I think part of the return on investment was considering what we need in order to give a certain level of service. We said if we had a couple of extra bodies, we could meet that goal." A major overhaul of the service hours offered by finance translates into benefits for people across the fighter wing. All members of the military here will directly benefit from the expansion of customer service and cashier's cage hours, he added. "Not only can they come in on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but they also can have better access to services," Major Stevenson said. "Now that we have a few more folks, we can provide service more quickly, as well. Within the squadron, it's been huge. With a certain amount of folks doing work, you can spread (work) out a bit more. The new folks have really stepped up, and we have them working the customer service counter. That frees up some of our other technicians to do other work." New hours for the 52nd Comptroller Squadron apply to the walk-in customer service counter and the cashier's cage, which will now be open 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.