Awesome Mail and Print, powered by Ricoh, is the new face of Tennessee Tech’s mailing services. The campus post office has been renovated to make sending and receiving mail easier for both the students and faculty. Not only did Tech renovate the old post office area, but they also brought in Ricoh to help add more features to the mailing services.
Steve Fox, a Ricoh employee, is managing the new additional services and systems that are being put into place at Awesome Mail and Print. Fox has been with Ricoh for 15 years and is excited to talk about the new services Awesome Mail and Print has to offer for students and faculty.
“We have changed the post boxes to campus boxes to make it easier for students to get their mail,” said Fox. “Now when a student has mail, they will get an email from us saying it’s ready for pick up.”
This new feature means checking the post boxes every day to see if the mail you’ve been waiting for is in. They will let you know.
“Before the renovation, I would check my post box frequently but it was really hard to get into my post box,” said Rachel Jacoby, a secondary education major. “I don’t live on campus but I do get some mail sent here, so this seems more handy and helpful.”
If you are waiting on mail but have not received an email, students can go and swipe their eagle card in the small kiosks in the lobby of Awesome Mail and Print. This allows the student know if their mail is in, but also informs the employees that someone is there to pick up mail.
“If a student does have mail and they use their eagle card at one of our kiosks, it pulls it up on our one of computers in the back, and we can have it ready for them,” said Fox. “This makes it faster to get the students their mail in case there is a long line in the lobby.”
Along with sending and receiving mail, mail services is now offering more services to help students get everything they need to get done in one place.
“We are now offering an all-package shipping service which includes FedEx, UPS and all regular mail,” said Fox. “Before we came in, the TTU’s post office only could send and receive USPS.”
When Awesome Mail and Print receives a package, they scan the tracking number so it gets put into their system. An email is then automatically sent to the student, so they can know their package is ready for pick up. Once the package is scanned into the system, it gets places on shelving organized by current campus box numbers.
Students can also ship out FedEx, UPS and USPS packages and pay for them all at Awesome Mail and Print. They currently accept cash and checks as form of payment but will soon get a credit card reader.
Even students are starting to notice a change in the new systems that Awesome Mail and Print are putting into effect.
“I think it’s very nice they are updating it. I don’t usually get mail here but it probably has a positive effect on those who do,” said Kelsie Hayes, a freshman majoring in multidisciplinary studies.
Along with all package shipping, mail services plans to add some picture kiosks to help students have access to everything they need.
“Since we aren’t an official post office we can have more features like photo kiosks that we are planning to add to our lobby to make it more convent for our students and faculty,” said Fox.
Fox also said it is now easier for students to get their mail faster because of the new compact campus boxes, and he feels it is a more friendly environment for students and faculty.
“We hope by implementing these changes, it will help students have a better campus experience,” said Fox. “We’ve only had about a month to get everything ready but we hope the students like it and we will continue to be awesome for them.”
