This is the introduction to our new video based series on dealing with irate government clients and customers. It’s set up so you can interact, do exercises, etc based on the videos, OR, if you choose you can simply sit back and listen or watch. It’s all up to you. These videos are FREE to …
Feb
05
Defusing Hostile Customers Workbook For The Public Sector – Table of Contents
Believe it or not, you can learn a fair amount about the techniques available to you for dealing with very difficult government customers by looking over this free chapter, which contains a list of all of the techniques included in this book. That’s because the names of the skills and techniques usually reflect how the …
Jan
27
Private Companies Can Recoup Customer Service Costs, Government Cannot
One of the main differences between the private and public sectors, when it comes to customer service has to do with the degree to which the organization can benefit financially from offering better customer service. One can make the argument (and many do), that a company that offers better customer service will fare better than …
Jan
26
Free Subscription For “Governing – The Resource For States and Localities”
Governing Magazine is written specifically for government, and in particular targeted to policy makers and decision makers in the public sector. The company has generously offered free subscriptions to qualified government employees in the USA. Since there’s not a lot of publications specifically designed for government, it’s worth checking out. Note that the offering company …
Jan
26
The “Payoff” For Government Managers Helping Staff Provide Better Customer Service
Apart from the benefits for one’s department or branch, that come from improving customer service, there’s a more selfish reason for managers to play more of an active part in helping staff provide better customer service to citizens. And it’s a hard core, practical reason, that particularly applies to the public sector. It’s About Time …
Jan
25
Dealing With Customer Service Interactions When There’s An Audience (Book Excerpt)
The following is a brief excerpt taken from The Defusing Hostile Customers Workbook For The Public Sector. It addresses situations where there is an audience — other people either watching the interaction, or people accompanying the prime customer. In both cases an audience can increase the difficulty in addressing customer concerns. Introduction To Audience Effects …
Jan
25
New Series: How Government Managers Can Contribute Help Their Employees Deliver Customer Service Excellence
It seems obvious that managers and leaders in the public service can play large roles in both helping and encouraging their staff to deliver the best customer service possible within a difficult government environment. But they are busy, and there’s a tendency to become out of touch with the challenges front line staff face in …
Jan
23
Commentary: Executive Order 1357 Streamlining Service Delivery and Improving Customer Service Part 2 – Service Plans/Activities
In the first installment of this series on Obama’s customer service initiative we provided commentary on the policy itself. In this installment, we’ll look at, comment and critique the section entitled :Agency Customer Service Plans and Activities ec. 2. Agency Customer Service Plans and Activities. Within 180 days of the date of this order, each …
Jan
20
How DMCA (Safe Harbor) Is Strangling internet Content (Part 3 SOPA and Copyright)
In part one and two we provided an overview of current copyright laws, and provided examples of how current legislation is having an adverse effect on business, and those that produce intellectual property. In this part, we’ll look at the hidden effects of weak copyright enforcement on both Internet “readers” and users, and the millions …
Jan
19
Poll: Do you want your tax dollars spent on training government staff on social media?
The General Service Agency (GSA) of the US Federal government has announced pilot training program for government employees to learn social media. The twelve week course, consisting of 1.5 hour sessions will cover the following topics: The readings cover four topics: communities; information; moving from information to action; and the capacities and limitations of social …