…it might be worth while thinking about why they exist, whether they are “organic” or imposed, and generally what they mean. In s very brief post on govloop.com Nicholas Charney writes about the Valve employee handbook (Valve is a video-game maker), and more specifially, what Valve has to say about organizational structure — hierarchies (It …
Apr
19
Think your customers/citizens are stupid? Guess who their leader is… (Commented)
Ed. This article is illustrative of a number of things, but before you jump on the “author’s cause”, there’s a lot to consider. First, it may be that some companies believe their customers are “stupid”, but they are hardly admitting it loudly. Besides that is NOT the issue. The issue that we should be addressing …
Apr
17
What I Like To Do…Speaking at Winnipeg Conference On Developmental Disabilities and Autism
As I get older, I find it more of a challenge to do training and consulting for for-profit organizations. I still enjoy doing them, but I find I have the most affinity with organizations that contribute a lot more than economically to society. That’s one reason I specialize in helping government and non-profits deal with …
Apr
17
City Officials Battle Unofficial Social Media Accounts (Commented)
Utah.gov may be looking good this time of year, but officials in Riverton, Utah aren't 'liking' a new crop of unofficial Utah government social media accounts so much. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, government officials in the 38,000 strong city – and many others like it – are growing weary of a proliferation of municipal and local social media accounts, some not even sanctioned by their respective governments. Riverton doesn't even have an official Facebook page anymore. The city discontinued its official account after concerns that residents would mistake the ads on the right-hand side as endorsements for products.
Apr
17
Government, Customer Service, Technology, Oh My!
I’ve often wondered how well technology actually serves human needs, and how much time human beings spend tending to their technologies. Since another interest of mine is how complex systems work and often don’t work, I tend to see events through both lenses. My birthday falls in the month of April, and that means I …
Apr
05
Government Managers Sometimes Too “Out of Touch” With Customer Service Front Lines
Q: When it comes to providing customer service within government, what do you see as one of the major roadblocks, Robert? Robert: One of the issues I’ve come across from working in probably a hundred different government organizations, is that managers — decision-makers, in government departments that face customers, tend to be a bit out …
Apr
05
$84,547 Worth of Defusing Hostile Customers Workbook Distributed Free To Government Employees
We’re proud to announce that, as of today, we have distributed $84,547 worth of our unique workbook, Defusing Hostile Customers Workbook For The Public Sector to government employees throughout North America. This is in support of our mission to support government to deal more effectively with citizens and government customers, particularly those who are frustrated, …
Apr
02
The Ah!DarnCustomers Android App: The Project That Keeps Growing and Growing
It started out as kind of a lark, an experiment. What would happen if we built an Android App that could link people to the best online customer service articles and resources available? And could we promote our customer service books via an app built on the idea that it’s now possible to carry around …
Apr
02
Does Customer Service Matter for Government? 5 Examples for Change
The Customer Service series is supported by RightNow Technologies . To learn more on how to use cloud technology to improve customer service, visit the RightNow resource center today. Check out the GovLoop/RightNow Customer Service Hub to get smart on how to be awesome at customer service ————————— This is post 1 of the new “Customer Service” series I’m excited to write on GovLoop. Every week we’ll be exploring issues of how government is dealing with the new customer service demands from citizens and how to meet the new mandates at the federal level. We’ll be discussing tools, tips, examples of how to make government customer service as great as Zappos (and definitely better than the cable company). Please let me know if there are certain topics, questions, examples you want me to cover – would love it ———————————- On to the first post…. Lately, there’s been more and more focus on the power of customer service. Apple has grown like crazy in the last decade with a story built around “geniuses” that they recruit heavily and go out of their way to help you. Zappos is famous for being not an online shoe company but an entire organization focused around one mission: to provide the best customer service possible. Starbucks promises to make your double venti soy macciato perfect with a smile every time. Now it’s government’s turn. On April 27th, President Obama published a new executive order entitled “Streamlining Service Delivery and Improving Customer Service” with the focus of improving quality of service to the public. Agency’s must create agency customer service plans and activities by the end of October and report back to the public. This is not the first time the government has focused on customer service. In 1993, Executive Order 12862 (Setting Customer Service Standards) required agencies that provide significant services directly to the public to identify and survey their customers, establish service standards and track performance against those standards, and benchmark customer service performance against the best in business. Additionally there were Presidential Memos in 1995 and 1998 with titles such as “Improving Customer Service” and a “Conversations with America” to Further Improve Customer Service”. Now, more than ever, customer service is critical to leaving a positive impression on citizens and meeting your mission needs. And the number of channels and new ways where people expect customer service is exploding. Here are just a couple examples lately: 1) Restaurants – recently a restaurant I went to that had a wait asked for my phone number and said they’d text me when my table was ready. That’s a change form the clunky thing that turns red. 2) Flights – When a plane is delayed whether it’s weather, a ton of folks goes on Twitter to complain. It’s not perfect but people expect a response or minimally some information. 3) Wi-fi everywhere – I dropped off my car for an oil change. The lobby used to just have bad TV and bad coffee. Now we expect it to have Wi-fi to work. Are government buildings like DMV and court houses prepared? 4) Passwords – I recently forgot my password to my federal TSP retirement account. They actually mailed me my password 4 days later. In contrast to my Vanguard and ING Direct where if I forget my password, they let me reset it in 10 seconds or worst case can call in and fix. 5) Everything online – My #1 thing I want to do with my normal customer service is avoid humans. If I have a problem, the first thing I do is google for 10 minutes trying to find an answer. And we expect to find the answer in places like Apple support forums. And this isn’t just the easy top 10 questions but the tens of thousands of long-tail questions. With the changes in technology, demographics, and cultural norms, there is such opportunity for government to improve its customer service. As such, RightNow and GovLoop have teamed up to provide you with this Customer Service Hub to meet the new executive order requirements due this fall. You will find an on-going blog series as well as great tools, groups, dialogues, and events. If there are topics or issues you want us to cover, let us know. Should be a blast.
Learn About The “Bible of Customer Service” For Government Employees
Now it's its third edition, the Defusing Hostile Customers Workbook For The Public Sector has been called the "Bible of Customer Service".
Designed from the ground up for government employees, it teaches how to defuse irate, angry, upset, distraught and even potentially violent customers and member of the public. Revised in 2010, it has been updated to include chapters on communication and social media. Click the cover below for complete information
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Apr
17
The questions companies have when adding social to customer service (Annotated and Commented)
by John Moore
There are a number of questions that organizations often ask about using social media in connection with customer service. In this article, which contains some good questions, and some bad answers, you’ll see some of the common questions. I’ve commented and annotated to point out some issues with the use of social media for customer service.
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Tags: commentary, customer, customers, facebook, flickr, government, knowledge, slide, social media, thoughts, time, twitter, united-states
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