Candi Harrison, former manager of a U.S. government website for over a decade, has some advice to offer when it comes to customer service.  In the case of government websites, customer service equates to citizen service since citizens routinely flex their ownership in this democratic nation by voting and electing their own officials.  And to facilitate the best of partnerships in this government/citizen relationship, customer service is crucial.  Harrison believes the foundation of customer service can be boiled down to the simple tenant of “listen, respect and follow”.
 
Governments continually strive to earn citizen’s trust, entice them to utilize services and participate more.  In this constant push, the agencies that stop for a second, listen to their audience, respect the feedback they receive and follow citizen’s advice, are the government entities that ultimately build stronger relationships with their communities.  Obviously as citizens we have a reciprocal duty to engage in our government and offer opinions.  But isn’t becoming involved much more enticing when you feel your opinions are respected and you witness change being instituted based upon your suggestions?
 
The listen, respect, follow mantra is understandably easier said than done.  However, the state of Georgia is blazing the way in implementing progressive customer service policies.  Georgia is the first state in the country to target customer service across the board and it’s been a long and winding journey.  The initiative first grew roots four years ago when the new governor, Joe Doyle, created the Governor’s Office of Customer Service.  After careful observations incognito, Governor Doyle realized that citizens viewed the state of Georgia as lagging so far behind to being almost entirely unresponsive to their needs.  In this case, getting employees to buy-into the system was the key to increasing their woeful customer service.
 
Without hiring expensive outside consultants, the Governor dramatically increased customer service throughout the entire state.  According to the Governor’s office: “At Child Support Services, the time between a parent’s first contact with the agency and meeting a caseworker went from a 30-day wait to same-day service.  It used to take a prospective teacher an average of nine minutes to speak with a live person at the Professional Standards Commission. Now it takes eight seconds. Medicaid approval went from nine weeks to twelve days.”
 
To read more of Candi Harrison’s advice browse here:  http://candioncontent.blogspot.com/2010/02/customer-service-mantra-listen-respect.html
 
To read more about how Georgia dramatically improved their customer service, browse here:  http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-politics-elections/georgia-praised-for-customer-320785.html