A new Executive Order to improve customer satisfaction was issued yesterday. This is great news – for our customers and for ourselves! Not only will this improve access to accurate and prompt information for our customers, it’ll make our jobs as internal customers easy too!
When we talk about improving service, lots of people think we mean “be nice to people.” As you know, that’s part of it, but it’s only 1/3 of the equation. The other two thirds are “accuracy of information” and “speed.” If you are really nice to me, but give me the wrong answer, or a different answer than the person I talked to last time, that’s not good service. If you are nice to me and have the right information, but the processes takes forever to get resolution, that’s not good service either.
That’s why I was so excited to see this EO and what it is targeting! These are the types of changes that will make a fundamental differents in the way we do business and the quality of the information we provide. And the specifics of the EO parallel the Six Essential Elements for creating a culture of service that we’ve discussed before (www.TheScienceOfService.info)
Picture this as an example. Governments have been consolidating services into one-stop shop call centers. This is terrific because the technology exists to control the accuracy of the information (scripting) and the quality of the call (monitoring programs). Then we streamline the back end processes so that we target First Call Resolution and eliminate the seven categories of waste to increase speed.
In a nutshell, this six month time frame for this EO is do-able, and if done right, this Customer Experience Strategic Planning could outline a customized approach and solutions for each agency to implement over the next few years.
In your work, please keep one thing in mind – don’t let the technology dictate the new process and programs. The business case should always drive the technology. Oh, and one more thing – involve your front line staff in ALL of your improvement efforts. The people doing the job know how to do it better.
If this EO affects you directly, feel free to post questions. And feel free forward this information to anyone you know who’s involved in the project!
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