Many years ago I observed an interaction where an irate customer was telling a government employee that he paid his salary and he demanded he get what he wanted. The government employee listened quietly and then reached into his pocket and pulled out two pennies. He slid the pennies across the counter and told theRead… Read more »
It always makes you proud when a member of your family does something awesome, right? Well, GovLoop has a member – Wendi Pomerance Brick – who’s about to release a brilliant book geared toward government on December 15. It’s called “The Science of Service: Six Essential Elements for Creating a Culture of Service in theRead… Read more »
Voters have signaled that they aren’t happy with the role of government. Surveys also say they are upset with government employees and don’t trust government. Yet research shows that citizens base their perceptions on their personal experiences. So would improving customer service help? In the 1990s, the Clinton-Gore Reinventing Government effort thought the answer wasRead… Read more »
A couple of weeks ago, after I’d cut loose with some ideas for the government web community (and witnessed the weary and wary looks on my web colleagues’ faces), my good friend Bev Godwin bailed me out by saying, “as long as I’ve known Candi, she’s always asked ‘what’s next?’ We need to keep askingRead… Read more »
Improving government’s customer service means constantly looking for new ways to do things, seizing new technologies, and experimenting. All good. But as we do what’s exciting and new, let’s not forget that we also need to do what’s important. Like implementing all the laws, regulations, and requirements already in place, for government websites. A littleRead… Read more »
Sterling is an Acquisition Freak and writes a blog called AllThingsSterling. I was reading a few articles on customer service this morning and something came to me. When we’re removed from our customers say through email or Twitter, it’s easy to dismiss them. This is because emotion and urgency don’t always translate through writing. EmotionsRead… Read more »
So you want to be a web superstar! Doesn’t everyone? Well, in government, administrations change, priorities change, and technologies change. But the formula for being a web communications superstar – the ones with the great (or greatly improving) websites, the best web organizations, doing the most exciting new things – doesn’t change. Web superstars followRead… Read more »
At the closing session of the Parafest conference that I attended, and at which I spoke about Social Media and Collaborative solutions, the product management of Parature shared this slide. The slide represents the results of polling customer, throughout the conference, about their concerns, their questions, about adding social channels to their customer service efforts.Read… Read more »
Last week, a county government communications director in Oregon asked me to help her put together a session for their annual state meeting. We agreed that a “show and tell” hour, where attendees volunteer to show their county’s website and let their colleagues tell them what they think, could work well. I offered to doRead… Read more »
Lunched with Mom and daughter today. We have Ladies Lunches, when all three generations of us females go out to lunch together and share sandwiches, cake and giggles. We met Mom at the mall and she looked rather harassed. She sighed, “I have this letter from the Council about my refuse collection and I don’tRead… Read more »