Research Report

C O N T E N T SABOUT GOVLOOP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4FORWARD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5EXECUTIVE SUMMARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6SUMMARY OF ONLINE SURVEY FINDINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8CORE FINDING: GOVERNMENT IS CHALLENGED TO IDENTIFY CUSTOMERS . . . . . . . .11 Tactic: Develop Strategies to Identify Your Customer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Tactic: Use Multiple Channels to Reach Customers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13CORE FINDING: CHALLENGES EXIST IN USING CUSTOMER SERVICE DATA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 Tactic: Consolidate Data Silos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 Tactic: Identify Metrics that are Performance Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 Tactic: Develop Customer Service Standards and Metrics for Agency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15CORE FINDING: CULTURAL HURDLES REMAIN FOR IMPROVING CUSTOMER SERVICE . . . . . . 16 Tactic: Find a Champion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Tactic: Work on Identifying Business Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Tactic: Learn to Navigate Organizational Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Tactic: Be Transparent and Open to Critical Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17CORE FINDING: TECHNOLOGY ENABLES IMPROVED CUSTOMER SERVICE DELIVERY . . . .18 Tactic: Implement, Train, and Sta! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Tactic: Use Collaborative Technology to Share Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Tactic: Use Technology to Improve Data Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19CORE FINDING: IDENTIFY AND REPLICATE BEST PRACTICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 Best Practice: Design With the Customer In Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Best Practice: View Customer Service in Context of the Mission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Best Practice: Share Resources Across the Agency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 Best Practice: Tie Customer Service to Open Government . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 Best Practice: Consider Lessons Learned from the Private Sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22IN FOCUS: NEW YORK CITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24GOVLOOP RESOURCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28ABOUT ORACLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30ABOUT THE AUTHOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

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RE-IMAGINING CUSTOMER SERVICE IN GOVERNMENT

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A RESEARCH REPORT FROM GOVLOOP AND ORACLE

Our mission is to “connect government to improve government.” We aim to inspire public sector professionals by serving as the knowledge network for government. GovLoop connects more than 55,000 mem-bers, fostering cross-government collaboration, solving common prob-lems and advancing government careers.

!e GovLoop community has been widely recognized across multiple sectors as a core resource for information sharing among public sector professionals. GovLoop members come from across the public sector; including federal, state, and local public servants, industry experts, as well as non-pro"t, association and academic partners. In brief, Gov-Loop is the leading online source for addressing public sector issues.

In addition to being an online community, GovLoop works with gov-ernment experts and top industry partners to produce valuable resourc-es and tools, such as guides, infographics, online training, educational events, and a daily podcast with Chris Dorobek, all to help public sector professionals do their jobs better.

GovLoop also promotes public service success stories in popular news sources like the Washington Post, Hu#ngton Post, Government Tech-nology, and other industry publications. !ank you to our sponsor, Or-acle, for sponsoring the Re-Imagining Government Customer Service Report.

GovLoop is headquartered in Washington D.C., where a team of dedi-cated professionals share a common commitment to connect and im-prove government.

GovLoop734 15th St NW, Suite 500

Washington, DC 20005Phone: (202) 407-7421

Fax: (202) 407-7501

A B O U T G O V L O O P

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RE-IMAGINING CUSTOMER SERVICE IN GOVERNMENT

We have all had one: a great customer experience. It is that feeling of being satis"ed, with a sense that a company or agency respects you, is listening to you, and is going to meet your expectations, from your "rst contact through the entire experience. Great customer experiences are full of surprising “wow” moments.

!e customer experience is the sum of all interactions for goods and ser-vices over the duration of a customer’s relationship with the government or suppliers. Our private sector experiences have dictated our expecta-tions of what level of service we want and expect to receive in our inter-actions with government. !e question now becomes, how do govern-ment organizations create “wow” moments that maximize the customer experience? !is is particularly true when competition is minimized and culture is di#cult to in$uence.

It is possible to deliver optimal customer satisfaction to the citizenry every day, and many organizations are already receiving rave reviews for their e%orts. However, customer service requires a commitment to delighting customers and making it a priority within the agency. Public sector entities need to commit to consistently providing customers with the information and services they need, when they need it.

Re-imagining Government Customer Service is a practical guide re-vealing real world successes for improved customer service in the pub-lic sector. !e report suggests solutions that disclose the opportunity for government organizations to become more transparent, improve responsiveness, and enhance interactions to maximize the customer ex-perience. Organizations delivering superior customer experience are tapping into a core aspect of their mission- to service and ful"ll the needs of the public and nation.

Your opportunity to do the same begins right now.

F O R E W A R D

SCOTT FRENDTVice President

Public Sector CRM SolutionsOracle

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A RESEARCH REPORT FROM GOVLOOP AND ORACLE

E X E C U T I V E S U M M A R Y

Nearly one year ago, President Barack Obama issued Executive Order 13571 “Streamlining Service Deliv-ery and Improving Customer Service.” !e Execu-tive Order states, “With advances in technology and service delivery systems in other sectors, the public’s expectations of the Government have continued to rise. !e Government must keep pace with and even exceed those expectations. Government must also address the need to improve its services, not only to individuals, but also to private and Governmental en-tities to which the agency directly provides signi"cant services.” With this order, President Obama created a far-reaching directive that made customer service a priority for the federal government. With improve-ments to customer service in the private sector, citi-zens have heightened expectations as to how services should be delivered by government.

Executive Order 13571 identi"es some of the chal-lenges for federal government customer service. Our research report explores some of these challenges and reveals that customer service in government is multi-faceted and serves a diverse set of customers that may be program speci"c, cross over channels and encom-pass both external and internal customers.

!is is not solely a federal issue, at all levels of govern-ment, organizations are challenged to improve how

customer service is delivered. Our research report also includes insights for state and local organizations, in-cluding a case study from New York City. !e case study highlights procedures and steps the city has made to improve customer service, which can be ad-opted by governments at any level.

!is research brie"ng includes data from an online survey of 138 participants, interviews with eleven government employees, and a roundtable discussion, held on May 15, 2012 in Washington, DC. In collab-oration with Oracle, we created this report to provide insights and recommendations to government em-ployees and organizations focused on optimizing cus-tomer service for employees, citizens and other stake-holders. !roughout this report we identify common challenges and provide best practices to help you and your organization better serve your customers. !e research reveals "ve core "ndings that are fea-tured in the report’s "ve sections. Each topic provides tactics and best practices to help agencies identify and address customer service objectives.

Core Finding 1: Government is Challenged to Identify Customers One of our "ndings was the di#culty agencies often face in de"ning their customers. Many interviews re-

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RE-IMAGINING CUSTOMER SERVICE IN GOVERNMENT

ABRAHAM MARTINEZCustomer Engagement Advisor, Department of Education

BRUCE MARSHDirector, USPS O"ce of Inspector General’s Risk Analysis Research Center (RARC)

JOEY HUTCHERSONDeputy Director of Open Government, Department of Commerce

SCOTT FRENDTVice President, Public Sector CRM Solutions, Oracle

R E S E A R C H R E P O R T I N T E R V I E W E E S

G O V L O O P D I S C U S S I O N R O U N D T A B L E : R E – I M A G I N I N G G O V E R N M E N T C U S T O M E R S E R V I C E P A N E L I S T S

vealed that it is di#cult to de"ne customers at the agency level, but instead it is best to consider cus-tomers by individual programs.

Core Finding 2: Challenges Exist in Using Customer Service DataA second area explored was how agencies can use customer service data to improve customer service. Our "ndings show that many agen-cies struggle with data collection and have a limited understanding how to analyze and manage data to optimize customer service.

Core Finding 3: Organizational Hurdles Remain for Improved Customer Service Organizational and cultural issues were mentioned as a barrier to im-

proving customer service. !is sec-tion explored some of the cultural challenges found in our research study.

Core Finding 4: Technology Enables Improved Customer Service Delivery Technology was found to be one solution to help enable improved customer service. Although tech-nology was mentioned as critical to improved customer service, con-cerns remained related to training and implementation of technology within an agency.

Core Finding 5: Identify and Replicate Best Practices !e "nal section identi"es best practices to help government im-

prove customer service. !is section provides additional lessons learned and insights beyond the core areas addressed in the report. !ere are "ve lessons learned identi"ed in this section:

Design With the Customer In MindView Customer Service in Context of the MissionShare Resources Across the AgencyTie Customer Service to Open GovernmentConsider Lessons Learned from the Private Sector

!e "ndings in this report could not have been accomplished with-out the support of our interviewees, survey participants, roundtable at-tendees and the sponsor for this re-port, Oracle. GovLoop would like to thank all those who participated in the online survey, and extend a special thank you to all of our inter-viewees for their insights for report and the panelists who participated in the roundtable discussion.

ARIANNE GALLAGHERPresidential Management Fellow, Policy Analyst, O"ce of Personnel Management

BENJAMIN JONES Deputy Director of the Mayor’s O"ce of Operation, New York City

BRACK BOEHLER Director, IT Compliance, Department of Transportation

BRUCE PEACOCK Chief, Environmental Quality Division, Nat’l Parks Service, Department of the Interior

CANDI HARRISON Former Web Manager, Housing and Urban Development

DAN MORGAN Phase One Consulting Group, currently on contract supporting O"ce of the CIO, U.S. Department of Transportation

DENNIS ALVORDExecutive Director, BusinessUSA

E.J. (“NED”) HOLLAND, JR. Assistant Secretary for Administration, Department of Health and Human Services

ELIZABETH WEINSTEINDirector of the Mayor’s O"ce of Operation, New York City

FRANCISCO NAVARROCustomer Service Advisor, Mayor’s O"ce of Operations, New York City

JON FOLEYDirector, Planning & Policy Analysis, O"ce of Personnel Management

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A RESEARCH REPORT FROM GOVLOOP AND ORACLE

S U M M A R Y O F O N L I N E S U R V E Y F I N D I N G S

!is section provides an overview from our online survey and key "ndings. !roughout the report we have further identi"ed results from our survey. !e survey was conducted between April 9 and May 14, 2012, and had a total of 138 participants. !e sur-vey participants were recruited from the GovLoop community. !e service used for the survey was Sur-

veyGizmo. !e survey included government employ-ees from federal (46%), local (30%), and state (24%) levels of government.

Using a scale of 1-5, with 5 as “Extremely Satis"ed” and 1 as “Not Satis"ed,” survey participants were asked to rank how well their agency provides cus-

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RE-IMAGINING CUSTOMER SERVICE IN GOVERNMENT

LOCAL 30%

FEDE

RAL 4

6%

STATE 24%

ONE: 5%

TWO: 15%THREE: 34%

FOUR: 34%

FIVE:

11%

NOT APPLICABLE: 1%What Level of

Government do you

work for?

How Would You Rate Your

Agency’s Customer

Service?(scale from 1 - 5

5 = extremely satis"ed1 = not satis"ed)

tomer service. !e majority of re-spondents selected a 3 or 4 at 34%, followed by 2 (15%), 5 (11%) and 1 (1%).

!e survey also explored what the greatest bene"t to providing cus-tomer service is for government. !e survey respondents identi"ed that the greatest bene"t to provid-ing customer service is improving government trust (50%) followed by improving government account-ability (26%), improving trans-parency (7%) and the remaining 17% of responders identi"ed other bene"ts. In the “Other” category, survey respondents mentioned ef-"ciency and one survey respondent stated that the greatest bene"t to providing customer services is, “to

e#ciently do what we are called to do for the citizens of state/country.” Another respondent stated, “Ex-cellent customer service is what all citizens deserve. !ey are paying us to help provide services that don’t make sense for individuals to do or that need to be done collectively.” Finally, a third participant stated, “Education of the public in their right to know.”

When asked, “How do you de"ne good customer service?,” survey re-spondents were presented with six options and asked to check all op-

tions that apply. !e top response was improved services (70%), fol-lowed by friendliness to customers (51%), shortest time to provide information (48%), shortest time to resolve complaint (44%) and decreasing customer complaints (39%). Participants were also of-fered an “Other” option. Survey re-spondents stated, “Creating a stel-lar experience from start to "nish,” “Delivering an engaging service that delivers to agreed timeframes and speci"cations,” “Ongoing com-munication to follow up on com-plaints and to share information,”

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A RESEARCH REPORT FROM GOVLOOP AND ORACLE

50%

27%

7%

17%

IMPROVES CUSTOMER TRUST

IMPROVES ACCOUNTABILITYIN GOVERNMENT

IMPROVES TRANSPARENCYIN GOVERNMENT

OTHER

44%

48%

51%

39%

70%

25%

SHORTEST TIME TO RESOLVE COMPLAINT

SHORTEST TIME TO PROVIDE INFORMATION

FRIENDLINESS TOCUSTOMERS

IMPROVED SERVICES

OTHER

DECREASING CUSTOMERCOMPLAINTS

What Do You Believe is the Greatest Benefit of Excellent Customer Service in Government?

How Do You Define Good Customer Service? (Check all that apply)

to review the case in question.” A "nal comment shared was, “If more information is needed, the Depart-ment will contact the customer via telephone/e-mail/regular mail to request the additional information to assist with the complaint. If the customer is not satis"ed with the resolution, then we try to address their concerns to achieve a positive resolution.”

!e survey also explored the com-mon roadblocks to implementing customer service within a public

and “Understanding Customers.”

Another question that revealed interesting "ndings was asking if survey participants had a de"ned process to re-engage with a cus-tomer if a complaint is not resolved or if more information is needed. !e survey found that 56% had a de"ned process and 44% did not have a process to re-engage. Par-ticipants responded by stating, “We stick with it until it’s resolved. If the resident is not happy with the resolution, we have an independent ombudsman’s o#ce that can inves-tigate.” Another respondent stated, “Sometimes it isn’t that the com-plaint is not resolved, it is that the customer does not like the resolu-tion. We will continue to answer questions regarding the decision and we will o%er another channel (a supervisor or another specialist)

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RE-IMAGINING CUSTOMER SERVICE IN GOVERNMENT

17%

39%

19%

32%

32%

BUDGETARY

STAFFING

TECHNOLOGY

OTHER

LACK OFORGANIZATIONALSUPPORT

YES

55%

NO 45

%

Do You Have a Process to Re-Engage with a Customer if a Complaint is Not Resolved or More information is Needed?

What is the Largest Roadblock You Have Seen to Improving Customer Ser-vice Within Your Agency/Department?

sector agency or department. !e survey found sta#ng to be the key barrier (39%), a lack of organiza-tional support (32%), technology (19%) and budgetary restrictions (17%). !ere were 32.3% of re-sponders that listed “Other” and speci"ed a variety of barriers to im-proved customer service. Some ad-ditional input included road blocks such as “Data, insu#cient data across channels to formulate proper business cases,” and “Knowledge of Customer Service.”

C O R E F I N D I N G

!rough the government employee interviews, we found that identifying and de"ning agency customers is a core challenge for organizations. Customer service was ultimately de"ned between external and internal stakeholders. !e kind of customer the agency serves will truly impact the kind of service provided. Jon Foley from the O#ce of Personnel and Management (OPM) stated, “Our customers are varied. And it re-ally depends on what people are interested in. At one level our customers are the American public, and that comes out in various ways, but probably most directly to job applications and people looking for work in the federal government. And so USA Jobs is one of our most prominent ways of reaching the American public.”

With OPM focusing on such a wide variety of cus-tomers, the challenge becomes how to have an inte-

grated customer service approach across the agency. Many of our interviewees mentioned that customer service functions in a decentralized structure within their agency. Additionally, some functions of the agency work to help internal customers and others function to serve external customers. Again, Foley stated, “Our customer is also federal employees or federal agencies, or retirees, and their families when we talk about health services, annuity services, those kinds of things that have a direct impact on federal employees and their families. And so we tend to re-late to them a lot. We also work a lot in tandem with agencies, because, we have a somewhat decentralized way of handling HR matters in the federal govern-ment, and so while we are the policy-setting agency, a lot of the operations and delivery is done by each of the federal agencies. So, there’s a lot of interaction with them as well.”

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A RESEARCH REPORT FROM GOVLOOP AND ORACLE

Government is Challenged To Identify Customers

Tactics:

Develop Strategies to Identify Your Customer

Use Multiple Channels to Reach Customers

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RE-IMAGINING CUSTOMER SERVICE IN GOVERNMENT

Clearly, for agencies to improve how customer service is delivered, they will have to start by de"ning which set of customers they are serving. Ned Holland, Assistant Secretary for Administration, Department of Health and Human Services, also o%ered a great example of how he views his internal customers, and how they will ultimately serve exter-nal customers. Holland states, “For the most part, my o#ce doesn’t deal with our external customers. My role is to provide support for the department’s internal customers, who provide support for our exter-nal customers. So I’m essentially the Chief Administrative O#cer of the department. My sta% supports the folks who provide services to our bene"ciaries. I have made a major e%ort in the area of customer service internally.”

!e concept of a decentralized sys-tem and serving both external and internal customers also occurs at the Department of Transportation. Brack Boehler, Director, IT Com-pliance, Department of Transpor-tation, explains, “We don’t have a centralized customer service organi-zation here at the Department. So, that’s a huge problem that we have. Because it really comes down to each one of the operating adminis-trations, each has to take a step back and look at their initiatives.”

Brack shared similar comments as other government o#cials inter-viewed, that within the Depart-ment of Transportation the agency serves both internal and external

customers. Brack states, “Some de-partments, for instance NHTSA (National Highway Tra#c and Se-curity Administration) deals with consumers. Others like FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Ad-ministration) deals with small busi-nesses. For example, they’re engag-ing and interacting with truckers and motor coach (bus) companies. Many of our other Administrations deal primarily with state and local governments, granting huge blocks of money out to build bridges or airport runways or di%erent things like that. So they each have to look at their own stu%, they each have to "gure out what their customer base is, and they all have to deal with them di%erently.” Clearly, in order to provide great customer service, agencies need to focus on de"ning the program’s speci"c customer, identifying strategies to improve, and then e%ectively sharing infor-mation across the agency.

A distinction that became clear dur-ing the interviews is the di%erence between a regulating agency and a service-oriented agency, and speci"-cally the way they view their cus-tomers. Similar to the di%erences between internal and external cus-tomers, regulatory and service agen-cies will de"ne customer service in di%erent ways. “Agencies that are providing bene"ts tend to put more clear emphasis on customer service, so IRS, Social Security, those kind of agencies tend to use their data more e#ciently. But regulating agencies have customers too, and need to be careful when thinking about how to serve customers as a regulating

entity,” stated Dan Morgan, from PhaseOne Consulting Group. Mor-gan indicated that with direct ser-vice agencies, there are clear metrics that can be tracked, and the impact of customer service initiatives can be measured. Morgan also noted that, “It’s hard to calibrate customer service for regulating agencies.”

Tactic: Develop Strategies to Identify Your Customer!e key lesson learned is that iden-tifying customers is foundational to improving customer service in gov-ernment. Agencies need to think critically about whether their cus-tomer is internal, external or both, and then craft a policy that identi-"es how to best serve their custom-ers’ needs.

Morgan identi"ed, “No one is real-ly the customer of the government; they are a customer of a program.” He then presented a challenge for federal agencies, “One of the things that we don’t know is whether or not people are customers of multiple programs.” As previously identi"ed, agencies debated what constitutes a federal government customer, and how to best serve their needs. As we have found that customers tend to be from the program, and not the federal government, a clear idea of whom the program is serving is es-sential to improving customer ser-vice.

Foley also ascertained that identify-ing your customer is one of the most basic starting points for improv-ing customer service. Foley states, “!e "rst and most basic thing is

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A RESEARCH REPORT FROM GOVLOOP AND ORACLE

trying to understand who your customer is; it sort of $ows from there. Who they are, and then how you can support them, and what are the di%erent ways that you can support them. So, it’s really doing your homework in advance to try to understand who you’re serving and, how you can best serve them, before you spend a lot of money de-veloping the process.”

!ere is a clear distinction within government between external and internal customers. When devel-oping a new service or process, for internal or external customers, the agency needs to be cognizant of de-veloping a strategy that integrates all stakeholders. If this does not happen, the agency risks building itself into a silo, and creating an en-vironment absent of collaboration.

I D E N T I F YOn May 15, GovLoop hosted an event speci"cally addressing how agencies can Re-Imagine Government Customer Service; this was part of the “GovLoop Conversations” series. GovLoop conversations events have a unique format that encourages participation from attendees. !is event was sponsored by Oracle. Our experts sit at tables among attendees and serve as facilitators to a larger discussion. !e speakers for the event were:

JOEY HUTCHERSON, Deputy Director of Open Government, O"ce of the Secretary, Department of Commerce

ABRAHAM MARTINEZ, Customer Engagement Advisor, Department of Education

BRUCE MARSH, Director, O"ce of Inspector General Risk Analysis Research Center, USPS

SCOTT FRENDT, Vice President, Public Sector CRM Solutions, Oracle

CHRIS DOROBEK, Moderator

!ere were 10 key "ndings from the event, and throughout the guide we will identify all ten. !e "rst "nding was Identify Your Cus-tomer. !ere was an interesting conversation that identi"ed the di%erence between internal and external agency customers. Participants commented in order to provide improved customer service; agency leaders need to distinguish between their internal and external customers.

Tactic: Use Multiple Channels to Reach Customers Since government serves a diverse set of customers, one recommenda-tion is for agencies to o%er informa-tion and services across multiple communication channels. Survey participants and interviewees are using numerous channels to en-gage with customers. Foley stated, “I think one of the things is that there are various ways of respond-ing to customers, and listening to customers. And one of the things is to just keep current with the infor-mation systems in place. Facebook and Twitter were not something we engaged in a year ago. !at was a shift in thinking here.”

What kind of CHannels Can Customers Use in Your Customer Service Initiatives? (Check All that Apply)

83%

45%

63%

67%

59%

31%

WEBSITE

SOCIAL MEDIA

IN-PERSON CENTERS

PAPER FORMS

OTHER

CALL CENTERS

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RE-IMAGINING CUSTOMER SERVICE IN GOVERNMENT

C O R E F I N D I N G

Many of the interviewees noted that they conducted surveys as a tool to measure their customer service ini-tiatives. Dan Morgan believes, “!ere is a minimum amount of data that agencies need to collect to op-timize customer service.” Along with collecting this data, Dan believes it is critically important to share the information across the agency.

Bruce Peacock provided some insights as to how customer surveys are used within the National Park System, “One of the things that we’re keen on here in the National Park Service, is actually "nding out what our visitors think of our parks and so we have a customer satisfaction survey that we conduct in most of the parks. Some of the parks are not very ame-nable to surveying. Every year, we survey roughly 330 parks, and we ask about all di%erent aspects of their

experience, from the facilities, through the ranger led programs.”

Although agencies collect data, agencies are chal-lenged with using data to make informed decisions. !e research "nds that the use of data for improved customer service is complicated and compounded by a variety of factors. As many agencies are serving multiple customers, "nding the right data to improve decisions is a challenge. Morgan also identi"ed that for an agency focused on regulation, it is very di#cult to measure impact. Further, with limited standards for customer service metrics, there is confusion to understanding the data and what value it represents. Without a clear set of standards for customer service, an agency will continue to struggle with how data is being used within the agency.

Challenges Exist IN UsingCustomer Service

DataTactics:

Consolidate Data Silos

Identify Metrics that are Performance Drivers

Develop Customer Service Standards and Metrics for Agency

Although there are challenges with managing and analyzing customer data to make informed decisions, the research did produce some best practices and recommendations to help organizations use customer service data to gain insights to im-

prove customer service initiatives.

Tactic: Consolidate Data SilosManaging data is challenging enough, but when data rests in si-los and across the agency, data be-comes nearly impossible to mine

for results. Agencies should work to centralize their customer service data and work towards standard-izing their metrics agency wide to measure customer service.

Tactic: Identify Metrics That are Performance DriversAnother core challenge for data is identifying the right metrics for the performance measures the agency has de"ned. Agencies need to im-prove what their core performance drivers are for customer service, and appropriately identify metrics.

Tactic: Develop Customer Ser-vice Standards and Metrics for Agency A "nal data challenge is to develop common customer service stan-dards and metrics for an agency. !ere remains confusion on how to leverage metrics to adequately evaluate customer service initia-tives. With stronger customer ser-vice standards, agencies can work to improve their own metrics.

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A RESEARCH REPORT FROM GOVLOOP AND ORACLE

D A T AA "nding from the GovLoop Conservation, Re-Imagining Government Customer Service was to understand Customer Service Data and how data can help improve customer service. Data and analytics were touched on this morning, and the need for data to be used to help improve how agencies are making decisions based on customer service.

39%DATA COLLECTION IS LIMITED -NOT USED TO IMPROVE DECISION MAKING

29%YES - AS NEEDED BASED ONFEEDBACK RECEIVED

6%

7%

19%

YES - MONTHLY

YES - QUARTERLY

OTHER

Are You Using Data Collected to Make Informed Decisions to Improve Customer Service Efforts?

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RE-IMAGINING CUSTOMER SERVICE IN GOVERNMENT

C O R E F I N D I N G

Many of our interviewees mentioned that there are still signi"cant cultural barriers to improving customer service within government. Brack Boehler stated, “As much as anything, it’s a cultural issue. People don’t perceive the Department of Transportation as being customer focused. !ey perceive us as an Agency that provides blocks of money for people to do things.”

Candi Harrison mentioned that one challenge to re-moving cultural barriers is that government functions within silos, “!roughout the federal government, we operate in silos. And sometimes even within agencies. We need to break down those silos and start looking at government from the customer’s point of view.”

With Executive Order 13571 from President Obama, agencies have been forced to make changes on how they traditionally view customer service. !e Open

Government and Government 2.0 movements have also impacted customer service in government. Simi-lar to the Executive Order 13571, President Obama’s memorandum to mandate government to become more transparent, collaborative and participatory has had a long reaching impact for federal agencies.

Although there has been a movement to make gov-ernment more transparent, participatory and collab-orative, cultural barriers to impact customer service still exist, Survey participants indicated, “Manage-ment believes this is the way we have always done it.” “We’ve always done it this way.” Ned Holland assert-ed that he has encountered cultural barriers, stating, “People tell me all the time, Mr. Holland, you don’t understand; this is the government. And I say, no, you don’t understand. !is is just another big com-plex human organization and they all have the same

Cultural Hurdles RemainFor ImprovING Customer

ServiceTactics:

Find a champion

Work on Identifying Business Case

Learn to Navigate Organizational Culture

Be transparent and Open to Critical Feedback

kinds of problems.”

Across all sectors, changing cul-ture is challenging. It is not easy to change the mind set or norms of an organization. !e study found four key "ndings as ways public sector organizations can work towards re-moving cultural roadblocks.

Tactic: Find a ChampionInterviews and roundtable par-ticipants stressed the need to iden-tify customer service “champions” within the agency to push improved customer service initiatives. !ese people are critical to helping orga-nizations improve customer service, and can serve as a way to build up support for new initiatives and help work through cultural barriers.

Tactic: Work on Identifying Busi-ness CaseIdentifying the business case is criti-cal to improved customer service.

To receive management support of customer service initiatives, leaders need to see the new business value created by improved customer ser-vice, and how the old model is anti-quated and needs to be replaced or modi"ed.

Tactic: Learn to Navigate Organi-zational CultureMany of the interviewees who had success improving customer service initiatives was due to their ability to carefully trend along political lines and balance contradicting interests. Being too assertive in views and not paying attention to the cultural environment can be damaging to working towards improved custom-er service initiatives.

Tactic: Be Transparent and Open to Critical Feedback Transparency is an essential tactic for improving customer service. !is means openness in regards to

data collection, how information is used, and putting the customer "rst. Further, administrators of customer service initiatives should be open to feedback. Being open to feedback is critical for improved customer service, and using the feedback constructively to improve services provided to customers.

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A RESEARCH REPORT FROM GOVLOOP AND ORACLE

C U L T U R E O F C U S T O M E R S E R V I C EA crucial "nding from the GovLoop Conservation, Re-Imagining Government Customer Service was to Develop a Culture of Cus-tomer Service. Culture was touched on a few times throughout the discussion. One of the themes was agencies need to “develop a culture of customer service.” !is was a fascinating discussion, but agencies need to have support from all levels within the agency to improve how customer service is delivered in government.

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RE-IMAGINING CUSTOMER SERVICE IN GOVERNMENT

C O R E F I N D I N G

Technology is a critical component to improving how agencies can deliver improved customer service. Although technology is imperative to improved and optimized customer service processes, technology does have a set of unique challenges to implement ef-"ciently within an agency. Dennis Alvord, Executive Director, BusinessUSA, stated, “Frankly, technology has been critically important to helping us to achieve better outcomes, including increasing awareness, and certainly increasing accessibility of resources.” In ad-dition, Holland mentioned, “We couldn’t do what we do without technology.”

Arianne Gallagher, Presidential Management Fel-low, Policy Analyst, O#ce of Personnel Management noted, “!ere is a lot of new technology coming out, with a lot of new opportunities. I think the main

thing that technology is really going to help us with is providing that direct link to the customer, having that opportunity for customers to have better access to us, and to communicate to us about our programs and about the di%erent ways that we serve them.” Arianne reiterated that the improved use of technology helps facilitate a better relationship between government and citizens.

In order to fully leverage the potential of technology for improved customer service, it is important to re-member that technology is only a tool to enable im-proved customer experiences. Alvord described this lesson learned, “It’s de"nitely not all about technol-ogy. Technology is really the tool that can help us to achieve greater outcomes. For example, connecting to the best program resource is great, but if the busi-

Technology Enables ImprovedCustomer Service

DeliveryTactics:

Implement, Train, and Staff

Use Collaborative Technology to Share Information

Use Technology to Improve Data Management

ness or individual then gets to that resource and they have a really bad customer service experience because they weren’t prepared to handle the inquiry or they just didn’t have the right customer outlook; then while we won the battle, we got them to the right resource in a streamlined and e#cient manner, we lost the war, because we didn’t provide good customer service.”

Alvord said that at BusinessUSA the goal is to not only be e#cient with the use of new technology, but also to provide a value added service, “We hope that we’re also improving the e#ciency and the e%ectiveness of program delivery, not just get-ting them in a streamlined manner to the resources that they need, but o%ering them complementary and value added services.”

Dennis was clear to mention that technology o%ers various oppor-tunities, but is only one element to improving customer service in government. “Technology o%ers us some wonderful opportunities, but it’s not the end all, be all of cus-tomer service. !ere’s always going

to be a very strong human aspect to making sure that we’re delivering an improved customer experience.”

Tactic: Implement, Train, and StaffTechnology facilitates improved customer service, but there is an enormous amount of planning and preparation that allows technology to work as intended. In order to fully leverage technology, agencies need to implement, train and prop-erly sta% to fully leverage new and emerging technology. As we have mentioned, technology will enable agencies to improve customer ser-vice delivery, but agencies need to focus on the correct strategy, sta% accordingly and train end users how to use the new technology.

Tactic: Use Collaborative Tech-nology to Share InformationAnother "nding is the need for col-laborative technology to e#ciently share information. !is could mean sharing everything from data, poli-cies and best practices across the agency, all in order to facilitate the sharing of knowledge across the

agency.

Tactic: Use Technology to Im-prove Data Management !e third "nding is that data man-agement is critical, and agencies of-ten have large volumes of data that they are unsure how to use and to drive decisions from the data. Tech-nology can help with the data man-agement and drive e#ciencies and optimize services through improved use of data.

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A RESEARCH REPORT FROM GOVLOOP AND ORACLE

T R A I NProviding training was another "nding from the GovLoop Conservation, Re-Imagining Government Customer Service. Another result was a great discussion on how training has been used to improve customer service within government. Participants provided a few examples how they have required training for employees and they are considering using customers service as part of their performance evaluations.

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RE-IMAGINING CUSTOMER SERVICE IN GOVERNMENT

C O R E F I N D I N G

!is section identi"es "ve best practices to help agen-cies to improve how they deliver customer service.

Best Practice: Design With the Customer in MindOne of the keys to improved customer service is to design with the customer in mind. Alvord reminded us that this process should start from the very begin-ning. Alvord stated, “I think quite often, with the best of intentions, we embark on e%orts to "x some-thing without truly understanding what the custom-er wants, or what the customer needs are. It is very important at the front end to start by understanding who your customers are, and then designing your so-lution to meet the needs that they’ve expressed.”

Alvord also suggested that communication with cus-tomers cannot stop and that communication with key stakeholders is critical to the entire process. “You have to continually engage customers, in an active feed-back loop, so you’re designing, testing, gaining their feedback, and adjusting to accommodate customer needs.”

Listening to customers throughout the entire cus-tomer experience is critical. Candi Harrison stated, “Great communication makes customer service bet-ter. It’s sharing, getting to know and understand your customer. I think a lot of it can happen at the grass-roots level. It’s about thinking about the customer "rst, asking questions such as, what have I done to-

IdentifY & REPLICATE Best Practices

Best Practices:

Design with The Customer in Mind

View Customer Service in Context of The Mission

Share Resources Across THE Agency

Tie Customer Service to Open Government

Consider Lessons Learned from the Private Sector

day? Did I answer the phone a little bit more pleasantly? Did I respond to that email a little more pleasant-ly? What have I done to help you get better service?”

Candi also asserted the importance of face-to-face communication and talking with the agency’s core cus-tomers. Candi mentioned, “You got to get out of your o#ce. You got to get out and "nd out what those "eld people are talking about, what your customers are saying. You got to go where they are and listen to them and talk to customers face-to-face.”

Designing with the customer in mind is critical as new services are released. Arianne Gallagher men-tions how important it is to always remember the human element. Arianne notes the importance of bringing a human element into customer service, “It is important to bring that human aspect back into some of the work that they’re doing. And I think it provides a lot of motivation to know that there is a real person behind a retirement application, or that there’s a real ap-plicant behind a USA Jobs pro"le.” Candi Harrison expressed similar sentiments, stating, “You need to

really make customer service a per-sonal responsibility of every single government worker.”

Best Practice: View Customer Service in Context of the Mis-sion Agencies need to understand the business case and value of improved customer service for the agency. Jon Foley stated, “Really understand the business case "rst, and business pro-cess "rst and using the technology to support those aims, rather than the other way around. !at is a les-son we have learned with a lot of the information systems we have.”

For customer service to improve within government, there needs to be support from the most senior levels of the agency. !is involves tying customer service into the core mission of the agency. It also means that agency leaders need to be

aware of the customers they serve, how multifaceted each department might be, and develop standards for departments throughout the agency to follow. “It really has to come from the highest levels of the department, and needs to be viewed in the context of the mission,” states Dan Morgan.

Best Practice: Share Resources Across the Agency !roughout the interviews we found a decentralized approach to customer service. !is was predom-inately due to di%erent agencies serving di%erent customers within the agency. In order to improve customer service in government, agencies need to "nd ways to im-prove how they share resources. To improve customer service, the focus should be on the best practices and trends in customer service. Agencies will have to invest the time to ap-ply these trends and best practices to multiple kinds of customers in a decentralized setting. By sharing in-formation across agencies, although customers may be di%erent, agency leads can learn, apply and modify strategies from colleagues through-out the agency to improve their cus-tomer service initiatives.

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A RESEARCH REPORT FROM GOVLOOP AND ORACLE

L I S T E NAn imperative "nding from the GovLoop Conservation, Re-Imagining Government Customer Service was to Listen to Customers. !e discussion included advice to be sure you are listening to customers and incorporating their feedback to improve customer service. !is involves having a two-way discussion with the customer.

B U D G E TA key "nding from the GovLoop Conservation, Re-Imagining Government Customer Service was budget constraints. Budget constraints have been one of the most pressing themes across government - the charge of doing more with less and working to improve customer service. !roughout the event, open government came up and the connection between customer service and open government initiatives became clear.

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RE-IMAGINING CUSTOMER SERVICE IN GOVERNMENT

Dan Morgan stated why there is a need to share information across the agency, “We need to understand cost across each channel, channels need to talk to each other, so gov-ernment can optimize across chan-nels and know where and how to move people to lower-cost, higher-service channels e%ectively.”

!e survey also provided some ways that agencies could improve cus-tomer service. 70% believed that in-creased collaboration is one way to improve customer service, followed by 45% increased sta#ng, 41% in-creased customer service channels, 28% increased funding and 32% responded with “Other.” Some of the responses included, “Customer Service standards and sta% training. At present neither exist,” “Consoli-dating/making channels seamless because many/most customers use multiple channels; and the biggest one of all: valuing great customer service as a top agency goal,” and “Better guidelines, more policies that show the importance of cus-tomer service.”

Best Practice: Tie Customer Service to Open Government Initiatives In many cases, customer service ini-

tiatives are tied to open government programs. Brack Boehler stated, “For us, we were trying to make our data sets available to the public, so that entrepreneurs can go out and say what could we do with this in-formation.” Dan Morgan further stated, “One of the things that we recognized very early is that we see a very strong connection between open government and customer service.”

Morgan also reminded that, like open government, customer service does not involve just one solution, stating, “It’s not just about being open or just about APIs, it is about the whole stack in the context of the mission. Open Government doesn’t work well without some kind of context, or else it is just dumping data onto the Internet.” Dan con-tinues, “You take the open govern-ment approach to ful"lling that mission need, put it in the context of the citizen, and "gure out the technology and the channel to de-liver that service most e%ectively.”

!e same goals of government be-coming more transparent, partici-patory and collaborative can be ap-plied in a customer service context. Agencies should look to see how they could leverage existing pro-

grams and initiatives within their agency to improve customer service in government.

Best Practice: Consider Lessons Learned from the Private SectorNed Holland expressed that there are lessons learned from the pri-vate sector, Holland stated, “I don’t think you can run government like a business, because it has very dif-ferent objectives. But you can run government in a business-like fash-ion. !ere is a subtle di%erence, but it’s an important one.” Holland continued to express the di%erence between providing a return on in-vestment and a return to service, “In the private sector where your ultimate outcome is, if you will, the bottom line, you have to pro-duce a return on the shareholder investment so you can return that investment to them, that is a di%er-ent thing than in the public sector where what you have to do is return a service to the taxpayers. It’s mea-sured di%erently, it’s thought of dif-ferently, but the processes of getting to those two things are surprisingly similar.”

Dennis Alvord also highlighted that there has been much innova-tion from the private sector, and new technology can help enable

T H I N K O U T S I D E T H E B O XAnother lesson learned from the GovLoop Conservation, Re-Imagining Government Customer Service was to !ink Outside the Box. Many participants and our speakers identi"ed that in order to improve customer service in government, agencies will need to think creatively how they are providing services. !ere is no easy or quick "x, and things can change very quickly.

improved customer service in the public sector. “I think there are tremendous opportunities for the public sector to leverage some in-novations that have occurred in the private sector to provide greater levels of customer service.” Dennis continues by stating, “I think the customer service space has evolved very rapidly over the last few years. We are now seeing static $at web-sites evolving into service portals,

where you can actually do things that are more transactional, and they’re providing a greater level of value to customers.”

Dennis Alvord also noted that the use of personalization is one im-portant strategy in the private sec-tor that can be implemented within government, “In the private sector, the aim may be monetary and it may be selling something. We have di%erent objectives in the public

sector, but can still bene"t from some of the tools that the private sector uses. One example of that would be something like personaliza-tion.”

!e idea of personalization is intriguing, as personaliza-tion can possibly be imple-mented within government. Dennis states, “On many websites you come to now, you establish a login, and a user account of some kind, and you’d be able to preserve your history of transactions with that agency. And also get referred in a very e%ec-tive manner to additional complementary solutions.”

With the challenges of a de-centralized customer service

system, the idea of personalizing and preserving a user pro"le would be an enormous bene"t for custom-er service initiatives. Sites like Ama-zon.com and Zappos.com do a fan-tastic job of recommending similar products and services for customers to store and potentially purchase items at a later time. !ese kinds of innovations should be replicated within government.

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A RESEARCH REPORT FROM GOVLOOP AND ORACLE

C O M P E T I T I O NCompetition was also mentioned during the GovLoop Conservation, Re-Imagining Government Customer Service. One interesting insight was how there is little competition in the federal government in how they deliver customer service. Without a clear competitor, it is important to tie customer service to a business objective and tie into the mission of the agency.

69%INCREASED COLLABORATIONACROSS AGENCY

28%INCREASED FUNDING

45%

41%

32%

INCREASED CUSTOMER SERVICE CHANNELS

INCREASED STAFFING

OTHER

What Are Ways/Opportunities For Your Organization To Improve Customer Ser-vice? (Check all that Apply)

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RE-IMAGINING CUSTOMER SERVICE IN GOVERNMENT

I N F O C U S

As part of our research study, GovLoop sought to in-terview not only federal agency leads, but also those involved in customer service at the local level. Fran-cisco Navarro, Customer Service Policy Advisor, New York City, agreed to sit down with us and talk through his role as Customer Service Policy Advisor.

In a city as large as New York City, providing great customer service is no easy task. Navarro listed his core responsibilities as:

Coordinate participation of thirty agencies in New York City’s Customer Service Week, Edit, publish and distribute a quarterly custom-er service newsletter, Oversee the Citywide Excellence in Customer Service Awards, Provide guidance and leadership for citywide

walk-in center inspections, Provide plain language edits for rules issued by City agencies, Market and help oversee Customer Service Cer-ti"cate Program, andProvide input, guidance, and analysis for other customer service related programs and projects.

Undoubtedly, Navarrro has his hands full to provide a great customer experience in New York City.

Navarro described the City of New York customers: “Our customers are anyone who lives in, works in or visits New York City.” Navarro highlighted dozens of initiatives that the City of New York has undertaken to improve customer service in government. One ini-tiative that is unique to New York is how the City conducts citywide inspections of walk in facilities; this

New York City

initiative is called Customers Ob-serving and Reporting Experiences (CORE). Navarro stated, “I believe our City is unique in conducting citywide inspections of walk-in fa-cilities via the CORE program. Our inspectors visit approximately 300 walk-in centers at 28 di%erent agen-cies located throughout the City’s "ve boroughs, and observe and rate facility conditions and customer service. Inspectors visit sites that provide a wide range of services, from handgun licensing, to income support to payment of parking tick-ets. “

Navarro explained further how CORE works, “Inspectors rate both facility conditions and customer service interactions. Agency CORE overall results are available in each agency’s Agency Customer Service section of the Mayor’s Management Report, the MMR: (!e main entry page to the MMR is here).” !e CORE program is a great ex-ample of a successful customer service initiative. Navarro de"ned a successful customer service ini-tiative as, “A successful customer service initiative is one that has tangible positive outcomes that last over time.” Navarro then credited the CORE program for this success,

stating, “!e CORE inspection program has resulted in improve-ments in the conditions at walk-in centers. Also, City agency sta% looks forward to Customer Service Week and the Excellence in Cus-tomer Service Awards that are given during that week. !is week has become a highlight for many agen-cies and their sta%.”

With great customer service ini-tiatives like CORE, there are a lot of positive outcomes. Navarro be-lieved that by providing great cus-tomer service, trust in government improves. “!e most important outcome of good customer service is building trust in government. Too many customers have the at-titude that “the City just wants the revenue”, or “you can’t "ght City Hall.” When customers are treated fairly and with dignity, and when they understand why a certain de-cision is made or an outcome re-quired, and that ultimately deci-sions and policies are made with some greater good in mind – public health and safety, a healthy environ-ment, educational attainment, then customers will develop respect and trust for the sta% and the govern-ment it represents,” said Navarro.

One requirement that distinguishes

New York City’s customer service approach is that NYC requires all agencies to survey customers at least once a year. Navarro stated, “We do require that all agencies survey their customers at least once a year and report the total number of custom-ers surveyed. Agencies now report on their surveying activities via the Citywide Performance System. (!e results can be found here.)”

Navarro provided numerous exam-ples how NYC uses data to improve customer service, and how NYC has worked to identify and measure their customer service initiatives. Navarro stated, “In June 2008 the City conducted a comprehensive feedback survey using data gathered from surveys sent to 100,000 ran-domly selected households.” Fur-ther, Navarro identi"ed, “In 2009 our o#ce created the NYC Feed-back form, a small card with "ve customer service questions. Agen-cies are encouraged but not man-dated to have these cards in their walk-in centers.”

In addition to surveys, New York City has also set a standard of re-sponse to customers to 14 calendar days. Navarro stated, “!e stan-dard for response to written cor-respondence is 14 calendar days.

S H A R EA critical "nding from the GovLoop Conservation, Re-Imagining Government Customer Service was to Share Resources. Another "nding from the event was the importance of sharing information across the agency, sharing best practices and working across govern-ment to improve customer service.

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A RESEARCH REPORT FROM GOVLOOP AND ORACLE

!e expected response time for certain types of conditions sent by phone, text, iPhone or online to 311 vary by condition reported or complained about. For example, the Department of Buildings has three categories of seriousness of complaints with varying levels of expected response times.”

New York City is also using feed-back from customers to help enable policy change. Navarro provided the following example and insights as to how feedback from customer service initiatives is used, “Feedback from customers, where possible and appropriate, is used to make process and policy changes. For example, in response to a customer survey the Department of Transportation modi"ed hours of operation and enabled cell phone service at one of their facilities.” Although New York City excels in providing customer service, there are still challenges. Similar to our survey results, Navarro cited that resources, budgets and time are the main barriers, “!e two probably most obvious barriers are resourc-es (people and money) and time. !ere is also the organizational cul-tural resistance to change,” stated Francisco.

Even with these barriers, Navarro was able to provide some solu-tions to removing roadblocks and delivering great customer service. Navarro noted, “!e most impor-tant element in overcoming barriers is the need for executive support. In our case Mayor Bloomberg is a

champion of customer service in government who created the 311 customer service center and who signed an executive order compel-ling agencies to assign a liaison and make customer service an explicit priority.”

Navarro continued by asserting, “Without adding new resources, another barrier to overcome are the barriers of time and money to prioritize projects. You also need to make sure that those prioritized

projects are adding real value in some way. To overcome resistance to change, customer service needs to be sold as something that ben-e"ts both customers and sta%. Fur-ther, those overseeing change need to make sure that they can provide guidance and support.”

Technology clearly plays a critical role in enabling customer service. Navarro stated, “Technology is an enabler of customer service goals, a means to an end. For example,

26

RE-IMAGINING CUSTOMER SERVICE IN GOVERNMENT

Establishment of Customer Service Liaisons

Establishment of Language Access Coordinators

311 iPhone Application

Business Customer Bill of Rights

Walk-in Center Inspections (CORE – Customers Observing and Reporting

Experience)

Customer Service Week

Customer Service Certi"cate Program, including

Customer service training

Plain language training

Cultural sensitivity training

Excellence in Customer Service Awards

Language Access Policy

NYC Certi"ed – Program to Certify City Volunteers to Translate and Interpret

NYC Customer Service Newsletter

NYC Feedback Comment Cards

NYC.gov Language Gateway – multilingual web portal

Mayor’s Management Report Customer Service Indicators

Volunteer Language Bank

311 Service Request Map

Other interesting initiatives from theCity of New York include:

we developed a phone app that al-lows customers to report conditions like gra#ti and dirty vacant lots via their iPhones. !ey can send pic-tures and text descriptions. !is al-lows agencies to more "rmly docu-ment conditions and to respond more e%ectively.”

Navarro also mentioned that new media is at the forefront of enabling improved customer service in New York City, along with training, re-sources and technology. He stated, “Training, resources and technol-ogy are the enablers of customer service improvements. Today, new media is at the forefront of enabling these improvements via phone apps, social media networks, and online services.”

New York City is a great case study for government to analyze for cus-tomer service. Navarro shared some of his best practices and lessons learned from his work in New York City, “A major factor in our suc-cess has been having the support from the top. In our case it comes from Mayor Bloomberg himself. In addition, establishing report-ing requirements to track customer service indicators, as we do in the Mayor’s Management Report and

online through our Citywide Per-formance Reporting (CPR) system, reinforces the commitment to cus-tomer service.”

Finally, Navarro advised to be per-sistent, and incorporate a culture of service within your agency, stating, “You need to be persistent and cre-ate an environment that sends the message that customer service is a permanent component of service, that it is not a “$avor of the month” or a temporary morale booster. !is is accomplished by establishing var-ious programs, especially training and recognition, and communicat-ing the customer service message as many times and as many ways as possible.” NYC has made great strides in the way in which they de-liver customer service. By o%ering a variety of services through multiple channels and using data to drive improved services, New York City has a great customer service model for government to replicate.

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A RESEARCH REPORT FROM GOVLOOP AND ORACLE

M O B I L EAn insightful and important "nding that developed from the GovLoop Conservation, Re-Imagining Government Customer Service was to understand how Mobile is a game changer for customer service. Like many areas across government panelist mentioned that mobile is game changing for customer service. In particular, citizens expect to be able to access certain services on their mobile devices, participants stated that this adds pressure on the agency to deliver customer service through the right channels.

G O V L O O P

RESOURCES

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RE-IMAGINING CUSTOMER SERVICE IN GOVERNMENT

As the leading knowledge network for government, GovLoop focuses on seven core areas of government, acquisition, career, communica-tions, human resources, leadership, project management and technol-ogy. !rough partnerships with expert facilitators, GovLoop pro-duces thousands of blog posts per month. GovLoop also o%ers train-ings, events, and produces research reports and guides for the Govern-ment community.

GovLoop has developed a variety of resources available for employees practicing customer service. Below are some of the top blog posts and resources related to customer ser-vice in government.

10 Ways Government Can Re-Imagine Government Customer ServicePat Fiorenza, GovLoop

22 Ideas to Improve Customer ServiceSteve Ressler, GovLoop

Announcing GL Infograph - How to Create Great Government Customer ServicePat Fiorenza, GovLoop

Should Local Government Offices Develop Customer Service Plans?Paul Wolf, Attorney

Does Customer Service Matter for Government? 5 Examples for ChangeSteve Ressler, GovLoop

Listing of Federal Agencies Customer Service InitiativesData.GovLoop

Announcing the GovLoop Excelling with Customer Service GuideSteve Ressler, GovLoop

Agency Customer Service PlansJohn Kamensky, IBM

NYC Online NewsletterFrancisco Navarro, New York City Mayor’s O"ce of Operations

Customer Service Act is Good News for Customers and EmployeesCandi Harrison, Harrison Consulting

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A RESEARCH REPORT FROM GOVLOOP AND ORACLE

Oracle’s Customer Experience strategy outlines how organizations can rise to meet customers’ expectations for superior levels of service by delivering consistent, relevant, and personalized citizen experiences across all interaction channels. Oracle helps organizations ful"ll customer expectations, empower employees with consistent and real-time knowledge, and gain deeper insight into conditions impact-ing organization mission while simultaneously increasing productivity and reducing costs.

White Paper: Seven Power Lessons for Customer Experience LeadersEight Steps to Great Customer Experiences for Government AgenciesForrester Report: Navigate !e Future Of Customer Service

H o w O r a c l e P o w e r s G r e a t C i t i z e n E x p e r i e n c e s

Customer Experience Offers Government Measurable Results

Complete Citizen Experience for Public Sector

Key links/resources

Online Resources:

Increase agent productivity – Army, reduced agent training time by 1/2Improve multi-channel support – Texas Tech Improved cross channel consistencyEmpower citizens through self service – Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services achieves a 99% self service rateNetherlands Social Service Agencies Modernize IT Systems to Connect Citizens with Jobs City of Riverside Responds to More than 160,000 Service Requests Annually with Integrated 311 SystemNew York City Tracks Performance, Enables Financial Transparency with Oracle BI Solution Designed by Accenture

Serves the anytime, anywhere citizen in a seamless, personal way Across all channels: the web, in an o#ce, over the phone, via mobile device, through social media

Empowers today’s governments Strategic tools and applications that enable personalized interactions with citizens

Accelerates delivery of services to citizens, maximizes government employee time, and improves operational e"ciency and results Signi"cantly increases citizen and employee satisfaction

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!ank you to our sponsor Oracle for supporting this study. !e GovLoop team would also like to thank all those who participated in the interviews, we would especially like to reiterate our thanks to Dennis Alvord, Brack Boehler, Jon Foley, Scott Frendt, Arianne Gallagher, Candi Harrison, E.J. (“Ned”) Holland, Jr., Joey Hutcher-son, Benjamin Jones, Abraham Marinez, Bruce Marsh, Dan Morgan, Francisco Navarro, Bruce Peacock, and Elizabeth Weinstein. Also, we would like to thank all those who contributed to our online survey and attended the GovLoop Discussion Roundtable: Re-Imagining Government Customer Service. Je% Ribeira, GovLoop

Content and Community Coordinator created the design of this research report.

All interviews in this report were conducted by Pat Fiorenza. Pat also served as the author of this report. Pat is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop. GovLoop is an online knowledge network of over 55,000 government employees. In his role, Pat is the author of GovLoop guides, research reports and also writes a monthly a blog series on GovLoop. By authoring this content, Pat works to "nd best practices and identify solutions to help government employees become more e#cient in their day to day responsibilities and facilitate knowledge sharing across government. Pat received his Masters of Public Administration degree from the Maxwell School of Citizen-

ship and Public A%airs at Syracuse University.

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