1

Customer Service

In

Public Works

Mahesh Sharma, P.E., M.P.A.

City Administrator

Raytown, Missouri

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Understand why customer service is such a key component of municipal services

• Understand good customer service is a mindset; not a behavior change

• Know the four components of a customer service program

SO, YOUR BOSS TELLS YOU TO PROVIDE CUSTOMER SERVICE…

• What does customer service mean?

• Does that mean I cannot say “No”?

• Customer Service is time consuming and we do not have the resources!

• We should put all our resources in patching potholes. Customer service is a waste of money!

• There goes efficiency!

CUSTOMER SERVICE AS A BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION

• The Air Port Ride story

• The Curb Repair story

• The Hot Water story

• The Detour story

• The IHOP restaurant story

• That’s interesting – Tell me more, why would you say, do, and ask that.

FOUR COMPONENTS OF CUSTOMER SERVICE

1. Do your services/products meet the needs of your customers?

2. Do your customers know how to get the services/products?

3. Have you streamlined your internal processes and are your employees trained and empowered?

4. How often do you evaluate your customer service program?

BUT, BEFORE YOU STARTRemember: customer service is a mindset!Your organization should have

mission/value/vision statements that every one in the organization shares.

Customer service should be one of your strategic goals with implementation plan and performance indicators that relates back to the strategic goals.

SERVICES/PRODUCTS

So what is your business?Who are your customers?What is the best time for them to do

business with you?How do they want to do business with

you?How far do they have to go to do

business with you?

ACCESSING THE SERVICES Small cities – only provide limited services,

other agencies are providing the rest of the services. How do you partner with the other agencies?

Large organizations – several departments may be involved. • How would an uninformed citizen get to

the right person? • How would you eliminate the run around?

INTERNAL PROCESSESHow to pass the baton so that it doesn’t get

dropped?

INTERNAL PROCESSES (CONT’D)

How would you empower employees and trust that they will make the right decision?

How often do you review your process?

The drainage and the abandoned vehicle responses

EVALUATION

Do you know what your strategic goals are for your customer service program?

Do you have performance indicators to reflect these strategic goals?

How often do you review these as a team?

SUMMARY

Customer Service is a mindset Customer Service should be

part of your strategic goal implementation plan

The essential components of a Customer Service plan

Be aware of some of the pitfalls