You’re All Showing a Lot of HEART
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Making sure our customers get exceptional service is a year-round, 24/7 business. But this week is officially Customer Service Week across the country.
It also happens to be the one-year anniversary of the County’s launch of its Customer Experience Initiative to push our customer service to the next level. Employees across the organization have embraced the effort in a variety of ways, all driven by using a positive approach to create a positive experience.
To help us learn from each other, here are a just a few samples of things departments have been doing over the last year to spread the message and make people’s experience with the County better.
Spell It Out
Auditor and Controller has created several kinds of recognition for employees using the HEART commitment: serving customers with Helpfulness, Expertise, Attentiveness, Respect and Timeliness. Employees can receive on-the-spot recognition from colleagues in the form of one letter representing the HEART quality they demonstrated. For example, an “E” if they showed expertise in helping a customer. Anyone who puts together an entire HEART in a quarter gets special department-wide recognition.
The department also invites recognition from the public, and even vendors, providing a form that allows them to identify employees for a HEART of Service Award. Auditor and Controller sends a team to visit recipients of either type of award and salute them with some pomp and noisemakers.
You Are Here: Customer Journey Mapping
The term you commonly hear now across the service industry – and the one we’ve adopted at the County for our initiative – is customer experience. It emphasizes the whole series of actions a customer can have and their overall impression.
People who need self-sufficiency services from the County need to go through an eligibility process at one of the Health and Human Service Agency’s Family Resource Centers. The South Regions center recently engaged in what’s called “customer journey mapping.” The staff documented all the different points of customer interaction, from their arrival outside the building to waiting in line to submitting an application to interviews. Then staff found a few willing clients and shadowed them through the whole process, talking to them along the way about their experience at each point and noting what worked and where there were difficulties. They are now reviewing the mapping and identifying areas for improvement.
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This particular journey map looked only at the visit to the FRC itself. But it could include everything from personal referrals to website visits to phone calls. Take a look at some sample journey maps from federal government.
You Could Ask
What do your customers want? The Air Pollution Control District decided the best way to get that answer was to spend a little time asking – in person and in-depth. APCD works regularly with the shipbuilding giant NASSCO on a variety of permitting and inspections. The department invited a company representative to come to a meeting of several dozen employees and explain what she thinks is working well and areas that could use some improvement. APCD is using the feedback to work at streamlining procedures. The department plans to hold similar meetings with other regular customers.
Check Them Out
The County Library has two awards focusing specifically on employees serving patrons. Excellence in Customer Service recognizes staff at the branch locations who interact directly with the public. The Four Corners Award is for the people behind the scenes, those overseeing programs or working at the central offices. The latter is a special emphasis in the Customer Experience Initiative: making sure we understand everyone in the organization plays a part in delivering customer service, not just those who see customers face to face. Library recognizes the award winners at its quarterly trainings, which are one of the few times members from the far-flung system all gather in one place.
On the Road and Off Hours
It can be tough for a working parent to get to the Department of Child Support Services offices downtown and during regular business hours. So the department is adding flexibility with time and location with DCSS in Your Neighborhood. Case workers have begun offering dates when they set up shop at County Library branches during the evening, when more customers are available. (There’s also the advantage of not dealing with parking downtown.) The department plans to expand the program to additional locations. It’s all part of its effort to be more family-centric in its approach.
HEART with Pizzaz – and Pizza
Child Welfare Services has created customer service boards in all its facilities to highlight employees’ excellent work. The bulletin boards include recognition messages from supervisors or colleagues. They’ve also created employee badge inserts with HEART to keep the qualities a constant presence.
A member of CWS knows one way to HEART is through your stomach. Chef Isa Olloni at Polinsky Children’s Center has baked heart-shaped pizzas as a unique way to help reinforce the message. That will give you a real appetite for customer service!
<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 (hearts – or pizza slices?)
Those are just a few of the things departments are doing to keep customers at the center of their business. We’ll periodically be sharing success stories, and continue to post the Positive Experiences quotes on InSite. Visit the Customer Experience website for more about the County’s initiative.
If you can’t wait for more customer service news, the federal government has a Customer Experience Community of Practice open to all levels of government. It offers a weekly email with a roundup of articles and trainings on various customer service topics.
