| Citizens expect the same level of service as customers |
Our History
As the director of LexCall, the Lexington-Fayette Urban County
Government’s customer service center one of my concerns was employee
training (including myself). Training was and still is important for many
reasons one of which was keeping up with the latest customer service
trends and techniques. Cookie Hall, LexCall’s Administrative Manager
and I received many advertisements about customer service training,
most of which were too expensive for local government budgets or did not
completely relate to the issues that we dealt with on a daily basis.
One day, an exasperated Cookie came into my office, plopped into the
chair and stated very matter of factly, “We are going to start our own
government call center organization and we are going to have the first
meeting here in Lexington and you and I are going to organize it!” I said
“okay” more as a question than a statement.
And that is how it all began. Cookie got on line and sent e-mails out to
other local governments asking if they had a central call center and if they
were interested in coming to a roundtable discussion of the issues
surrounding government call centers and customer service. The
response was swift and enthusiastic. It turns out there was a tremendous
interest in gathering around this topic.
The first and second Government Roundtable was held in Lexington,
Kentucky. Over twenty nine representatives from thirteen cities attended
the first year and thirty four representatives from fifteen cities the second
year. One thing became clear, there was a need for this group of public
servants whose job it was to make sure citizens were treated in a friendly
and professional manner and that their requests were answered
promptly. We also realized that we could learn from each other and set
our own standards for customer service that truly met the criteria for
quality government service delivery.
Customer service and centralized call centers were somewhat new to
many of us and we needed to learn as much as possible and quickly. It
was clear that citizens expect the same “customer” treatment from their
local government as they would a private agency. Local government
needed to be equipped and trained to handle their clientele.
We were setting the bar for performance, the standards were being set
and accepted by members of the organization and there was no going
back, we were ready to move forward with clearer goals.
In 2003 the Association of Government Call Centers was formally
established. Cookie and I have since retired from our jobs, but keep in
touch with many in the initial group. We learned that those involved in
government customer service are caring, hard working people who want
more than anything to assist citizens with their questions and requests.
Best wishes to all who serve in this capacity and never be satisfied with
mediocrity!
- Marianne Blodgett
Government’s customer service center one of my concerns was employee
training (including myself). Training was and still is important for many
reasons one of which was keeping up with the latest customer service
trends and techniques. Cookie Hall, LexCall’s Administrative Manager
and I received many advertisements about customer service training,
most of which were too expensive for local government budgets or did not
completely relate to the issues that we dealt with on a daily basis.
One day, an exasperated Cookie came into my office, plopped into the
chair and stated very matter of factly, “We are going to start our own
government call center organization and we are going to have the first
meeting here in Lexington and you and I are going to organize it!” I said
“okay” more as a question than a statement.
And that is how it all began. Cookie got on line and sent e-mails out to
other local governments asking if they had a central call center and if they
were interested in coming to a roundtable discussion of the issues
surrounding government call centers and customer service. The
response was swift and enthusiastic. It turns out there was a tremendous
interest in gathering around this topic.
The first and second Government Roundtable was held in Lexington,
Kentucky. Over twenty nine representatives from thirteen cities attended
the first year and thirty four representatives from fifteen cities the second
year. One thing became clear, there was a need for this group of public
servants whose job it was to make sure citizens were treated in a friendly
and professional manner and that their requests were answered
promptly. We also realized that we could learn from each other and set
our own standards for customer service that truly met the criteria for
quality government service delivery.
Customer service and centralized call centers were somewhat new to
many of us and we needed to learn as much as possible and quickly. It
was clear that citizens expect the same “customer” treatment from their
local government as they would a private agency. Local government
needed to be equipped and trained to handle their clientele.
We were setting the bar for performance, the standards were being set
and accepted by members of the organization and there was no going
back, we were ready to move forward with clearer goals.
In 2003 the Association of Government Call Centers was formally
established. Cookie and I have since retired from our jobs, but keep in
touch with many in the initial group. We learned that those involved in
government customer service are caring, hard working people who want
more than anything to assist citizens with their questions and requests.
Best wishes to all who serve in this capacity and never be satisfied with
mediocrity!
- Marianne Blodgett
AGCCE
Stay tuned this site is a work in progress
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| 9th Annual Conference Minneapolis, MN May 6 - 8, 2009 |