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Governor's Office of Customer Service

On January 25, 2006, Governor Sonny Perdue signed an Executive Order creating the Governor’s Office of Customer Service for the purpose of coordinating, managing and implementing a customer service initiative to elevate the level of customer service experienced by Georgians when interacting with their state government.  The announcement was part of the first-ever Customer Service Summit where state agency heads focused on the theme of “Faster, Friendlier and Easier” service to customers. 

The Office of Customer Service is tasked with imbedding process improvement and cultural development methodologies within state entities and developing a system for measuring results statewide.  The Office will be working with agencies to better understand and improve their customer service whether they provide it in person, by telephone, or through the internet.

The Office is headed by Joseph B. Doyle, who retains his current position as Administrator of the Governor’s Office of Consumer Affairs. 

Customer Service initiatives are starting or underway on several fronts:

• Led by their Customer Service Champions, executive agencies will write their Customer Service Improvement Plans by June 30, 2006.  Plans are to be customer-focused and goal-oriented with implementation to begin July 1, 2006.
  
• The new Office of Customer Service will be developing tools agencies can use: customer-feedback, employment screening and employee recognition programs.
  
• Customer Service training programs will be developed for frontline employees, their supervisors and managers.
  
• A Call Center Solutions Group will be driving performance improvements in existing state Call Centers; developing ways to measure progress; and creating a ‘dashboard’ for state government call center performance.
  
• New tools will be tested at the Department of Driver Services before being rolled out to other agencies.  These will enhance culture, speed up service, and improve call handling.
  
• Selection of a knowledge base and systems will lead to the opening of the General Information Center (GIC) in July, 2007.
  

The establishment of the Governor’s Office of Customer Service grew out of Governor Perdue’s goal for Georgia to have the BEST customer service of any state in the nation.  The activities are based on recommendations of the Customer Service Task Force of the Commission for a New Georgia.  Among its findings was the need to elevate the level of customer service Georgians experience when dealing with state government. 

The Customer Service Task Force identified the need to promote a strong customer-focused culture in state government and to continuously improve its customer-facing processes.  An initial focus of this project is a Georgia Information Center (GIC) to provide a single point of access for all state services.  The GIC or first call center will serve as a ‘front door’ to state government and eliminate the frequency of calls being transferred.  The recommendations also call for the development of a statewide web-based tool (knowledge base) and the improvement of existing state call centers to industry performance standards.  View the Final Report of the Customer Service Task Force at http://www.newgeorgia.org/taskforces/customersvc.shtml.

 

Faster. Friendlier. Easier.