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PUBLI.DAT
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1991-07-23
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CUSTOMER HANDLING PECULIARITIES OF PUBLIC SERVICE:
'The Runaround' is a common description of the process
whereby a citizen tries to obtain a government response
to his problem. It is often very confusing to try to
identify the appropriate unit of government that has the
responsibility to respond to a query, a complaint, or a
call for assistance."Public callers can be extremely
demanding, and without a reasonable high level of train-
ing,most people will have difficulty maintaining their
calm in the face of abuse and frustration ". [Doing More
with Less:Turning Public Management Around, Jacob B.
Ukeles,1982,AMACOM, page 160].
GOVERNMENT IS NOT A GUARANTEED SERVICE MONOPOLY
Monopoly is a great enemy to good management.
[Adam Smith(1723-90), The Wealth of Nations]
Even a monopoly may not remain a monopoly. The need for
government has come under close scrutiny as a result of the
tax revolt. For instance, critics are evaluating the role of
county government in Multnomah County,Portland Oregon with an
intent to possibly merge programs with the City or even
eliminate them. Oregonian, April 7,1991]. "A lot of people
are now beginning to realize that we have to look at what
we're doing and see if there's a better way to do it and see
if we ought to do it at all."
GOVERNMENT TOP MANAGEMENT OPERATES IN A FISHBOWL:
This environment may be characterized by pressures from the
media, by rapidly changing priorities and changing political
leadership, by events, and by crises.
SOME GOVERNMENT SERVICES ENDEAVOR TO REDUCE, NOT
INCREASE POTENTIAL BUSINESS:
Examples of these are fire prevention; epidemiology;
vandalism and crime prevention. In this context, reducing
defections from your service does not make sense because it
is a goal to reduce business in the first place!
CASE OF A PUBLIC SERVICE OUTREACH PROGRAM:
The California Department of Motor Vehicles has
an outreach program to obtain customer feedback
about its level of service. They supply customer
survey questions to patrons. The form requests the
date of visit; the time of visit; a comments section;
and questions. The respondent is not required to submit
his name unless he wishes to obtain a response.
Some of the questions are:
"1.Did you telephone DMV prior to coming in?
If yes, please answer the following:
a: Did you receive good telephone service?
b: Were you satisfied with the telephone information
given?
c: Was telephone service helpful?
d: Was telephone service courteous?
e: Were you informed of the appointment option?
2. Once you were in the office, did you have to wait a
long time?"
3. How was the service this time compared to your prior
visit to DMV?