Serving the customer
Sarasota County plans better
'customer service' in government
By STEVE REILLY
Staff writer
Taken from the Englewood Sun Herald
Friday, January 10, 1997
Sarasota County will take a "customer-friendly" approach to government.
County Department Heads and managers will be trained to take a new approach in their preparation of budgets and the delivery of services. County Commissioners learned from Canadian consultant André Paradis at a workshop Thursday how department budgets will also include measurements and performance indicators.
Changes may be seen as early as the next budget cycle, and a major goal for the County will be to place greater attention on service, seeing citizens as customers or clients.
Too often in the public sector, Paradis said, officials do not see themselves as serving customers. Among his examples, he said transit departments will view their ridership as "fares", rather than customers. The difference is more than semantics for Paradis.
"There's a whole lot of difference" he said, citing how a transit system looking upon riders as customers would have greater concern for the cleanliness of the buses. He complimented the County's utilities department and other departments that already look upon citizens as customers.
The key, Paradis said, is the line of communications between citizens and County government.
"Success in any endeavor - wether in the private or public sector - is delivery over expectations", Paradis said. In the public sector, communication, he said, can help to define needed projects and should also include the limitations governments face in the delivery of needed services.
Chairman Bob Anderson and Commissioner Ray Pilon agreed the County has not done as well as it could in communicating many of the limitations the County faces. Anderson specifically pointed to how federal and state mandates, of which the public are sometimes unaware, fall into the financial laps of local governments.
The first step to the process is for Department Heads and managers to develop program missions. Officials should identify who will be the "client" or target group, why should the program exist and what is the "business" of the program.
Once the mission statement is verbalized and established, the Department should then develop performance indicators that will allow a program's success to be evaluated and monitored. Those measurements should show how well the program served citizens, met strategic objectives and proved operationally successful.
County Administrator John Wesley White told Board members County staff has worked toward integrating many of Paradis' principles over the past few years. Paradis will train staff to refine the process.
"We have some performance measures now, but they aren't really quality measures", White told Commissioners. "This is our attempt to develop measures that are meaningful to you and the public on a program performance".
Paradis is scheduled to meet with Department Heads and managers and will work out mission statements and general measurement criteria.
Top | Home
| 