Community Engagement
Philly Urban Creators Inspires our Youth, with Poetry, Food Awareness, and Civic Imagination
Last week’s presentation with the Philadelphia Urban Creators was a tremendous success. We started with a quick recap on the Philly Rising session, since many of the students missed that presentation. The children who were present for that session eagerly caught up their peers on the highlights of the Philly Rising workshop. I was impressed at how well they had retained the information from the week before. It appears they are really taking in the sessions, both actively listening and understanding the topics.
Philadelphia Urban Creators Co-Founder Jeaninne Kayembe came to talk to our students about food access but she opened up the conversation to the students and what was on their mind was broader than food access.
Jeaninne introduced herself and opened with a spoken word piece, the students were instantly intrigued but what they recognized as hip hop and you could see an almost tangible respect for Ms. Jeaninne as she closed her poem. The poem was about earth, women, and respecting each other. It was a very moving piece; you can see the video of Jeaninne’s poem on the Philly311YouthEngagement Facebook page.
After her poem, Jeneanine asked the students if they had ever heard of Whole Foods. What do they sell at whole foods? Where is it located? Who lives there? What is the closest place to your house that you can buy food? Do they sell organic food there? Why not?
One child answers her matter-of-factly, “Because that is not where the money is.” Why do I have to buy the bottom of the barrel? She asks. “Everyone deserves good food.” Another student adds.
“Exactly!” she says, and with that she introduced their urban farm, located at 11th and York. She explains that her and her friends started this garden when they were not much older than our YEP participants. She told the students that they mostly started Hoodstock because they were bored, and also because they wanted everyone to have access to good quality, affordable foods near their homes. She talked to the students about how they found the land for their garden extremely dirty, it had diapers and drug paraphernalia, etc. and they cleaned it up, built garden beds and grew food. She told the children that when they started the organization they had a budget of $0 and have now grossed more than $500,000, attracting the attention of celebrities and local officials alike. She showed pictures from their annual music festival Hoodstock (play on Woodstock, but in the “hood”) with Nick Cannon.
The most important lesson she taught this group was that if you are passionate about something and you set your mind to it, you can make an incredible difference in your community. She also told the children that if they wanted to build an urban garden in their community that they could contact her and she would help them organize it.
Then she gave everyone a piece of paper and instructed them to write down five things that they like about their neighborhood and five things they would change. Many of the students said they wanted to see less litter, less criminal activity, more plants (trees, flowers, fruits and vegitables, etc.) and a greater sense of community.
This process of identifying what you want to see in your neighborhood is civic imagination. First you imagine what it could be, and then you take it into your own hands and you make it happen. One young woman spoke up about how angry she was about the state of her neighborhood, and she was angry at the police who come to her neighborhood and shoot the young black men, but she was also mad at the young black men who are not acting right and taking responsibility for their own senseless acts of violence. It was chilling to hear this young person express these complex problems with such insight and clarity. It is easy to see that many of these young people will grow up to be great leaders and have a real impact on their community and beyond. I hope that this program will help give them the tools that they need to achieve their goals.
This week, we look forward to our closing session, facilitated by our fantastic and incredibly supportive partners, the Philadelphia Youth Commission. It will be sad to see this program end, but we are starting our series at the Martin Luther King Jr. Recreation Center next week. So even though we must close out our work with the Penn Treaty students, we will continue to expand this program and work with more young people to inspire, educate, and engage as many students as we can reach. As always, we thank all of our tremendous partners, for working with us on YEP and for all of the great work that they do every day to improve the lives of young Philadelphians all across the city.
Philly311 Youth Engagement Program at Penn Treaty: challenges, lessons, and next steps
The Philly311 team, accompanied by the leaders of the Philadelphia Youth Commission, arrive at Penn Treaty School at 3:30 on Thursday, October 15th. The children have just gotten out of a full school day and are just getting settled into the afterschool program. We get to the classrooms where the Education Works afterschool program is held and the kids are participating in free time activities. Students have access to the four school computers in the back of one classroom, some are socializing, some have books or notebooks out, and the high school students are playing a heated game of Clue in the middle of another classroom.
We bring all the students together for our presentation. Everyone introduces themselves and we pass out our survey to determine what the students know about city government and what they want to get out of the program. Only one student had heard of Philly311 before today. I ask the group what they know about City government and in response we get blank stares.
Danny launches into his presentation. To open the conversation he plays a short video about his background and his role at Philly311. He explains that he is from this area and knows about being from a place that feels beat down and broken. He understands it can be hard to see a way out from that environment. He reminds the students they can be whatever they want to be in life and never to let anyone tell them differently.
After his introduction, Danny tells the students what kind of issues you can report through 311 – “quality of life” issues, and what “quality of life” means. We talk about how the government works for the citizens and it’s our responsibility to tell government what we need it to do. We explain that in this program, they will learn how to communicate with their government.
One interesting exchange happened when we mention that the City can remove graffiti. One student raises his hand and says, “I think graffiti is artistic and I like it.” Danny explains graffiti is often artistic and can be a nice addition to a community if it is done with permission. When the artist defaces someone else’s property it becomes a crime and hurts the community. We mention that the Mural Arts presentation next week will talk about this in more detail. The child seemed intrigued and allowed us to continue.
At this point, we have already covered a lot of information in only a half an hour. We talked about what City government does, why it is important to participate in local government, we explained what you can report, and Danny talked about how you report issues on the mobile application.
Next it was time to go outside and use the mobile app. We got the children out of their chairs and walking around the community. The students point out things they think the City should fix and send those requests from their smartphones to the appropriate city department with the click of a button.
Watching the children learn how they can communicate with their government to have a positive impact on their communities gives me a sense of satisfaction. I can see them learning and participating. We also talk along the way about the student’s neighborhoods. Penn Treaty School was a receiving school for many other schools that were shut down. A lot of the students are from North Philadelphia. While they actively participate in the walk-through, listen to our instructions and diligently report issues, I can tell that because this is not their community, they are only half-heartedly invested in this process.
Joseph Brand, site coordinator for the after school program, had told our program manager at a site visit earlier that week, “These kids aren’t from here.” He had said it several times during this meeting. He also spoke about how amazing it would be if we could tie it back to their community – where they live. Taking the values of this program back to the communities these kids live in would be extraordinarily powerful because it would resonate with them more and hopefully make them feel invested in the process and the purpose. Additionally, the neighborhood around Penn Treaty School had very few quality of life concerns. This area was clearly well cared for and the residents here presumably knew how to connect with their government if needed. The poorer communities that most of these students live in is where these services and resources are most needed.
The goal of this program is to provide a lesson in citizen responsibility and civic engagement, to teach them to use their voice in City government. But first you have to reach them. That is what this Youth Engagement Program is all about – connecting with and educating young people about local government and being involved in your community.
We closed the session by talking about the walkthrough. Many of them remember exactly what issues you can report. I was very impressed with how many City services the students were able to list from the walk through. We tell the students about some of the different groups that will come to present to them over the next few weeks. Then, we say our goodbyes and being to prepare for next week.
I think next week’s session with the Mural Arts Program will be able to address ideas about place, home, and a sense of community that will help the students understand how this program fits into their lives. Our goal is to achieve Joe Brand’s vision of bringing the substance of our program into the student’s neighborhoods. I am also looking forward to the students working on art projects that express how they feel about their communities, and how the children can help their communities. In the first session, we walked around this place (Penn Treaty School). In the second session, we want the students to tell us about the place they live and to imagine what these places could be with a little extra love and care.
5 Ways Government Can Improve Its Customer Service Excellence Brand
While government has started to incorporate more and more private sector strategies to improve operations, one effort where government is lacking is branding. Where private-sector companies are able to build brands that customers love and are enthusiastic about, governments tends to stray away from any substantial efforts to build a lovable brand.
While government may never be able to build a Starbucks-esque brand (where customers are constantly “wowed” and pass this wow along via word of mouth and social media) government can make small changes to the way it interacts with its customers to create a more open, pleasant, and collaborative experience for customers.
I recently read an article called “5 Lessons from Companies with Adoring Customers” by Hannah Johnson on the Get Satisfaction blog. The lessons outlined were incredibly helpful and offered great insight for how small changes can improve an organization’s brand.
Let’s take these lessons and adopt them for government.
1. Provide Customers Access to Decision-Makers when they have a Gripe
The words “open” and “accessible” are now synonymous with any progressive government. While some of this focus is on releasing data, constituents also want access to the top officials making decisions. Thankfully, there’s social media. Social media has leveled the playing field in terms of constituent accessibility. Now, all it takes to reach top officials is a tweet or a comment on Facebook. And you would be surprised at how impactful a genuine reply or even a retweet can be.
2. Don’t Just Innovate for Them, Innovate with Them
Social media and other technologies have also given governments the ability to brainstorm with customers and get their feedback. When designing a process, program, or event, why not post something on social media asking for input? Also, Tweet Chats (scheduled discussions on Twitter) sponsored by governments are a great way to engage and discuss new ideas with customers.
3. Identify, Incentivize, and Empower Customers
Governments should take this cue from the private sector and reward top customers. This does not mean that governments need to buy customers expensive gifts, but customers who are top proponents of services or programs should gain recognition or meetings with top officials. Another way to incentivize customers is through gamification. Gamify civic engagement by giving points for participation in programs or community events. You can also designate great customers as “Super Users” or other honorary names.
4. Treat Customers like Humans
Government may be limited by budgetary or regulatory constraints in terms of marketing messaging. However, customers need clear information from their government. In some cases, there’s not a lot of room for creative marketing promotions or messaging, as information about resources and other public services should not be misconstrued. Social media, however, allows government to step away from entirely robotic responses. Through the use of social media, government can have real, human conversations with customers, rather than only pushing out information. Human interactions can improve the way customers perceive government as a whole.
5. Allow Customers to Help Themselves
Governments are known for being overly bureaucratic. Now more than ever, customer want information, answers, and resolutions instantaneously. A way to appease the customers is to make many processes self-service. Let customers get the information they want, as soon as they want. If your current system don’t allow for the creation of self-service portals, create informational blog posts, or even a wiki so that customers don’t have to wait in a queue to get an answer they could find faster themselves. Empower your customers. They’ll appreciate you for it!
Can you think of any other ways to improve your local government’s customer service brand?
Philly311 TV: Community Engagement is Customer Service
Video Posted on Updated on
The above video is a clip from our upcoming episode of The Philly311 Show featuring PhillyRising’s East Division Coordinator, Joandelis Marquez. PhillyRising is a program within the Philadelphia City government that targets neighborhoods plagued by chronic crime and quality of life concerns, and establishes partnerships with community members to address thoseissues. Joandelis and I had a great time discussing the innovative community engagement strategies she uses to connect with and serve her “customers.”
Community engagement is customer service–it’s just more targeted and personal. Often times, it’s more effective too. Some organizations view community engagement efforts as optional or philanthropic extensions of customer service. In actuality, community engagement should be mandatory because of the level of service these efforts provide. Through community engagement efforts, your organization is able to provide the most personal customer care possible. You’re also able to engage your customers by building human relationships.
Building personal relationships goes farther than you think. Not only do they humanize your organization or brand (making it easier to connect with customers) but they also lend valuable insight into your customer’s wants and needs. While surveys and customer data can be effective representations of of customer sentiment, through community engagement efforts you can literally hear what your customers are saying. Often in a more natural setting than a phone or self-service customer satisfaction survey, customers are able to voice their honest feedback in their own way, in person, on their own turf. Even if your community engagement efforts are small, this valuable feedback could benefit all of your customers.
How are you engaging the community?
Rosetta Carrington Lue is the Chief Customer Service Officer and Senior Advisor to the City of Philadelphia’s Managing Director. Follow Rosetta on Twitter @Rosettalue or visit her blog at www.rosettacarringtonlue.com
The Philly311 CRM has Kicked Off!
Last week, after months of strategic planning, we held the kick off for the Philly311 CRM: a new era of citizen engagement in Philadelphia.
As the project executive, I have seen every part of this process– the brainstorming, demoing, journey-mapping– but most importantly, I have seen the exciting potential for how Philadelphia can serve its residents.
While the backbone of this system will improve the City’s ability to share knowledge and work interdepartmentally, the CRM’s social functionality will provide a great deal of value to our external customers. The system’s robust infrastructure will create a social platform around the non-emergency contact center; the Philly311 CRM will facilitate conversations between neighbors and stakeholders who want to collaborate, share best practices, and organize events to improve their community. On our end, we’ll be able to capitalize on a variety of communications, including social media data, to better understand the needs of our customers so we can proactively serve and provide information.
My vision for the Philly311 CRM is to improve the customer’s overall experience when seeking out municipal information and services. The technology will provide more information and functionality to both City agents and customers, paving the way for more seamless resolutions. This, paired with the technology’s social capabilities, will add to the City’s current success in making positive transformations within municipal government.
In reference to the PhillyCRM, Managing Director Rich Negrin told me:
“A new CRM will open a world of possibilities for city government to engage with Philadelphia residents and will help provide the level of service they deserve. It will enhance our efforts to treat our citizens as valued customers. The new system is innovative, smart, comprehensive, and social. This marks a new era for citizen engagement.”
Chief Innovation Officer Adel Ebeid also told me:
“The 311 CRM replacement project is part of the Mayor’s overall vision to use our limited dollars to modernize mission critical services and open up opportunities for improving customer service.”
As this exciting journey begins, it is necessary to thank Mayor Nutter for his leadership and support throughout this process, Executive Sponsor and City Managing Director Richard Negrin for his commitment to customer service, Chief Innovation Officer Adel Ebeid for his insight and guidance, and last but not least, our diverse group of internal and external partners who have worked tirelessly to ensure that our citizens are served in the best way possible.
I look forward to updating you throughout this process. Any questions?
Rosetta Carrington Lue is the Chief Customer Service Officer and Senior Advisor to the City of Philadelphia’s Managing Director. Follow Rosetta on Twitter @Rosettalue or visit her blog at www.rosettacarringtonlue.com
An Employee Engagement Miracle
Video Posted on
I loved WestJet’s “Christmas Miracle.” I couldn’t stop watching this viral video for a number of reasons. For one, it goes above and beyond the scope of customer service excellence. Through its gift-giving customer service effort, WestJet was able to bring its customers (and even its Youtube viewers) to tears. But while it was fun to watch customers receive surprise gifts, there was another aspect to the video that intrigued me: WestJet level of employee engagement in the company’s rich customer service culture.
Engaging employees in a customer service culture is a difficult task. It does not focus on just one area such hiring or on-boarding or recognition. To create a truly engaging customer service culture, there needs to be a set of processes in place, across the organization, at every point of an employee’s career. Here are a few of the ways that can help:
1) Choosing the right employees. Choosing the right employees, especially for customer service, involves a flexible hiring process that allows you to choose candidates based on fit. In customer service, this fit means placing less emphasis on what a candidate has done in previous positions, with more emphasis on what an employee would do in certain situations. Engaged customer service employees have a rare blend of passive, yet assertive traits that make them invaluable on the frontlines of customer concerns. These traits should be sought out before picking the best-looking resume. (See my post on choosing the best customer service people.)
2) Training employees with hands-on, peer-to-peer training. Micha Solomon wrote a great blog post on Forbes about “How Hiring and HR Build Customer Service Culture.” Solomon writes that hiring the right customer service employees is important because (A) they are ultimately on the front lines, serving as the “face” of the organization and (B) “The employees you hire will ultimately exert pressure–positive or negative–on other staff members, who, when its their turn, will directly interact with customers.”
While Solomon admits that the first reason (A) is a bit obvious, the second reason is important to consider. If you’re hiring the right employees for customer service, those employees should be the ones directly training new employees. Which do you think is more impactful: a powerpoint presentation from a middle manager or a hands-on lesson from an employee performing the same job as the new hire? At the very least, the new hires will behave in the way their peer trainer behaves as a way to “fit” with the organization. If new hires cannot behave in the same manner their per trainers behave, they’ll likely leave.
3) Combine empowerment with standard processes, without micromanaging. Empowerment is the new buzzword in customer service, and it should be, because empowered employees have the ability to best satisfy customers wants and needs. But it can’t just be about empowerment. There needs to be a standard, communicated process for almost every situation. Employees need to be well-versed in these processes; without them, most employees will feel lost. Once employees have a firm grasp of the set processes and procedures in your customer service operations, it’s important to communicate that they can deviate, should they find it necessary. Employees who are empowered by both education and the ability to deviate from the “plan” without someone standing over their shoulders are the employees who will feel most comfortable providing excellent customer service.
4) Meaningfully recognize employees, often. Employee recognition programs often drive performance and help engage employees, but only if these recognition efforts are recognized by employees. Do you think a paper certificate or gold star will have much impact on an employee’s level of engagement? Recognition efforts need to be personalized and thoughtful in order to build a community within an organization. This personal sense of community is especially important to customer service operations that deal with people every day. One way to engage employees through meaningful personalize, and fun recognition is to have an employee-led recognition committee. These employees will know how to meaningfully celebrate because they are planning for their peers.
What are your essentials to engaging employees? Let me know in the comments!
Rosetta Carrington Lue is the Chief Customer Service Officer and Senior Advisor to the City of Philadelphia’s Managing Director. Follow Rosetta on Twitter @Rosettalue or visit her blog at www.rosettacarringtonlue.com
Helping Citizens Engage
Customer Experience Excellence Best Practices
In recent years, The City of Philadelphia has received numerous awards a lot of recognition for its best practices and creative engagement with citizens. Not t…
In recent years, The City of Philadelphia has received numerous awards a lot of recognition for its best practices and creative engagement with citizens
See on www.govloop.com
Public Sector Customer Service: Philly 311 – Triumphing to Transform Local Government Service Delivery
Philadelphia Social Innovations Journal is the first online publication to bring a public focus to social innovators and their nonprofit organizations, foundations and social sector businesses in the Greater Philadelphia area, to recognize their…
How to Create Government Customer Engaged Operations – The Checklist
As the terms “engaged” and “engagement” are popping up in almost every customer service blog post and seminar, it’s become increasingly clear that a high level of engagement is not only necessary but essential to effectively serving today’s customer. Today’s customer wants to be engaged by meaningful interaction, convenient channels and employees that care. I’ve found that the public sector is no different—constituents want more than a phone number; constituents want a relationship with city government. All customers, across public and private sectors, want to be fully engaged.
This engagement requires coordination and effort across your entire customer service operation, not just one or two functions. Let’s take a look at the checklist and the questions that follow to see if your customer service operations are fully engaged with your customer.
Multiple Channels. Have you opened as many channels for your customers as possible? Are those channels convenient? Have you made provisions so that those channels can be “self-service” if the customer chooses? Using a multi-channel approach to customer interaction helps your organization cater to all of your customers, letting them know that you’re listening and care about their needs.
Mobile Strategy. Have you adopted a mobile strategy and done research on how many of your customers have adopted a “mobile lifestyle”? What will customers gain if they download your app? Does the app facilitate meaningful interaction? Is it robust enough to give the customers the functionality and information they need? Adding a mobile app to your customer service operation can literally put a customer service rep. at the palm of your customer’s hand. (Just make sure the app speaks to the actual wants and needs of your customer.)
Employees. Engaged employees are equally as important (if not the most important) factor in a customer service operation. Have you communicated your commitment to customer service to all of your employees? What benefits do employees gain from providing customer service excellence? Do you give your employees the tools they need to be successful? Does your hiring strategy reflect your customer service values? As your employees are one of the most important pieces to your customer service operation, it’s essential that employees are fully engaged. This means that your organization needs to properly communicate values, provide training and empower employees.
Metrics and Feedback. How can you fully engage with customers if you aren’t listening? Metrics and feedback can be the lifeblood of your engagement efforts if you let them. Make sure that customer satisfaction surveys provide the customer with a chance to meaningfully express his/her concerns. It’s also essential that your operation’s focus on metrics that actually speak to the customer experience. Just as important as collecting the metrics and feedback, however, is internally communicating the results. If results are taken and ignored, no changes can be made. To fully engage, the entire organization needs to hear from the customer so that it can adapt and provide better service.
Programs and Initiatives. Does your organization interact with the community? Does your organization have programs or initiatives that empower customers? Do these initiatives push self-service or education? Or both? Programs and initiatives (such as the Neighborhood Liaison Program or Citizens Engagement Academy) can make your customer service operation multidimensional and allow your organization to interact with customers past a phone call or online form.
Social Media. Although social media could technically be placed in “Multiple Channels” its importance makes room for its own category. Social media is quickly becoming one of the best tools to properly engage with customers; but to do so, social media needs to be used in the right way. Are your social handles responding to customer “tweets” or “posts” in a human way? Are these actually interacting with users or just pushing information? Are you using videos and other visuals to help educate your customers? Do your social media handles speak to your brand or enhance it? And most important, if you were a customer, would you follow your organization’s social media handles?
I hope this checklist raised a few questions or awareness to the possibilities of how your customer service operations can fully engage with customers. Want to discuss your methods of engagement? Leave a comment.
Rosetta Carrington Lue is the Chief Customer Service Officer and Senior Advisor to the City of Philadelphia’s Managing Director. Follow Rosetta on Twitter @Rosettalue or visit her blog at www.rosettacarringtonlue.com.
Innovative Customer Service Leadership Strategies 