Social Media
City of Philadelphia Celebrates Customer Service Week in a Big Way
Customer Service Week was a tremendous success! The conversations that took place during these trainings were meaningful and lead to very important questions and reframing of our customer service mentality.
During our first session, City employees and I deconstructed the role of customer service in creating a welcoming, responsive, connected city. We discussed this topic in great detail. What makes a welcoming city? Who is our customer and why are they customers, why not citizens? We talked about how to treat customers like you value their investment in our communities, workforce, and local economy. Our customers are what drives our city and we want to show them we appreciate them.
Public service means committing to and working for the people. Because of the nature of public service, an immense customer base and often limited resources can lead to disgruntled customers and equally frustrated city workers. That is why these workshops were geared towards training and development of the every day heroes who work directly with customers on a daily basis. These City employees came out to discuss the importance of quality customer service because they believe in their calling.
You may have seen my recent post on our second session. To recap, Darryll Adams, General Manager of the Ritz-Carlton, Philadelphia spoke to City employees about what it means to provide outstanding service. He talked about your attitude, appearance, and presentation all being a factor. He talked about choosing the right employees, with a customer-oriented mindset both on and off the job, and getting employees invested in the mission. Customer Service is directly connected to efficiency. In a cyclical way, when your employees are invested and believe in what they are doing they provide better services and the customer satisfaction rate increases dramatically.
Our thirds session, with Stacey Mosley of the Office of Innovation and Technology, covered open data. We went through what open data is, how we obtain and share it, and what practical uses it has in your department, particularly as it relates to customer service. Open data increases transparency. When residents, businesses, and visitors have more data, they are equipped to make better decisions. Open data can also reduce the amount of calls from customers looking for information that is public through open data and media can access information without a right to know request. All of these aspects of open data help make Philadelphia, more efficient and responsive to the needs of our customers.
In our final session, we talked about putting yourself in the shoes of your customer. We went through the process of defining your desired customer experience and did some brainstorming on what the customer experience model could be for the departments present at this session. Reading Terminal Market presented about their customer service model and how they developed it, and how it has helped them in creating a cohesive experience for all of their customers and vendors too. We closed by talking about what role social media can play in defining and enhancing the customer experience.
All of the Customer Service Week sessions were about training, brainstorming, and working together to provide the best interaction possible when customers work with their local government in Philadelphia. But this week was also about recognizing the great work of our very own every day heroes in Philadelphia. The customer service representatives on the front lines, helping people understand and navigate city government; these are the every day heroes. The City of Philadelphia celebrates all of the employees who directly impact the experience customers have with city government, these representatives are the first impression customers have of the City.
City services are directly related to quality of life concerns. Citizens and government need to work together to keep making this city cleaner, greener, and safer. That is what we are here to do, and we want to acknowledge and celebrate
the success we have had so far, as we continue to improve our service standards.
Thank you to everyone who participated in Customer Service Week! We are looking forward to doing it again next year!
Streamlining Customer Information through Video
As we begin to release new episodes of Philly311 TV, I thought I’d write a post about the importance of these videos from a customer service standpoint.
Philly311 TV is the digital engagement effort of the Philadelphia city government’s non-emergency contact center. I serve as the host of the show and interview a diverse range of employees throughout city government. We created the show as part of our multi-channel engagement strategy to provide customers with more information and access to our organization.
After lessons learned from Season 1 (filming 30-minute, talk-show formatted episodes) we decided to move to a more flexible format that would provide more value to our customers. In Season 2, we still film casual conversations in a studio setting, however, we cut these conversations into vignettes in post-production to streamline information for our customers.
With these vignettes, we can provide quick, immediate answers to some of our customers most frequent questions. We can use these videos to populate our social media streams, meaning that customers can see answers to their questions on their newsfeeds before they even ask.
Here’s a great example:
Another benefit to using video to answer customer questions is that it humanizes your organization. If customers can see that real people, who care, are behind your organization, they will be more likely to engage. It’s always better to have an explanation come from a person (or a video of a person) than from a word document, FAQ list, or an instruction manual.
Providing quick, engaging video answers to our customers has been a relatively easy process, and could be for your organization too. What are your thoughts on the using video for customer engagement?
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
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?
Social Media Content for Customer Service
I recently read an article from McKinsey Quarterly about the role of social media in customer service. The article dove into the operational aspects of implementing a social media strategy. It also compared the use of traditional call centers vs. social media platforms for customer service. One point the article made compared the cost of the two channels: “handling an inbound telephone call typically costs a company $6 to $8; an interaction using social media, less than $1.”
The article also made another point to help illustrate the endless possibilities for customer service: social media platforms make it “easier to guide customers to relevant web pages or video content.” While this functionality has often been used for content marketing, organizations should tap-into this low-cost opportunity as a customer service effort, sending customers towards the answers and information they need. (Hopefully, before they ask.)
This is really a lesson in proactive customer service. If you are aware of your top customer FAQ’s, what’s stopping you from making 10 short videos and pushing them out through social media channels? The same goes for blogs, which are really just flexible platforms to quickly create (and post) relevant content.
While relevant video and blog content is relatively easy to generate, planning content ahead is how customers get the most value. For instance, weather emergencies or holidays could shape what questions your customers will be asking. If so, you can create a video or blog post before hand. Another way to find ideas for content creation is to pay attention to what your customers are saying on social media. If you see a trend, create content that addresses concerns with relevant information.
Through social media, your organization can not only answer customer questions instantaneously, it can push out an answer before it’s even asked.
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
Tip: How to Manage Your Social Voice of the Customer
Social media has opened up a new world for customer service operations, allowing us to meet customers where they are and serve them instantly. But is a downside too. Social media has given a megaphone to our voice of the customer. Now, sentiments about your organization are not just shared with a customer’s close knit circle, these sentiments are expressed publicly, via social media, to tens, hundreds, or even thousands of followers.
While the below infographic is a year old, it does provide the most jarring truth of a customer’s voice via social media: 52% of customer conversations on social media are negative. With a megaphone next to this discontent, our job of monitoring, reacting to, and managing our “social voice of the customer” becomes an increasingly important task. But what is the best way to handle our social V.O.C?
The answer is in multichannel engagement and content creation. While social media has given us an opportunity to meet our customer where they are, we don’t have to wait for a request for service or an expressed sentiment to meet them. With Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, WordPress, Instagram, Pinterest, we can create entertaining and engaging content for our customers in a wide variety of formats. Why not put out a weekly “How-to” video? Or a blog posts telling entertaining stories? Or beautiful pictures relating to your organization?
Social media content creation allows us to be engaging throughout the entire customer experience—before, during, and after the need for service arises. While social media has given a megaphone to our V.O.C., it has given one to you too!
How are you creating social media content for your organization?
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 