COMMENTARY

Why Government Must Pursue Customer Satisfaction

February 2003

By Donald J. Pfundstein*
for New Hampshire Business Review

"Where I come from, the customer is always right," proclaimed Gov. Craig Benson during his inaugural remarks.

Some folks smirked when he said it. A few days later, a customer service department replaced the constituent services function of the governor's office. Agency heads are now focused on customer service principles to effect the change pursued by the new administration. Change scares some people.

Government and business are not one in the same. However, government is in fact in the business of providing services to New Hampshire's citizens and others. Approaching those to be served by state government in the context of a customer service model will inform the review of old issues with a fresh perspective.

Exactly who are state government's customers? They are individuals, businesses, municipalities, other political subdivisions, states and even foreign countries.
A customer service model focuses first on customer needs. This depends in part on the identity of the customer. Yet there are certain characteristics of a customer service model which apply to all customers.

Customer service must be relevant, reliable, responsive and delivered in a respectful manner. It also must be reasonably priced. I cannot envision any customer to which these principles do not apply.

Relevancy is critical. Government service has to be relevant to the customer's needs. Providing services that are not needed — irrelevant — is not a function worth supporting with public money. The private sector would shutter such a provider.

The services must be reliable. Many customers seek information or guidance from state agencies. It is not unheard of to receive different responses depending upon with whom in an agency you communicate. Information must be credible, accurate and verifiable. If information provided by an agency lacks these essential elements, the agency's service will not be reliable. The customer's service will suffer.

Safety net services also must be reliable. They must be provided when needed.

Government services must be responsive — responsive both in terms of achieving relevancy and in speed. In today's digital economy, even relevant responses that are not provided in as real time as is practicable soon become irrelevant. The shelf life of information services is very short.

Government services must be delivered in a respectful manner, which is a core characteristic of good customer service.

All services must be reasonably priced, or customer satisfaction cannot be achieved. Pricing government services can be viewed collectively, or on a customer-by-customer basis.

A kitchen table budget process where public funding pays for "needs," and not simply "wants," will help avoid increased pricing from the collective perspective. It's true in both the private and public sectors that the customer winds up footing the bill. The kitchen table budget approach will keep spending in check. Yes — no new taxes! Collectively, state government's customers (the voters) do want a return on their investment. But first they want the size of that investment limited.

On an individual basis, customers of state government outside of the "fee for service or user fee" system don't really care about the incremental cost. It has been my experience that businesses seeking government approvals or permits don't really care what the direct application costs are, they are interested in the results to be obtained. Personally, I've seen only one, but an understandable, exception to this attitude — involving hundreds of thousands of dollars of application fees for the pipeline project installed last decade.

Nevertheless, the price of good customer service is not as important as the quality of that service on an individual, business-by-business basis. Having quality service provided in a reliable, responsive and respectful manner is more important than the direct costs of that quality for any single customer. That does not mean to suggest that we shouldn't focus on the aggregate cost. We must. The kitchen table budget process is the tool.

Providing relevant, reliable service in a responsive and respectful manner will help make state government a model for business. It's the "experience" that sophisticated service providers are selling today. Let's move beyond great customer service. Let's make interaction with state government an "exciting experience" that customers actually enjoy!

Those of us with an interest in state government should embrace and pursue the customer service model aggressively. Smirking at new ideas is worse than simply maintaining the status quo — it's dangerous. It will impede New Hampshire's efforts to rebuild our economy which will provide opportunities for our children.

While preparing this column, I called 271-2261 — the Insurance Department's general telephone number and got the following voice message "... all staff are busy assisting other customers ... please ..." Great! Someone is doing something about it!

*Donald J. Pfundstein is admitted in New Hampshire.

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