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Giving Hope and Support to America's Children
Robert HorowitzAssistant Director
ABA Center on Children and the Law
Tammy RinehartNovember 21, 2001 Abstract This report was prepared for the Office of Child Support Enforcement, Administration for Children and Families, and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC, under Contract No. 105-00-8301, Task Order No.11, with the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law and Circle Solutions, Inc. The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official positions or policies of the Department of Health and Human Services or its agencies or the American Bar Association. Table of Contents
The customer service study revealed that no specific tactic, technology, or mission statement is the key to effective customer service delivery. In fact, what is clear is that effective customer service delivery is organization specific, since services are designed around the targeted customers’ desires and the frontline employees delivering the services. The components of the process for producing effective customer service delivery include appropriately identifying and targeting the ideal customer, establishing a customer-focused vision that is consistent with the prioritized desires of the target customers, establishing the operational procedures and internal infrastructure that support customer service, continuously measuring customer and employee satisfaction, embracing change, and striving persistently to improve. The customer service literature clearly demonstrates that both profit-seeking and public agencies that implement effective customer service strategies realize financial benefits, either through increased profits or through reduced costs associated with long-term, informed customers; customer referrals; employee retention; improved information exchange; and streamlined service delivery. Child support enforcement, in this case, is like any other business. In order to implement effective customer service strategies and reap the benefits of good customer service, the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) agencies will need to implement the process of developing effective customer service. In an effort to become "more results-oriented and responsive to customers,"[1] the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) contracted with Circle Solutions, Inc. to undertake a study of public and private sector practices and outcomes in customer service. The study included a review of customer service literature, a review of the annual reports and Web sites of 40 companies mentioned in the literature, telephone interviews with companies sited as leaders in customer service in the literature, and site visits to three agencies—two private and one child support agency. Throughout the study, an advisory group of four State child support enforcement directors provided input and feedback. As a final product of the study, this report summarizes the literature on effective approaches to customer service delivery, highlights four promising practice case studies, conjectures about the transferability of these concepts to child support, and offers future research recommendations. Child support enforcement agencies can refer to this report as a guide for improving customer service, as a resource to learn the costs and benefits of effective customer service delivery, and to inspire future inquiries into effective customer service delivery. In the 1990s, IBM conducted global research on the question, "What will keep CEOs and senior management awake at night as we begin the twenty-first century?" The study found that, regardless of the industry or geographic location, the most common response was a desire to generate a more customer-oriented culture or business vision (Thompson, 2000, p xi). Customer service is not merely customer relations or how nice frontline workers are to customers. Rather, satisfying or even delighting customers is the goal of excellent customer service. Because customers for different types of services have different needs, customer service strategies will differ and must be tailored to the target customer. It improves trust and information exchange. In the public sector, including child support offices, good customer service generates satisfied or delighted customers. Satisfied customers lead to increased compliance, improved information exchange, improved relationships, increased trust, and, potentially, decreased workloads or costs. For instance, police departments across the Nation have embraced the concept of community policing. Through community policing, police departments incorporate a customer focus as well as an attitude of partnership with customers, to increase satisfaction and trust and even reduce fear of crime in the community. Customers actually participate in addressing crime and disorder problems, thus reducing the workload on patrol officers. It saves money and increases profit. In the private sector, good customer service leads to satisfied or delighted customers, which generates customer loyalty, which produces increased revenues and reduced costs. For example, during the early 1990s, IBM transformed itself into a customer-driven organization. From 1994–1999, customer satisfaction increased by 5.5 percent, revenue increased from $63 billion to over $80 billion, cost and expense savings equaled $7 billion, and stock prices improved over 1,000 percent (Thompson, 2000, p 192). Upon becoming CEO of Greater Southeast Hospital, a private, nonprofit community hospital, Tom Chapman refocused customer service strategy to save the faltering hospital. Instead of trying to attract more clientele outside the community or turning away the uninsured in the community it served, under Chapman’s leadership, Greater Southeast sought to provide better customer service—improving the quality of life and creating community-specific services. The emphasis shifted to treating people when it was cheapest—not in the emergency room but rather when their problems were minor—and to instituting preventative care. He opened a clinic in the high school to address minor health issues and provide health education resources to teach students about prevention. Additionally, Mr. Chapman improved coordination with the local health clinic and obtained the specific technology from which patients served by the hospital would benefit. Before his arrival, Greater Southeast spent only $20,000–$30,000 a year on a blood pressure program, although a single stroke victim could cost $30,000 to treat (Harvard Business Review, 1994, p 218). The public and private sector customer service literature concurs on the process for delivering great customer service, even if outcomes differ. The current literature supports an outside-in strategy of customer service, rather than the traditional inside-out model for providing services (Thompson, 2000). In the private sector, profit and growth are the outcomes, not goals. Profit and growth are generated by customer loyalty. Loyalty is generated by customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is the goal that companies should seek and focus on, because high customer satisfaction, as a matter of course, produces customer loyalty and subsequently profit and growth. At this point, the public and private sectors converge—customer satisfaction is the goal. Customer satisfaction is achieved by providing valued services and products, where value is the positive difference between customers’ actual experiences and their service delivery expectations. Productive employees also create value. Employee productivity stems from employee loyalty, and loyalty is a product of employee satisfaction. Satisfaction is generated by high-quality support services (people, information, and technology) and by being empowered to provide value and resolve customer complaints. This customer service culture must be supported by leadership that emphasizes the importance of each customer and employee. These leaders must be creative and energetic (not lofty or conservative), participatory and caring (not removed or elitist), that is, one who can be a coach, teacher, or listener (not just a supervisor or manager). Such a leader demonstrates company values (rather than simply institutionalizing policies) and motivates by mission (rather than by fear) (Heskett, 1997). Some components of this model are cyclical. A 1991 study of property and casualty insurance companies found that employees who felt that they were meeting customer needs had twice the job satisfaction level of employees who did not believe they were meeting customer needs. In that study, when a frontline service worker left the company, customer satisfaction levels dropped from 75 to 55 percent (Harvard Business Review, 1994, p 239). In the customer service literature, five guiding principles are adopted by public as well as private agencies delivering excellent customer service:
Four companies/agencies were interviewed in detail, and synopses of these four agencies are included as examples of how customer service concepts may be operationalized. These examples serve as springboards for transferring the concepts to customer service practice in child support. First Interstate Bank and Ford Motor Credit were chosen for intensive review because of their excellence in customer service and because their customer issues are similar to those of child support customers. Cherner Automotive Group was selected because of its excellence in customer service as well as for the opportunity to obtain an in-depth frontline (rather than managerial) perspective on customer service delivery. Visiting Texas Child Support Division provided a successful reality check that the customer service concepts found in the literature can be applied within child support enforcement. Texas Child Support Division was selected because of its excellence in customer service and because it is a model of an agency moving from a non-customer-oriented perspective towards a customer focus. First Interstate Bank (FIB) is a family-owned and -operated bank that strives to function as a community bank and to be the best service provider. It operates under three primary goals:
As part of this vision, FIB has created policies and procedures to deliver excellent customer service. The benefits they have reaped by pursuing this vision include market share increases, lower turnover, higher profits, and better communities. Currently, FIB operates 59 branches in Wyoming and Montana, 14 of which are located in Wal-Mart stores. FIB is the largest bank in each of these States. The primary customer is described as middle-class, middle-aged, stable, and a homeowner. FIB also serves a large population of retired professionals. FIB serves an estimated 150,000 customers each month. The bank works with all customers as long as it is in the best interest of the bank and coincides with the customer’s needs. A customer-focused sales and service culture was initiated 4 years ago, when the current Senior Vice President of Branch Administration was promoted to his position.
According to FIB management, resistance to change and toward a customer-focused culture should be expected. A customer-focused culture can be developed only when it is embraced and supported at the top. When supervisors and managers are sold on customer focus, their attitude, as well as policies and procedures, will flow down to the frontline. At FIB, one-on-one discussions worked well to ascertain and address reasons for hesitation and subsequently to gain buy-in at the executive level. Having secured top-level buy-in, management strives to operate as a team and model customer-oriented behavior. Accountability must be maintained from the top-down. During the transition to a customer-focused culture, supervisors may feel as if they have lost some control and autonomy. Trust must be built at this level to reduce the fear of hidden agendas. In order to increase supervisor morale, managers and executives spend more time face-to-face with supervisors and line staff and maintain open communication. Upper management travels to the branches and conducts focus groups and conference calls to build the customer culture. With open communication and honesty, trust is built. Managers are constantly working with their employees and looking for ways to improve services. Under the philosophy that management must "inspect what they expect," managers conduct check-ups with branches by 1) visiting with a checklist (e.g., asking open-ended questions), 2) performing formal audits, 3) conducting loan reviews, and 4) hiring mystery shoppers (an external company is hired to pose as customers and report back on the service received). Using these routine check-ups, managers offer fast and quick decisions concerning improvement and strive to provide feedback to the branches immediately. FIB is striving to eliminate non-customer service functions from frontline employees’ roles. In so doing, they have centralized check processing and implemented timesaving technology. FIB endeavors to consistently provide great customer service. Whether a customer calls on the telephone, approaches the teller line, or approaches a loan officer, standards of conduct and greeting have been created to guide the interaction. FIB employees are to properly greet all walk-in customers or customers who call on the telephone. FIB operates zero tolerance for "ducking and hiding" when employees see a customer. FIB believes that it is essential that interaction with customers is positive for continued payments and good customer service relationships. During in-person interactions, FIB staff are directed to smile, stand and greet the customer, shake hands, introduce themselves, learn the customer’s name, initiate non-business conversation, give the customer their full attention, and stand and thank the customer for his or her business upon concluding the interaction. Similarly, telephone calls are answered within three rings, and callers are thanked for contacting FIB. Call takers ascertain and use the customer’s name, strive to minimize holds to no more than 30 seconds, and always thank the customer at the conclusion of the call. Even voice mail greeting protocols follow these principles. Frontline employees are given clearly defined discretion to satisfy customers. Tellers are provided with a dollar amount for discretionary use. Employees are encouraged to err on the side of a customer. However, if a customer becomes verbally abusive to an employee, this behavior is not tolerated. A senior employee will intervene, and in extreme cases, the customer may be asked to find a new financial institution. Frontline personnel receive newsletters that inform them of FIB’s operations; the goal is to keep them informed, as well as to generate team spirit. FIB hires on attitude first. Bank officers feel that with the right attitude, a person can be trained to deliver good banking service. The goal is to hire an individual because of his or her service philosophy and desire to help people, rather than hiring someone who is focused only on salary. FIB’s recruiting strategies sometimes even include soliciting employees from retail services when staff identify someone with a great service attitude. Prospective managers are required to take personality tests. Internally, managers are mentored via a 2-year training program—even while serving in a frontline position. FIB maintains a customer focus through continual training. All personnel are taught their roles and responsibilities within a customer-focused culture. During the last 4 years, FIB has spent $1.5 million on external training in customer service. Ongoing training costs approximately $350,000 annually. Cross training is used to provide staff with the "big picture." Managers are taught how to supervise and mentor staff. For example, a recent coaches’ newsletter article offered tips for encouraging employees to implement skills and attitudes resulting from attending a training session These tips included: 1) allow the employee to implement a new idea or skill that came from the training; 2) ask the employee to present the training information at the next departmental meeting, 3) use informal conversations and praise to reinforce the skill development, and 4) role model the behavior). Frontline personnel are taught to ask open-ended questions to gather the most information from customers. Debt collection personnel are taught communication skills and proper telephone techniques, as well as skills in collecting money. As part of this training, staff are taught to ask questions as early in the delinquency process as possible, because as time passes and the delinquency becomes more serious, customers will no longer be receptive to freely providing information. FIB incorporates creative training strategies to make learning enjoyable. One example implemented in one branch is the TUFS program (Teaming Up For Success), which utilizes employee teams to make presentations to all branch staff on customer-focused service issues. A recent presentation utilized the Jeopardy theme to create a skill drill competition. Still another team presented a role-play of improper customer service versus FIB customer service. FIB employees are motivated by understanding their role within the customer-focused culture, through one-on-one coaching, accountability at all levels, performance evaluation and performance-based rewards, and employee and team incentive programs. Additionally, the bank strives to maintain high employee morale and retain employees by offering them flexible time for doctor visits, childcare, etc. The most successful incentive program thus far has been non-monetary. Employees nominate a coworker who has gone out of his or her way to assist an internal or external customer. The nomination is posted on a banner in the break room. The winner or MVP of the week receives a traveling trophy. The trophy is a football with the executives’ signatures on it. Another program, the "I" Team incentive program, involves service bucks. Service bucks are obtained by a point value system. The award is given in front of peers. An employee can receive service bucks in one or more of four categories:
Under a different initiative, employees/branches are awarded prizes for doing their best and for increasing deposits and checking accounts. Every employee has an opportunity to gain points and eventually select a prize from a catalog. Each year, FIB employees are evaluated on their performance. FIB uses pay performance management guidelines. The emphasis of the performance evaluation has been on customer relationships. Performance evaluations incorporate statistical information contained in management reports, customer feedback, and management’s observations. Employees can also be awarded performance-based bonuses, which adhere to a scale so as to eliminate any appearance of favoritism. FIB is automated—anyone within FIB can view an account. As information is entered, standard abbreviations are utilized so that anyone can understand the status and nuances of any account. The system that tracks loans and collections automatically queues accounts for a loan officer’s attention, based on a pre-established prioritization protocol. Largest delinquency amounts are the top priority, followed by frequency of broken promises of payment, bounced checks for payment, highest limit past due, and number of days past due. The system is set up to accept notes, so that the substance of a loan officer’s conversation with the customer can be captured for review and follow-up. This system enhances productivity and the employee knowledge base of contracts when interacting with customers. The system is set to inform all employees of the status of each contract. FIB has a number of automated forms and letters. In the debt collection department, the bank uses an automated system to produce uniform letters. This system includes merged fields that insert the name, address, and account number on the letter. Another bank employee, not the debt collector, stamps, signs, and mails the letter. This system frees up time for the debt collector and provides him/her increased opportunities for customer contact. The marketing department responds to (and tries to predict) market trends, focusing on the financial needs of FIB. Marketing staff gather information through interviewing, trial and error, and customer surveys. They have found that particular marketing yields particular customers—not all products are needed/wanted by all customers. The marketing department focuses on how to better serve the community. The goal is to maintain customers for the long haul. FIB uses a number of mechanisms to share information about services with customers and prospective customers. Word of mouth has proved most effective. Additional media have included radio, television, trade show booths, Internet, I-Beetles (Volkswagen beetles that advertise FIB’s Internet site), and employees wearing FIB apparel while in the community. The debt collection department uses a standard set of procedures for working with debtors and delinquent customers. The uniformity of implementation of these procedures is seen as critical to good customer service. By standardizing the process, FIB believes that all customers will be treated equitably. The department is organized so that one person handles all loans purchased in-house. Loans purchased from other lending institutions are handled by personnel with various levels of expertise and experience, depending on the level of complexity or level of delinquency. Early in the collection process, employees and customers are educated about customer responsibilities. Customers must expect that they are obligated to make the required payments. Debt collectors are trained in how to approach customers who are first-time delinquents versus repeat delinquents. Before interacting with a customer, the loan officer reviews the customer’s history. When a contract is 10–30 days late, the loan officer makes several telephone and mail contacts but retains a degree of flexibility with the customer. At this point, a loan officer may change a payment due date, extend the loan for up to 30 days, or accept partial payment (although this is discouraged) and restructure the loan. When two payments are outstanding and the customer is 30–45 days delinquent, the loan officer becomes sterner when communicating with the customer. Senior debt collectors handle these customers, and customers receive a certified form letter and a follow-up telephone call. At this point, the options are: 1) restructure the account, 2) terminate the credit line, and 3) collect the collateral. Within debt collection, management utilizes a number of procedures to ensure that all customers are receiving high-quality service and that employees are held accountable for results. Two persons are required to be present when cash is tendered. Loan statistics and management reports are reviewed as a double check on delinquency amounts and numbers of delinquent customers. This information is used to review the seriousness of delinquent loans for each debt collector. If there are any problems within the debt collection department, the Central Collections Manager notifies everyone in the department during the staff meeting. Problems are addressed through training. FIB recognizes that debt collection can be personally taxing for employees, and therefore, is proactive in preventing employee burnout or turnover in the debt collection department.
The benefit to FIB of providing great customer service is their continued reputation as a customer service-oriented organization. This reputation attracts more customers while retaining old ones, resulting in a larger local base of customers. Additional benefits of great customer service include high employee morale, resulting in a low turnover rate, gains in market share, increasing profits, lower unemployment, and better communities. The costs of delivering great customer service are difficult to estimate, but they can be attributed to training, salaries of certain people, and incentives. FIB estimates spending over $3 million over the past 4 years to create a customer-focused service culture. There is a high level of commitment to provide good customer service through training. Ford Motor Credit (FMC) operates as the flagship for Ford Financial by providing financing and leasing for Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury customers. Ford Financial focuses on providing value and service and continually seeks out new ways to increase customer satisfaction. Their first value is "Winning with Our Customers." This value is embraced, communicated, and rewarded. Ford Financial serves more than 10 million customers in 40 countries. Primary customer interactions are through call centers, operating in Omaha (NE) and Nashville (TN) in the United States and in Ottawa (Ontario) and Edmonton (Alberta) in Canada. These call centers receive an estimated 1.5 million customer calls each month. Their customers want quick service, knowledgeable employees, written confirmation of action taken, and professional and courteous treatment. FMC stresses the importance of creating a holistic customer service culture by beginning with upper-level management and actualizing this goal among all staff including frontline personnel. The framework for the customer service culture at FMC includes learning what the customers want; implementing steps to provide for those wants for which a business case can be made; equipping frontline employees with training, information, empowerment, and motivation; and monitoring success through customer and employee feedback mechanisms. When the U.S. call centers were being developed, the director researched other call centers to find a model for their design. In favor of economies of scale (related to technology, resources, and personnel), FMC implemented call center access on a national scale at four sites. Even with this consolidated design, FMC is committed to providing personalized service. Call center management utilizes customer telephone and mail survey results as well as focus group findings to guide implementation. Once analyzed, this information is provided to the areas within the call center for which it applies. (For example, customer feedback about loan rates goes to employees responsible for making policy decisions about rates. Customer input about experiences and interactions with personnel are provided to staff in training and human resources.) Call center managers are expected to coach and mentor call takers, based on performance during quality control checks. FMC management utilizes formal feedback initiatives to ensure that communication between the frontline and management remains open. One of these programs is the Voice of the Customer Committee. On this committee, frontline workers meet with management during a monthly meeting at which staff relay what customers want, based on their interactions with customers that month and over time. Another mechanism, the Ideas Program, offers an opportunity for frontline personnel to submit a proposal to management on how to improve customer service. Employees are rewarded for submitting proposals, and when ideas are implemented, a gift card is provided. Frontline employees, especially through the Voice of the Customer Committee, have made important contributions to improving customer service at FMC. For example, frontline staff identified necessary changes in the voice menu wording, suggested options that should be added and some to omit from the phone tree menu, and identified customers’ information needs. Frontline personnel are encouraged not only to report to management any processes that are not working, but to offer potential solutions. The key to hiring someone on the front line, according to FMC management, is to hire staff with a passion for customer service. Training for FMC staff includes training on teams, as well as learning how to give and receive feedback, how to be a good team member, and how to improve telephone communication skills. One important motivator for employees is the policy within the company that includes customer satisfaction as a determining factor in employee compensation. Quarterly, customer telephone survey results are tabulated, and employees receive bonuses that are tied directly to their scores. Also, prizes are offered for customer letters or phone calls of praise. Lunches are offered to teams who perform well in customer service. In an effort to make the payment process as convenient as possible for customers, FMC piloted a phone pay system through Western Union. Currently, this program produces 350,000 transactions each month. Other pay options include direct electronic payments from a bank account or payroll deduction and Internet-based payment processing. Twenty-two percent of FMC payments are processed electronically. At the time of this report, they are also considering whether to permit credit card payments. During a month when the customer simply cannot pay, FMC works with customers who struggle to make full and timely payments. For example, a customer may be permitted to skip a payment and add that payment to the end of the loan. Another option is reducing the amount of the monthly payment and extending the length of the loan. Accountability is enforced through late payment charges and reports made to the credit bureau. Customer service is key to the day-to-day operation of Cherner Automotive Group (Cherner). This sentiment is echoed from the frontline employee to the upper-level executive. The Cherner philosophy of customer service delivery is customer satisfaction through continued friendly communication and interaction, coupled with accessibility and responsiveness. Cherner’s approach is very individualized, and they believe that customer service is relative to the customer being served. In no case did a Cherner employee claim to be in the business of selling vehicles; rather, employees view themselves as "in the people business." Building customer relationships is underscored. Cherner employees realize that exemplary customer service brings in new customers, as well as repeat customers. This is accomplished by reputation or referral. Cherner operates two dealerships, both of which are located in the Northern Virginia technology corridor. Cherner has a wide customer base that includes retired persons, business professionals, members of Congress, and community residents. Many Cherner customers are repeat customers or referrals. Cherner is a family-owned and -operated business. The corporate culture embraces change; strives to learn what customers want and gives it to them; and seeks both customer and employee loyalty. Cherner considers customers’ first impressions to be important and strives to create a warm and inviting environment. Cherner employees attempt to make customers feel welcome and to provide individualized attention. The only "formal" policies for making this occur include the "10-foot rule," whereby employees who are in the area should acknowledge customers within this range and ask to be of assistance, and a policy that all customers who enter the dealership are acknowledged within 30 seconds. Cherner employees understand the value of smiling and being pleasant to all customers. According to Cherner staff at all levels of the company, customers deserve responsiveness. The ability to individualize service is, in their opinion, what sets them apart in customer service delivery. There are no written guidelines, but employees have a degree of autonomy in making decisions. For example, the service advisor has the latitude to refund money or to adjust a charge ticket. The core ideology is that each employee is encouraged to do whatever it takes within reason—based on the situation—to serve a customer immediately. Employees are discouraged from having a "this is my job or that is not my job" attitude. Rather, all employees work for the same company and every employee is responsible for serving customers and making them happy. Integral to Cherner’s customer service delivery is the need to understand customer expectations. Cherner listens to their customers and provides convenient forums for customer feedback. The most widely used method is their customer satisfaction survey. Each customer who purchases an automobile receives a questionnaire from Ford Motor Company. The results are shared with the dealer. Also, Cherner hires an outside company to phone a sample of their service customers to collect data on customer satisfaction. These findings are presented in the monthly report "Viewpoint." The service area also has a customer feedback/suggestion box, posted beside the cash register. Staff at all levels of the organization articulated their customer service orientation as:
Cherner’s owners and managers set the tone for the company. Managers are expected to "lead by example." The general manager adheres to a policy of "Management by Walking Around." In other words, he and other managers try to stay connected with employees throughout the organization by working side-by-side with them. Senior-level executives have an open-door policy and solicit employee input during staff meetings. Calls are not screened, so customers also can contact managers directly. Managers attempt to empower employees by providing a supportive environment in which employees are encouraged to make decisions. Managers are expected to coach frontline staff. During interviews, frontline personnel indicated that if a frontline employee were experiencing difficulties, managers would speak with that individual and coach him/her. However, frontline staff felt that improvement would be expected and that the employee would be held accountable for improving, or the employee would be terminated. As an employee’s experience increases, so does the amount of discretion allotted to the employee. Cherner frontline personnel perceive that they are supported by management in that whatever they feel they cannot handle can be turned over to management, with frontline staff confident that the situation will be addressed. Management also listens and responds to the needs of the employees. This is handled in different ways. For example, when employees in service determine that they need some training or equipment to do the job better, they can write the request on a white board designed for this purpose, and a member of management will address the request (and keep the notation on the board until the request is resolved). The white board is also an information-sharing tool for frontline employees. Employee meetings are an another forum for raising and addressing issues. Most of the dealership’s employees have longevity with the company. During each discussion with Cherner employees, regardless of organizational level, the interviewee acknowledged that to deliver great customer service, a company must hire and retain the right people. Managers added that "the right person" is one who can get along with others, possesses good judgment, can work on a team, is motivated, and possesses the desire to grow and learn. Cherner wants to hire sales personnel who are motivated not by money, but rather by the desire to help people. Cherner offers multifaceted, ongoing training for employees. In order to continually provide effective customer service, employees are trained both in-house and by the manufacturers. Ford Star Satellite training, Ford’s training facility in Centreville (VA) and printed training materials from KIA and ISUZU are designed to keep employees current on various features and aspects of the products being sold and serviced. Other training offered is designed to enhance selling techniques and customer service and to update technicians on vehicle and repair technology. In the past, employees received gender sensitivity training that was offered to improve customer service for female customers. Among the most creative training strategies is Cherner’s frontline mentoring system, whereby a senior salesperson mentors a new salesperson for 90 days. The senior salesperson is responsible for teaching sales basics, orienting the new employee to Cherner culture and attitude, describing Cherner products, and detailing processes. One frontline employee stated that this type of mentoring is a key component to great customer service that is transferable to other organizations. At all levels of the organization, employees reported being very self-motivated—driven by personal pride and the desire to do a great job. This may be a result of Cherner’s hiring policies as well as employees’ positive perceptions of their work environment. Most of those that were interviewed commented that separate and distinct from the actual family ownership of the dealership, the working environment feels like a family environment. Employees know and talk with one another, even across departments; employees support one another; employee picnics and gatherings allow families to get to know each other; and employees simply "get along." This family environment proves to be a strong motivator for Cherner employees at all levels. Another motivator that was mentioned comes directly from individual customers. Employees reported receiving Christmas cards, gifts, notes, and personal appreciation and friendship from satisfied customers. Cherner, as well as the vehicle manufacturers, offers incentives to foster and sustain employee motivation. Cherner sponsors contests, and the winners are given free tickets to sporting events or dinner coupons, monetary awards, and other "per’s" (e.g., use of a vehicle, recognition, etc.) Rewards are also offered based on customer survey scores, reported by Ford. At times, there are luncheons or dinners. Rather than a point-in-time formalized evaluation process, employees are continuously recognized for good service. Similarly, management addresses negative behavior as it is observed or identified via customer surveys or complaints and seeks to correct this behavior through mentoring and coaching. Technology is a resource primarily used for training and in the service area. Service employees are linked to each of the manufacturer’s databases and have access to sophisticated on-line reference manuals. They are connected to nationwide databases that have background information on the history of the car, as well as customer history. This allows for a more detailed, efficient, and expedient service call and better customer service. Ford Star is a satellite training initiative that allows employees to remain at the dealership while receiving training. Employees can even take the required tests and receive their scores via the Internet. This lends convenience for employees being trained. The attitude of customer responsiveness holds true for complaints. Employees echoed the same sentiment: "If you receive it, handle it. If you can’t handle it, find someone who can until the problem is solved." Employees explained that complaints are an information resource for them, and that they utilize the information to improve services. Cherner boasts a low turnover rate, estimated at approximately 10 percent. In fact, an average employee will remain with Cherner for 10 years. The General Manager has been with Cherner for 29 years. This low turnover is attributed to the family-oriented atmosphere, competitive wages, and knowledge that the jobs at Cherner are secure (as Cherner does not have a history of layoffs). One challenge to this positive environment has been a recent decision to respond to customer and manufacturer desires to operate on Saturdays. As such, employees who used to be off each weekend now find themselves working on some Saturdays. In an effort to reduce employee burnout or turnover that such a change may produce, Cherner offers special incentives to these employees. For example, an employee who works on Saturday may choose to take the following Monday off (service advisors can take Friday) or to be paid for an extra day of work at overtime rates. Management also provides lunch for employees who work on Saturday. Cherner focuses on outcomes rather than the process. Cherner offers its vehicle repair customers a shuttle back to work, within a reasonable distance, or to the transit station. However, Cherner recognizes that because of local traffic conditions, offering this service during evening rush hour is counterproductive. Therefore, customers are reimbursed for cab fare back to Cherner when traveling from the transit station to Cherner to pick up a vehicle during evening rush hour. While Cherner could have told customers that the shuttle does not run during rush hour and that transportation would have to be arranged on their own or during non-rush hours, Cherner went the extra mile with customers and found a mutually beneficial way of providing this service. Cherner aims to exceed customer expectations. When customers have their vehicles at Cherner to be serviced, they are provided with complementary car washes. Cherner proclaims that the benefits of customer service delivery are happier customers, high employee morale, employee and customer loyalty, free advertising (word of mouth), and sales generation. "If you do it right the first time, you won’t have to do it again." This is the premise from which they operate. Satisfaction the first time results in not having to spend more labor hours rectifying a situation. This, in turn, makes daily business operations more fluid and service more efficient. Satisfaction the first time also enhances the dealership’s community reputation as that of a professional, people-oriented business. This business stance generates a larger customer base. High employee morale is also a benefit of good customer service. Employees take pride in their work. The costs to Cherner for delivering great customer service include employee incentive costs, salaries, and bonuses; training costs; car wash expenses; shuttle service expenses; and write-off costs for services performed but not charged to the customer. As part of its external customer service strategy, the Child Support Division in Texas has developed a program called Compact with Texans, which outlines the vision, guiding principles, and goals of the division and explains how external customers can continue to provide feedback on child support. The guiding principles are:
These principles are designed as the framework for action at the agency and individual levels when serving both internal and external customers. Everyone in the division is provided with a copy of these principles to hang on their office walls, and these principles are also posted in conference rooms and hallways throughout the office. To advance these principles, the customer service action plan addresses:
The Child Support Division of the Texas OAG works with mothers, fathers, and legal guardians of children to locate absent parents; establish paternity; establish, enforce, and adjust child and medical support orders; and collect and distribute the money associated with these orders. They have over 1 million active cases. In 1997, the Texas legislature mandated the Sunset Advisory Commission to review the OAG Child Support Division to determine whether the OAG should continue to administer the State’s child support program. Legislators were receiving too many complaints about the Division from constituents. The Sunset Commission conducted its review in 1998 and recommended that the OAG continue to administer the program for a 2-year probationary period. The Commission made a number of recommendations for improving the program. The highest priority was improving customer service and, in particular, accessibility. Too often, customers needing information about their cases could not get through to staff for information. Of the 1.5 million calls a month that child support received, only 14 percent of those who wished to speak with staff could do so. Thousands of calls each day were abandoned. A customer service survey revealed that 48 percent of customers were dissatisfied. Shortly after the Commission issued its report, a new Attorney General took office. He hired a new Deputy Assistant Attorney General for child support, and they both made customer service a top priority, with answering the phones as the number one objective. A full-time staff person was hired to develop the customer service strategy and action plan. The process included focus groups with internal and external customers, a customer satisfaction survey, and an employee satisfaction survey, as well as and soliciting input from various special interest groups. Customers said that they were most concerned with obtaining timely and accurate information, preserving their personal dignity, and being respected. Employees wanted empowerment and discretion. To make the plan "stick," the administration realized that they needed to communicate, improve staff development, measure performance, and increase employee accountability and recognition. Quarterly, the regions report on their progress through action plans. In the quarter from March through May 2001, regional progress reports revealed that regions:
Overall, after the first year of implementation, a general customer satisfaction survey revealed a statewide increase in customer satisfaction to 63 percent (up from 52 percent in 1999). Furthermore, in Spring 2001, a survey of custodial parents who had recently had an establishment performed reported an 82 percent satisfaction rate. Intuitively, management claims that staff stress levels are down and that morale and job satisfaction are on the rise. Efforts to improve customer service are continuing through the undertaking of the "e-degree" project (in which employees use educational leave and agency computers to take up to 3 hours of online college-level courses per semester) and the WorkSMART model office-reengineering project. The WorkSMART project is in the planning stages. WorkSMART embodies an ideal for service in which customers gain empowerment over their cases through increased access to online information online. Customers will be able to electronically enter their case into the child support system via a streamlined application process, use a graphical roadmap to know the status of their case, and review frequently asked questions and answers while experiencing shorter processing times. Much of the detailed development of these action plans has been pushed down to the regional level (e.g., training strategies, measurement strategies, reward systems, and customer input mechanisms). Texas is working on maintaining consistency in these procedures while allowing each region some discretion. This strategy was designed to increase buy-in and ownership at the regional level. As a result of this autonomy, different offices may vary in their customer service strategies and levels of success. While executive management has found this autonomic setup effective, the downside is that its varied measurement strategies do not lend themselves to easy statewide assessment. At the beginning of the customer service implementation, the Director closed the central call center and created regional call centers. At the regional level, managers focus on getting the phones answered and supporting employees—through training and cross-training, by clearly outlining expectations, through consistent management, by serving as role models, by rewarding good work and good customer service, and by encouraging open communication. A regional call center manager stressed the importance of his own attitude (attitude filters from the top down, according to this manager) as a means of setting the tone of the office and keeping employees productive and willing to provide the best services possible. In support of this belief, every day he walks around the office and greets each employee, offers assistance, provides answers to questions, and maintains an open-door policy. He emphasizes results and delivering a consistent message. As long as the center’s goals are being met, he offers flexibility (e.g., in scheduling lunch breaks and requests for time off). He has instituted strategies to cope with the unit when it is not fully staffed, by flexing lunch schedules and by having management serve as backup. He tries to handle most problems by talking with all of the staff instead of isolating an individual. However, individual accountability does play an important part in the management strategy. This particular call center succeeds both in meeting its telephone answering goals (staff and managers answer 96 percent of all incoming calls) and in maintaining low employee turnover (approximately 22 percent in the region, but of those who have left, every person still works within the Texas Child Support Division via transfer or promotion). Call center management has trained employees that their role is to accurately handle as many incoming phone calls as possible. The purpose is to free up time child support officers (CSOs) to be able to process cases. Brief interviews with frontline call center staff suggested that call center employees and managers share a rapport and can rely on one another for help or answers to questions. Two people said that the best part of their job is the feeling of helping someone. Another person took pride in thoroughly addressing all of the callers’ issues so as to deflect calls for CSOs. One call taker even assigns "ticklers" on his calendar so that he knows to check the system to make certain that appropriate action has been taken on a call he has received. Call takers reported some challenges, including balancing the target talk time (about 4 minutes) with providing thorough information to the caller, dealing with callers who are not truthful, and handling concerns that caseworkers may not be able to perform requested follow-up. However, the call center statistics show that 95 percent of calls are answered, the average wait time since inception of the regional call centers is approximately 30 seconds, and that call takers spend an average of 3 minutes of talk time per call. Management places the same emphasis on hiring call center staff as they do in hiring CSOs. Call center staff are paid at the CSO level. Some call center staff were hired from field offices, as well as from county child support offices, and others were hired with customer service backgrounds but with no child support experience. Management for the six call centers includes personnel from the central office, some of whom had worked in field offices and others from general hiring pools. All child support staff receive 2 days of basic training in customer service, even those personnel serving internal customers only. New staff also receive this training. During this training, instructors stress that the Division’s guiding principles apply to both internal and external customer service. Managers receive advanced customer service training on how to support staff to deliver great customer service. Training is offered regionally, and therefore staff from all levels train together. In addition to customer service training, staff are trained in how to deal with hostile customers. The next initiative is to design and implement a follow-up course in customer service. Motivation is addressed on a number of levels:
According to Texas Child Support Division executives, one of the keys to the improvement of customer service in Texas child support is technology. In particular, six regional call centers were established and were equipped with technology and systems to improve efficiency, information availability, and information exchange. The call centers handle approximately 25 percent of all customer service contacts. First, a model— the Erlang C Formula—was used to understand the relationship between the amount of incoming calls, time taken to handle those calls, wait time for callers, and number of call center staff. With this formula, executive personnel determined the number of staff needed given call volume, target maximum wait times, and handling times for calls. Initially, the number of required staff calculated by this method was higher than that of actual staff available for the effort. As a result, Texas had to address another factor in the formula—handle time. Efficiencies in call handling have been gained through a number of innovations:
The database of cases (TXCSES) includes a diary function that permits staff members, whether in a call center or field office, to make a notation on the case so that anyone who opens the case will be current on action taken or contact made on the case. It also allows staff to e-mail one another directly. Another useful feature allows call center staff to mark the correspondence or case so that the call taker receives a reminder notice to perform follow-up. Still other call center technology allows call center staff to be acutely aware of the number of calls coming in and the length of wait time. First, a digital light board posted in the office provides this real-time information. Additionally, a computer tracking system provides aggregate statistics on the calls and is located in the break room. Intellicenter software is used by call center managers to provide quality control by periodically screening calls and coaching staff, as appropriate. At the call center, everyone agreed that technology has made their jobs easier. Another technological improvement for customer service has been the interactive Web site (www.oag.state.tx.us/). On the site, customers can provide information, obtain payment information, and make complaints. Customers are using the site for all of these things. The Web site was designed to reduce the number of phone calls, while increasing information access for customers. Web site use has been increasing since inception. In August 2001, there were 196,403 transactions from individuals who had entered their pin number and were actually accessing case information. On average, the site receives 3,967 hits daily. Ten percent of all customer service contacts are over the Web site. The Web site won an award from Computer World Magazine. An intranet Web site provides internal customer service information for staff. Texas also utilizes an automated telephone system that addresses 65 percent of all customer service contacts. Marketing the new regional telephone numbers to child support customers is critical to the success of the call centers. The information campaign has included public service announcements; news service announcements; fliers inserted into the mail for paying cases; coordination with courts, probation, volunteer coordinators, child support field offices, and special investigators to distribute the new regional numbers; providing the number to arrestees during a large "round up" operation; and by word of mouth. One of Texas’s principle debt collection tools is the Special Collections Unit (SCU). The SCU works with both financial institutions and non-custodial parents (NCPs) to collect past-due child support from the financial accounts of the NCPs. Prior to taking legal action, an SCU employee contacts the financial institution’s legal staff to develop a rapport on a staff-to-staff level. During the initial conversation, the SCU employee explains the lien/levy process used by child support and provides a telephone number for use in the event of questions or problems during future transactions. SCU staff also work with the NCPs, listen to concerns, and explain applicable laws supporting the collections efforts. At this time, SCU staff also explain to NCPs the financial and moral advantages of paying child support debt in full. Many times the NCP will not have calculated the impact of the compounding interest rates on his/her debt or the problems associated with being reported to the various credit bureaus. Throughout the process, SCU closely monitors the liens/levies. If an error is made by the SCU or financial institution during the lien/levy process, staff of the SCU act promptly to release the lien/levy and explain the error to the NCP. Staff of the SCU have received numerous comments from NCPs praising their professionalism and personal concern, even after the NCPs have paid substantial sums toward their child support debts.
The costs easily identified with the shift toward customer service have been training costs, the expense of 210 new call center staff salaries, and the performance incentives (e.g., merit increases, promotions, donated food, gift certificates, tickets, and special events). Conversely, however, collections have increased, and paternity establishment has improved. Nontangible benefits have included improved employee morale, decreased legislative inquiries, and improvements in customer satisfaction ratings. Since the effort began, a survey[3] of custodial parents has shown considerable increases in:
Texas is continuing to explore opportunities for quantifying the benefits of improved customer service. Child support agencies benefit from providing excellent customer service because excellent service in child support will lead to increased information sharing, increased trust, improved relationships, and ultimately increased compliance. The literature suggests that child support agencies should make customer service their goal and anticipate that increased information sharing, increased trust, improved relationships, and ultimately increased compliance will be the outcomes of excellent customer service. The evidence suggests that low child support officer turnover will lead to high customer satisfaction and that employees who perceive that they are meeting customer needs will have high job satisfaction. Some readers may presume that becoming customer oriented is more difficult in the public sector than in the private sector. Perhaps the motivation for doing so may be less in the public sector. However, the degree of success achieved have been relatively equal. The American Customer Satisfaction Index is a standardized measurement of customer satisfaction that is implemented by the University of Michigan Business School. This survey is used in both the public and private sectors. Year 2000 survey findings demonstrated an average public sector score that was competitive with the average scores of private sector businesses (65.7 out of 100 points for local government, 68.6 for Federal Government, and 71.2 across the private sector). In particular, in 2000, the Administration for Children and Families (represented by the Head Start Bureau) received one of the highest Federal scores at 83.[4] A number of elements can be put into place within child support that will increase the opportunities for excellent customer service delivery. An initial set of possibilities is offered below. First, identify the customers in child support enforcement. The OCSE purports that both custodial parents and NCPs are the customers in child support, whereas the child is the ultimate beneficiary. Minnesota Child Support Enforcement has analyzed its customers and outlined five primary categories of parents whom they serve: complying, uninformed, unable, reluctant, and evading. Minnesota defines these categories by levels of readiness, willingness, and ability to comply with child support obligations. The purpose of these categories is to systematically modify the child support system’s response to the parents, based on each parent’s place on this continuum. In other words, Minnesota is attempting to individualize its child support services, while treating parents equitably. This strategy also allows for the inevitable shifting in parent category: Complying parents are defined as those parents who are "knowledgeable of expectations and are ready, willing and able to comply. Custodial parents are willing to give information. Non-custodial parents are willing to fulfill orders. Both are willing to form economic partnership in support of their child(ren)." Minnesota plans to respond to these parents by reinforcing these behaviors and rewarding willing compliance. Specifically, parents are provided with feedback on their compliance and trends; success stories are shared among customers; parents’ opinions are sought about how obligations may be more easily met; ongoing financial transactions are automated for ease of service; expedited and non-adversarial processes are available to both parents; face-to-face services are available; and amicable resolutions are pursued and celebrated. Uninformed parents are defined as those parents who "may or may not know [that] they are a parent, don’t know of their responsibilities and rights, and are not familiar with the child support system or processes." The response to be implemented with these parents is to educate. Specific responses include public awareness campaigns; forming partnerships with programs having compatible purposes; linking welfare reform and child support messages; addressing incoming questions promptly, completely, and accurately; avoiding acronyms; and focusing outreach efforts on expectant parents, pre-teens, teens, and separating or divorcing families through schools, churches, employers, local governments, and advocacy and community groups. Unable parents are defined as those parents who "are knowledgeable and willing, but unable to pay or participate. The non-custodial parent may be financially unable due to being unemployed, underemployed, impaired, imprisoned, or otherwise rendered unable. The custodial parent may have information but is unable to provide it to the system due to language or other barriers." The response to this category of parents is to strive to enable parents. This is attempted by identifying the reason for the inability by listening to parents, connecting the parents with services (employment, training, school grants, or financial management), addressing individual barriers (through peer support groups, safety plans, etc.), encouraging non-cash contributions when financial contributions are unavailable, establishing and modifying orders that reflect the changing ability to pay, and offering delayed or deferred financial payment when necessary and when the lifetime financial contribution can be increased overall. Reluctant parents "are knowledgeable and able to comply, but reluctant; they wish to avoid the system or other parent." This reluctance may be driven by a perceived or real threat, such as domestic violence, fear, anger, or cynicism. The system response in Minnesota is to motivate and prod these parents into complying by setting clear expectations; using visible, predictable, and automated collection tools; addressing underlying issues through services such as referrals for counseling, assistance on custody or visitation, and financial management; providing cross-language and cross-cultural alternatives; allowing parents the opportunity to correct mistakes; and cultivating staff who are skilled at diffusing emotionally charged situations. Evading parents "are knowledgeable and able, but refuse to comply. They act affirmatively to avoid obligations, such as flight or willful refusal to work with [the] system or other parent." The system response in Minnesota is to compel compliance by locating these parents quickly; using automated actions to start compliance; outsourcing these cases to a collection agency; applying enforcement tools early (before a full year of noncompliance has passed), including contempt proceedings, professional license revocation, liens against real and personal property, and State or Federal criminal prosecution; imposing noncooperation penalties; and emphasizing during publicity about arrested evaders that the losers in these situations are the children.[5] By identifying these five categories, Minnesota is recognizing that parents have different situations, motivations, and needs and is attempting to design a system that is adaptive to these differences while maintaining an overall goal of obtaining financial support for children. In child support, agencies cannot select to whom services will be provided. To complicate matters, custodial parents and NCPs may seem to have competing or at least different needs. This same phenomenon is experienced by Home Depot, which serves contractors as well as "do it yourselfers." In Home Depot’s case, the company has been able to cope because it found that contractors and "do it yourselfers" require services and materials at different times of the day and so the stores tailor staffing and store hours to be able to provide good service to both. For child support, one option may be to direct most efforts or the most-appropriate efforts toward the best return. If most customers are parties to complying cases, instituting low-cost efforts to reward or reinforce this behavior in an effort to maintain it (e.g., certificates to fathers who have not missed a payment over a 1-year period; instituting a policy of thanking the custodial parent when that parent calls and has made the payment for that month, or sending confirmations of payments received with a statement about the significance of that parent as a responsible parent) is appropriate and could be cost-effective. Similarly, a fairly low-cost response for educating uninformed parents (e.g., explaining the process upon entry into the system, via a video, a class, or written materials) may be cost-effective as well. However, the agency could take a banking approach toward those customers who become delinquent (those unable, reluctant, or evasive). First Interstate Bank stresses the importance of early identification of those customers who have missed payments and of prioritizing among these customers in an effort to organize the workload. Speaking with customers who have missed payments by up to 15 days accomplishes a number of things; the customer is more open to providing information and may have more options available. The philosophy behind this process is that working with someone soon after the missed payment is likely to be less costly than allowing the debt to build before making contact. Prioritizing customers by the amount of the payment missed or number of children to whom the payment is applied or any other possible mechanisms will allow those frontline personnel who make contact with parents to begin gaining control over the workload and will help to reduce the "squeaky wheel phenomenon." A different tone and set of possibilities are extended to customers who are 30–45 days late because there is a point of diminishing returns. Collecting payment from customers who have missed two payments is probably going to require more effort on the part of child support, so the best offense is to try to prevent two payments from being missed. A number of child support agencies, including those in Texas and California, have implemented customer surveys. Customer surveys can and should be used to determine what child support customers most want from child support services and to seek input on improving services, collect baseline information by which to measure results of improvements to the system, and to reinforce a customer focus. The Urban Institute prepared a sample customer survey for OCSE from which questions could be gleaned, and child support agencies also may use one another as a resource for samples (www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/cse). Establishing an externally oriented strategic service culture in child support follows the same process as similar procedures in the private sector. In this culture, management places an emphasis on minimizing costs, increasing quality control measures, educating customers, establishing a customer complaint mechanism and resolution strategy, and measuring customer satisfaction. Both First Interstate Bank and Cherner Automotive Group offer creative quality control procedures. At Cherner and FIB, frontline supervisors serve as coaches or mentors and are trained to serve in this capacity. FIB has a policy to "inspect what they expect." In child support services, rather than relying only on statistics or monthly reports about the quality of services at field offices, central office management could regularly visit child support field offices. The visit would include discussions with field office managers regarding operations, observations of customer interactions with staff, auditing and reviewing measures identified as important to customer service, addressing patterns of complaints, brainstorming on improvement opportunities, and rewarding excellent customer service practices. A creative customer education tool used by FIB is the I-Beetle. Employees of FIB drive a Volkswagen Beetle painted with an advertisement for FIB’s Web site. This takes the message to the customers—during traffic jams, on trips to the supermarket, while shopping at the mall, etc. Opportunistic marketing may be something worth considering in child support. Messages about responsible parenting or a new child support Web site or call center telephone number could be distributed where child support customers are already going—whether at the supermarket, on downtown streets, at shopping malls, at job placement centers, or at the town ball field. California Child Support Services has automated its complaint tracking and established an Interagency Agreement with the Department of Social Services, State Hearing Office, to conduct State hearings when appropriate. Implementing an internally oriented strategic service culture in child support means hiring the right people; continually training employees in customer service; seeking input from employees; empowering, rewarding, and supporting frontline personnel; utilizing technology to reduce the workload on CSOs and other frontline personnel and to provide easy access to information; creating an enabling environment where discretion is clearly defined and frontline judgment calls are supported by management; utilizing cross-functional teams; and measuring employee satisfaction. This may mean hiring staff with an aptitude and attitude for customer service, even if child support skills must subsequently be learned. Such a culture may also be actualized through software that categorizes and automatically queues cases for attention by CSOs, based on the status of the case. This means instituting incentives for providing great customer service, whether perks, recognition, or merit raises. It also means that divisions or departments within child support services must communicate and cooperate with one another. It includes proactively attempting to deter burnout of CSOs and call takers by encouraging staff to take appropriate breaks and eat lunch away from work, use vacation time, and modify the work that a person does.
The results of this study provide a glimpse of how child support agencies may be able to strategically plan and implement a customer-focused culture and the benefits that child support agencies should expect from successfully implementing excellent customer service. The study also suggests several possible areas for future study:
Certainly, this study lends itself to a great deal of further exploration. The study revealed that no specific tactic, technology, or mission statement is the key to effective customer service delivery. In fact, what is clear is that effective customer service delivery is organization specific, since services are designed around the targeted customers’ desires and the frontline employees delivering them. The components of the process for producing effective customer service delivery include appropriately identifying and targeting the ideal customer, establishing a customer-focused vision that is consistent with the prioritized desires of the target customers, establishing operational procedures and internal infrastructure that support customer service, continuously measuring customer and employee satisfaction, embracing change, and striving persistently to improve. The customer service literature clearly demonstrates that both profit-seeking and public agencies that implement effective customer service strategies realize financial benefits, either through increased profits or through reduced costs associated with long-term, informed customers, customer referrals, employee retention, improved information exchange, and streamlined service delivery. In this case, child support enforcement is like any other business. In order to implement effective customer service strategies and reap the benefits of good customer service, child support agencies will need to implement the process of developing effective customer service. Customer Service Resource ListArticlesChase, Richard B. (November–December 1978). "Where Does the Customer Fit in a Service Operation?" Harvard Business Review. No.78601. Ciminero, Sabina. (November 1997). "Anglian Water: Customer Service Transformation," Harvard Business Review. No. 897-093. Evans, Phillip B. and Wurster, Thomas S. (September–October 1997). "Strategy and the New Economics of Information," Harvard Business Review. No. 4517. Heskett, James L., Jones, Thomas O., Loveman, Gary W., Sasser, W. Earl, Jr., Schlesinger, Leonard A. (March–April 1994). "Putting the Service-Profit Chain to Work," Harvard Business Review. Reprint No. 4460. Levitt, Theodore. (September–October 1972). "Production-Line Approach to Service," Harvard Business Review. Reprint No. 72505 Pelofsky, Mark. (February 1992). "Ford Motor Company: Dealer Sales and Service," Harvard Business Review. Reprint No.690030. Pittman Merliss, Penny. (January 1983). "Federal Express: Customer Service Department," Harvard Business Review. Reprint No 581017. BooksBerry, Leonard L. (1999). Discovering the Soul of Service: The Nine Drivers of Sustainable Business Success. New York (N.Y): The Free Press. Berry, Leonard L. (1995). On Great Service: A Framework for Action. New York (NY): The Free Press. Barlow, Janelle and Moller, Claus. (1996). A Complaint is a Gift: Using Customer Feedback as a Strategic Tool. San Francisco (CA): Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. Brown, Stanley A. (Ed.) (1997). Breakthrough Customer Service: Best Practices of Leaders in Customer Support. New York (N.Y).: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Gore, Albert. (1997). Businesslike Government: Lessons Learned from America's Best Companies. Washington, D.C.: National Performance Review. Harvard Business Review. (1994). Command Performance: The Art of Delivering Quality Service. Boston (MA) : Harvard Business School Publishing. Reprint No. 5622. Heskett, James L., Sasser, W. Earl, Jr., Hart, Christopher W. L. (1990). Service Breakthroughs: Changing the Rules of the Game. New York (NY): The Free Press. Heskett, James L., Sasser, W. Earl, Jr., and Schlesinger, Leonard A. (1997). The Service Profit Chain: How Leading Companies Link Profit and Growth to Loyalty, Satisfaction, and Value. New York (NY): The Free Press. Labovitz, George, and Rosansky, Victor. (1997). The Power of Alignment: How Great Companies Stay Centered and Accomplish Extraordinary Things. New York (NY): John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Peters, Thomas J., and Waterman, Robert H., Jr. (1982). In Search of Excellence: Lessons Learned from America’s Best Run Companies. New York (NY): Harper & Row Publishers. Reichheld, Frederick F., and Teal , Thomas, A. (1996). The Loyalty Effect: The Hidden Force Behind Growth, Profits, and Lasting Value. Boston (MA):Harvard Business School Press. Rust, Roland T., Zeithaml, Valarie A., and Lemon, Katherine N. (2000). Driving Customer Equity: How Customer Lifetime Value Is Reshaping Corporate Strategy. New York (NY): The Free Press. Smith, Ian. (1997). Meeting Customer Needs (2nd ed.). Woodburn (MA): Butterworth-Hienemann. Spector, Robert. (2001). Lessons from the Nordstrom Way: How Companies Are Emulating the #1 Customer Service Company. New York (NY): John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Thompson, Harvey. (2000). The Customer-Centered Enterprise: How IBM and Other World-Class Companies Achieve Extraordinary Results by Putting Customers First. New York (NY): McGraw-Hill. Wiersema, Frederick (Ed.). (1998). Customer Service: Extraordinary Results at Southwest Airlines, Charles Schwab, Lands’ End, American Express, Staples and USAA. New York (NY): HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. Woodruff, Robert B., and Gardial, Sarah F. (1994), Know Your Customer: New Approaches to Understanding Customer Value and Satisfaction. Portland (OR): Blackwell. Zeithaml, Valarie A., Parasuraman, A., and Berry, Leonard L. (1990). Delivering Quality Service: Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations. New York (NY): The Free Press. Government Reports and OrdersAmerican Society for Quality, University of Michigan Business School, and Arthur Andersen. (December 1999). American Customer Satisfaction Index: Federal Agencies Government-wide Customer Satisfaction Report for the General Services Administration. Washington, D.C.: National Performance Review. Federal Benchmarking Consortium. (February 1997). Serving the American Public: Best Practices in Customer-Driven Strategic Planning. Washington, D.C.: National Performance Review. Federal Benchmarking Consortium. (November 1997). Serving the American Public: Best Practices in One-Stop Customer Service. Washington, D.C.: National Performance Review. Federal Benchmarking Consortium. (June 11, 1996). Serving the American Public: Best Practices in Resolving Customer Complaints. Washington, D.C.: National Performance Review. Federal Benchmarking Consortium. (February 1995). Putting Customers First: Serving the American Public: Best Practices in Telephone Service. Washington, D.C.: National Performance Review. National Performance Review. (August 1999). Balancing Measures: Best Practices in Performance Management. Washington, D.C.: National Performance Review. National Performance Review. (October 1997). Putting Customers First ’97: Standards for Serving the American People. Washington, D.C.: National Performance Review. National Performance Review. (N.D.). World-Class Courtesy: A Best Practices Report. Washington, D.C.: National Performance Review. White House, Office of the Press Secretary. (March 23, 1995). Presidential Memorandum, Improving Customer Service. White House, Office of the Press Secretary. (September 11, 1993). Executive Order 12862: Setting Customer Service Standards. Web sitesCustomer Service Review. http://www.csr.co.za. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. "Chase Visa Mission, Vision and Values." http://www.chase.com/chase/gx.cgi/FTcs?pagename=Chase/Href&urlname=personal. University of Michigan Business School. American Customer Satisfaction Index.. http://www.acsi.asq.org. University of North Texas Libraries and Government Printing Office . Hammer Awards. http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/npr/library/awards/hammer/index.htm - size 14.5K. University of North Texas Libraries and Government Printing Office. Iowa Access Program. http://www.npr.gov/library/awards/hammer/index.html. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families. Head Start Information and Publications Center. Customer Satisfaction Memorandum. www.headstartinfo.org. U.S. Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service. "Ask the IRS." http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/prod/news/mod-faq6.html. [1] OCSE GPRA Strategic Plan: Child Support Enforcement Strategic Plan for FY1995-1999. Published on December 5, 1994. [2] An organization does not need to ask each customer, but rather should implement a sampling strategy to ask a representative sample. This is both methodologically sound and cost conservative. [3] Texas has developed customer satisfaction surveys for custodial and noncustodial parents, as well as internal customer surveys. [4] American Society for Quality, University of Michigan Business School, Arthur Andersen. (December 1999). American Customer Satisfaction Index: Federal Agencies Government-wide Customer Satisfaction Report for the General Services Administration. Washington, DC: National Performance Review. [5] Minnesota Department of Human Services (January 1999). Minnesota Child Support Delivery Study: Final Report Recommendations. Download FREE Adobe Acrobat® Reader™ to view PDF files located on this site.
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