- josephmank
Customer Service and what it means to me

One of the major corner stones of my platform is I customer service. I have been on the campaign trail for the last 3 months one of the things that I hear again and again is the customer service is something that leaves a number of areas for improvement. First off as someone that has worked with the public and in customer service over the years, great customer service starts with attitude. There is an phrase that I heard a long time ago. Your attitude sets your altitude. So I think as its been said before we have some major training opportunities. I want to build a culture based on the concept that government is service. What that means is when we have a customer come in to the office we make sure we treat them as a welcomed guest and not as a nuisance. Many people I have spoken with about the courthouse tells me the level of service they receive is lacking and a huge part of that is the attitude they receive. So training and culture is going to be a huge part of this plan.
I also plan to bring some of the newest tech into the courthouse. I would like a text reminder service for people with court cases and appointments. I think it would serve the courts and the public better if we had less failure to appear or missed appointments. I also want to use technology to streamline the processes in the office as much as possible. The benefit here is the staff would be better supported through an more efficient process and the guests would get served better. Once I get elected I plan to learn everything I can about not only the way things currently work but why they currently are being done they way they are. I am sure the law and Maryland regulations more then likely determine how things are done, I just need to figure out what I can do, while still staying in the boundaries that are set by the State of Maryland. I would like to make sure I put the work in to figure out how to make the processes there work better. This in return will make things run smoother, the customer service level will increase, people will be happier and the staff will feel less strain not only from the job but from the public's frustration.
The other concept that I know I will have to work very hard to implement is a customer feedback portal. I want to put something in place that will allow the public to give us feedback so our leadership team can use those metrics and direct feedback from the public to analyze the work we are performing and find ways to improve. I strongly feel we should always be looking for ways to improve. The feedback portal I know will require a lot of work on my part and I will need to partner with those in Annapolis to make this happen. I want to make sure they everyone working there develops the mindset that Government should be service. That should be our mantra.