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Municipal Services Reading creates customer service policy
Reading has created a customer service policy that will require Town Hall departments to keep a log of all complaints and comments from residents and other visitors.
The policy was created in February after a newly formed group of residents and businesspeople, called Making Reading Better, cited difficulties dealing with some town departments.
Town officials had been discussing the creation of a customer service policy for several years, according to Town Manager Peter Hechenbleikner. The policy that emerged, he said, was based on what is already in place in Framingham as well as a model policy made available by the International City/County Management Association.
Reading began making customer-service surveys available to Town Hall visitors more than a year ago, Hechenbleikner said. While the responses the town has received have been overwhelmingly positive, he said, the surveys themselves are not sufficient to fully gauge the caliber of the service that the town provides.
Having employees keep logs, he said, is a means “to capture the tenor of customer service that is not captured through the survey.”
Hechenbleikner added, however, that the log-keeping has to be kept relatively simple.
“We don’t want our employees spending so much time on the details of tracking data that they don’t have the time to devote themselves to customer service,” he said.
By this summer, Hechenbleikner said, Reading hopes to include a tool on its Web site that residents can use to notify the town of problems such as a broken streetlight or a tree that needs to be trimmed. Residents, he said, will immediately receive an e-mail confirming that the request has been received.
Municipal Services Reading creates customer service policy
Reading creates customer service policy
Reading has created a customer service policy that will require Town Hall departments to keep a log of all complaints and comments from residents and other visitors.
The policy was created in February after a newly formed group of residents and businesspeople, called Making Reading Better, cited difficulties dealing with some town departments.
Town officials had been discussing the creation of a customer service policy for several years, according to Town Manager Peter Hechenbleikner. The policy that emerged, he said, was based on what is already in place in Framingham as well as a model policy made available by the International City/County Management Association.
Reading began making customer-service surveys available to Town Hall visitors more than a year ago, Hechenbleikner said. While the responses the town has received have been overwhelmingly positive, he said, the surveys themselves are not sufficient to fully gauge the caliber of the service that the town provides.
Having employees keep logs, he said, is a means “to capture the tenor of customer service that is not captured through the survey.”
Hechenbleikner added, however, that the log-keeping has to be kept relatively simple.
“We don’t want our employees spending so much time on the details of tracking data that they don’t have the time to devote themselves to customer service,” he said.
By this summer, Hechenbleikner said, Reading hopes to include a tool on its Web site that residents can use to notify the town of problems such as a broken streetlight or a tree that needs to be trimmed. Residents, he said, will immediately receive an e-mail confirming that the request has been received.
Written by MMA Associate Editor Mitch Evich
