SAVE Commission's findings - La Follette School of Public Affairs ...

Public Affairs 878 at the UW-Madison, these
three key actions are offered:
1. Incorporate customer service into the
management system. By July 1, 1997,
the state should be on a new management
system that focuses on outcomebased
work planning and resultsoriented
budgeting.
A revised
human resources
system is planned
for that time,
building on pilot
programs. The
pilot efforts
should help
establish customer
service benchmarks from which
agencies can work.
2. Measure customer feedback. Agencies
generally do little in the way of
measuring customer satisfaction and
even less in designing products or
services with scientific customer
input. By July 1, 1997, the customer
feedback dimensions of the system
should be in place to serve all agencies
on a continuing basis.
“Quality service is possible if
internal and external customer
groups perceive that
input is valued.”
Jay Sorensen, Midwest Express, Milwaukee
3. The Legislature should focus on
policy, not customer service. As has
happened in the U.S. Congress, elected
state representatives have become the
customer complaint desks of government.
That has taken valuable time and energy
from more important planning, policy and
fiscal responsibilities.
Unfortunately, state
agency performance
often is such that the
citizen has little
recourse but to call the
legislator who gets
results.
The system, when
in place, should have the
integrity to ensure that agencies are held accountable
for meeting the service criteria established
by standards, including the one stop
shopping function. Conversely, legislators
should not promote themselves as customer
service representatives (which may be attractive
to voters), but as statespersons.
The executive branch should establish a
means to report customer service performance to
the general public in the state’s new annual report
card as a part of the management system, and in a
special way to the Legislature and its committees.
Actions
15.1
Establish a “one stop
shopping” service
function.
15.2
Integrate customer
service in the
management system.
15.3
Measure customer
feedback.
15.4
Let executive branch
serve customers;
legislators make policy.
David S. Baum, SSI
Technologies,
Janesville
“To empower people to
perform, without fear, is
the ultimate challenge.
The benefits to each
department can be
enormous.”
R E S U L T S
Quality service will:
1 Bring government service and
information directly to citizens in
their communities.
2 Change the process of
government to focus on
measuring impact and outcome
and redefining service to the
customer as the measure of
success.
3 Allow state employees to feel
that they are providing a
needed and wanted public
service and allow them to know
how good a job they are doing
with immediate customer
feedback.
4 Provide citizens with a means
for letting the administrative
agencies know what they want,
like and need without having to
seek legislative intercessions.
5 Make the product of government
accessible to citizens
independent of where they are
in the state.
6 Reduce the distance citizens
feel is between them and their
government by bringing
government to them in a cost
effective fashion.
CITIZEN • COMMUNITY • GOVERNMENT — WISCONSIN: THE 21 ST CENTURY 43