Beautiful
Ottawa County is located in the southwestern section of Michigan's lower
peninsula. Its western boundary is formed by Lake Michigan and its eastern
boundary is approximately 30 miles inland.
Today
the County has a population of 260,364 inhabitants and is the 8th most populous
county in the state.
Why Customer
Service in County
Government
Most
counties consider customer
service as a distraction from doing their real
work. At least in the private sector,
competitive forces provide an incentive to emulate the outstanding customer
service icons like Disney, Starbucks, Zappos or Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. So, what difference does it make to have an
outstanding Disney-like customer-centric culture in the public sector? Surely, counties have a monopoly on their
services!
Each
year, Ottawa County Holland ,
people from all over the world come to the Tulip Time festival in the spring. (It is the third largest such festival in the United States .)
Ottawa County
So,
why should this County, with all of its considerable assets, be concerned with customer
service? Al Vanderberg, Ottawa
County Administrator, said, "we owe great service to our citizens, our
employees and it’s good business….”
For example, when a new business locates within a region,
the impact on employment is: (1) a direct impact from the jobs provided by the
business itself; (2) an indirect impact if the business buys production
materials and services locally; and (3) an induced impact or multiplier effect
from the flow of wages spent by new employees, which may provide new jobs in
other businesses and in turn the spending of those wages--on and on. San Jose State University
Department of Economics reports that the regional employment multiplier ranges
from 1.28 – 3.67.
That means that if a business locates within your county and
provides 100 new jobs, a range from 28
to 267 additional jobs will be created to support the new business. So if a visiting executive has a good
customer serve experience with your county, it certainly may help their decision to locate there, but if they have a
terrible customer experience in your county, they will likely choose another
place to put down roots.
As part of a total company-wide improvement effort in 2010, Al Vanderberg began an Ottawa Way Customer
Service Initiative. After reading The Disney Way, Al contacted Bill Capodagli to help Ottawa County
The Journey Begins
In the fall of 2012, Bill Capodagli began working with Al
and his Customer Service Steering Team.
The Steering Team is comprised of the key leaders from 33
departments. The first step was for the
Steering Team to understand and become totally immersed in the Disney Way Experience
through a series of workshops.
During the initial presentation and discussions, Al and his
team came to the realization that although the 33 departments ranged from law
enforcement to social services, the same Disney Way Experience Model should
drive them all.
The next step to implementing The Ottawa Way Customer
Service culture was a 3-day Leadership Workshop for approximately 100 first-line
leaders.
Becoming “customer-centric” is not an activity to be
“checked off” during an annual strategic planning process or meaningless
performance reviews. An organization-wide
cultural change driven by top management is required for success. Ultimately, the Dream/Vision, Values and
Culture of the organization must be embraced by all employees for the
transformation to be realized. Front-line leadership must not only embrace
the new culture they must believe that they have ownership in its development and results.
The Roll-out
Upon completion of the Leadership Workshops, Al mandated a 3-day
Ottawa Way Customer Service Training for all
employees. For the ensuing year,
approximately 60-100 employees participated in the training on a monthly basis. You may be asking, “Why does this training need to be
conducted over three days?” A well-trained
presenter could deliver the principles in less than a day. However, if it was that simple, countless
organizations would be as magical as Disney!
When employees arrive at the 3-day training, they do so with
a set of values that has been ingrained in them over the course of their
employment. Now they are expected to
embrace a new set of values, yet they need time to realize that the old values
are no longer the best for the organization as a whole. Through a series of exercises and discussions
over the three days, most employees embraced the new values.
The “Hot Seat”
During the afternoon of the second day of the Ottawa Way
Customer Service Training, participants experience the “Hot Seat.”.
Al Vanderberg and two of the Steering Team department heads become the
“Hot Seat” panel. Participants are
invited to ask the panel any questions pertaining to the Ottawa Way Customer
Service Initiative or County operations.
The purpose of the “Hot Seat” is two-fold. First: Top leaders being available, displaying candor
and demonstrating support to employees; Secondly: Establishing trust and open
communication between top management and the work force
“Brain Trust” Follow-up
“A hallmark of a
healthy creative culture is that its people feel free to share ideas” – Ed
Catmull, President of Disney and Pixar Animation Studios
The key to any cultural transformation is frontline
leadership. Their diligent commitment to
embracing a shared set of values, attitudes and behaviors is absolutely
essential to creating a customer-centric culture.
The Ottawa Way will continue into 2015 with a newly created Leadership "Brain Trust" comprised of 15-20 leaders and a facilitator. The leaders will complete a Customer Service Implementation Questionnaire with the goal of achieving excellence in categories such as Elements of the Customer Experience and Removal of Barriers to Pride in Workmanship.
Congratulations to Al Vanderberg and his entire workforce for staying the course to achieve "Disney Way" customer-centric cultural excellence!
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