Learn What Citizens (Customers) Value

For Citizen Relationship Management it’s all about serving the consumers of government services. “Learn what your customers value,” Robert Smuddle told the attendees at the Digital Government Institute conference on “Federal Contact Centers”, December 6. Smuddle is manager of the GSA’s USAServices E-Gov Program and is a key member of the Citizen Service Levels Interagency Committee (CSLIC).

“Executing a Citizen Relationship Management strategy requires developing and maintaining a relationship management capability. Take the time to speak to your customer, start small and bite off only what you can chew.” More

	Seasons Greetings! Happy New  Year!

The reality is (and has always been): Government depends greatly upon staff working with contractors to deliver services to citizens and other stakeholders. In this “blended workforce” (sometimes called multi-sector) government and contractors often work side-by-side.

However, the bottom line is: Although contractors play prominent roles in delivering services, ultimate responsibility still rests with agency management. (Just like it always has.)

The challenge is: How do you manage in this type of environment encompassing different types of organizations, each with its own set of performance measures, culture and goals?  And most important, what knowledge and skills does a manager need to succeed and how do we make sure managers have them? (These are not new questions.)

But what is new is that for the first time there is a focus on how to improve these relationships.  Tough questions are being asked.

·         How do you identify key managerial competencies needed to succeed?

·         What do you think are the key competencies for managing government staff who manage contracts and contractors to achieve program results?

·         What do you think are appropriate performance measures? (staff and contractor)

·         What methods would you use to evaluate outcomes of effective management of the staff and contractor process?

·         How do you transfer the knowledge that will produce the desired outcomes of better service to customers and stakeholders?

2006 is the year to answer these questions and move the ball forward.

In the meantime, the Holidays are here. Be safe. Have a healthy New Year.  

I welcome your thoughts on how you would answer these tough questions. Write me at JeffErlichman@PublicSectorCommunications.com .

With all the recent attention focused on natural disasters, news from Australia that authorities arrested 16 suspected al-Qaida terrorists¹ serves as a potent reminder of the continuing danger posed by terrorism.

The Homeland Security Council remains rightfully concerned about the detonation of a radiological dispersion device (RDD), commonly referred to as a “dirty bomb”, placing it among its list of top 15 disaster scenarios.²

RDDs fall into a class of devices categorized as weapons of mass destruction (WMD). While the WMD label implies large-scale human casualties, dirty bombs are considered “weapons of mass disruption” because of the far greater economic impact they would have by spreading radioactive contamination and rendering an area uninhabitable. Radioactive materials suitable for building RDDs are found in everyday applications, including medical therapy, food irradiation, smoke detectors, communication devices, navigation beacons, and oil rigs.³  More