Improving Our Customer Service in a BIG Way
As public servants, providing excellent customer service to the residents and businesses we serve is at the heart of what we do. Over the last year, the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) revamped how we provide customer service, and we’re very proud of the difference it’s making, with 86% of customers now rating their experience with DCRA as “excellent” or “satisfactory.”
But before we dive into the good news, let’s start with where things were prior to DCRA kicking off its Vision 2020 digital transformation. While the data was limited, of the customer service surveys conducted, 31% of customers viewed their interaction with DCRA negatively. And what’s worse, the data didn’t connect back to the service that had been provided, so there was no way to dig into what went wrong and hold our employees accountable.
Over the last year, DCRA has made some major changes to improve our customer service. First and foremost, we built an online customer relationship platform to manage all of our customer interactions. Now, whenever and however you contact DCRA, your inquiry is logged into our system. From there it’s routed to the appropriate staffer with expertise on the issue you’re contacting us about. As soon as you send your inquiry a clock also starts, ensuring the employee handling your case responds within three business days. And once your inquiry has been fully addressed, a short, online survey will be sent so that you can rate your experience. If you found your experience to be unsatisfactory, the employee’s manager will be notified, and someone from our team will reach out to see if there’s a way we can make things right.
While we’re not yet satisfied, the 86% satisfaction score for the year indicates we’re making real progress. That’s impressive, especially when you consider that each month DCRA fields more than 19,000 emails, 16,000 phone calls, and 1,000 live chats on our website.
Another change we’ve implemented is the creation of our Account Management Team. While some inquiries are straightforward, we recognize others are more complex, involving multiple parties and District government agencies. For these cases, we’ve assigned an Account Manager to each city ward. This way, whenever an issue needs to be escalated, there’s a dedicated team member with knowledge of your area of the District to help troubleshoot and get you the answers you need.
Finally, we’ve invested in our employees by training them and equipping them with the tools they need to be successful. No matter what position they hold within DCRA, every member of our staff has now received multiple customer service trainings. And to show how seriously we take this, all of our employees now have a customer service goal as part of their annual performance review.
Improvement doesn’t happen overnight, but we’re proud of the progress we’ve made, and we’re not letting up.
