Government Customer Support Update
for February 2007

Back to ELetter Archives Index

-- COMMUNITY NEWS --

Congrats GCSEA Finalists!
The following groups were selected as finalists for this year's Government Customer Support Excellence Awards by our outstanding panel of judges representing Federal, state, and local Government as well as industry. The winners will be announced on Monday, May 7th at Government Customer Support Conference 2007 in Alexandria, Virginia.

Teamwork

  • ATF Enterprise System Architecture III Help Desk
  • Virginia Beach Public Information Office
  • IRS Employee Resource Center
Technical Excellence
  • Military Health System Network Operations Center
  • Comptroller of the Currency Customer Assistance Group
  • Georgia NaviGAtor Traffic Management Center
Customer Focus
  • Department of Transportation Information Technology Services
  • Navy Global Distance Support Center
  • IRS Employee Resource Center
Overall Excellence
  • Connecticut Business Response Center/Smart Start Licensing Center
  • FBI National Instant Criminal Background Check System Contact Center
  • IRS Employee Resource Center

Welcome Kim!
It's an honor to have Kim Nelson keynoting at Government Customer Support Conference 2007. Kim is the Executive Director of e-Government for Microsoft Public Sector, former CIO at EPA, and author of a great recent article on effectiveness versus efficiency in Government customer support which you'll find at http://www.fcw.com/article96966-12-04-06-Print

USA Services Meeting
This forum in Washington on February 13th will address the future of the Government web and results of recent work on citizen expectations and services. It will also feature a demonstration of the new USA.gov chat channel. For details, call Karen at 202-501-1802.

-- CLICK & LEARN! --

Topic: Displays and prompts for agents
If you’re a Government employee or Government contract employee, CLICK HERE and respond to the following:

  1. What type of operation do you work in (help desk, call center, etc.)?
  2. Briefly describe your group's use of visual displays and prompts for agents.
  3. What has been your biggest challenge in implementing these?
  4. Do you want to network with others in Government on displays and agent prompts?
Results will be shared next month at the end of this eletter.

-- INFORMATION --

Motivating Agents
-- http://www.callcentermagazine.com/shared/article/showArticle.jhtml

Constituent Relationship Management
-- http://www.public-cio.com/story.php?id=2006.12.19-102968

Internet & Government
-- http://www.fcw.com/article97228-01-08-07-Print&newsletter=yes

Speech Enabled Self-Service
-- http://www.tmcnet.com/call-center/0107/cis-speech-tech-2-0107.htm

Web Transaction Model
-- http://www.govtech.net/magazine/channel_story.php

Fed eGov
-- http://www.gcn.com/cgi-bin/udt/im.display.printable

ITIL & SOA
-- http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196900470

Biometric Transactions
-- http://www.cio.com/archive/011507/tl_pay.html

Online Customer Surveys
-- http://www.greatbrook.com/online_survey_tools.htm

Mixed Public/Private Teams
-- http://www.fcw.com/article97381-01-22-07-Print&newsletter=yes

Future Contact Technologies
-- http://www.incoming.com/ep/global/0107_04blyth.aspx

Virtual Queuing
-- http://www.tmcnet.com/call-center/0107/cis-workforce-optimization-1-0107.htm

-- RESOURCES --

Web Consortium
-- http://www.w3.org/

Accessibility
-- http://www.accessibility.nl/?languageId=2

mGov
-- http://www.mgovworld.org/

Fed IT Strategy
-- http://www.cio.gov/documents/CIOCouncilStrategicPlan2007-2009.pdf

Ajax
-- http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/AJAX

Business Case Perspective
-- http://www.itsmwatch.com/itil/article.php/11700_3651356_2

-- OPPORTUNITIES --

Networking
If you're a Government employee, email me to join any of these requested networking groups:

  • Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system prompt structures [Judie]
  • Average cost per call for Government IT help desks [Les]
  • Developing requirements for a contact center consolidation [Pam]
  • Customer support staffing and service level benchmarks [Tony]
  • Creating all new and effective county enterprise customer service [Jerry]

Award Nominations

Job Openings

Speaker Calls

-- WEBINAR --

Collaborative Systems, February 13
-- http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/event/index.cfm?event=detail&id=791164&loc=en_us

-- EVENTS --

Symposium on e-Government, Spain, February 1-2
-- http://www.w3c.es/Eventos/2007/eGov/

Certification & Accreditation, Washington, February 6-7
-- http://www.potomacforum.org/

Strategic Internal Communications, Washington, February 12-15
-- http://www.aliconferences.com/conferences/internal_comm_gov0207/0207.html

IT Service Management, Las Vegas, February 18-21
-- http://www.pinkelephant.com/en-US/Products/Conferences/ITM07.htm

Call Center Conference, Miami, February 21-23
-- http://www.callcenterdemo.com

SpeechTEK, San Francisco, February 21-23
-- http://www.speechtek.com/Media/MediaManager/SpTEK%20Program.10_18.pdf

Service Oriented Architecture, Washington, February 22-23
-- http://www.potomacforum.org/?view=179

Wireless Technology & Security, Washington, March 7-8
-- http://www.e-gov.com/event_planning/cfp.asp?Conference=125

Business Case for Security, Colorado Springs, March 18-20
-- http://public.cxo.com/conferences/index.html?conferenceID=5

FOSE, Washington, March 20-22
-- https://www1.compusystems.com/servlet/AttendeeRegLoginServlet

Capitalizing on Collaboration, Washington, March 23-27
-- http://www.aspanet.org/scriptcontent/PDFs/07Conf.Reg.Bro.pdf

Enterprise Architecture, New Orleans, March 27-29
-- http://www.sharedinsights.com/events/conferences/overview.aspx

-- GOOD READING --

Public Value
-- http://www.public-cio.com/story.php?id=2006.12.19-102969

-- PARTING THOUGHT --

"Be everywhere, do everything, and never fail to astonish the customer."
-- Macy's Motto

Happy Valentines'!

-- Last Month's "Click and Learn" Responses --

Topic: Self-Service
Respondents collectively represented call centers, web portals, and service desks at Federal, state, and local levels. Their self-service offerings include:

  • on-line changes and summaries for employee benefits
  • access to knowledge bases and frequently asked questions (FAQs)
  • interactive voice response system (IVR) access to information and tracking
  • an individual web page for users in each customer agency
Self-service challenges they cited include:
  • difficulties of uploading to mainframe from IVR
  • customer agency resistance to self-service
  • customer resistance to learning how to use self-service and automated tools
  • customer preference for access to a live human being
  • lack of supporting infrastructure and procedures for self-service
Respondents who requested to network have been put in touch. Thanks to all who responded!



Disclaimer      Privacy Notice