Guv Holds Customer Service Seminar
Mitch Daniels sent about 60 top state managers from 12 different agencies to customer service school yesterday. The Governor told attendees that state agencies have an added burden of customer satisfaction because those customers have no alternative vendor to government services.
I cannot disagree with Mitch on this issue, but it seems that those managers should have already had some idea of their job before they were hired.
The problems afflicting the BMV, one of the state’s most troubled agencies, for instance, run far deeper than lazy and incompetent employees, although that is part of the problem–albeit a small part. A steadfast refusal to replace the ineffective individuals with more competent workers in order to save money does not add to customer service.
Other problems include the infamous implementation of an untested computer system–one that still does not work properly, yet continues to have such official backing that even a mention of “system trouble” results in disciplinary measures.
There is also a great lack of communication at the top of the agency; everybody seems to have a plan, but nobody else knows what it is. Policy is changed on a day-to-day basis, so that workers don’t really know what it is. Politics and the bootlicking of political contributors and cronies is worse than it ever was under the Democrats.
No questions are ever asked of those who were there before about finance, procurement, or logistics. The budget has been exhausted on such immaterial things as prettification and advertising.
It must be assumed that these same problems affect most other state agencies as well. For a group that came in promising a more efficient and businesslike way of operation, they have sadly disappointed. Their only solution seems to be selling these state operations off to the highest bidder, because they don’t want to do do it themselves–or else they are too incompetent.
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