City Council's
Customer Service Philosophy and Standards for the City of Lynchburg

"WORKING TOGETHER TO SERVE YOU BETTER."

Lynchburg 2020: Working together, we will be a new century community shaped by new ideas and solutions, a skilled and innovative workforce, and citizen leadership – all distinguished by responsible and traditional values, involvement, education, and new technology.

Lynchburg City Council
Excerpted from the Vision Statement
Adopted December 10, 1996

As a partner in the achievement of the vision, local government must provide the highest possible level of service to citizen customers. Now, therefore, to establish and implement a customer service philosophy to guide the operations of the organization, we hereby adopt the following:

OUR COMMITMENT

We commit to provide services to the public that match or exceed the best service available. We will adopt standards that put people first to ensure excellent results and we will measure those results to assist in continuous improvement.

As a municipal government we will:

• Treat all customers with courtesy, dignity and respect

• Provide citizens with more and easier access to information

• Provide timely, efficient, effective services

• Provide clear and easily understood communications

• Establish partnerships with our customers to improve services

• Provide our employees with the training and resources necessary to ensure their success in customer service

DEPARTMENTAL COMMITMENT

To ensure seamless customer service on all levels, all departments, divisions, work units and teams that provide significant services directly to the public shall provide those services in a manner that meets or exceeds established customer service standards. To accomplish this the following actions shall be taken:

• Identification of current and potential customers

• Survey customers to determine the kind and quality of services wanted and the customer’s level of satisfaction with existing services

• Post service standards and measure results against them

• Benchmark customer service performance against best business practices

• Survey employees on barriers to, and ideas for, matching the best in business

• Provide customers with choices in both the sources of services and the means of delivery

• Make information, services, and complaints systems easily accessible

• Provide means to address customer complaints and inquiries.

OUR PLAN

Each department shall create and publish a customer service plan that can be readily understood by its customers. The plan shall include customer service standards and describe future plans for customer service measurements. It also shall identify the private and public sector standards used to benchmark the department’s performance. To promote the customer service principles and objectives, the organization will establish, implement, and execute a mandatory customer service training program for all employees.

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

Departments shall report both qualitative and quantitative feedback on customer satisfaction. The City Manager shall utilize this information in reporting to City Council and to citizens.