CITY HALL MOVING TO CUSTOMER SERVICE APPROACH

Among the signs directing people through Cape Girardeau City Hall is one pointing the way to "Customer Service."

The department is where people pay bills and lodge complaints -- two unpleasant activities. City Manager Michael G. Miller wants residents' feelings about customer service to change.

If his new plans work, Cape residents' experiences with city government should be more positive. The secret is striking a balance between the city's role as a government and its operation as a business, Miller said.

"We're in the business of providing water, trash disposal and sewage treatment," he said. "The happier customers we have, the fewer complaints we get and the easier it is to get things done.

"If we're not making our customers happy, we won't be around very long."

When Miller came to Cape Girardeau in October, he brought new ideas about cooperation with him from other towns he managed. In an effort to improve customer relations, all 350 city employees, from department heads to entry-level workers, are learning how to work as teams, how to solve problems efficiently and how to be better listeners.

Miller sits in on most of the training sessions. He said the education will make employees who deal with the public more sensitive to others' feelings and more receptive to ideas.

The first piece of furniture to go under Miller's management was a rectangular conference table in the team meeting room. It was replaced with a round one.

"There is no place for a leader at a round table," Miller said.

An example of the new concept in action was the recent change in water bill policy.

The city was losing a lot of money on delinquent water bill accounts. Some customers ran up their bills and then moved, leaving them unpaid. The deposits being collected weren't enough to cover the abandoned accounts, so city officials decided to cut off water service to delinquent accounts earlier.

Public backlash was immediate. Water customers used to paying their bills at the last minute began getting disconnected, and calls to City Hall began pouring in.

"I brought up the magic word -- why," Miller said. "Why have we got this rule or that rule? It ended up the impressive amount we were saving on bad debt we were spending in the cut-offs and postage involved."

After team meetings on the subject, City Hall issued a new policy. Water customers who don't have a good record of payment with another utility company must pay a two-month deposit instead of one, and utilities are cut off after two bills go unpaid.

Now teams are working on next year's city budget, an orientation program for new employees and a land annexation policy for the City Council.

The response to replacing the old chain-of-command system has been positive. Department heads were first to learn the new way.

"It has helped in a lot of ways," Parks and Recreation Director Dan Muser said. "It has given people an opportunity to meet people in other departments they wouldn't normally see. And since Mike Miller was at all the meeting, it has given employees a chance to know him better."

Inspection Services Director Richard Murray said employees in his department were anxious to learn the new system.

"The more people involved, the more feedback you will get and the higher percentage of people you will have supporting an idea," he said. "The biggest obstacle in management is to give employees some feeling of ownership."