SACO — What’s the best way to handle an irate citizen complaining about a city fee? How should a police department negotiator deal with someone contesting a traffic ticket?
These are just a few of the real-life situations local municipal employees deal with daily, which were discussed Wednesday at a customer service workshop at Saco City Hall.
Over a two day period, approximately 150 city and town employees from Biddeford, Saco and Old Orchard Beach will attend the customer service workshops which took place Wednesday and continue today. The employees will be instructed on tools and techniques that will help them deal with the public.
Those attending come from a variety of departments, such as the clerks office, police and fire, public works, planning, assessing, recreation and codes enforcement.
The workshops were the brainchild of Saco City Clerk Lucette Pellerin and the Old Orchard Beach Town Clerk Kim McLaughlin. Although both said the large majority of customer comments they receive regarding service are positive, “When it comes to customer service, you can always do better,” said Pellerin.
A similar workshop was held for the three communities in 2001, said McLaughlin. When she and Pellerin decided it was time to hold another customer service workshop this year, after receiving permission from their respective bosses, they invited other local communities to take part. Only Biddeford took them up on the offer.
Customer service has been on the mind of Biddeford City Clerk Carmen Lemieux recently. Earlier this year she brought up the idea of putting customer service comment cards in the city clerk’s office and in other departments that have a lot of customer contact.
Comment cards had been used in the past, as a by-product of the earlier workshop, said Lemieux, but the practice had fallen by the wayside. At the direction of City Manager John Bubier, the customer surveys were reinstituted.
“So far the response has been nothing but good,” said Lemieux about the comment cards returned to her department.
The workshops being held in Saco cover a gamut of topics, according to Patricia Vaillancourt of CareerSense who is leading the programs.
Vaillancourt’s background includes working for the federal department of labor where she was involved with 500 plant closings in Massachusetts.
“I was the grim reaper,” she said. That experience taught her a lot about how to deal with angry and upset people.
Customer service training for government employees is more specialized than training other groups who deal with the public, said Vaillancourt. They have strict regulations they must follow and don’t have the flexibility others may have who, for instance, work at a restaurant or in retail.
However, “there are definite tools and techniques” that she is teaching the municipal employees, said Vaillancourt. These include the way to greet someone whether on the phone or in person, avoiding negative words and using a pleasant tone of voice.
“Tone of voice ”“ that’s key,” she said.
One employee told how she uses a calming tone of voice when dealing with irate customers and eventually the conversation becomes so friendly these people call back asking her for help and information on other situations.
Other topics being covered during the workshops are how to deal with people with disabilities and ensuring the public’s confidentiality by not spreading gossip.
—Staff Writer Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 324 or dmendros@journaltribune.com
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