FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:    Bruce Loucks, Lee County Administration
                (941) 335-2221

FORT MYERS, Fla. (January 5, 2001) – Lee County Government wants to improve the level of customer service it provides to citizens.

To do that, it is getting ready to implement a comprehensive customer service program that will evaluate the service county departments are giving to residents, measure taxpayer satisfaction with those services and make recommendations for improvement and training. The program also will analyze departmental web sites and physical facilities, and make suggestions for enhancement in those areas.

The Board of Lee County Commissioners is scheduled to discuss the item at its Tuesday (Jan. 9) meeting. The Comprehensive Customer Service Audit would be conducted by the Florida Institute of Government, cost $111,600 and take about a year to complete. One of the Board’s annual goals for fiscal year 2000-01 has been to promote a culture of customer service throughout the county.

A major part of the study will be a "mystery shopper" program, where auditors access, or "shop," county services and programs to evaluate the service given by counter personnel and those answering phones. Information from the review will form a permanent database that can be updated and used to measure the ongoing level of customer service and satisfaction provided by Lee County Government.

The "mystery shopper" program has been used in the past to evaluate the service provided by the county’s permitting functions and has led to recommendations for improvement and added training in certain skill sets.

"This is something routinely done by top-notch companies in the private sector and there’s no reason the public sector can’t strive for the same improvements," says Bruce Loucks, Assistant County Manager. "We hope it leads to better service in areas where we may have deficiencies and also see it as a way to expand upon the good things we are doing in many departments."