Obama improves his Customer Service

In the directive issued by Barack Obama in May, a strategy has been set out to make services available via mobile devices in an effort to keep pace with the increase in smart phone use and improve the availability of government information via mobile to the American people.

Obama explains that until now, accessing government information has been a complex and painstakingly time consuming task, which has forced Americans to collate information from across government programs in order to identify exactly which services they require.  

The Obama administration is right to drive an improvement in its record keeping and consolidate information to enhance the accessibility with which individuals can navigate through government information. According to the Institute of Customer Service -  Good customer service is a critical component of business success and there is a direct link between high quality customer service and customer retention, business performance and – of most significance in this case – reputation.

Customers are increasingly demanding instant access to information and through enabling access through mobile devices is a sure-fire way to bring the knowledge and information as and when it is required.  Good customer service is not just applicable to Government, retail and other customer facing sectors, by focusing on customer needs and by creating efficiencies when managing problems, issues can be remedied quickly and efficiently.

The implementation of a mobile Government service is one means by which to increasing efficiencies and maintain a positive reputation – surely it is only a matter of time before other businesses adopt a similar approach.

Housing Associations open spending data

Housing Minister, Grant Shapps seems to be making progress with his campaign to push for Housing Associations to make spending data public knowledge – with at least two housing associations, Hertfordshire Housing and Viridian Housing agreeing to open up spending data from next month.

Hertfordshire Housing and Viridian Housing are responsible for around 5,300 and 16,000 properties respectively, with the associations expected to publish the details of all spending which is above £500, and of any salaries which are over £50,000.

The call for greater visibility of spending data follows pressure to expose how public monies are being spent – organisations which receive money from the tax payer should now expect to come under greater scrutiny and be willing to explain financial decisions openly and honestly.

The ability to be able to share this data however will require housing associations to have in place a system which will ensure that all monies spent are being accounted for and accessible – with information being able to be readily accessed.

Although not public bodies, the housing sector in particular takes in money from taxpayers – the majority of which is invested in social housing, with this in mind surely it is only reasonable to share how this investment is being spent? Other public sector areas should beware, with the growing trend of openness and honesty with public spending it is only a matter of time before they too will have to review the systems which they have in place.