By Allison Prang
Route Fifty
What if citizens were called “customers” of their local government?
That’s how Rosetta Lue, the executive director of the City of Philadelphia’s 311 Contact Center and the city’s chief customer service officer, describes them. The program is a service for residents, where they can contact their city via avenues like calling or using a smartphone app, and is trying to assist people with getting in touch with government.
Lue talked to Route Fifty about the public and private sectors and also how the program has changed throughout the years. To her—someone whose career was previously spent working in the private sector, where she was an employee for USAA and American Express—she thinks government once had more of a monopoly mindset.
“We took the customer for granted,” Lue said of government. “It was just like, ‘Well . . . where else are you going to get your permits or where else are you going to find that information?’ What I’ve seen, there is a change that’s happening across government from local up to the federal level where we’re all trying to improve that experience.”
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