On January 25, 2006, Governor Sonny Perdue signed an Executive Order creating the Governor’s Office of Customer Service for the purpose of coordinating, managing and implementing a customer service initiative to elevate the level of customer service experienced by Georgians when interacting with their state government.  The announcement was part of the first-ever Customer Service Summit where state agency heads focused on the theme of “Faster, Friendlier and Easier” service to customers. 

Customer Service initiatives are starting or underway on several fronts:

• Led by their Customer Service Champions, executive agencies will write their Customer Service Improvement Plans by June 30, 2006.  Plans are to be customer-focused and goal-oriented with implementation to begin July 1, 2006.
  
• The new Office of Customer Service will be developing tools agencies can use: customer-feedback, employment screening and employee recognition programs.
  
• Customer Service training programs will be developed for frontline employees, their supervisors and managers.
  
• A Call Center Solutions Group will be driving performance improvements in existing state Call Centers; developing ways to measure progress; and creating a ‘dashboard’ for state government call center performance.
  
• New tools will be tested at the Department of Driver Services before being rolled out to other agencies.  These will enhance culture, speed up service, and improve call handling.
  
• Selection of a knowledge base and systems will lead to the opening of the General Information Center (GIC) in July, 2007.
  
  

The Customer Service Task Force identified the need to promote a strong customer-focused culture in state government and to continuously improve its customer-facing processes.