Community Service / Customer Orientation Skills
Public Employees Leadership Institute
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Modules
1. Customer Service
2. Why Care About Customer Service?
3. Public Relations- Real World Activities Guideline
4. Public Relations Guidelines
5. The Customer- The Heart of Public Relations
This course examines the need for and the practice of community service and customer orientation through the use of employee skills. These skills are acquired and best taught by the examples shown by an organization’s leaders. The decisions and processes that are used to define your agencies’ customers not only define what group(s) are included, but they also often emphasize the strategies that may be used to allow better communications with that group.
Depending on the size and complexity of your target customer group, various tools will be discussed and exemplified to convey to them your messages through: personal contact with individuals, public service announcements, press releases, and phone and personal interviews (via radio or television). Dealing with the changing face and makeup of some communities can require additional and more locally specific and innovative applications.
These skills are all developed by understanding:
- Who your customer is
- Customer service practices (for individuals to group sizes)
- That keeping the customer informed prevents frustration
- That compromise is the norm for meeting a group’s goals
Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:
- Understand management’s role in the customer service arena
- Identify different types of customers
- Use the steps of communication with different customers
- Analyze current operations to identify staff training needs
- Understand management’s role in the public relations arena
- Understand the role of public relations in changing or shaping public perceptions
- Develop basic techniques in dealing with the media
Key concepts include:
- Defining customers
- Methods of communication information
- Differences in problem solving are a positive
Instructors
Steve Johnson
Position
Steve is currently the sewer operations administrator for the city of Des Moines Public Works Department.
Experience
Steve retired from the Iowa Army National Guard with 26 years of service, 21 of those years as an officer. He has been active with the Emerging Leader’s Academy for the National APWA since 2016. He is a graduate from class 10 and has been a mentor for the next 6 classes.
Steve graduated from the University of Northern Iowa with a BA in Public Administration and received his master’s in public administration in 2015 from the American Military University. His master’s thesis was in the evolution of leadership through three theories of leadership and how toxic leadership interrupts the evolution.
Steve is passionate about leadership and the discussion of what makes a good leader. He enjoys the discussion and hopes to learn from everyone around him.
Mary Zimmerman
Experience
Mary is a DBE (Disadvantaged Business Enterprise) Support Services Program Manager and a Government Contracting Specialist with the Center for Industrial Research and Service (CIRAS) She has over 30 years of procurement experience in manufacturing, a municipal medical center, and the Iowa DOT. She believes that curiosity, imagination, collaboration, and adaptability help when connecting with clients to develop unique, but effective business and government contracting solutions. She is experienced in construction, service proposals, and facilitates communication workshops.
Bret Hodne
Position
Bret is the Public Services Director for the City of West Des Moines.
Experience
He began his employment with the City of West Des Moines as an equipment operator in 1989. He moved to Assistant Crew Chief in 1990, Acting Crew Chief, then Superintendent of Public Works in 1994. In 2009 Bret became Director of Public Works. Bret is active in the American Public Works Association, sharing his experiences in management, teamwork, winter maintenance and other aspects of Public Works to others in our industry.
Lisa England
Position
Lisa A. England is the Human Resources Specialist for IMWCA.
Experience
Lisa attended the University of Iowa and became a technical recruiter. This role propelled her into a career in human resources. Lisa was the Human Resources Director at Palo Alto County Health System for over seven years before relocating to Central Iowa where she worked a number of years in the private sector before coming to IMWCA. Lisa was an EMT with Palo Alto County Health System from 2002 – 2009 and has been a volunteer FF/EMT with Polk City Fire Department. She enjoys spending time with her three school-aged children and attending their activities. In her role with IMWCA provide members assistance in their human resources to help them manage their workers’ compensation exposures.
Andrea Henry
Position
Andrea Henry serves as the Iowa DOT’s Director of Strategic Communications.
Experience
The Strategic Communications team is responsible for the department’s web site, social media channels, public relations, marketing, graphic design, videography, photography, and forms management. Andrea’s work focuses on solidifying and strengthening the DOT brand, assuring the department is communicating with audiences in a customer-driven manner and engaging in two-way conversations, and improving internal agency culture through personable and humanized communications.