Happy Customer Service Week, October 7-11! It’s not a day you commonly hear municipalities celebrate, but St. Charles is not a common municipality. We have a passion for service.

Of course, the nature of a job in any type of government is public service. What makes St. Charles special and unique is our commitment and culture of customer service. Every newly hired City employee attends Service Essentials™. It’s a comprehensive customer service program that helps everyone understand that customer service excellence is everyone’s job, not just the folks at the front lines, the ones with direct customer contact.

Service Essentials™ covers six essential practices for great customer service:

• Maintain an attitude of service excellence.
• Identify customer needs.
• Use customer-friendly body language and words.
• Practice excellent service at every contact point.
• Handle difficult customers with care.
• Exceed customer expectations.

Those essential practices are applied to services we provide residents, businesses, developers, other municipal governments, and those who work in St. Charles, but they also apply to the service we provide to each other. Some City departments, like Human Resources and Information Systems, serve our employees. We support the folks who serve all those other external customers. Outstanding internal customer service is just as important as external.

Supervisors also play a big role in the service their employees provide. It’s up to supervisors to nurture their teams and create an environment where folks can do their best work.

Great service is also dependent on all of you – the residents, businesses, developers, etc. that we serve. It’s your support, participation, encouragement, investment in the community, and partnership in the good of the whole St. Charles community that gives us the passion for service and help us do our jobs with excellence and pride.

The quality and excellence of St. Charles, the community and your local municipalities (City, park district, library, school district, township), is dependent on everyone. We are all customers to each other in a special partnership that sets the stage for a bright future that we create together. Happy Customer Service Week!