Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to return to the subject of government customer service that I discussed last week. I have brought up the issue of poor customer service at least once a year during my time as a Member. It’s an area where no one government person or department is really in charge of the issue, so each department and office operates on its own which, in turn, leads to inconsistencies in service for NWT residents.
The GNWT as a whole has no culture of customer service, no standards, no policies, no monitoring. So here’s an idea, as my colleague Mrs. Groenewegen likes to say: Why doesn’t the government centralize the responsibility for customer service in a department like, say, the Executive? We wouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel. We can look to our provincial counterparts for models that work. Ontario has spent a lot of time on this.
I gave an example of poor service last week, that of motor vehicle clients being unable to call and being able to talk to a real person and what I consider to be poor voicemail messages on their phones. There needs to be guidelines for all GNWT employees around returning phone calls and e-mails, how to answer, timelines and so on. There needs to be guidelines for employees dealing with clients face to face and through social media, how to greet people, how to listen, how quickly your response should be given to an inquiry. This applies whether they are internal clients, other GNWT employees or external clients, anyone outside the government.
All of these things are integral to good customer service. Private businesses who provide good customer service invest the time and money to properly train their staff. We need to do the same for our public service, Mr. Speaker. To do that well, we have to centralize the responsibility for developing a culture of customer service in our employees. We need to train GNWT public servants to understand excellent customer service and have the skills to feel comfortable and competent when dealing with clients.
We need policies, guidelines and standards that apply to all employees, and a small staff within the Department of Executive could provide the necessary leadership and develop the necessary standards and policies.
I need to make it clear, I do not advocate for more employees. We have more than enough. As I said the other day, a serious analysis of our current staffing will find us several employees who could transfer into a new position for customer service. If the will is there, Mr. Speaker, it can be done without spending any more money. The question is how important is customer service to this government. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
