Customer Service in CED – The New Push to Improve What We Do

<p></p> <p>CED officials prioritize good service. But are they undercutting their own efforts, increasing service availability on one hand but making it difficult to actively use the services on the other? A number of recent national reports, commentaries and even teaching case studies have raised the issue of connecting better service in citizen interactions as a way to increase trust in government. At the same time, others are raising the issue of high administrative burden we place on citizens when they try to access service, reducing public trust. Which is right? Both, of course. <br /><br />Public trust in government is low – at all levels, in all areas – as seen in this striking graphic on measured levels of public trust in government from 1958 to 2021 by the Pew Charitable Trusts. CED is not an exception. A decade ago, scholar Christian Bjornskov looked globally at patterns of social trust, showing higher levels of trust were related to stronger economic growth. In fact, CED is based on developing public trust. The consulting giant Deloitte actively argues for building trust across all stakeholders, including government, as a way to increase overall business investment: “In the absence of trust, businesses may make only incremental gains to capacity through investments with short time horizons, such as software, rather than expanding capacity more substantially through investments with longer time horizons, such as structures.” The lesson applies to the local level as well. Without community support, there will be less economic development – less trust in promises to [...]</p>